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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Queridas, para las que leen inglés, no es mi caso,
les reenvió este documento que nos envía Marcela Ballara. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>un abrazo</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Iliana </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=marcela.ballara@gmail.com href="mailto:marcela.ballara@gmail.com">Marcela
Ballara</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=Geoteam@listsrv.chasque.net
href="mailto:Geoteam@listsrv.chasque.net">Geoteam@listsrv.chasque.net</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, August 02, 2011 9:48 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [GeoTeam] UNWOMEN continues to lose sight of the
constituency it is supporting: women ??</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>
<DIV>
<H1>A Feminist Approach To UN Women</H1></DIV>
<DIV>
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<DIV>
<P><B>Source: </B><A
href="http://yfa.awid.org/2011/07/a-feminist-approach-to-un-women/"
target=_blank>Young Feminist Wire</A> </P>
<P>16/07/2011 </P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P>After a year since the resolution (A/RES/64/289) to establish UN Women was
adopted, steps have been taken to ensure it becomes more than the sum of its
parts.</P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P>By Margot Baruch*</P>
<P>After a year since the resolution (A/RES/64/289) to establish UN Women was
adopted, steps have been taken to ensure it becomes more than the sum of its
parts. UN Women consolidates four previous UN parts that focused on gender
equality: Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), International Research
and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), Office of the
Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI), and United
Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).** UN Women’s
Under-Secretary-General, Michele Bachelet, was appointed in September 2010 and
since then has illustrated that she is vociferously committed to the success of
the new entity. With the official launch in January 2011, supporters were
excited, but skeptical about its structure and vision.</P>
<P>In the last months, strategy plans and organizational documents have been
shaping the programming of UN Women with some insight from civil society and
although new high level appointments have been made, it seems that UN Women
continues to lose sight of the constituency it is supporting: women. As an
active observer of this process since it began, I find that for UN Women to be
effective, it needs to incorporate a feminist and women’s human rights lens
while working in the bureaucratic confines of the United Nations. It ought
to pay homage to the women that came before by acknowledging the challenges they
faced and honoring the triumphs they experienced. </P>
<P>Ms. Bachelet’s powerful voice will be heard by government leaders globally
who must not only hear that it is important to invest in women to increase
capital, but that governments have an obligation to women to support their
rights as humans, as leaders, as employees, as mothers, as daughters. As
head of UN Women, Ms. Bachelet has an opportunity to envision innovative ways of
engaging with all stakeholders, especially civil society who advocated
tirelessly for the entity’s creation. In addition, UN Women should
stress coherence between states policies (economic and social) at all levels to
ensure that these policies are in line with human rights obligations, and
particularly substantive equality, non-discrimination and economic, social and
cultural rights. Civil society also has an important role to play in not
only monitoring UN Women’s policies and programs, but in pressuring Member
States to increase financial commitments and ensure that UN Women has strong
operational capacity.</P>
<P>One thing is very clear to me as I have observed this process as an outsider
over the last five years, I expected more, but learning about what UN Women can
and cannot do within the UN is critical to understanding its reality. UN
Women is one vehicle in the human rights domain for feminists and women’s rights
advocates to harness. As activists and feminists, we must remember that UN
Women is not the only solution to gender equality, but a very important piece in
progressing towards the realization of women’s rights. </P>
<P><I>*Margot Baruch is Program Coordinator at the Center for Women’s Global
Leadership. She has been active in the GEAR Campaign since its
inception.</I></P>
<P>** <I>For more background visit <A
href="http://www.gearcampaign.org/news_events/faq/new-gear-campaign-toolkit/"
target=_blank>http://www.gearcampaign.org/news_events/faq/new-gear-campaign-toolkit/</A>.</I></P></DIV><BR
clear=all><FONT color=#888888><BR>-- <BR>Marcela Ballara<BR>Former FAO Senior
Officer Gender and Equity <BR>(562)7695168<BR> 07 8154992
( celular) <BR><BR></FONT></DIV><BR><BR clear=all><BR>-- <BR>Marcela
Ballara<BR>Former FAO Senior Officer Gender and Equity
<BR>(562)7695168<BR> 07 8154992 ( celular) <BR><BR>
<P>
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