Dag Hammarskjöld Library at Uppsala University
UNIFEM - United Nations Development Fund for Women
- © United Nations
United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM was established in 1976. It worked in close association with the UNDP to support women's empowerment and gender equality through its programme offices. It also linked with women's organizations, placing the advancement of women's human rights at the centre.
UNIFEM focused on three strategic areas:
- strengthening women's economic security and rights;
- engendering governance and leadership;
- promoting women's rights and the elimination of violence against women.
N.B.! From 2011 UNIFEM has been incorporated into the newly established UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women - UN Women.
Documentation
The UNIFEM official web site provided background information, news, full text documents and reports.
Progress of the World's Women is a critical survey of the accomplishments for gender equality since the resulting document of the Fourth UN Conference on Women, 1995: The Beijing Platform for Action.
Key documents from the implementation of the Fourth World Conference on Women 1995.
UNIFEM has raised the question of women in armed conflict and their contribution to peace processes, and has played an active role in initiating a resolution in the Security Council resulting in: Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), a resolution that includes a gender perspective in armed conflicts and peacekeeping operations.
UNIFEM has also initiated further assessment on this issue resulting in the report:
Women, War and Peace: The Independent Experts’ Assessment on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women’s Role in Peace-building. It is also available online through the UNIFEM official web site.
The UNIFEM Annual Report is posted at the UNIFEM official web site from 2001-2010.
Other reports relevant to UNIFEM are posted at the UNIFEM official web site, section Resources.
A summary of the work of the United Nations Development Fund for Women for a given year with references to essential documents can be accessed through the Yearbook of the United Nations, Part Three, Economic and Social Questions, Women. A complete collection of yearbooks is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva. Since October 2008 the complete full text collection of The United Nations Yearbooks is available online at http://unyearbook.un.org/.
Databases and Indexes
UNIFEM has created a database covering information on the situation of women in armed conflict worldwide: WomenWarPeace. A Portal on Women, Peace & Security.
References to UNHCR documents and reports from 1979 onwards wiht links to full texts for recent years can be accessed through the United Nations online catalogue - UNBISnet.