Women

Photo: Participants at the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women rejoice as the Commission adopts Agreed Conclusions to ensure the rights and development of rural women and girls. Credit: UN Women/Ryan Brown.

UN Gathering Pledges to End Gender Injustice & Discrimination

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – A landmark global gathering at the United Nations headquarters in New York has come up with a blueprint to ensure the rights and development of rural women and girls around the world.

Convened on the heels of an unprecedented global activism and public clamour to end gender injustice and discrimination worldwide, the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62) concluded on March 23 reaching a robust agreement highlighting the urgency of empowering and supporting those who need it most and have, for too long, been left behind.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 24 March 2018

Photo: ESCAP Executive Secretary Dr Shamshad Akhtar. Credit: UNIDO | Flickr

To Achieve Gender Equality, We Need Women Entrepreneurs

By Shamshad Akhtar

Dr. Shamshad Akhtar is the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

BANGKOK (IDN) – In 2018, we have an opportunity to accelerate progress towards gender equality. Movements such as #MeToo have shone the spotlight on an unacceptable status quo and demonstrated how too many women the world over continue to be deprived of respect and equal opportunities. Let’s use International Women’s Day to build on this global momentum for change and suggest targeted solutions to empower women across our economies and societies. Women entrepreneurs have a key role to play.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 07 March 2018

'Unequal Realities' Hold Back Rural Women, Says UN On Eve of Women's Confab

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – In the run up to International Women’s Day on March 8, the United Nations is renewing its call for concrete actions to address the plight of rural women who make up over a quarter of the world population yet are being left behind in every measure of development.

The theme of this year's International Women’s Day is: “Time is Now: Rural and urban activists transforming women’s lives”. This will also be the focus of the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from March 12 to 23.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 06 March 2018

Traumatised Rohingya Women Bear the Brunt of Persecution

By Naimul Haq

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (IDN) – Shefali Aktar, mother of three, fled her home in Thaphanbin, a tiny village overlooking the Arakan Mountains in Rakhine state in Myanmar.

The 22-year-old pregnant woman escaped near death when her neighbour helped her and her children to hide in the nearby forest the night after the entire population of about 600 families in her village was wiped out.

“I went back to my village the next evening to find my husband. Instead, I found dead bodies,” says Shefali, breaking down in tears as she continues to narrate the horror.