Gender equality and women's empowerment are human rights that lie at the heart of development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Despite the progress that has been made, six out of ten of world's poorest people are still women and girls, less than 16 percent of the world's parliamentarians are women, two thirds of all children shut outside the school gates are girls and, both in times of armed conflict and behind closed doors at home, women are still systematically subjected to violence.