UN Women is grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls, the empowerment of women, and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action.
The Policy Division brings together technical experts who: undertake issues-based research; analyze data on country, regional and global trends; build a knowledge base on policy commitments and their implementation; propose evidence-based options for global policy, norms, and standards and for UN Women global programme strategies; and contribute substantive inputs to policy advocacy and technical cooperation programmes. The work of UN Women’s Ending Violence against Women (EVAW) Section is broadly focused on a comprehensive approach to ending violence against women that addresses legislation and policies, prevention, services for survivors, research, and data.
The Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) Section is responsible for a number of functions including supporting the normative work on EVAW at the global level, developing and managing global level programmes and providing policy and technical advice to regional and country offices on EVAW.
The EVAW Section is supporting various UN Women country and regional programmes on EVAW, which aim at addressing all forms of violence against women and girls. These programmes aim to support transformative change on the ground to end violence against women and girls, in numerous countries globally. The EVAW Section works to ensure coherence, alignment, and strong technical quality of these large programmes, in line with regional/country context.
2020 was a milestone year for gender equality. It marked the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) (Beijing+25), the 20th anniversary of UN Security Council resolution 1325 on Women and Peace and Security, and the 5th anniversary of the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030
Action Coalitions reflect a core objective of the Generation Equality Forum: to achieve tangible results on gender equality during the UN Decade of Action (2020-2030) to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. The Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence is one of the outcomes of the Generation Equality Forum. Along with five other Action Coalitions the Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence will advance game changing results in the lives of women and girls in line with the Global Acceleration Plan for Gender Equality and related commitments made by Action Coalition Leaders and commitment makers.
The Generation Equality Forum which took place in Paris in the summer of 2021 was a landmark moment for gender equality with 1000+ Commitment Makers making commitments to the six themes of the Action Coalitions. Including 1000+ commitments to the Action Coalition on gender-based violence.
Action Coalitions are comprised of multiple stakeholders including member states, civil society, youth organizations, philanthropy, and private sector organizations. Each Action Coalition is governed by a group of leaders representing this group of multiple stakeholders as well as a membership of commitment makers.
In addition to delivering on commitments made at the Paris Forum, leaders, and commitment makers of the action coalition on gender-based violence will also drive momentum toward transformative change including at legislative, policy and programmatic levels related to addressing gender-based violence against women and girls in all their diversity through a comprehensive global advocacy and communications approach.