Star power at the U.N.

Opinion: September 21, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Los Angeles Times: A single mother of three, survivor of prison torture and exile. A pediatrician, linguist and practiced buster of gender barriers as the first female president of Chile. This is the resume that makes Michelle Bachelet an excellent choice to lead the newly created U.N. agency to promote gender equality around the globe, to be called U.N. Women.

With her appointment this week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has brought some badly needed star power to the world organization in general and to women’s issues in particular. Now he must ensure that Bachelet has the money, staff and political support to do the job successfully.

Fifteen years ago, U.N. member states signed a declaration in Beijing dedicating themselves to ending discrimination against women and closing a gender gap in a dozen areas, including education, health, employment, political participation and human rights. Although some progress has been made, it isn’t nearly enough. Women still suffer higher rates of poverty and illiteracy than men and have less access to full-time and high-paying jobs. They face forced marriages, genital mutilation, sexual enslavement and rape as a weapon of war, which the U.N. Security Council has recognized as a crime against humanity.

Atrocities in Congo

Take the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited eastern Congo to focus attention on the widespread use of rape in that country’s conflicts and to call for an end to “the sexual and gender-based violence committed by so many.”

This year, Ban appointed Margot Wallstrom of Sweden as the U.N.’s first special representative on sexual violence in conflict. Yet rape remains a weapon of choice in Congo.

Bachelet won’t be able to solve all of the world’s unfinished gender business, of course, but she is a leader with a strong record in fighting for women’s rights.

She’ll need to be a good bureaucratic combatant as well. Her agency will encompass four others that work on women’s issues, absorbing their staffs and combined budget of about $220 million, with field operations dependent on voluntary contributions from member states.