GREAT NEWS FOR WOMEN AT THE UN!

(Editor's Note- Soroptimist International signed on to this campaign in March and the General Assembly passed this historic decision today! Please read the attached article.)

Dear Supporters of GEAR, UN Gender Equality Architecture Reform,

We are very pleased to let you know that the UN General Assembly adopted a
resolution today that takes the next step in the process of creating the new
Women's Rights entity at the UN. In the text below are the GEAR talking
points on the passage of the resolution, and we must now push on our many
remaining points to ensure that the entity that is created serves the rights
and needs of women throughout the world. We will be back in touch after a
few days with suggestions for the next steps in this process.
Congratulations to all for your hard work on this. Charlotte Bunch

______________________________

_____________________________

GEAR Talking Points on Adoption of System Wide
Coherence Resolution by the UN General Assembly

September 14, 2009

1. The GEAR campaign is pleased that the General Assembly expressed strong
and unanimous support in adopting a resolution today that will enable the
creation of the new gender equality entity to be headed by a new Under
Secretary-General (USG).

2. Women and their allies from around the world have been advocating for
three years for a stronger better resourced agency on gender equality and
women’s empowerment, and look forward to its creation early in 2010 - during
the fifteen anniversary year of the historic UN Fourth World Conference on
Women in Beijing.

3. We urge Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to immediately begin the
recruitment process for appointing a strong leader grounded in women’s
rights and gender equality as the USG who will lead this process of
consolidating the four existing entities. We expect a broad, open search
process to start promptly so that the USG is in place and the entity can be
operational by the time of the Beijing + 15 Review at the Commission on the
Status of Women in March of 2010.

4. Member states must also address in a timely fashion all the outstanding
issues required for the entity to begin operations, including the mechanisms
for governance and oversight.

5. Donor countries need to pledge the substantial funding ($1 billion) to
support the proposed strong field operation that the entity must have to be
successful in fulfilling the promises made by governments and the UN to the
world’s women.

6. As civil society has always played a vital role in the UN’s work on women’s
rights, we urge member states and the Secretary General to commit to
systematic and on-going participation of civil society, particularly women’s
organizations, in every stage of the process at global, regional, national,
and local levels including in the governing board

7. Women around the world have waited a long time for the United Nations
and member states to fulfill the promises made since the first International
Women’s Year in 1975, the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) thirty years ago, as well as the UN
World Conferences in Nairobi (1985) and Beijing (1995).

8. This is an important and crucial step forward – now it must be made
operational without further delay.