UNCSW

In 1946 the Commission on the Status of Women was established to promote the advancement of women throughout the world. The Commission met for the first time at Lake Success, New York, in February 1947.
Initially, the Commission focused on legal measures to protect the human rights of women and awareness-raising on the status and situation of women around the world. Debates in the Commission brought unfamiliar issues into the international political arena. From the very beginning, the work of the Commission attracted the interest, participation and support of the growing international women's movement.
The Commission's 60-year history is marked by significant achievements. The Commission ensured that provisions for equality between women and men were included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - a milestone in the struggle for equality.
In 2011, the four parts of the UN system—DAW, INSTRAW, OSAGI and UNIFEM—merged to become UN Women, now the Secretariat of the Commission on the Status of Women.
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Evidence shows that violence against women is a pervasive problem within the military, just as it is among civilians. However, women in the military are particularly vulnerable to abuse due
to geographical isolation from family and friends, and the potential for social isolation within the
military culture.
Recently, a series of high-profile reports, articles and documentaries have raised public
awareness about the true nature of violence against women in the military.
The mechanisms for policing and punishing peacekeeper SEA have been inadequate, creating a culture of impunity. Rather than treating sexual exploitation and abuse as a crime committed by individual peacekeepers, as the UN has done, the international community must situate peacekeeper SEA within the gendered structures of power that help perpetuate conflict-related violence against women and girls. Peacekeeper SEA is rooted in unequal gender relations and poverty, exacerbated by the social and economic dislocations of war.With the rise of new peacekeeping economies, peacekeepers often fuel the growth of prostitution, harming the individual victims while reinforcing the inequality of women in post-conflict societies. To address peacekeeper SEA requires dismantling the structures of gender inequality and empowering women. It also requires transforming the institutional norms and practices that encourage and enforce masculinized violence by peacekeeping troops.