Ending violence against women in the context of COVID-19

Date: Friday, March 27, 2020

As the current COVID-19 global pandemic spreads through the world, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund), and its grantees, recognize the gender dimensions of the impact from the COVID-19 outbreak. In this challenging time, the need to respond to the immediate and long-term consequences of the current crisis for women and girls is critical.

Women and COVID-19: Five things governments can do now

Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2020

UN Women Deputy Executive Director Anita Bhatia takes a look at how impacts of COVID-19 are hitting women hardest, and how governments around the world can address these issues.

COVID-19: Women front and centre

Date: Friday, March 20, 2020

In a statement, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka calls on governments to recognize both the enormity of the contribution women make and the precarity of so many in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Checklist for COVID-19 response by UN Women Deputy Executive Director Åsa Regnér

Date: Friday, March 20, 2020

As governments respond to the global COVID-19 crisis under huge pressures to act fast, UN Women Deputy Executive Director Asa Regner, calls on leaders and decision-makers to answer 10 key questions about how their responses and policies will include and impact women and girls

Five big wins ushered in by the landmark Beijing Platform for Action

Date: Thursday, March 19, 2020

Since 1995, the Beijing Platform for Action has served as a blueprint for advancing global gender equality. But if you’re wondering what really changed and why it still matters to women and girls today, here are just five big wins it brought about for women and girls everywhere.

Paying attention to women’s needs and leadership will strengthen COVID-19 response

Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2020

A week since The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic, the social impact of the Corona Virus is hitting women hard, around the world. Globally, women make up 70 per cent of workers in the health and social sector, and they do three times as much unpaid care work at home as men. As first responders, frontline health workers, primary care givers at home and community mobilizers, women are at increased risk of exposure to the virus. They are also playing a disproportionate role in responding to the disease.

Elena Crasmari: How a Moldovan woman with disabilities fought for her rights and won an election

Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Thirty-five-year-old Elena Crasmari was fed up with not being able to access the medical centre in her home village of Dolna – a rural community of 1,155 people, fifty-three kilometres from the Republic of Moldova’s capital city of Chisinau. Due to her disability, she couldn’t take the stairs, and had to get on her hands and knees to enter the building. “I went to the town hall to ask them to help me do something about the stairs of the medical facility,” Elena...

I am Generation Equality: Xiaoying Zhang, media expert, gender equality activist

Date: Monday, March 16, 2020

Xiaoying Zhang is the deputy head of International Relations and Diversity at Deutsche Welle, a long-standing partner with UN Women’s Media Compact for gender equality. She has been an advocate for gender equality in the media for many years and represents DW at Gender@International Bonn, a professional network for development cooperation and gender equality.

I am Generation Equality: Jerry Azilinon, HeForShe champion, youth activist

Date: Monday, March 16, 2020

Jerry Azilinon, 23, is a HeForShe Champion for UN Women in Senegal and also a champion for the One Campaign against extreme poverty.. He is part of UNICEF Youth Council in Senegal and in his spare time he serves as Vice-Coach of an all-female soccer team.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) update regarding the Generation Equality Forum timeline

Date: Monday, March 16, 2020

In light of the current global COVID-19 situation, the timelines of the convening of the Generation Equality Forum are being reviewed.

I am Generation Equality: Ahmed Albalkhi, women’s rights and empowerment advocate

Date: Friday, March 13, 2020

Ahmed Albalkhi, 40, is an incentive-based volunteer enrolled in the UN Women Oasis Center in Za'atari refugee camp, Jordan. Albalkhi is working to raise the awareness of men and boys, and encourage them to stand up for women's rights.

I am Generation Equality: Lana Ghneim, gender equality advocate

Date: Friday, March 13, 2020

Lana Ghneim, 23, from Jordan, is a member of the HeForShe campaign in Jordan, a solidarity movement for the advancement of gender equality led by UN Women. Ghneim has recently graduated as a Pharmacist from the Al-Zaytoonah University in Amman, Jordan.

I am Generation Equality: Vanina Escales, journalist and activist

Date: Friday, March 13, 2020

Vanina Escales is one of the founders of Ni Una Menos, a cultural, political and social movement that swept across Latin America and the world. She also works with the Centre of Legal and Social Studies in Argentina.

Press release: International Olympic Committee takes leadership role in UN Women Sports for Generation Equality initiative

Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2020

A few days after having made landmark decisions demonstrating that gender equality is a reality at the olympic games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has taken a leadership role in the UN Women Sports for Generation Equality initiative, which aims to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in and through sport. The initiative was launched today by UN Women in partnership with the IOC.

Press release: Twenty-five years after Beijing Declaration, the world “cannot afford” so few women in power

Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Women’s representation in political decision-making continues to increase but at a dragging pace, with three-quarters of parliamentary seats still held by men, according to new data presented in the 2020 edition of the IPU UN Women map of Women in Politics. The data’s publication coincides with the 25-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, which remains the world’s most comprehensive agenda for gender equality.

Opening statement by Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, at the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women 9 March 2020

Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2020

In her remarks at the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said: "We have created a world where women are squeezed into just 25 percent—one quarter—of the space, both in physical decision-making rooms, and in the stories that we tell about our lives. One quarter is not enough. Only half is an equal share, and only half is enough".

Women’s organizations advocate for localized humanitarian and crisis response

Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2020

UN Women’s Humanitarian Action and Crisis Response Office, together with the informal Friends of Gender Group (created at a Grand Bargain meeting in Bonn in September 2016), organized three regional consultation workshops with local women’s organizations – in Addis Ababa, Amman and Jakarta – which culminated in an informal Friends of Gender Group annual meeting in December 2019.

Op-ed: It is time for action! Uniting for Africa’s transformation

Date: Monday, March 9, 2020

In a joint op-ed, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Sahle-Work Zewde call to support African women in taking their rightful place in the next chapter of the continent and building a future where women and girls can live out their lives freely, in purpose and happiness.

Press release: Member States agree to fully implement the Beijing Declaration on gender equality, addressing gaps that hold women back

Date: Monday, March 9, 2020

The Political Declaration adopted today is the outcome of the 64thCommission on the Status of Women, taking stock of women’s rights on the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action

I am Generation Equality: Subina Shrestha, journalist and filmmaker

Date: Friday, March 6, 2020

Subina Shrestha is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker from Nepal. Subina has steered major news coverage, often as the only international broadcast journalist on the scene; and told stories of people whose lives have been affected by natural and human-made disasters - from undercover reporting in Myanmar during cyclone Nargis, to investigating child slavery, and to covering Nepal’s earthquake and its aftermath.