UNW
UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.
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UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality, and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls worldwide. It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls and stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on four strategic priorities:
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Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems
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Women have income security, decent work and economic autonomy
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All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence
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Women and girls contribute to and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience, and benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action
UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in advancing gender equality, and in all deliberations and agreements linked to the 2030 Agenda. The entity works to position gender equality as fundamental to the Sustainable Development Goals, and a more inclusive world.
Topic A:
Evaluating mixed gender sports as a solution to tackle the discrimination of female athletes in the sports industry
It’s no surprise to anyone that sports is a male-dominated industry. Although women participation is slowly increasing overtime, issues such as unequal pay, lack of brand endorsement, and media coverage for women’s sports is still prevalent worldwide. This is all due to the stigma that women are inferior to men, hence believing that the performance of male athletes are unmatched to female's. Despite that, women have proven multiple times throughout history that they are just as capable of achieving the same accomplishments as men, further narrowing the differences in the genders. Furthermore, the inclusion of transgender athletes in sports shows that gender assigned at birth does not play a significant factor in athletic performance. Thus, delegates would need to discuss whether gender-segregated sports is still relevant in this day and age, and also explore the implications of enforcing a gender neutral sports industry to tackle discrimination of female athletes. Would mixing the genders in sports help alleviate gender stereotypes and enforce fairness and equity? Or would it further emphasise the biological differences between men and women?
Topic B:
Discussing solutions to reduce domestic violence cases during the pandemic
While home is meant to be one’s safe haven, it has become a dangerous place for women during the COVID-19 pandemic. From countries as far as Brazil to countries as near as China, the spike in hotline calls to report domestic violence have increased nearly threefolds. Yet, still one can imagine how many thousands of cases went uninformed due to a plethora of socio-economic factors. Prioritizing the protection of the vulnerable groups from the pandemic has introduced a new group of vulnerable individuals at homes. Join this council to discuss how government efforts can be increased to address the rising cases of domestic violence during these perplexing times.