Brazilian President Elect Dilma Rousseff Makes Gender Equality a Priority

Dilma Rousseff won Brazil's presidential race on Sunday night, making her the first woman in history to be elected to the position. Rousseff, 62, won with 56% of the country's votes and will take office on January 1. As a member of Brazil's Worker's Party, Rousseff's success was in part due to the support of her predecessor, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose popular social policies are expected to be continued by Rousseff's administration.

Rousseff is the eighth elected female president in Latin America and the Caribbean, and she will follow in the footsteps of many other prominent female leaders including Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica, and Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile. Bachelet was recently appointed head of U.N. Women, the United Nations body responsible for promoting gender equality in U.N. policy.

Despite these important advances for women in leadership throughout Latin America, many obstacles remain. In Brazil in particular, the proportion of women to men in politics is still very low. Many hope that Rousseff's historic election will help bring women's issues to the fore of international politics.

Rousseff has widely stated that she believes gender equality is one of the foundations of democracy. After her win on Sunday night she said, "I would like for fathers and mothers to look into their daughters' eyes today and tell them: 'Yes, women can.' I would like to register my first post-election commitment: to honour Brazilian women so that this unprecedented fact becomes a natural event."

-Elizabeth Newton

SOURCE: The Guardian

Caribbean Region Joins UNiTE Campaign

Yesterday, the Caribbean region officially joined the United Nations UNiTE campaign, a mission to end international violence against women. The campaign was launched by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2008, calling for nations to make systemic changes in order to address sexual violence.

It is estimated that today, 1 in 3 women living in the Caribbean experience sexual violence in their lifetime. Prosecutions and convictions of abusers, however, remain extremely low. Participation in the UNiTE campaign is intended to raise awareness of sexual violence in the region, improve methods of prevention and and services for victims of gender-based violence, and educate girls and boys to embrace equality and challenge destructive gender stereotypes.

“Violence against women must not be tolerated, in any form, in any context, in any circumstance, by any political leader or by any government. There can be no exceptions, no excuses and no delay,” said the Secretary-General at the launch of the campaign in Barbados yesterday.

-Elizabeth Newton

SOURCE: UN News Centre

UN Makes Important Step Towards Achieving MDGs

The third Millennium Development Goal is to promote gender equality and empower women. Today, the UN made an important step towards achieving this goal in announcing that Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile, will head the new UN agency, UN Women. In a show of commitment, the UN has moved at an unprecedented rate in getting UN Women into action. Created as part of a reform agenda in July 2010, UN Women should be fully operational by January 2011.

UN Women merges four existing bodies focusing on gender issues: the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Training and Research Institute for the Advancement of Women. By bringing together these bodies, women are given a stronger voice at the international level. Stronger advocacy for the rights of women can move the UN and member states to take more concrete actions towards the achievement of the UN MDGs.

"UN Women is a recognition of a simple truth. Equality for women and girls is not only a basic human rights, it is a social and economic imperative. Where women are educated and empowered, economies are more productive and strong. Where women are fully represented, societies are more peaceful and stable." -UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon

SOURCE: UN Announces New Body, UN Women

-Erica Stetz

UN creates 'UN Women'

After four years of negotiations, the UN General Assembly voted unanimously July 2nd to consolidate four UN agencies focused on advancing gender equality into one new body. The agencies (UN Development Fund for Women, the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women) will now be known as UN Women. It will be headed by an Under-Secretary-General, to be appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and will be given a $500 million annual budget - double the combined budgets of the four previous agencies.

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migro explained that UN Women was not a move solely to consolidate agencies, but to consolidate women's issues within the UN. "UN Women will give women and girls the strong, unified voice they deserve on the world stage," Ms. Migiro said. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon went on to explain that, "Equality for women and girls is not only a basic human right, it is a social and economic imperative. Where women are educated and empowered, economies are more productive and strong. Where women are fully represented, societies are more peaceful and stable." It was also noted that while there have been some improvements, women's issues within the UN have faced challenges in "funding and fragmentation". UN Women hopes to overcome these hurdles.

The forming of UN Women coincides with a meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) where the role of culture in women's empowerment was hotly debated. "Cultural diversity is an important aspect of what is happening in the world nowadays... it should never be an excuse to violate the rights of women," said Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The President of ECOSOC, Hamidon Ali, welcomed the creation of UN Women and noted that the empowerment of women is key to realizing the Millenium Development Goals by 2015.

- Clara Hill

SOURCE: "In historic move, UN creates single entity to promote women's empowerment" - UN News Centre, "Top UN officials debate role of culture in women's empowerment" - UN News Centre, "High-level UN forum stresses role of women in advancing global development" - UN News Centre