WUNRN
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
International Women’s Day March on
March 8, 2013
For a Life Free from Violence Against
Women and Girls!
During the 57th session
of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW57), taking place at the United
Nations in New York from March 4-15, 2013, Member State representatives will
discuss the advances they have made in the elimination and prevention of all
forms of violence against women and girls. In response to this discussion
AWID, the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, United Methodist Women and the
Women & Global Migration Working Group are calling on women’s organizations
around the world to hold rallies, marches and vigils on International Women’s
Day, Friday March 8, 2013, to advocate that States respond, protect, and
prevent violence against women and girls in all their diversity!
This march
calls on States to take concrete steps to end impunity, one of the biggest
challenges to achieving justice in cases of violence against women; fund programs
and services for gender equality and the realization of human rights; decrease
military spending, one of the driving forces of violence against women; and
protect women human rights defenders, who are at the forefront of defending
women’s rights and who face increased levels of gender-based violence globally.
Given the
challenges women and girls face, we invite you and your organizations to join
us in demanding that governments:
1.
Take Concrete Steps to End Impunity!
Today, millions of women and girls still suffer disproportionately from
violence both in peace and in war, at the hands of the State; non-state actors,
including transnational corporations; and in the home and community.
Around the world women in all their diversity are beaten, raped, mutilated, and
killed with impunity. State policy must explicitly address the realities
of women and girls who experience multiple oppressions due to race, ethnicity,
language, religion, class, sexual orientation, marital status, age or national
origin, including rural women, immigrant women, indigenous women, if ALL women
are to be able to fully claim rights. States have the obligation to
prevent, protect against, and prosecute violence against women whether
perpetrated by private or public actors. States also have a
responsibility to uphold standards of due diligence and take steps to fulfill
their responsibility to protect individuals from human rights
abuses. But there is a lack of State accountability when it comes
to government’s role in perpetrating violence against women, the role of
transnational corporations that work in tandem with States to usurp natural
resources and displace entire communities violently, and in protecting women
and girls from violence in the home and community. Within militarism’s
culture of violence, individuals in positions of authority believe they can
commit crimes with impunity, which is exemplified by high rates of sexual
violence within the military, threats by police to women reporting cases of
violence, ongoing harassment and intimidation, forced “virginity tests” on
female protestors by authorities, and violence against women living and working
around military bases. Women human rights defenders who work on issues
related to economic, social, and cultural rights as well as civil and political
rights are also targeted. This State failure to bring perpetrators of
sexual and gender-based violence to justice remains a critical challenge to
ending violence against women. Across the globe more needs to be done to
prevent violence against women and to prosecute those who perpetrate violence
against women.
2.
Fund Gender
Equality and Human Rights Instead of Militarism! Military expenditure, the arms
trade and conflict often exacerbate violence against women as well as decrease
financial resources for social and economic rights and the promotion of gender
equality. States have an obligation to respect, protect and fulfill
economic and social rights. The International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) specifies in Article 2.1 that, “Each State
Party…undertakes to take steps, individually and through international
assistance and co-operation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum
of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full
realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate
means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures.”
Rather than allocating high levels of expenditure toward the military, States
should increase financial resources to advance economic and social rights and
women’s rights to build a culture of human rights instead of a culture of
militarism.
3.
Protect Women
Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs)!
The world over, against all odds, Women Human Rights Defenders work tirelessly
for the protection and promotion of human rights. Yet, violence against these
advocates is increasing around the world. As human rights defenders, Women’s
Human Rights Defenders face the same types of risks faced by all defenders who
work to uphold the rights of people, communities and the environment; as women,
they are also exposed to gender-specific risks and are targets of gender-based
violence, such as sexual abuse, harassment, violations from husbands/partners and
male colleagues, and violations by the State. They
also face heightened risks and vulnerabilities because of their work on
women-specific rights/issues that frequently challenge cultural stereotypes and
religion. Their work can raise levels of hostility, more so because women are
considered markers of culture and religion.
Get
Involved!
Commemorate
international women’s day by joining us in this effort! We are inviting
organizations around the world to co-sponsor the march; to carry out their own
marches and actions in their own cities and towns and or to carry the messages and slogans from this march in their activities
on March 8, 2013. For those in New York City for the CSW we invite you to join
us for a local march on March 8th, 2013 from 10am-12pm. We will assemble at First Avenue and 42nd
Street starting at 10:00am. The march will depart at 10:30am and will
proceed to Third Avenue and 47th Street and on to Dag Hammarskjold plaza.
At the plaza we will hear from women human right defenders from all over the
world expressing their demands for a life free of violence against women and
girls and commemorating our day! The rally will end at 12pm.
To co-sponsor
and participate please contact:
Carol
Barton, United Methodist Women, at CBarton@unitedmethodistwomen.org.
Natalia
Cardona, Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), at NCardona@awid.org
Savi
Bisnath, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, at savi.bisnath@rutgers.edu
Co-sponsorship
involves endorsing this call, putting your name on the flyer and doing outreach
to your networks. No costs are involved. The deadline for co-sponsorships
is February 28th, 2013. The call with full end notes is available
at http://www.awid.org/eng/Library/CALL-FOR-PARTICIPATION-International-Women-s-Day-March-on-March-8-2013
Natalia Cardona
Constituency Engagement Manager
Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)
Tel: + 215.917.0769 |Email: Ncardona@awid.org | www.awid.org