FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2016
Respect Rights of Rural Women, Recognize Their Vital Role in Development & Poverty Reduction,
Urges UN CEDAW Committee
GENEVA (4 March 2016) – Ahead of International Women’s Day on Tuesday 8 March, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is calling for a focus on rural women and girls, and effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), many of which reflect on the situation of rural women. The Committee, which monitors implementation by States Parties of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, stresses the need to protect and promote the rights of rural women and girls in accordance with Article 14 of the Convention and in line with the General Recommendation No.34 it has just adopted on the Rights of Rural Women*:
“Rural women account for a quarter of the world’s population is rural women. Several UN Conferences recognised their significant contributions to rural development, food and nutrition, as well as poverty reduction. Nevertheless, they continue to face challenges including systemic and persistent barriers to the full enjoyment of their rights.
October 20, 2015 - The lives of women and girls around the world have improved in several areas over the last 20 years, according to the new UN DESA report “The World’s Women 2015,” launched today. Coming on the heels of the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this new set of data on women and girls worldwide brings into sharp perspective the need for gender equality outlined in Goal 5.
“We cannot achieve our 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development without full and equal rights for half of the world’s population, in law and in practice,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at a recent event on gender equality organized on the side of the Sustainable Development Summit.
Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown
The 2016 theme for International Women’s Day is “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality”.
The United Nations observance on 8 March will reflect on how to accelerate the 2030 Agenda, building momentum for the effective implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals. It will equally focus on new commitments under UN Women’s Step It Up initiative, and other existing commitments on gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s human rights. Events
The official UN commemoration will take place in the Trusteeship Council at the UN Secretariat in New York City from 10 a.m.-12.45 p.m. It will consist of a series of musical performances and two panel discussions. The first, from 10-11.15 a.m., will reflect on what a gender-equal planet means and how to achieve it by 2030 by joining the efforts of the United Nations, governments, civil society and the private sector.
We, the indigenous women of the Americas, Asia, Africa, the Arctic, and the Pacific, recalling the Fourth World Conference on Women organized in Beijing by the United Nations, assemble once more to reaffirm the advancements we have achieved during the past twenty years in terms of political advocacy at an international level.1 .
Firstly, we highlight the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Outcome Document adopted at UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. (A/RES/69/2).
Critics say legislation does not go far enough in country where violence at home is widely regarded a private matter.
01 March 2016 - A new law that makes domestic abuse a crime has come into effect in China.
It is hoped the legislation will encourage more victims to take their abusers to court in a country where violence at home is still widely regarded as a private matter.
The All-China Women's Federation estimates that nearly 25 percent of married women in China have experienced domestic violence. But the real figure is probably much higher, because reporting abuse is still rare - especially in the countryside.
"From today victims of domestic abuse will be able to go to court to seek a restraining order that could force the abuser to move out of the home. A judge will have 72 hours to make a ruling," Al Jazeera's China correspondent Adrian Brown reported.
