The New Yorkness of the UN

UN Women Partnership

In 2014, the City of New York entered into an historic Memorandum of Understanding with UN Women, the United Nations agency that is dedicated to the promotion of gender equality, and girl's and women's empowerment. As a result, New York City became the first US City to join UN Women's Safe Cities Global Initiative, committing to: increasing the safety of women and girls in public spaces; providing public education activities sponsored by the initiative; sharing best practices with UN Women and promoting the initiative to other U.S. cities.

A core element of facilitating this historic pact is the successful relationship that the New York City Mayor's Office for International Affairs has developed with UN Women. To that end, the Office has supported multiple UN initiatives, including the "Orange Your Neighborhood" and "Orange the World" campaigns–which involved lighting City landmarks orange to symbolize hope for a violence-free future—and celebrating 20th Anniversary of the Fourth Annual  Conference on Women, held in Beijing, in March of 2015.