“The international community is finally beginning to understand a fundamental
principle: women are every bit as affected as any man by the challenges
facing humanity in the 21st century – in economic and social development, as
well as in peace and security,” Mr. Annan said in a message.
“The world is also starting to grasp that there is no policy more effective
in promoting development, health and education than the empowerment of women and
girls. And I would venture that no policy is more important in preventing
conflict, or in achieving reconciliation after a conflict has ended,” he added.
He noted that there are now 11 women Heads of State or Government and three
countries – Chile, Spain and Sweden – now have gender parity in Government. “But
we have far, far more to do,” he warned. “The rate of progress overall is slow.”
The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) said women needed to take
power into their own hands. “Today, we call for a Global Coalition of Women
Economic Decision-makers committed to making change happen in the lives of
ordinary women and men on the ground,” UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer
declared. “It is important to act now.”
UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador, Oscar-winning actress Nicole
Kidman, who starred in The Interpreter, a film about political intrigue
inside the UN, shone a spotlight on the need to end violence against women,
particularly violence against the hundreds of thousands of women and girls
caught in the crossfire of conflict.
“We must protect women and children caught up in conflict situations, and we
must care for women affected by sexual and gender-based violence,” she said in a
video
statement.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
highlighted its role in Nepal in bringing legal and other assistance to victims
of gender-based violence in refugee camps in Nepal and its efforts to curb the
scourge. “UNHCR has focused its preventive activities towards bringing about a
change in the attitudes of the refugee population towards women,” agency country
representative Abraham Abraham said.
UNHCR, where women hold three top posts – Deputy High Commissioner Wendy
Chamberlin, Assistant High Commissioner for Operations Judy Cheng-Hopkins and
Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Erika Feller – noted much progress
had been made in fighting gender discrimination. But there is still a long way
to go, the three said.
Striking a positive note, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
highlighted the power of Nigeria’s enterprising women and their key role in
agriculture and rural development towards eliminating hunger and contributing to
economic, political and social advancement.
In the northwest State of Katsina, under a beating sun, so close to the
desert that much of the terrain is dry and hardened, wives, mothers and children
gather in the women’s compound of a small farming community that is part of the
National Special Programme for Food Security. They have taken a small loan to
buy simple spaghetti-making machines to allow them to supplement their mainly
subsistence incomes.
In a country where two-thirds of the population live on less than $1 a day,
and credit is not readily available for those without existing capital, the
challenge for Nigerian women is formidable. “Yet in this sometimes difficult
environment, some women have found a niche and are making enormous strides that
could, one day soon, change the face of the country,” FAO said, citing other
examples of female enterprise.
The UN International Labour Organization (ILO)
noted that with 33 million women joining the labour market between 1990 and
2004, women now represented 40 per cent of the economically active population in
urban areas of Latin
America.
For its part, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
unveiled a pilot Who’s Who of leading female environmentalists, including
British primatologist Jane Goodall, Inuit leader Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Julia
Carabias-Lillo of Mexico, Princess Basma Bint Ali of Jordan, Mei Ng of China,
and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai of Kenya.
“International Women’s Day has become a very special day in our calendar and
we are marking it with the launch of this project, aimed at raising awareness
and the profile of these very special women,” UNEP Executive Director Klaus
Toepfer said.
Other agency heads and officials, too, marked the occasion. “We will not
achieve our collective goals for development, peace and security and human
rights if we do not take concrete action to enhance women’s participation in
decision-making in Governments, parliaments, international organizations,
academic life and the private sector,” General Assembly President Jan Eliasson
said.
In a press statement read out by its president for March, Ambassador César
Mayoral of Argentina, the Security Council expressed its commitment to further
address obstacles limiting the empowerment and participation of women in all
levels of decision making and strongly condemned the continued acts of gender
based violence armed conflicts, stressing the need to end impunity for such
acts.
UNICEF Executive
Director Ann M. Veneman underlined the widespread violence and discrimination to
which women are still subjected. “A society cannot possibly marginalize half its
population and expect positive outcomes,” she said.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour noted that there are
still countries where women are denied the right to vote and the Executive
Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Thoraya Obaid called
for greater action to involve women in decision-making.
And UN Development Programme (UNDP)
Administrator Kemal Dervis warned that, despite recent successes such as the
election of Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as Africa’s first woman President
and Angela Merkel as Germany’s first woman Chancellor, “progress towards the
goal of gender equality and women’s empowerment still trails conspicuously
behind.”
8 March 2006 –
From its towering Headquarters in New York to the seared fields of Nigeria,
from Secretary-General Kofi Annan to case workers fighting rape in Nepal to
special goodwill ambassador Nicole Kidman, the United Nations today marked International
Women’s Day with calls to boost the role of women in decision-making.