The overall goal of the GEU in UN-Habitat is
to ensure UN-Habitat country programmes and their strategic development
frameworks, project implementation and otherwise technical advisory services
promote, respect and protect the rights of all residents in urban areas
especially women, girls and those facing discrimination due to their sexual
orientation and/or gender identity.
On the UN-wide level, UN-Habitat's is bound by the UN
Charter and is specifically mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote
socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities. Moreover, drawing on
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the principle of equal rights
and non-discrimination between men and women is fully elaborated and
established by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW, 1979). Numerous CEDAW provisions are particularly salient
to UN-Habitat priorities, including in the areas of: political and public life,
representation, education, employment, health, and economic and social
well-being.
In addition, the Beijing Platform for Action (1995),
wherein Member States unanimously agreed it essential to design, implement and
monitor, with the full participation of women, effective, efficient and
mutually reinforcing gender-responsive policies and programmes, including
development policies and programmes at all levels, to foster the empowerment
and advancement of women. Followed by, the Habitat II Agenda, section 7 (1996)
recognises that women have an important role to play in the attainment of
sustainable human settlements and that the empowerment of women and their full
and equal participation in political, social and economic life are essential to
achieving sustainable human settlements.
Finally, in 2012, the United Nations agreed on the
landmark UN System Wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of
Women (UN-SWAP), to implement the gender equality policy of its highest
executive body, the UN Chief Executives Board, chaired by the Secretary
General. The UN-SWAP is spearheaded by UN Women and assigns common performance
standards for the gender related work of all UN entities, including UN-Habitat,
ensuring greater coherence and accountability.
At the Agency-level, the UN-Habitat Policy and Plan for
Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women in Urban Development and Human
Settlements 2014-2019 and the Gender Equality Action Plan 2014-2019 set out the
Agency's commitment and strategy to ensure that all its activities reflect and
advance the global consensus on non-discrimination and equality between men and
women. Furthermore, the UN-Habitat Governing Council Resolution 24/4 of April
2013, further supported by ECOSOC 1997/2, requires UN-Habitat to mainstream
GEWE in normative work and operational programmes, establishing policies and
programmes to achieve gender equality and women's empowerment, form
partnerships with civil society organisations and
make use the Advisory Board on Gender Issues (AGGI).
Specifically, the three gender mainstreaming goals for
the Agency are as follows:
1.
Programme: Technical and normative assistance provided to
national, regional and local authorities and other stakeholders, so that their
policies, plans and programmes achieve clearly articulated, time-bound and
measurable gender equality and women's empowerment results in the areas of
UN-Habitat's strategic priorities, identified on the bases of gender analysis,
assessed against clearly defined baseline data disaggregated by sex and age.
2.
Progress towards internal gender parity at all levels,
and particularly at the P5 levels and above clearly demonstrates, according to
the defined United Nations formula, as an objective indicator of organisational
commitment to gender equality and women's rights, and of an organisational
culture with the capacity to advance them.
3.
Internal institutional arrangements that are fully
conducive to the above two outputs increasingly in line, in progressive
compliance with the performance standards set out in the System-Wide Action
Plan for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (SWAP).
Lastly, the Agency's mandate links to SDG 11: Make cities and human settlements
inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. In addition, within a more nuanced understanding, and considering the
nature of cities and towns as the main habitat of humanity, issues of equality,
poverty–in connection livelihoods-and institutional transparency are also
fundamental goals in cities and towns.
