gender-based violence

In October 2015, the Security Council held a debate on women, peace and security to review the status of Resolution 1325, which was adopted on Oct. 31, 2000, to recognize the effects of war on women and built on the 1995 Beijing conference for gender equality. The essay’s experts map how the visions of the Beijing conference have been integrated into US foreign policy but the fact is, gender equality remains elusive globally. AMANDA VOISARD/UN PHOTO

Vice President Epsy Campbell Barr of Costa Rica. She was among the numerous women vice presidents from Latin America who spoke at the UN’s Beijing+25 commemoration on Oct. 1.

Secretary-General António Guterres and Dr. Denis Mukwege, founder and head of Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Feb. 1, 2019. The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo has been providing security to Dr. Mukwege, as he has been receiving death threats for years, but the UN also waffled recently on ensuring such protection. EVAN SCHNEIDER/UN PHOTO

Tlaleng Mofokeng, the just-appointed UN special rapporteur for physical and mental health. Dr T, as she’s known, is a reproductive health expert as well as an advocate for legalizing prostitution, a stance that has alarmed global opponents of decriminalization. 

A performance at a photo show in El Fasher, Sudan, 2018. The new transitional government of Sudan criminalized female genital mutilation this spring, but the practice has not ended. MOHAMAD ALMAHADY/UNAMID

Kelley Currie, US ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues, has had the job since January. The Trump administration tried to eliminate the post at one point but the Senate made it permanent. Currie worked previously at the US mission to the UN, above, for Nikki Haley. ERIC BRIDIERS

Latin American women have always suffered from an epidemic of violence, but Covid-19 has brought hope that new protections could help stem that tide. Women performing “A Rapist in Your Path,” in Mexico City, a feminist anthem that originated in Chile. CREATIVE COMMONS

Reports of domestic violence are rising as Covid-19 races across the planet and people are ordered to stay home. But as UN Secretary-General Guterres said on April 5: “For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest. In their homes.” Like many countries, Spain, above, is in lockdown mode. JOHN PENNEY

UN Women’s executive director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ncguka, speaking at the Commission on the Status of Women’s annual meeting in March 2020, at UN headquarters. The conference had been cut to a single day from 11, as the Covid-19 virus began racing from China to the rest of the world. Now, the Generation Equality Forum is postponed until 2021. RYAN BROWN/UN WOMEN
UN Women is postponing two long-planned international meetings designed to give civil society groups a leading role in advancing gender rights 25 years after a landmark 1995 Beijing conference on women.

Certain factors contributing to gender imbalances in some populations have resulted in “missing girls,” like in Vietnam, above, and “disappearing men,” like in Russia. The Covid-19 pandemic will have enduring effects on the imbalances as well.
Normally, the numbers of males and females in a human population are about the same across all such populations. However, pregnancy interventions by couples and unhealthy lifestyles among young men have produced gender imbalances, giving rise to “missing girls” in some populations and “disappearing men” in others.