May 2009
The Annual Report documents UNIFEM's work to foster women's empowerment and gender equality around the world. The 2008-2009 edition highlights the efforts at the grassroots and policy level to improve women's safety and security, advance political participation and economic empowerment, and further women's access to justice and land. It also notes the support provided to incorporate gender perspectives into economic policies worldwide, and the successful awareness-raising global internet campaign "Say NO to Violence against Women". Furthermore, the report spotlights the efforts towards the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820 at the national level. Resolution 1820, unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council in June 2008, describes sexual violence as a tactic of war and a matter of international security. "This historic resolution is an essential complement to the landmark resolution 1325 on women, peace and security of 2000," Inés Alberdi, the Executive Director of UNIFEM, writes in her foreword message to the report. Resolution 1820 reaffirms sexual violence as a war crime and informs UNIFEM to better protect women in conflict situations.
For example, in Afghanistan, 87 percent of women suffer from domestic abuse making the country one of the most dangerous places to be a woman. The report also finds that with little access to education or information in the rural areas, women may also be under pressure to give up their rights to land and property. According to the report the increase of female police officers has helped women report abuse and, therefore, UNIFEM has committed to further enhance women's participation in legal processes. The organization has, for example, started Afghanistan's first national paralegal programme.
Read the report online:
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