2012 Resolution on women in development

66th UNGA
27 March 2012

Res­o­lu­tion A/RES/66/216

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Analysis of precedential value

The UN Gen­eral Assem­bly (UNGA) adopted this res­o­lu­tion with­out a gen­eral vote in Decem­ber 2011 and dis­trib­uted it in late March 2012. The Gen­eral Assem­bly is the pre­em­i­nent gov­ern­ing body of the UN sys­tem and con­sists of all 193 UN Mem­ber States.

This res­o­lu­tion was pre­sented to the UNGA by Mr. Philippe Don­ckel (Lux­em­bourg), Vice-Chair of UNGA’s Eco­nomic and Finan­cial Com­mit­tee. His text was adapted from a prior draft sub­mit­ted by Argentina “on behalf of the States Mem­bers of the United Nations that are mem­bers of the Group of 77 and China.”

Used as precedent

gender norms and stereotypes, key population and community leadership

• “Urges Mem­ber States, the United Nations sys­tem and non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions to accel­er­ate their efforts and pro­vide ade­quate resources to increase the voice and full and equal par­tic­i­pa­tion of women in all deci­sion-mak­ing bod­ies at the high­est lev­els of gov­ern­ment and in the gov­er­nance struc­tures of inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing through elim­i­nat­ing gen­der stereo­typ­ing in appoint­ments and pro­mo­tions, to build women’s capac­ity as agents of change and to empower them to par­tic­i­pate actively and effec­tively in the design, imple­men­ta­tion, mon­i­tor­ing, eval­u­a­tion and report­ing of national devel­op­ment, poverty erad­i­ca­tion and envi­ron­men­tal poli­cies, strate­gies and pro­grammes.” (para­graph 5)

key population and community leadership

• “Encour­ages Mem­ber States to con­tinue to increase, as appro­pri­ate, the par­tic­i­pa­tion of civil soci­ety, includ­ing women’s orga­ni­za­tions, in Gov­ern­ment deci­sion-mak­ing in national devel­op­ment pol­icy areas.” (para­graph 6)

• “Encour­ages Mem­ber States and the United Nations sys­tem to ensure sys­tem­atic atten­tion to, recog­ni­tion of and sup­port for the cru­cial role of women in the pre­ven­tion and res­o­lu­tion of con­flict, in medi­a­tion and peace­build­ing efforts and in the rebuild­ing of post-con­flict soci­ety, inter alia, through pro­mot­ing women’s capac­ity, lead­er­ship and engage­ment in polit­i­cal and eco­nomic deci­sion-mak­ing.” (para­graph 7)

gender equality

• “Urges the donor com­mu­nity, Mem­ber States, inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the United Nations, the pri­vate sec­tor, non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, trade unions and other stake­hold­ers to strengthen the focus and impact of devel­op­ment assis­tance tar­get­ing gen­der equal­ity and the empow­er­ment of women and girls through gen­der main­stream­ing, the fund­ing of tar­geted activ­i­ties and enhanced dia­logue between donors and part­ners, and to also strengthen the mech­a­nisms needed to mea­sure effec­tively the resources allo­cated to incor­po­rat­ing gen­der per­spec­tives in all areas of devel­op­ment assis­tance.” (para­graph 10)

• “Urges Mem­ber States to incor­po­rate a gen­der per­spec­tive, com­men­su­rate with gen­der-equal­ity goals, into the design, imple­men­ta­tion, mon­i­tor­ing, eval­u­a­tion and report­ing of national devel­op­ment strate­gies, to ensure align­ment between national action plans on gen­der equal­ity and national devel­op­ment strate­gies, and to encour­age the involve­ment of men and boys in the pro­mo­tion of gen­der equal­ity, and in this regard calls upon the United Nations sys­tem to sup­port national efforts to develop method­olo­gies and tools and to pro­mote capac­ity-build­ing and eval­u­a­tion.” (para­graph 11)

• “Encour­ages Mem­ber States, the United Nations sys­tem and donor coun­tries to strengthen gen­der-respon­sive plan­ning and bud­get­ing processes and to develop and strengthen method­olo­gies and tools for this pur­pose as well as for the mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion of invest­ments for gen­der-equal­ity results, as appro­pri­ate, and encour­ages donors to main­stream a gen­der per­spec­tive in their prac­tices, includ­ing joint coor­di­na­tion and account­abil­ity mech­a­nisms.” (para­graph 14)

