Since
its founding, women have seen the United Nations as a galvanizing force for
efforts to define a comprehensive global agenda for peace and security, human
rights, gender equality, women's empowerment, poverty eradication and
sustainable development. With the creation of UN Women, the UN has committed to
strengthen its programming globally on gender equality and the empowerment of
women more systematically, promising to make women’s rights a critical priority
in every aspect of the UN’s work.
The
GEAR Campaign is a global network of over 300 women’s, human rights and social
justice groups that have advocated for five years for a stronger UN agency on
women’s rights. Since the creation of UN
Women, the GEAR Campaign has continued to engage with the new entity to monitor
its implementation of promises made, to advocate for the integration of a human
rights-based approach to its work and for meaningful participation of civil
society in its proceedings at all levels – national, regional, and global. GEAR
has also continued to advocate with Member States for robust funding for the
new entity.