NEWS ON THE ISSUES
Proposed UN agency `dramatic step forward' for women
Nov. 10, 2006. 01:00 AM
OLIVIA WARD
STAFF REPORTER
A landmark proposal for creating a powerful new United Nations women's agency moved a giant step closer to reality yesterday, with the endorsement of a high-level panel on reforming the sprawling UN system.
"This is the most dramatic step forward in decades, for women and for the UN," said Stephen Lewis, the UN special envoy on AIDS/HIV, who has lobbied vigorously for an agency that would deliver programs and services to billions of women throughout the world on an unprecedented scale.
"It holds the prospect of transforming the lives of women — removing the worst poverty and oppression, saving lives in the midst of the AIDS pandemic and other massive health problems," said Lewis, who leaves his job at the end of December, but will continue to promote the new body.
Link to article Proposed UN
Agency
WOMEN ARE KEY TO CURBING POVERTY
Boston Globe, May 21, 2006
THE SECRET KEY to driving down the rates of poverty and population growth is female. To be absolutely precise, it is poor women living in the Third World's rural backwaters, where 75 percent of the world's hungry scrape a living. Everything else is a sideshow.
The answers to successful economic and social development, we all know, are multi- faceted and complicated. But one thing is very clear: Take care of women's poverty and education, and then population growth and small-scale rural economic growth will largely take care of themselves.
Link to Article Women are Key to Curbing Poverty
ENDLESS WAR for GENDER EQUALITY
Jul 18, 2006 01:00 | Toronto Star
Just over 13 years ago last week, in a small town called Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 8,000 men and boys were led away to be massacred. It was a turning point in the first war "civilized" Europe had seen since World War II. Today, with the people and the war almost forgotten, I often wonder what happened - not to the men and boys - but to the women who were left behind.
One does not need to delve deep to see their common threads of despair being shared by millions, if not billions of women worldwide. The global statistics are unfathomable - 3 million women die each year due to gender-based violence, 4 million are sold into prostitution, almost 300 million are illiterate, 500 million will suffer from rape or attempted rape in their lifetimes.
Link to Article Endless war for gender equality
WORLD'S WOMEN HAVE AN ADVOCATE
Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, is propounding the creation of a powerful UN agency to defend women's rights, health and security, just as its children's agency does for the young.
"For 20 years I've felt that the rights and needs of women in the UN system were largely unattended. They make up more than half of the world's population but efforts to address their problems have been a travesty. When you look at the horrific facts of violence against women, and the ravages of the AIDS pandemic, it's totally unacceptable."
The women's agency would cost around $1 billion a year, consolidating scattered projects now under the wings of the children's fund UNICEF, the UN population fund, the World Health Organization, and the UN Development Program.
Link to Article World's Women have an Advocate
WORLD'S LEADERS FAILING WOMEN
"A review of the Millennium Development Goals by the United Nations Populations Fund shows that they have fallen short - millions of women are still dying from preventable complications of pregnancy, as well as abuse and neglect.
HIV/AIDS HAS ESCALATED AMONG The female population worldwide, and half of the 40 million people suffering from the deadly virus are women. The leading cause of transmission is heterosexual sex , but only a small percentage of women of childbearing age are protected by partners who use condoms.
Women are also undereducated and underpaid when compared with men, denied personal and property rights and dismissed from work more often. Link to Article Countries Failing Women