• “Encour­ages Gov­ern­ments, the pri­vate sec­tor, non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions and other actors of civil soci­ety to pro­mote and pro­tect the rights of women work­ers, to take action to remove struc­tural and legal bar­ri­ers to, as well as elim­i­nate stereo­typic atti­tudes towards, gen­der equal­ity at work, and to ini­ti­ate pos­i­tive steps towards pro­mot­ing equal pay for equal work or for work of equal value.” (para­graph 17)

• “Urges Gov­ern­ments to take mea­sures to facil­i­tate equi­table access to land and prop­erty rights by pro­vid­ing train­ing designed to make the judi­cial, leg­isla­tive and admin­is­tra­tive sys­tem more respon­sive to gen­der-equal­ity issues, to pro­vide egal aid for women seek­ing to claim their rights, to sup­port the efforts of women’s groups and net­works and to carry out aware­ness cam­paigns so as to draw atten­tion to the need for women’s equal rights to land and prop­erty.” (para­graph 28)

gender equality, key population and community leadership

• “Encour­ages Mem­ber States to ensure inclu­sive and more effec­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion of national mech­a­nisms for gen­der equal­ity and women’s empow­er­ment in the for­mu­la­tion of national devel­op­ment strate­gies, includ­ing strate­gies aimed at erad­i­cat­ing poverty and reduc­ing inequal­i­ties, and calls upon the United Nations sys­tem to sup­port national efforts in this regard.” (para­graph 12)

positive legal determinants, stigma and discrimination

• “Encour­ages Mem­ber States to adopt and imple­ment leg­is­la­tion and poli­cies designed to pro­mote the rec­on­cil­i­a­tion of work and fam­ily respon­si­bil­i­ties, includ­ing through increased flex­i­bil­ity in work­ing arrange­ments, such as part-time work, and the facil­i­ta­tion of breast­feed­ing for work­ing moth­ers, to pro­vide care facil­i­ties for chil­dren and other depen­dants, and to ensure that both women and men have access to mater­nity or pater­nity, parental and other forms of leave and are not dis­crim­i­nated against when avail­ing them­selves of such ben­e­fits.” (para­graph 15)

gender equality, positive legal determinants

• “Encour­ages Mem­ber States to adopt and/or review and to fully imple­ment gen­der-sen­si­tive leg­is­la­tion and poli­cies that reduce, through specif­i­cally tar­geted mea­sures, hor­i­zon­tal and ver­ti­cal occu­pa­tional seg­re­ga­tion and gen­der-based wage gaps.” (para­graph 20)

stigma and discrimination

• “Urges all Mem­ber States to take all appro­pri­ate mea­sures to elim­i­nate dis­crim­i­na­tion against women with regard to their access to all types of finan­cial ser­vices and prod­ucts, includ­ing bank loans, bank accounts, mort­gages and other forms of finan­cial credit, regard­less of their eco­nomic and social sta­tus, to sup­port women’s access to legal assis­tance and to encour­age the finan­cial sec­tor to main­stream gen­der per­spec­tives in their poli­cies and pro­grammes.” (para­graph 23)

• “Urges all Gov­ern­ments to elim­i­nate dis­crim­i­na­tion against women in the field of edu­ca­tion and ensure their equal access to all lev­els of edu­ca­tion.” (para­graph 26)

key and vulnerable populations

• “Expresses con­cern at the over­all expan­sion of the HIV and AIDS epi­demic and the fact that women and girls are still the most affected by HIV and AIDS, that they are more eas­ily infected, that they bear a dis­pro­por­tion­ate share of the care­giv­ing bur­den and that they are more vul­ner­a­ble to vio­lence, stigma­ti­za­tion and dis­crim­i­na­tion, poverty and mar­gin­al­iza­tion from their fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties as a result of HIV and AIDS, and tak­ing into account that despite sub­stan­tial progress, the 2010 dead­line of uni­ver­sal access has not been met, calls upon Gov­ern­ments and the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity to urgently scale up responses towards achiev­ing the goal of uni­ver­sal access to com­pre­hen­sive HIV pre­ven­tion pro­grammes, treat­ment, care and sup­port and, in line with the 2011 Polit­i­cal Dec­la­ra­tion on HIV and AIDS: Inten­si­fy­ing Our Efforts to Elim­i­nate HIV and AIDS, to ensure that national responses to HIV and AIDS meet the spe­cific needs of women and girls, includ­ing those liv­ing with and affected by HIV and AIDS across their lifes­pan.” (para­graph 32)