The united nations at work around me

The main objective of the United Nations has always been to prevent, restore and protect people from any adverse factors that derail human development and social progress. These could include wars, deprivation of human rights, gender inequality issues, hunger and so on. Most importantly, their contribution towards the world can be reflected in the involvement in the peacekeeping mission in Cote d’Ivoire where they managed to stabilize the political tension that was currently affecting the people. Besides, their peacekeeping activities, the United Nations have contributed significantly in the current nuclear conflict between the United States and North Korean. Therefore, their involvement around us is undeniable and widespread. Herein, women are subjected to unequal access to the resources and are marginalized when it comes to taking part in social, political and economic activities.

Interestingly, the unequal power relation expressed between women and men, which has caused a rift in the placement of recourses and opportunities. Various factors within the society have heightened the disparity that existed among women, which has fueled the rate of violence and oppression among this cohort (Collantes, et al. Issues such as ethnicity, religion, age, level of income, disabilities, sexual orientation and immigration have factored in as the primary influence of violence among women and girls. These conditions have made women so vulnerable to society especially those under threat through poverty, lack education and good health. These two programs are subjected in addressing the issues women face by highlighting the challenges such as domestic violence, women inequality, and disparity in the society. The programs have given women a great opportunity in understanding their role and position in the society.

They have empowered women to have a voice in their not only workplace and families but also take active involvement in the political arena. The UNIFEM has provided different empower and gender equality programs that are directed at boosting the welfare of women. These two program or United Nations organ keen interested are centered in giving women a sustainable future by helping systems around them function in their favor such as the health sector, education and other social system. According to Bakas, Costa, Breda, and Durão, (2018) claim that 50 percent of women are entangled in a society that is The second price of using stereotypes in social perceptions is that stereotype content is dispositional. As such, this means that people assume that they can judge a person’s hidden attributes based on the stereotypical group to which they belong.

However, it is impossible to judge one’s personality or abilities just from the group to which they belong. A person’s behavior is the result of inner dispositional as well as external situational factors (Owens, Smothers, & Love, 2003). The fact that stereotypes depend more on dispositional information than outside situational factors makes them inaccurate. It is not until the end of the 19th century that women started receiving equal opportunities as men such as education and voting. Before that, women could only be housewives, and their most significant responsibility was to bear children and take of the family. They were treated as property, could not work or go to schools and also could not make political decisions such as voting. Gender inequality occurred across the world with women being barred from working, voting, writing and education for a long time.

For instance, England did not consider girl education important until 1767 that they began allocating tax for girl education. This society is men dominate a patriarch society and decision making, political and socio-economic activities. Another assumption of this theory is that, as society develops gender inequality hence explains why gender inequality is high in developing countries and low in developed countries such as the United States. It also asserts that society that is modern should promote gender equality and break traditional cultures that hinder gender equality. How the United Nation has worked toward addressing the issue of gender-based violence among women The United Nations through the partnership of the European Union launched the Spotlight Initiative, which was directed towards solving the current state of women violence in the world. The initiative has worked tremendously towards achieving gender equality through empowering women and addressing the challenges that they face in the society.

In Malawi, the Spotlight Initiative program engages with the local traditional leaders, community theatres and educators to help address discriminatory social norms that affect the women in the society. Whereas, in Mexico, the Spotlight Initiative, provides a school-based campaign that is geared towards addressing issues like gender stereotypes and negative views on male patriarchy and masculinity that affect the position of women (Davis & Tuttle, 2017). The program also engages men and boys towards understanding and appreciating the value of women. It strengthens the engagement of men and boys towards defending women’s right and promoting advocacy policies that are directed at improving the position of women in society. The program has taken an active involvement in women, and girls’ life includes those with disabilities through applying common principles of human rights and the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goal towards equality and empowerment of women and girls in the society.

Only 51 members when it was established in 1945, however, it has expanded to 195 members where almost all the states in the world are UN members except Kosovo, Vatican City, and Palestine (Press Releases. The main role of the UN is maintaining peace and security for all its members through peacekeeping agents or forces supplied by member states. The UN also advocates and protects human rights in all its member states. In addition UN development Program helps in social and economic development of the member states. It also promotes peaceful relations between nations and also helps them achieve their goals. Additionally, it has contributed immensely to the war against terrorism and has helped fight terrorist groups such as Al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda The UN Social and Economic council help in sustaining the social and economic development of members’ state especially those in developing countries through various programs.

