IOM has been moving towards a comprehensive approach to address gender issues, both among the staff and in its programmes and activities. Thus in February 1995 it formed a Working Group on Gender Issues, drawing on staff from Headquarters and field missions, to examine a range of gender-related concerns. The Group’s aim was to bring existing efforts into the mainstream, so that gender issues became an integral part of IOM’s planning and action.

The Working Group was successful in developing policy statements to serve as guiding principles for the Organization in the two areas of programmes and activities and of staff. The statements were endorsed by Resolution No. 932 (LXXI) of the IOM Council in November 1995. They formalize and codify IOM’s longstanding commitment to migrant women, and at the same time affirm its commitment to making equal opportunity and treatment for all IOM staff a reality.