During a high-level panel on the opening day of the 54th Commission on the Status of Women, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya A. Obaid, speaking on behalf of the United Nations, called attention to the links between the right to sexual and reproductive health and women's empowerment, gender equality and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Throughout the first two weeks of March, the 54th Commission on the Status of Women will conduct a 15-year review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. This Platform, which emerged from the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, reinforced the importance of women's rights and empowerment as established a year earlier in Cairo. It called for action on 12 key issues: poverty, education and training, health, violence against women (one of UNAIDS nine priority areas), armed conflict, economy, power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms, human rights, media, environment and girls.
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54th Commission on the Status of Women opening calls for Action on Gender Equality
UNAIDS takes action to empower women and girls to protect themselves from HIV
New York/Geneva, 2 March 2010 – UNAIDS, together with celebrated artist and activist for women and HIV, Annie Lennox, has launched an Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV (2010–2014), which has been developed to address gender inequalities and human rights violations that continue to put women and girls at risk of HIV infection. The five-year action plan was launched at a high-level panel during the 54th meeting on the Commission on the Status of Women, being held in New York until 12 March. It calls on the UN system to support governments, civil society and development partners in reinforcing country actions to put women and girls at the centre of the AIDS response, ensuring that their rights are protected.
