The Launch of UN Women
On February 24, 2011, the YWCA participated in the launch of UN Women. Hundreds of women and men participated in this historic moment by joining together to honour the past and to celebrate and envision the future for women and girls.
The launch of UN Women is the culmination of decades of women’s advocacy that brought together the four UN organisations into a single gender agency. The YWCA was at the birth of the United Nations. The YWCA was there when the Commission for the Status of Women was established. The YWCA has been at each of the four international women’s conference. And once again, the YWCA was present at the launch of UN Women.
It was the first time since the beginning of this session of the Commission that the YWCA delegation entered the main hall of the General Assembly. For the event, NGO representatives were given the prime seats and the YWCA was four rows from the front for this important event.
Ban Ki-Moon, who was introduced as the ‘man behind UN Women,’ reiterated his commitment, time and money to support the work of the agency. Michelle Bachelet spoke of the work that had gone into creating the Agency, what still needs to be done in the future. Princess Christina of Spain, Ted Turner who founded the UN Foundation, Geena Davis and Rakhi Shai, former commander of the whole female formed police unit at the UN Mission in Liberia, all shared their personal experiences, as well as the reasons why they believed such an agency was needed. They also shared their hopes and dreams for UN Women.
The event was concluded with the performance of ‘One Woman,’ a song which was especially composed for UN Women. The final chorus of the song goes like this:
“One woman at a time
We are One Woman
Your victories lift us all
We are One Woman
You rise and I stand tall
We are One Woman
Our dreams are mine
We shall shine
Shine, shine, shine.”
