Bollywood actor Anupam Kher endorsed as United Nation Women Planet 5050 champion

Indian Bollywood actor Anupam Kher endorsed today as United Nation Women Planet 5050 champion ( Ambassador) for the Gender Equality Campaign ....

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, ‎the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of ‎Women ‎http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/about-un-women

In doing so,‎ UN Member States took an historic step in accelerating the ‎ Organisation's goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women.

The creation of UN Women brought together resources and mandates for greater impact.‎ Over the past decade, the UN has made significant progress in advancing gender equality. The major ones include landmark agreement such as the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for ‎Action ‎http://www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/pdfs/Beijing_Declaration_and_Platform_for_Action.pdf and the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women‎ (CEDAW) ‎ 

Gender Equality is not only a basic human right, but its achievement has enormous socio-economic ramifications. Empowering women and girls fuels thriving economies, spurring productivity and growth. Yet gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched in every society. Women lack access to decent work and face occupational segregation and gender ‎wage gaps. They are too often denied access to basic education and health care. Women in all parts of the world suffer violence and ‎discrimination. 

They are under-represented in political and economic ‎decision-making processes. For many years, the UN has faced serious challenges in its efforts to promote gender equality globally, including inadequate funding and no single recognized driver to direct ‎UN activities on gender equality issues.‎ 

 

UN Women was created to address such challenges. It will be a dynamic ‎ and strong champion for women and girls, providing them with a‎ powerful voice at the global, regional and local levels. Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the UN Charter, UN Women, among ‎other issues, firmly advocates for the:

  

1) Elimination of ‎discrimination against women and girls; 

2) Empowerment of women and girls; 

3) Achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian ‎ action and peace and security. 

These aforementioned issues constitute ‎the priority in the on-going undertakings between the UN Women and its partners within the UN system and outside, especially in light of the ‎2030 Agenda for Sustainable ‎Development .