Women

Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (left); and Kamala Harris, US Vice President (right) address the 65th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. (screenshot)
UN News

Fast-track women’s participation in public life ‘for everyone's benefit’

16 March 2021
Global

The UN rights chief said on Tuesday that empowering women and girls to participate fully in public life is both the right and “smart thing to do”, speaking on a day that saw history being made with the first ever address to the UN by a woman Vice President of the United States. 

Women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are being supported by the United Nations to begin small businesses such as tailoring (file photo).
UNDP DRC

Gender equality means business, Secretary-General tells corporate leaders

16 March 2021
Global

The UN Secretary-General has urged corporate leaders to achieve gender equality, highlighting the benefits for the private sector and society at large. 

Afghan parliament members attend a meeting on women in decision-making positions. (file)
UN Women/ Nangyalai Tanai

Women must be ‘front and centre’ of pandemic recovery, UN chief says

16 March 2021
Global

Women need to be “front and centre” of the pandemic recovery as a matter of economics, efficiency, effectiveness and social resilience, the UN chief told the women’s commission on Tuesday. 

Syria’s decade of conflict has taken a massive toll on women and girls.
© UNFPA Syria

Syria’s decade of conflict takes massive toll on women and girls

16 March 2021
Middle East

This week, Syria marks a grim anniversary: 10 years since the start of the country’s grinding conflict. Today, one decade into the catastrophe, about half the country’s population has been uprooted, with some 12 million people internally displaced or living as refugees.  

Nurses greet visitors at a clinic set up at a hospital in Thailand to treat people with suspected COVID-19 symptoms.
WHO/P. Phutpheng

COVID-19 has exposed endemic gender inequality, Guterres tells UN Women’s commission

15 March 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on women and girls, and the fallout has shown how deeply gender inequality remains embedded in the world’s political, social and economic systems, UN chief António Guterres said in his address to the Commission on the Status of Women, on Monday. This year’s Commission will focus on charting a global roadmap towards achieving full equality in public life but, as Mr. Guterres recalled in his speech, gender equality in all walks of life is a long way off and has been further undermined by the pandemic.

Martina Sandoval, UNPOL officer from El Salvador, serving in UNMISS, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.
UNMISS/Gregório Cunha

First Person: Women peacekeepers a ‘powerful image for girls in remote villages’

13 March 2021
Africa

Deputy Inspector Martina de Maria Sandoval Linares, from El Salvador always wanted to help others. Now, working as a UN Police officer, she has found her vocation, far from home in South Sudan. Ms. Linares, whose eight-year-old daughter and family are back in El Salvador, told UN News why the job is so rewarding, despite the sacrifices she makes.

In Niger, farmer-pastoralist conflicts were significantly reduced by empowering women and youth as peacebuilders in the conflict-prone regions. More than 350 community groups ‘Dimitra clubs’ established in 60 villages.
© PBF/Marie Doucey/2019

Latest session of UN women’s commission focuses on equality in public life

12 March 2021
Global

Setting a global roadmap for achieving full equality at decision-making tables is among the objectives of the 65th session of the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which opens in New York on Monday. 

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN-Women. (file photo)
UN Photo/Mark Garten

UN agency raises alarm over ‘targeted’ violence against women in Myanmar protests

12 March 2021
Asia Pacific

The United Nations entity dedicated to protection of women’s rights has voiced deep concerns over “targeted and disproportionate” violence against women being recorded during the crackdown against peaceful protesters in Myanmar. 

Family planning services in Malawi have continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
© UNFPA/Joseph Scott

FROM THE FIELD: Avoiding unintended pregnancies in cash-strapped Malawi

11 March 2021
Africa

In Malawi, as in many countries across the world, funds meant for sexual reproductive health and family planning are being diverted to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and the UN has stepped in to prevent these services from grinding to a halt.

Some 12 million women globally are estimated to have experienced disruptions in family planning services due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
© UNFPA/Ollivier Girard

COVID disrupts contraception services, leads to 1.4 million unintended pregnancies, says UNFPA 

11 March 2021
Global

One year since COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic, the UN’s reproductive health agency said on Thursday that an estimated 12 million women have experienced disruptions to their family planning services.