A transformative stand-alone goal on achieving gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment: Imperatives and key components

As the leading organization with a global mandate to promote gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment, UN Women calls for a commitment to achieving gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment in the post-2015 development framework and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as robust mainstreaming of gender considerations across all parts of the framework.

In order to address the structural causes of gender-based discrimination and to support true transformation in gender relations, we propose an integrated approach that addresses three critical target areas of gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment:

• Freedom from violence against women and girls – Concrete actions to eliminate the debilitating fear and/or experience of violence must be a centrepiece of any future framework.
• Gender equality in the distribution of capabilities – knowledge, good health, sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights of women and adolescent girls; and access to resources and opportunities, including land, decent work and equal pay to build women’s economic and social security.
• Gender equality in decision-making power in public and private institutions, in national parliaments and local councils, the media and civil society, in the management and governance of firms, and in families and communities.

The call for a transformative framework to achieve women’s rights and gender equality comes in the midst of a global conversation about the legacy and next steps after the MDGs. Intergovernmental and UN-led processes are currently under way to inform and design a post-2015 development agenda and SDGs.

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