UN Reform: What's in it for Women? A Summary of the Panel Discussions held at the 50TH UN Commission on the Status of Women Session

This document provides a summary of the panel discussion 'UN Reform: What's in it for Women?', a parallel event at the 50th UN Commission on the Status of Women session. A panel of activists working to promote women's rights both within and outside of the United Nations (UN) express their opinion on how the various UN reform efforts will impact women specifically and why women's and feminist groups should get involved. The panellists highlighted the main issues that women's rights activists should look out for when lobbying for UN reform. Those included the creation of the new Human Rights Council and of the new Peace Building Commission and the impact that their new strategies, structures and funding availability may have on the ground; the need to monitor the work of the Level Coherence Panel on Environment, Development and Humanitarian Assistance to ensure that women's rights and women's empowerment are on the agenda, possibly through the establishment of a separate Women's Commission on UN Reform; the need for the promotion of more women to senior UN management positions; the need to reform the UN gender mainstreaming mandate; the disconnect between global policies and advocates at the national level and the lack of information on the UN reform process available to women's rights advocates at the ground level.