Year: 2012

March 8, 2012

The NGO Committee on the Status of Women-Geneva, a Committee of CoNGO is a platform, a platform for women and other civil society organizations advancing the human rights and empowerment of women at the United Nations in Geneva. The Committee joins the world today in commemorating the 2012 International Women’s Day 2012. The UN has prioritized issues of rural women, ending poverty and hunger as the core theme for 2012.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action and its core affirmations to women’s empowerment for equality, peace and development, the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the gender equality commitments in the Millennium Development Goals and its targets do give a full range of entitlements to women and girls in communities. However, the huge gap that exists between policy and practice does call for accountability and increased allocation of resources to actions that transform lives and give opportunity to all women and girls.

On this International Day, as we sustain the efforts for achieving gender equality and all women’s enjoyment of human rights, we call on the governments, the private sector, civil society, UN agencies, men and women, boys and girls, and all other stakeholders to:

1. Recognize and value the unpaid care work, especially of rural women and girls, and to seek ways for giving this work its appropriate human, social and economic value.
2. Secure women’s right to access to and control of land, property and inheritance, as the basis for economic security and empowerment.
3. Provide access to quality and affordable primary, secondary, tertiary and vocational education to women of all ages around the world.
4. Invest in women’s health especially sexual and reproductive health information and services, to ensure a reduction in unacceptable rates of maternal mortality as well as provide care, treatment and support to women living with HIV.
5. Provide accessible and quality financial products to women, while ensuring improved infrastructure such as communications, transport and sanitation as critical dimensions for promoting the wellbeing and status of women.
6. Continue to prioritize the protection of rights of all women and especially girls in situations of conflict, and invest in their leadership as they seek solutions, healing and recovery.
7. Prioritize human rights and gender justice issues in the climate change debates and especially the Rio +20 process.
8. Call on the media to play a positive and proactive role in advancing the status of women, and desist from reinforcing the stereotypical negative images of women and girls especially in rural communities.

We know that sustaining the agenda for gender equality demands consistent and quality provision of evidence, hence the importance of sex and age disaggregated data. We resolve to sustain our advocacy in calling for the twenty years review of the Beijing Commitments on Women, Equality, Peace and Development with a focus on implementation and emerging issues. We affirm, recognize and celebrate the many women and girls the world over, who are innovating in fighting poverty and hunger against all odds.

This statement is also available for download here