ASIA/PACIFIC: Amnesty International Welcomes UN Women's Agency

Amnesty International welcomes the establishment of a new United Nations (UN) agency dedicated to strengthening its work on women's human rights, and in particular the opportunity it presents to address violence against women in the Pacific.

The UN General Assembly will today formally adopt a resolution to establish UN Women, a new gender equality entity which consolidates four existing UN bodies on women, making it a more effective vehicle to advance women's rights.

“The establishment of UN Women is a great victory for women's rights. We are very excited about the role it will play in our work to eliminate the endemic problem of violence against women in the Pacific, particularly because this region has some of the highest levels of such violence,” says Patrick Holmes, CEO of Amnesty New Zealand.

The entity's focus on the importance of advancing women's rights at a grassroots level is especially welcomed by Amnesty International.

“Despite the associated risks and difficulties faced by women's rights activists in countries like Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, women themselves are often the most active agents of social change in their communities.”

“Meaningful engagement with Pacific civil society organisations is a positive step towards changing the social and cultural views that violence against women is acceptable,” says Holmes.

Amnesty International also recognises the importance UN Women will have in better helping governments to implement their women's rights obligations.

“This new entity will help to reinforce Amnesty's work with Pacific leaders to ensure there are policy and legislative changes which reflect a firm commitment to address this issue,” says Holmes.

As a partner organisation of the Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign, Amnesty International will continue to campaign to ensure UN Women:
• Provides strong leadership combining a global vision with gender equality expertise on the ground;
• Receives adequate funding with stable and predictable resources aimed at reaching $1 billion within a few years;
• Undertakes meaningful, systematic and diverse civil society participation at all levels;
• Provides strong, country-level operational capacity and universal coverage.

“The creation of UN Women is just the beginning and we look forward to working with this new entity and too see more effective results in the Pacific,” adds Holmes.

Background

The GEAR Campaign is a global network of over 300 women's, human rights and social justice groups representing millions of people. It has campaigned to gain UN Member State and UN Secretariat approval for creation of a larger more coherent co-ordinated UN agency that can advance further the UN's mandate of working for gender equality as a crucial component of development, human rights, humanitarian concerns, peace and security.

The United Nations General Assembly agreed to a resolution on 30 June to establish UN Women, which is to be formally adopted today, Friday 2 July. The establishment of UN Women has been sought by the GEAR Campaign since the UN established a System-Wide Coherence Panel for UN Reform in 2006.

This new entity will consolidate the four existing UN bodies on women (the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), and the Office of the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI).)

It will increase operational capacity at the country level and see increased funding for work on women's empowerment and advancement.