28
Feb
2011
March 1, 2011
Time: 2:00 – 3:30 pm
Venue: Church Center, Hardin Room, 11th Floor
777 United Nations Plaza, New York
Speakers:
Rania Antonopoulos, Levy Economics Institute,
Nurgul Djanaeva, Forum of Women’s NGOs of Kyrgyzstan
Norma Sanchís, International Gender and Trade Network – Latin America Chapter
Rosa Lizarde, Feminist Task Force – GCAP
Nicholas Lusiani, ESCR-NET
Moderator: Natalie Raaber, AWID
Sponsors: AWID, Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), ActionAid
28
Feb
2011
Women in Tahrir Square. Credit KARAMA
By Cléo Fatoorehchi
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26, 2011 (IPS) – The momentous events of Tahrir Square, Egypt also signify a huge step forward for gender equality in the region, women’s rights activists said Friday.
Nora Rafeh Refa Tahtawi, a youth activist who participated in the Tahrir protests and is now in New York for the two- week Commission on the Status of Women at U.N. headquarters, recalled that women stood side by side with men, all sharing the feeling that they belonged to the same movement with the same goals. More »
27
Feb
2011
Credit:UN Photo/John Isaac
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26, 2011 (IPS) – Risk of sexual violence, limited access to education, and health issues such as HIV/AIDS and forced female genital mutilation/cutting are just a few of the obstacles adolescent girls face in developing countries, yet these girls are the key to the future and the eradication of poverty, stress experts at the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
“Investing in the world’s 1.2 billion adolescents in an imperative if we want to break entrenched cycles of poverty and inequality,” said Richard Morgan, director of UNICEF’s Division of Policy and Practice. More »
25
Feb
2011
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova Credit:UN Photo/Mark Garten
Myurvet S. Mehmed interviews IRINA BOKOVA, Director-General of UNESCO
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 25, 2011 (IPS) – Although more girls are enrolling in school – notably in countries with the greatest gender gaps like Chad, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Yemen – two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are still women.
This has very real consequences for every aspect of life. For example, a child born to a mother who can read is 50 percent more likely to survive past age five, says Irina Bokova, director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
Speaking with IPS on the occasion of the historic launch of UN Women Thursday, Bokova stressed that issues surrounding women’s and children’s education impact nearly all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), from improved health and prevention of HIV/AIDS to higher income. More »
25
Feb
2011
Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of the newly-created UN Women. Credit:UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras
By Kanya D’Almeida
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 24, 2011 (IPS) – After years of planning, fundraising and consultations, U.N. Women was officially launched Thursday evening to much celebration.
Drawing luminaries from every realm of the international community, as well as the entertainment, politics, media and film industries, the event was in keeping with the historic moment that U.N. Women marks.
Formally known as the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, U.N. Women combines four pre-existing U.N. agencies into one task force that embodies the highest ambitions and aspirations of the drivers of gender equality. More »
25
Feb
2011
The world today is mesmerized by the people’s revolution in the Arab States region and the aspirations of the Arab people for democracy and social justice. It is this context that the Asia Pacific and Arab States (APAS) Division of UN Women plans to use, during the official launch of UN Women at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), as an opportunity to engage with partners, to share and discuss perspectives regarding the substantive and effective leadership role of UN Women in the region.
Date: Friday, February 25th Feb 2011
Time: 2 p.m. – 4.30 p.m.
Venue: Millennium UN Plaza Hotel New York, Manhattan Room, 2nd floor, East Wing
One United Nations Plaza, New York, on 44th between 1st and 2nd
More »
25
Feb
2011
By Cléo Fatoorehchi
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 24, 2011 (IPS) – While “fundamentalism” has become something of a buzzword in the past few years, particularly in the West in connection with Islam, it in fact exists in every region and religion, and has a set of common characteristics, say activists who have studied the question for years.
To bring attention to the issue and how it affects women’s lives around the world, the international Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) launched a new report Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women meeting in New York entitled “Towards a Future without Fundamentalisms”.
Following up on earlier research by AWID, the report says fundamentalist movements tend to be absolutist and intolerant, anti-women and patriarchal. More »
24
Feb
2011
Michelle Bachelet. Credit U.N.
New York, 24 February 2011—The UN today celebrates the historic launch of UN Women, its newest organization, with an evening including luminaries from the worlds of politics, entertainment, business, the media, music and film in the UN General Assembly Hall.
UN Women, formally known as the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, combines four previous UN bodies and represents the United Nations’ most ambitious effort ever to accelerate actions to achieve gender equality. Around the world, supporters of women’s rights have heralded its debut.
“With the birth of UN Women, we welcome a powerful new agent for progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says. “The challenges are great, but I believe that with the new energy, the new momentum and the new authority that UN Women brings, these challenges will be met. True gender equality should be our shared legacy in the 21st Century.” More »
24
Feb
2011
On Wednesday, March 2nd 2011 at 2pm WEDO will host the panel “From Local to Rio: Linking women’s low-carbon initiatives with sustainable development policy”.
The panel will explore women’s leadership in a green economy as a means to promote sustainable development and effective climate change responses. Panelists will present successful projects on the ground – with a focus on technology – and make connections to the upcoming Rio+20 conference. More »
