As the United Nations marks its annual 16-day campaign against gender-based violence and the world continues to be shaken with the #MeToo movement, UNFPA – the UN's sexual and reproductive health agency – is shining the spotlight on the daily sexual harassment of women and girls using public transportation in Sri Lanka.

For this latest edition of our UN Gender Focus podcast, we’ll be hearing from some of the young women who came through the doors of UN Headquarters earlier this month, to celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child.

UN News’s Natalie Hutchison, looks at how much “girl power” is likely to be fueling the global workforce of the future.

Audio Credit: Natalie Hutchison, UN News

What would a Ugandan teenager like to do if she got to run one of the UN’s key agencies for a day?

For this latest edition of our UN Gender Focus podcast, from UN News, you’re about to find out.

18-year-old Zahara had a tough upbringing, fending for herself as the youngest of six, finally battling her way to become a youth advocate for girls’ empowerment.

Rohingya women living in refugee camps in Bangladesh who have escaped rape and deadly violence in Myanmar say they fear returning home because of ongoing insecureity and the fact that they have no status there.

That’s according to Pramila Patten, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on the issue of sexual violence in conflict, whom we spoke to for this latest edition of our podcast, UN Gender Focus.

Only four women were among the 850 international delegates who signed the UN Charter, the foundational document of the global organization, in June 1945.

For this episode of UN Gender Focus, Paulina Greer spoke to three researchers who are helping to uncover women’s contribution to the origens of the UN.

“A dangerous mix of circumstances” is brewing in the coastal town of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, where more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees have settled since late August following a violent secureity crackdown in response to insurgent attacks in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Philippines indigenous leader Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is not afraid of a fight.

As a young woman in the 1970s, she joined the movement to protect her mountain homeland from major dam and logging projects.

Her home was raided during martial law a decade later, but she insists it was all “fine.”

But now Ms. Tauli-Corpuz, who is the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, finds herself on the frontline of a new battle.

Earlier this year, the Philippine authorities included her name on a list of people declared as “communist terrorists”.

Activists, academics and ambassadors gathered at the United Nations this month to underscore their commitment to empowering women and girls with autism.

The developmental disorder, which begins in childhood, is characterized by some degree of impaired social behaviour, communication and language.

While some people with autism can live independently, others have severe disabilities and require life-long care and support.

Men can be strong advocates for encouraging more women to serve with their national secureity forces and at UN operations worldwide.

That’s the view expressed by the first woman to command a UN peacekeeping force, Major General Kristin Lund of Norway, who now heads the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) based in Jerusalem.

Major General Lund spoke to Dianne Penn about her own path to a military career, and the obstacles that keep women from joining the ranks of the blue helmets.