220 East 42^nd Street, 18th floor

New York, NY 10017

Women’s human rights are a key component of Switzerland’s foreign human rights policy. Switzerland has long advocated the strengthening of women’s rights both at the national and international levels. The UN Commission on the Status of Women, to which Switzerland has been elected a voting member for the 2013-2017 term, is a case in point.

As an additional measure to strengthen women’s human rights in the multilateral context, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) has developed an app – which it presented earlier today in Geneva – containing a database with a large number of key texts on this topic. The app’s search function allows users to quickly find the texts of international conventions, UN resolutions, declarations and other documents relating to various women’s human rights and gender issues: from early marriage, to sexual violence to the economic empowerment of women. The database not only includes documents negotiated and adopted in recent decades within the UN system but also regional instruments. In future, the database will be regularly updated with newly adopted UN documents.

A key feature of the app is an alphabetic list of more than 100 (predefined) (search) terms. This feature allows users to quickly and easily find the legal basis and most current version of the agreed language of the documents negotiated by the international community in its debates. Besides its archival function, this feature also makes it easier to prepare negotiations on UN resolutions and documents, to draft and propose new resolutions and to draft statements, presentations and speeches on women’s human rights and gender issues.

“The new app not only strengthens Switzerland’s ability to make its case during international negotiations and makes our foreign policy work in the UN more efficient and coherent, but it also stands to benefit member states in international organisations, diplomats engaged in multilateral negotiations and NGOs active in the field of women’s human rights as they go about their daily work,” said Benno Bättig, general secretary of the FDFA, during the official launch of the app in Geneva. The FDFA developed the app together with the gender policy unit of the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Human Rights (SCHR). The app works with smart phones and tablet computers.

  Link to the new app „Women’s Human Rights“: Apple

  Link to the new app „Women’s Human Rights“: Android

  Link to the new app „Women’s Human Rights“: Blackberry

  Brochure “Women, Peace and Security” (FDFA)

  Agenda Post 2015: seeking new development and sustainability goals

  Agenda Post 2015: Gender Equality

  Federal Office for Gender Equality FOGE

Information FDFA
Bundeshaus West
CH-3003 Bern
Tel.: (+41) 031 322 31 53
Fax: (+41) 031 324 90 47
E-Mail: info@eda.admin.ch