WUNRN
Direct Link to Statement on WIDE
Website:
Brussels 8.03.2010
1910-2010: The
100th International
Women’s Day marks a
Century of
Struggle for Women’s Human Rights
The year 2010 marks the 100th
anniversary of the declaration of the International Women’s Day and fifteen
years of adoption of Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA). This
very progressive and comprehensive women’s human rights tool, which concentrates
on key issues identified as obstacles to the advancement of women in the world, was signed by most UN members
including EU countries.
Despite a century of struggle for their rights,
the women movements face serious challenges ahead, as structural
inequalities based on gender differences and other forms of exclusion and
discrimination including age, race, social class are still pervasive
worldwide.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day,
WIDE calls European governments to comply with their
agreed commitments and the coherence of policies vis-à-vis the
promotion of gender equality, women’s rights and the fight against poverty.
Over the last five years, the EU and Member States have adopted a number of
crucial documents on this issue.[1] These
political initiatives are important but they are not enough. Evidence shows
that there is still a huge gap between discourse and action.
In the present context of multiple global
crises (economic, financial, food, energy, climate and care), WIDE
is concerned that the enforcement of women’s human rights is losing ground
worldwide. WIDE is alarmed that women’s participation in decision-making
processes is significantly being reduced.
The 54th session of the Committee
on the Status of Women (CSW), currently taking place in New York,
illustrates that the space for critical engagement between the
governments and women’s movements is currently being minimised. WIDE is
alarmed by the fact that the UN Declaration on the occasion of the
fifteenth anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action has been agreed
ahead of time and adopted without consultations with civil society. Indeed, the
lack of information provision, poor logistics and facilities
at CSW have prevented women from participating effectively.
Despite one hundred years of struggle, women
still face lot of challenges ahead!
WIDE congratulates women activists all
over the world with the International Women’s Day and supports them in
their struggles for a world based on gender equality and social justice;
for a world that ensures equal rights, equal access to resources and
opportunities in all spheres of political, social and economic life!
________________________________________________________________________
- WIDE is a European feminist network of women’s organizations, development NGOs, gender specialists and women’s rights activists. For more than 25 years, WIDE has dedicated itself to raising awareness, monitoring and influencing international economic and development policies and practices from a gender perspective, promoting women’s rights as the basis for the development of a more just and democratic world order.
Natalie Giorgadze
Media and Communication Officer
WIDE - Globalising Gender Equality and Social
Justice
Website:
www.wide-network.org -
E-mail:
natalie@wide-network.org
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