The King Hamad Youth Empowerment Award recognizes young people’s efforts to become effective, productive citizens, who contribute to the welfare of their communities and environment and help advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Secretary-General António Guterres released his annual update on the Organization’s efforts to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) on Tuesday, dovetailing with his system-wide strategy – launched in 2017 - to stamp out incidents by placing victims at the heart of efforts, throughout the system.
In the Arab region, the rate of female labour force participation is 18% compared to the global average of 48% . Women are often reporting that they are facing discrimination in training and jobs, patriarchal norms and stereotypes, workplace harassment, low wages, and limited labor rights.
It is 5 a.m. and Ceferina, a 30-year-old migrant day labourer, or jornalera, begins her day in southern Jalisco, Mexico. She and her family live in a shelter and work in vegetable and sugar cane fields. They live and work alongside other jornaleras families from different parts of the country, mainly from the south of Mexico.
As a 42-year-old man, who has worked for almost three decades in local construction, Jonathan acknowledges that it wasn't strange that women that walk passed a construction job site were victims of all kinds of personal attacks - insults, hisses, catcalling – and other forms of harassment.
Anong is 20 years old. She suffered serious health issues and anxiety due to the COVID-19 crisis. “I was living with a man, and things were not easy. He was forcing me to have intimate relations,” she says. “After the lockdown, he was seeing someone else while being with me. I was silent and accepted my situation. I was not protected and contracted a sexually transmitted infection.”
In response, UN teams around the world have marshalled forces not only to stop the spread of the disease, but to deal with its many secondary effects—from massive job losses to increases in gender-based violence. Here are five ways the UN is combating the pandemic.
