Every year in March, representatives of Member States, UN entities, and civil society organizations from all regions gather at the United Nations Headquarters in New York for the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promot

Organized by the United Nations (UN) Department of Political Affairs and hosted by the Permanent Mission of the Netherlands to the UN, a side event on the role of women in the Security Council took place on March 16, 2016, on the sidelines of the 60th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights has just published a new report on the serious situation affecting human rights in South Sudan. The report describes a multitude of horrendous human rights violations, including a Government-operated “scorched earth policy,” and deliberate targeting of civilians for killing, rape and pillage.

Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001, has published an Op-Ed on CNN on the occasion of the International Women’s Day 2016. Ms. Albright is chairwoman of the Albright Stonebridge Group, and of the National Democratic Institute.

On September 2015, the UN Sustainable Development Summit approved 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. SDG5 aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030. In particular, Target 5.5. aims to “Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life”.