The United Nations (UN) deals with many aspects of human rights and other international issues. Several specialised departments and agencies have been established within the UN to deal specifically with concerns relating to women.
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
The CSW is an intergovernmental body that forms part of the Economic and Social Council of the UN (ECOSOC). Every year, representatives of member states gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and the advancement of women worldwide.
At each of these meetings, the member states of CSW develop a document called 'agreed conclusions' about the priority theme set for that year. The agreed conclusions contain an analysis of the priority theme of concern and a set of concrete recommendations for governments, intergovernmental bodies, NGOs and other relevant bodies, for implementation at the international, national, regional and local level.
The CSW consists of 45 members elected by the ECOSOC for a period of four years. Members are nominated by their respective national governments and are elected on the following basis: thirteen from African states; eleven from Asian states; four from Eastern European states; nine from Latin American and Caribbean states; and eight from Western European and Other states.
The UN website for the latest updates on women's human rights issues, programs and campaigns is: UN website (www.un.org/womenwatch)
The Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)
The DAW is part of the UN Secretariat and specialises in issues concerning the status of women. It is the major part of the UN bureaucracy that advocates for the improvement of the status of women of the world, and the achievement of their equality with men.
The DAW works with all international Conventions and Treaties relating to women, including CEDAW, and the CEDAW Optional Protocol. The DAW acted as the secretariat for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995). This was the largest conference in the history of the UN. The Conference was the culmination of twenty years of work by the global women's movement, and resulted in the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA). The BPFA is one of the most influential, international policy documents regarding women's human rights. The BPFA has been considered one of the most progressive blueprints for achieving gender equality for women. It was negotiated and adopted by the 189 countries that attended the Beijing Conference.
The BPFA has provided the impetus for major improvements in women's lives around the world. For example, the section on Institutional Mechanisms provided women in many countries with the legal and international arguments for the establishment of national machinery for women's issues, such as the federal Office for Women that we already have in Australia. The BPFA is available at: UN website (www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/index.html)
The DAW was responsible for the preparations for the three previous World Conferences on Women (Mexico, 1975, Copenhagen, 1980, and Nairobi, 1985) and has since done the preparatory work for the 23rd Special Review Session of the UN General Assembly in 2000, commonly known as Beijing + 5, and assisted CSW to conduct the Ten-year Review and Appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action in 2005. The UN website address for DAW is: www.un.org/womenwatch/daw
UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
Commonly known as UNIFEM, this specialised agency of the UN works with national governments to promote women's empowerment and gender equality. UNIFEM's mandate is based on international women's rights documents, particularly CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action.
Since its creation in 1976, UNIFEM has supported numerous projects and initiatives throughout the developing world that promote the political, economic, and social empowerment of women. These have ranged from small grassroots enterprises that improved working conditions for women to public education campaigns and the design of new gender-sensitive laws and marketing campaigns.
Recent initiatives by UNIFEM include funding a project in Cambodia to facilitate handicraft development and upgrade productions and marketing skills of women producers of baskets and clay pottery; and supporting projects in Indonesia, China and other parts of the Asia-Pacific region to improve the collection of statistics on gender issues.
Further information is available from: UNIFEM website (www.unifem.org), NGOs work together with the UN to help people in need.