FIRST BOARD MEETING OF UN WOMEN

During the opening session of the first UN WOMEN Board Meeting which took place last January 2011 in New York, Michelle Bachelet, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, has presented the vision, priorities and the working plan of the 100 first days of the organisation. In the 'Vision and 100 Day Action Plan' Mrs. Bachelet highlighted the five thematic priorities of UN Women:

1) Expanding women’s voice, leadership and participation
2) Ending violence against women
3) Strengthening implementation of the women, peace and security agenda
4) Enhancing women’s economic empowerment
5) Making gender equality priorities central to national, local and sectoral planning and budgeting

The Executive Board of UN WOMEN was elected on November 2010 by the ECOSOC according to regional criteria and among donor partners. There are 10 African, 10 Asian, 4 East European, 6 Latin American/Caribbean, 5 West European and 6 donor countries.

UN WOMEN is an important step forward in the United Nations reform process. Gender inequality is still deeply rooted in the societies all over the world and lots of women have difficulties in gain access to respectable jobs and have to face occupational segregation and wage differences based on gender. Furthermore sometimes women can not even get access to basic education of health services. Women from all over the world are victims of violence and discrimination and are not represented in decision-making positions.gmai

On January 1st 2011, UN WOMEN started its therefore ambitious mandate.

http://www.unwomen.org/2011/01/statement-to-the-first-regular-session-of-the-executive-board-united-nations-entity-for-gender-equality-and-the-empowerment-of-women/