Ku Yenlin 顧燕翎
Monday, Jul 12, 2010, Page 8 Taipei Times
On July 1, after several 11-hour sessions, the UN General Assembly voted unanimously to create a new entity, UN Women, subtitled “UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women,” by combining four existing administrative units dealing with women’s issues. A new post of under-secretary general, very likely a woman and No. 3 in the UN chain of command, will be created to head the new body.
In the meantime, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) also decided to have gender equality and the empowerment of women as one of its annual themes. On July 2, after a week of intensive discussions, The DESA declared it would concentrate its efforts on improving women’s access to the formal economic system and participation in decision-making, eliminating violence against women, increasing education opportunities, stamping out illiteracy, improving women’s health, ending sexual discrimination and increasing access to microcredit. Hamidon Ali, president of ECOSOC, explained, "Gender equality is crucial to all aspects of economic growth."