Say No Violence against Women and Girls

UNIFEM Executive Director Inés Alberdi:


New UN Gender Entity a Historic Step for Gender Equality and

the Empowerment of Women



Dear Say NO friends and partners,



Today is a historic day. This afternoon, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously decided to establish UN Women, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of a strong UN organization that will be a champion to promote and advance the rights of women and girls worldwide has been a goal we have been advocating for many years, and I know that you will join me in celebrating and embracing this momentous achievement.



As many of you will know, UN Women will merge UNIFEM with its three existing sister UN entities working on gender issues – the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW); the Office of the Special Advisor for Gender Issues (OSAGI); and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW). For many years, we have effectively worked with national, regional and global partners to generate a stronger public policy response to previously under-recognized women's rights issues, such as ending violence against women, increasing women's political participation, and prioritizing women's leadership in forging peace and security.



At the same time, we have faced serious challenges in our efforts to support countries to implement commitments to gender equality, in part because of inadequate funding and because there was no single recognized driver to lead the UN response for gender equality support. This is why we wholeheartedly joined women’s rights advocates and UN Member States in the call to strengthen the UN system to render even stronger support to the advancement of gender equality.



Today marks a great new beginning, not an end. The kind of work that UNIFEM has supported will continue as we merge into an institution that will be more robust and coherent, better positioned and resourced than the sum of its constituent parts. Through UN Women, we will be stronger in our mutual goal to end violence against women. Let’s seize this moment, and the momentum, and work with renewed energy and enthusiasm.



Inés Alberdi

Executive Director, UNIFEM