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It has been called the most critical and overdue reform in United Nations history. The need to reform gender equality and the status of women at the United Nations has been a long struggle.  Since 1946, when the United Nations Charter was first created, the need for representation of women and women’s issues in the UN has been a controversial topic.  In 1975, the first UN International Women’s Year, the need to address gender equality, specifically women’s rights, was put at the forefront of the UN’s development initiative and earned a place at the table.  A new women’s super agency has the potential to enhance the credibility of the UN.  The establishment of a dedicated UN agency, that is managed and funded properly to promote women’s human rights and advance the worldwide struggle for gender equality, is critical to protect and strengthen the voice of over half the world’s population. In September 2009, the UN General Assembly agreed to set up a powerful new department consolidating the activities of several existing bodies dealing with women's issues.

Although the women’s fight for equality has been long and is still being discussed today, there have been many efforts throughout the UN’s history to address the issue.  When the United Nations Charter was first drawn up in 1945 there were just four women, out of the 160 present, to sign this founding document.  Historically, existing offices for women at the UN hold little power, are understaffed, have little funding, and none of these agencies are adequately supporting important work of women’s human rights defenders. One study compare's UNICEF's resources to the resources of all the current UN women’s organizations combined.  UNICEF has a budget of $3 billion and a staff of over 10,500; the combined women’s organizations have a budget of $220 million dollars and a total staff of 300.  The UN, from its inception, has never had an equal number of women in higher positions and therefore, many of its policies have had little to do with women’s rights.

The history of the status of women at the UN is complex but demonstrates that efforts have been made to progress gender equality and women’s rights.  This complex history has led to the current resolution that was passed in September 2009 to consolidate four existing agencies that deal specifically with women’s rights.  These agencies have had their own share of responsibilities and policy suggestions but with little authority and implementation power.  Due to the fragmented nature of these agencies and lack of authority, progress has been hindered in the development process of gender equality and women’s rights.  The current status of this potential super agency for women has moved at an extremely slow pace that lacks system-wide coherence, cooperation from all member states, and the delayed appointment of an under-secretary-general.

Today the UN system’s gender equality architecture involves monitoring, research, funding, and general attention on gender equality and women’s rights, which is negated by the fact that this architecture is fragmented and spread out under many different UN entities.  It has been advocated by civil society, since 2006, that a combination of certain departments into a women’s super agency would improve this funding, research, and monitoring, while strengthening the gender equality architecture in a consolidated and more organized form.  The current departments that are to be combined for the new super agency are UNIFEM, INSTRAW, the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), and the Office of the Special Advisor for Gender Issues (OSAGI).

The promotion of the advancement of women and addressing of their needs and rights is relegated to the aforementioned small handful of under-funded, under-staffed, barely known divisions.  These four small UN agencies that exclusively dedicate their time to women’s issues besides lacking the necessary status and funding, lack also country presence to enable the wider UN system and national authorities to fully implement their obligations; none of these agencies properly support important work of women human rights defenders.

A global network of over 300 women’s human rights and social justice groups representing millions of people, are currently campaigning for a new strong UN agency for women to effectively support the protection and promotion of women’s human rights. Currently, the UN’s response to women’s rights around the globe has been disjointed and fragmented; therefore, in need of a collective agency that is properly funded and organized with an authoritative figure that has decision-making authority at the top ranks of the UN system.  There is a need for a better representation of 52% of the world’s population, as well as the need to bring expertise to gender issues.  Maternal mortality, misogynistic societies, lack of education, gender mutilation that is predominant in third world countries, the “grossly disproportionate impact of the AIDS pandemic on women and girls,” and other important issues that plague women globally do not invoke the kind of concern within the UN system that is needed to help fight these atrocities. A “super” agency would not be the ultimate cure for the injustices women face “but it would ensure that in every issue involving women there would be a voice and a vehicle, especially at country level, to identify injustices and advance the struggle for women’s rights.”

Statistics have shown that every minute and a half in the world’s wealthiest nation, a woman is raped.  In 141 countries marital rape is still legal.   Five thousand women a year are victims of “honor killings,” and every minute five or more girls have their genitals mutilated. Around the globe, women die during childbirth at the same rate for the past two decades since the totals were first counted.  Women make up seventy percent of the world’s poor and own one percent of the world’s assets.  Women are underrepresented in politics, media, and especially at the UN where “all peoples” should be represented more equally but are not.

A new women’s agency has the potential to transform the UN system and enhance its credibility around the world. The progress of gender equality has been slow despite previous efforts.  Statistics have shown that violence against women and girls has increased, that underage girls are still married off with little to no choice, and that women are being infected with HIV at an alarming rate.  An agency that can combine research and training, with the power to implement policies, while advancing women’s rights around the globe is crucial within the UN system.

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