Women

UN Women/Piyavit Thongsa-Ard

Equal pay essential to build a world of dignity and justice for all, UN says, commemorating first International Equal Pay Day

18 September 2020
Global

The United Nations is marking the first ever International Equal Pay Day, on Friday, drawing attention to the gender pay gap – the difference between what a woman earns compared to a man, for work of equal value – and the systemic inequalities it is rooted in.  

UN Women India

25 years after Beijing’s Women Conference, significance ‘undimmed’

4 September 2020
Global

Exactly 25 years after the historic world conference in Beijing on the advancement and equality of women, the head of the UN gender empowerment agency declared on Friday that “its significance is undimmed”.





 

ILO

Generations of progress for women and girls could be lost to COVID pandemic, UN chief warns

31 August 2020
Global

Highlighting the disproportionate and devastating socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on women and girls globally, The UN chief António Guterres called on Monday for a major push to prevent “years, even generations” worth of progress on women’s empowerment, from being lost to the pandemic. 

© UNFPA Zambia

One step at a time: UN women’s health agency helping shift dangerous social norms 

24 August 2020
Global

One of the largest chiefdoms in Zambia’s Eastern Province is challenging harmful social norms, including child marriage, risky initiation and impunity for perpetrators of sexual abuse, according to the UN women’s health agency, UNFPA.

© UNICEF/LeMoyne

Bosnia and Herzegovina should recognise sex crime survivors’ rights, say experts

19 August 2020
Europe

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, tens of thousands of victims of sexual violence committed during conflict in the 1990s still await justice, UN-appointed rights experts said on Wednesday.

© UNHCR/Aristophane Ngargoune

Violence in Sudan’s Western Darfur forces 2,500 into Chad: UN refugee agency

11 August 2020
Africa

Recent clashes in Sudan’s Western Darfur region has driven more than 2,500 people across the border into neighbouring Chad, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has reported.

@UNICEF

Breastfeeding link to COVID-19 is negligible, says World Health Organization

4 August 2020
Global

The risk of COVID-19 infection from breastfeeding is negligible and has never been documented, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, in a call for greater support for the practice. 

UN Women/Fahad Kaizer

Harness multilateralism’s power to urgently advance women’s rights amid COVID recovery

21 July 2020

With essential resources for women’s health being diverted to emergency COVID-19 response around the world, Governments, civil society leaders, CEOs and academic experts gathered virtually on Tuesday, to explore ways to accelerate the achievement of landmark targets set 25 years ago for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

ECA

‘Women Rise for All’ to shape leadership in pandemic response and recovery

14 July 2020
Global

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has generated an unprecedented global health, humanitarian and development crisis, it has also revealed the power of women’s leadership, according to the UN Deputy Secretary-General.

UNMISS/Isaac Billy

UN expert calls for end to gender-based violence against women journalists

8 July 2020
Global

Women journalists face particular dangers while going about their work, an independent UN expert told the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday, saying that Governments should do more to protect them.