Advancing women’s health is fundamental to achieving universal health coverage, health equity and gender equality. Health underpins women’s quality of life and enables the realization of other human rights, supporting women’s full participation in social, economic and political life.
Moreover, many women, including transgender, gender diverse and intersex women, face compounded forms of discrimination—due to factors such as their age, race, ethnicity, disability, or socio-economic status—in addition to gender-based discrimination.
Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from society to society and can change over time. Gender is hierarchical and produces inequalities that intersect with other ...
Our work Promoting women’s human rights and achieving gender equality are core commitments of the UN Human Rights Office. We promote women and girls’ equal enjoyment of all human rights, including freedom from violence, sexual and reproductive rights, access to justice, socio-economic equality, and participation in decision-making.
We envision a world in which systems of oppression and harm are dismantled, and women and girls regardless of race, ethnic origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic ...
“Her Rights, Our Future, Right Now” is the theme chosen by UN Human Rights to celebrate International Women’s Day 2025. Progress on women’s rights and gender equality, driven by powerful feminist movements and women’s rights activists across the globe, have profoundly transformed our societies, making them fairer, more resilient and peaceful. Gender equality lies at the core of all ...
A UN Human Rights report highlights widespread gender-based violence, poor health provisions, and discriminatory legal systems disproportionately affecting women and girls in criminal justice detention worldwide.
Violence against women remains one of the world’s most persistent and under-addressed human rights crises, with very little progress in two decades, according to a landmark report released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN partners.
GENEVA – A group of independent human rights experts* today strongly condemned the widespread and systematic violations committed against women and girls in Sudan, including conflict-related sexual violence, abductions, and killings, many of which have been attributed to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).“We are deeply troubled by the harrowing reports of sexual violence, abductions, and ...
This publication provides an introduction to women’s human rights, beginning with the main provisions in international human rights law and going on to explain particularly relevant concepts for fully understanding women’s human rights. Finally, selected areas of women’s human rights are examined together with information on the main work of United Nations human rights mechanisms and ...