Global perspective - New UN women's agency

"Lose no more time creating a new UN agency for women," was the appeal to delegates at the 62nd World Health Assembly from the International Council of Nurses (ICN), International AIDS Society and AIDS-Free World. In response last September, in a historic moment for the United Nations and all its member countries, the UN General General Assembly voted unanimously in favour of creating a new women's agency.

Such an agency is essential and long overdue, the ICN and its fellow organisations had convincingly argued, believing this to be the best hope for the world's women. Women tend to fall through the cracks of international good intentions, programmes and policies, but bear the brunt of the world's health problems and human rights issues.

The HIV pandemic has hit the world's women with brutal force. All over the world, women are more likely to contract HIV, die of it, raise the children left orphaned by it, care for others who get sick, and bear the associated stigma than men. Poverty, gender inequality and social injustice fuel the AIDS epidemic, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where women make up nearly 60 per cent of infected adults. Meanwhile, 99 per cent of maternal deaths occur in the developing world. Sexual violence, in conflict situations as well as in the daily lives of women everywhere, is part of the intrinsic fabric of almost all societies.

"The new UN agency for women represents a critical opportunity for the world to deliver, finally, for half its population," says Stephen Lewis, Co-Director of AIDS-Free World. "The UN, created by the world's governments, is the only institution that can move all of its member states to address gender inequality and violence against women. If it fails to do this, we will not meet a single Millennium Development Goal."