UN Women
In 2010, as part of the UN reform agenda, the UN General Assembly voted to create UN Women which brought together resources and agencies working on gender equality and the empowerment of women in order to generate greater impact and progress on meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide.
UN Women merges and builds upon the work of four UN bodies that focus exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment:
- Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW, established in 1946)
- International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW, established in 1976)
- Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI, established in 1997)
- United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, established in 1976)
For more information please visit UN Women or the UN Women National Committee Australia.
Commission on the Status of Women
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Established in 1946, CSW is dedicated exclusively to gender equality and the advancement of the status of women. It is the principal global policy-making body, meeting annually to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and the advancement of women worldwide.
CSW prepares recommendations and reports to ECOSOC on the promotion of women’s rights in all fields: political, economic, civil, social and educational. CSW also prepares recommendations to ECOSOC on urgent problems relating to women’s rights that require immediate attention.
For information on legal instruments and other relevant international standards of particular importance to women’s human rights and gender equality including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1981), please visit UN WomenWatch.
Beijing Platform for Action
The Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995) reiterated the responsibility of governments to “take integrated measures to prevent and eliminate violence against women”. The 189 nations that adopted the Platform for Action committed themselves to developing comprehensive programmes to end gender-based violence.
For more information please visit the Beijing Platform and follow up.