Its mission to promote economic development is guided by the millennium goals where it aims at alleviating poverty and improving living standards. Most developed countries struggle to eliminate poverty and to develop economically due to lack of funds. However, UN has offered financial assistance from contribution donated by some develop countries. Through the UN development program (UNDP), the organization support over 4,000 projects in 170 countries that help in reducing poverty, promoting good governance and environmental preservation (Shabib & Khan, 2014). For instance, in the 1990s, UN-organized elections in Cambodia, South Africa, and Timor –Leste. Recently it also helped Burundi, Nepal, Afghanistan, and South Sudan during their election as part of its role to promote democracies. It also helps in rebuilding failed states or states at war to rebuild as seen in Iraq where UN is rebuilding schools and infrastructure.

Despite its effort to prevent war and civil unrest in its member states, conflict still occurs in some member states leading to many refugees around the world. Since 1952, the UN high commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR ) has helped over 60 million shelters across the globe (Adina, 2014). Another milestone by the UN is providing and improving access to women from marginalized communities in the region. The government has often neglected women from marginalized community whereby their access to healthcare, socio-economic opportunities, and education is often limited. However, UN has provided these women with a socio-economic opportunity that empowers them socially and politically through its programs. For instance, it gives grant and loans to these women to practice agricultural activities and other economic activities. The government rarely initiates such program. The community is now informed on gender-based violence and is cooperating to break cultural practices that enhance violence against women.

Some of the influential men of the community are changing their attitudes towards gender violence against women. They are ready to take actions and facility policies and plans that will reduce or end violence against women and girls in their community. Additionally, it has successfully eradicated cultural harmful cultural practices that promote gender-based violence. For instance, it has helped in reduce early child marriages, wife inheritance and Female Gentle mutilation (FGM). Considerably, women violence such as practices like female gentile mutilation FGM has tremendously reduced across African communities that subject their women to such sexual violation. This has been successful through the empowerment and educational program that the communities responsible for the act have been subjected to over the recent years through UN (Caudwell, 2018). The effort to address the violence based conflicts that the United Nations has addressed women faces in our community promptly.

According to the study by Caudwell (2018) observed that the main agenda of the United Nations through the Sustainable Development Goal SDG is directed at ensuring gender equality through empowering women to receive equal rights and opportunities in the society. This so far has been achieved 75 percent in developing nations and 85 percent in developed Nations where more women are gaining the power to scale high in social political and educational forums (Caudwell, 2018). Women and girls have limited freedom and opportunities hence increasing their risk of violence. It requires total will from the community, local and the national government to fight these inequalities. However, there is a lack of will from some members of the community, and both the local and national government fail to give full support to eliminate the inequalities. Poverty and lack of economic independence among women and girls have been challenging in fighting violence against them.

Women and girls often depend economically in the marginalized community hence increased the risk of violence. Lack of legal framework and government policies that secure the interest of women and protecting them from gender-based violence has been one of the main challenges towards addressing the issue of violence among women by the United Nations. As an international organization, the United Nation is guided by an international code of ethics and international relations, which determine their extent to which they involve in addressing issues within a nation. Therefore, some states lack a proper legal framework that can aid the United Nations towards addressing the problems of women such as domestic violence, FGM and so on. Moreover, countries lack a system that helps advocate or address the violence that women experience terming them as non-conceptual issues, which are addressed at the domestic level.

Such ideologies have limited the involvement of the government towards addressing the issue of violence towards women (Smith, 2015). A qualitative study conducted by Smith (2015) on twenty-three South Asia group women living in rural areas showed that they were strictly brought up in a community that observed stringent rules toward women socialization and obedience. This trend ensured the women remained submissive to their males and could not defile them or contradict any authority that affected the position of the male towards them. Such traditions and cultural norms have complicated the process of women empowered and liberation against gender-based violence. The United States has faced challenges when dealing with women violence in such communities due to the mentality that the community and women themselves have towards their culture and traditional norms. Besides, a study by Smith (2015) confirmed that in the slums of Mumbai in India, wife beating was a common practice and was justified by their traditions and cultural values.

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