UN Gender Focus

Brazilian celebrity same-sex wedding video premiered at UN

Impressive drop in maternal mortality rates

Maternal mortality rates worldwide have dropped by almost 44 per cent over the last 15 years. That’s according to a report released by the United Nations. The report indicates that maternal deaths around the world fell from about 532,000 in 1990, to an estimated 303,000 this year. Maternal mortality is defined as a woman’s death caused by pregnancy, childbirth or within 6 weeks of having a baby. Veronica Reeves has the story.

Sri Lankan maternity hospital reborn after 2004 tsunami

Concern at “never-ending flow” of vulnerable EU arrivals

Culture of “denial and silence” around sexual violence must be broken

Women living longer but still face serious challenges worldwide

Landmark resolution on women, peace and security turns 15

We feel forgotten, say Yazidis battling sex-slavery

An activist helping girls from the Yazidi minority of Northern Iraq escape sexual enslavement by ISIL fighters worries his people are being forgotten. Thousands of members of the Yazidi community were captured and sold into slavery last year by the terrorist group. At briefing at UN headquarters on ISIL and its impact on women, the testimony from one young victim who had been sold into slavery, and then raped was particularly gripping. Matthew Wells reports:

The important linkages between gender issues and climate change are being emphasized as world leaders prepare to endorse a new, universal climate change agreement at the end of the year.

Experts gathered for a panel discussion on the margins of the UN General Assembly to discuss the need to ensure that women’s issues are taken into account in the new climate deal.

Veronica Reeves spoke to Dr Yannick Glemarec, the Assistant Secretary-General of UN Women.

Peer education and social media strategies to prevent violence against women and girls are being adopted in China by the UN agency that deals with gender issues, UN Women.

In line with the agency’s HeForShe campaign, the “Peer Leadership for Healthy Relationships Programme” is being implemented at the Beijing Royal School.

A growing number of women infected with HIV are receiving treatment, but cultural and economic obstacles make staying on it a challenge, according to a new study sponsored by UN Women, the United Nations agency that deals with gender issues.

For the first time, HIV-positive women are carrying out their own review of the barriers they and women like them face to accessing life-saving treatment.