http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/399/15080_woman.html
International Day of the Woman
03/09/2005 12:50
Women don't need a Day, they need action
How telling a comment it is on our society when we have an International
Day of the Woman every year which produces nothing more than hot air and yet
every year the same charade is repeated. A look at the facts should make us
hang our heads in shame.
Sixty long years ago, the equality of women was carved into the pages of
the UN Charter, yet the trafficking of women and girls continues, women are
disproportionately represented in the poorer sectors of society and those
infected with HIV/AIDS, women have less opportunities in education in some
countries and women's participation in government and decision-making processes
is lower than that of men on a worldwide scale.
The Beijing Conference in 1995 highlighted the areas in which women were
most vulnerable, calling for gender equality. Ten years on, what have we
achieved? Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the UN Development Fund for
Women, declared recently that "It is still a woman's face we see when we speak
of poverty, of HIV/AIDS, of violent conflict and social upheaval, of
trafficking in human beings". Rachel Mayanja, Special Advisor to Kofi Annan on
Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, adds that "gender inequality is
deeply entrenched in policies, legislation, attitudes, traditions and societal
institutions".
Yet Beijing came 20 years after the first women's conference in Mexico
City, the same country which today generates a special UN report on violence
against women. Murders, forced prostitution, sexual assaults, domestic violence
and gender-based discrimination are all mentioned in the report drawn up by
Yakin Erturk, the Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights on
violence against women. The report declares that "In the case of conviction,
sentences are lenient", adding that there are "allegations that testimonies are
sometimes obtained under torture".
Kofi Annan recently pointed out that of the 100 million children of
school age out of school, most are girls, who often have to forego an education
to become the main bread-winner to support the rest of the family. The boys go
to school, move to the city, get a future, while the girls are left behind
without any hope and without there being de facto any gender equality
whatsoever in the world we live in.
Is today going to mark a real change in attitudes which will in turn
produce results, or is it another of those days on which a lot of good words
are said, only to be forgotten for another year?
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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