GENDER & COMPLAINT MECHANISMS HANDBOOK - English
Around the world, armed forces are recognizing the important contribution that women make within their ranks, and the fact that increasing the representation of female personnel is fundamental to future capability and operational effectiveness. In tackling barriers to women’s full participation in armed forces, a key priority is to prevent gender-related discrimination, harassment, bullying and abuse – to ensure that all personnel, men and women, serve in an environment that is healthy, safe and respectful, and upholds their human rights. Effective and trusted complaints mechanisms are a crucial component of such an environment.
GENEVA (8 March 2016) – The right to sexual and reproductive health is not only an integral part of the general right to health but fundamentally linked to the enjoyment of many other human rights, including the rights to education, work and equality, as well as the rights to life, privacy and freedom from torture, and individual autonomy, UN experts have said in an authoritative new legal commentary*.
Yet, the experts from the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) note, “the full enjoyment of the right to sexual and reproductive health remains a distant goal for millions of people, especially for women and girls, throughout the world.”
The commentary, adopted by CESCR’s 18 independent members, highlights the numerous legal, procedural, practical and social barriers people face in accessing sexual and reproductive health care and information, and the resulting human rights violations.
29 February 2016 - No more time wasting and frustration searching for gender statistics across multiple databases. No more wondering if the data is up-to-date, accurate and comparable. EIGE’s new Gender Statistics Database provides a one-stop source for information on the situation of equality between women and men in the EU.
“The new database is aimed to help statisticians, policy makers, researchers, students, journalists and anyone who is interested in statistics on gender equality. The database provides reliable and comparable information on equality between women and men, which can be used as a basis to inform policy-making and monitor progress in gender equality” says Ligia Nobrega, Gender Statistics Database Officer at EIGE.
Both experienced statisticians and non-experts will be able to use the database with ease. Users can search for data with a keyword search or choose from a set of 6 entry points, such as thematic areas of interest (e.g. work and the labour market, education and training), EU policy areas (e.g. health, science, research and technology), EU strategies (e.g. EU 2020), EIGE’s Gender Equality Index and more.
Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
This year’s celebration of International Women’s Day is the first within the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls are confidently asserted in that Agenda as intrinsic to progress.
The new Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals include a specific goal to achieve gender equality, which aims to end discrimination and violence against women and girls and ensure equal participation and opportunities in all spheres of life. Important provisions for women’s empowerment are also included in most of the other goals.
In conjunction with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, more than 90 governments have answered UN Women’s call for action to “Step It Up for Gender Equality”. Heads of State and Government have pledged concrete and measurable actions to crack some of the fundamental barriers to the achievement of gender equality in their countries.
For the first time since the beginning of the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe, women and children on the move outnumber adult men. While in 2015 about 70 % of the population on the move were men, women and children now make up nearly 60% of refugees and other migrants crossing into Europe. This also means that more women and children risk and lose their lives in the Mediterranean Sea and on the land routes to Europe. Of more than 360 persons who died in the Mediterranean in January 2016, one third were women and children. In February this year a woman and an adolescent girl were found dead from the cold in the Bulgarian mountains close to the border with Turkey... Continue reading →
Извор: Висок Комесар за Човекови права при Обединетите нации – 04.03.2016
