UN Dispatch is pleased to announce that Feministing’s Vanessa Valenti will join the Dispatch team and offer posts on global women’s issues. Welcome aboard Vanessa!
As Saturday marks International Women’s Day, there are numerous efforts happening to increase awareness around the status of women across the globe. One of these is the “Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls” a new publication released today by the UN Refugee Agency that is designed to promote gender equality using a rights — and community — based approach.
Replacing the UNHCR’s 1991 “Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women”, this document acknowledges and condemns “a massive culture of neglect and denial about violence against women and girls,” develops strategies to address the challenges that women and girls face as well as sets out international legal standards in the area.
Perhaps most importantly, the handbook not only lays out strategies to ensure the protection of women and girls, but also pushes for gender equality “through targeted actions to empower women and girls in the civil, political and economic sectors.”
Click here for the handbook in full.
–By Vanessa Valenti