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	International Women"s Day by United Nations agencies   This year, International Women’s Day (IWD), which commemorates achievements in women’s rights and serves as an opportunity to prompt everyone to continue paving the way toward gender equality, celebrated its 100th anniversary. Below are extracts from statements by key UN officials and the link below provides access to their full statements.   UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon   “One hundred years ago, when the world first commemorated International Women’s Day, gender equality and women’s empowerment were largely radical ideas. On this centenary, we celebrate the significant progress that has been achieved through determined advocacy, practical action and enlightened policy making. Yet, in too many countries and societies, women remain second-class citizens…. Only through women’s full and equal participation in all areas of public and private life can we hope to achieve the sustainable, peaceful and just society promised in the United Nations Charter.”   UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet   “A hundred years ago today, women across the world took an historic step on the long road to equality…. Although the occasion was celebrated in only a handful of countries, it brought over one million women out onto the streets, demanding not just better conditions at work but also the right to vote, to hold office and to be equal partners with men.   “The agenda to secure gender equality and women’s rights is a global agenda, a challenge for every country, rich and poor, north and south…. I have seen myself what women, often in the toughest circumstances, can achieve for their families and societies if they are given the opportunity. The strength, industry and wisdom of women remain humanity’s greatest untapped resource. We simply cannot afford to wait another 100 years to unlock this potential.”   UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin   “Today we celebrate International Women’s Day and once again declare our faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, and in the equal rights of men and women. As the world approaches a population of seven billion, it’s high time to unleash the full potential of half the world’s population.   “When girls enjoy equal access to education, and women, men and young people can claim their right to sexual and reproductive health, we come closer to equality. When women and couples can plan their families, and balance work and family life as they desire, we expand equal opportunity. When a pregnant woman no longer fears losing her job, and maternity no longer continues to be a source of discrimination in employment, we advance equal rights between men and women.   “When girls are educated and healthy, and can avoid early marriage, unwanted pregnancy and HIV, they can contribute fully to society. UNFPA will continue to move forward guided by the belief that progress for women is progress for all. “We join partners worldwide, including the newly established UN Women, to advance gender equality and dignity for all.”   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay   “All over the world, major disparities remain between female and male access to education, employment and salaries. While women are the world’s main food producers and their working hours are longer than those of men, women earn only 10% of the world’s income and own less than 1% of property worldwide. Women comprise nearly two-thirds of the world’s 759 million illiterate adults. Even in regions with high rates of female literacy, women’s wages continue to be lower than those of men, even for work of equal value. While equal access to education is a key factor to enhance women’s empowerment and gender equality in employment, it is clearly not enough unless de facto and de jure discrimination are addressed at a broader level.   “Only when women participate fully in policy-making and institution-building will their perspective be truly integrated. The concept of democracy is only truly realised when political decision-making is shared by women and men, and women’s full participation in institutional re-building is guaranteed.”   UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé   “Today is the 100th anniversary of the International Women’s day and I salute all women. There is much to celebrate and there is so much more we can and should do.   “Thirty years into the AIDS epidemic, women and girls are still the most affected –nearly 16 million are living with HIV and the number continues to rise every day. “We must not accept this.   “I hope for a world where; all women can protect themselves and their children from HIV; all women have access to HIV treatment; and women and girls do not fear rape, violence and HIV infection.   “I hope for a world where there are Zero new HIV infections, Zero discrimination and Zero AIDS–related deaths among women and girls. “We must make this a reality, not in the next 100 years, but now.”   Margot Wallström, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict “On the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, March 8, ending sexual violence as a war weapon remains one of the greatest challenges to the protection of women’s human rights…. But perhaps nowhere is the issue more prevalent than in the Democratic Republic of Congo, ground zero in the fight against sexual violence in conflict.   “The international community must commit to ending this war waged on the bodies of women and girls. The global trade in conflict minerals that sustains sexual violence and other ongoing mass atrocities in eastern Congo connects us all. These minerals are found in our cell phones, laptops and digital cameras: the technology that advances our communications, commerce, social networking and national security.   “For too long, sexual violence in conflict has been seen as inevitable. We must end this distorted outlook, replace our vocabulary and start treating these crimes like other human rights abuses. Let us make sexual violence in conflict unthinkable and unacceptable.”   Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Organization   “One hundred years ago women took to the streets of Europe for the right to vote. “One hundred years ago women – mainly migrant women – took to the streets in the United States to demand safe working conditions.   “From those events, one hundred years ago International Women’s Day was born. “And we know that the struggle for gender equality continues, taking different forms in different societies and contexts. Some struggles more visible than others, but absolutely indispensable in all societies. The struggle goes on.   “Today, we join in solidarity with women the world over who are striving not to be held back simply by virtue of gender…. The big calls of history have been for freedom, dignity and justice as well as for opportunities to work in these conditions: to work in conditions of freedom, dignity and justice.   “This is the demand of men and of women at all levels of development who know what it takes ultimately to move towards a life of dignity. It is the demand for decent work. At the heart of it is the struggle for gender equality, non-discrimination and downright fairness for women.”   WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran   “Hunger is one of the greatest scourges of our time, with around 1 billion people on earth not knowing where their next meal will come from. As we commemorate Women’s Day, we remember that the sweat-stained face of a farmer, labouring under the hot sun to feed a hungry family, is likely to be that of a woman. But the face of those defeating hunger is also likely to be a woman’s. Because women are our hope; the secret weapon in fighting hunger.   “The vast majority of the people WFP assists are women and children. We have found that when women are front and centre, we succeed in our efforts to beat hunger and malnutrition…. In keeping with the 2011 United Nations Women’s Day theme of providing a pathway to decent work for women, we remember and celebrate all the women who fight with their lives to feed their families, their communities and their nations.”   UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres (UNHCR)   “We need to work harder to redress impediments to access to primary and, in protracted refugees situations particularly, secondary education. These include the lack of required identity or status documents and the means to pay for school uniforms, meals and transport.   “Today, only 43% of girls in the developing world attend secondary school, despite the multiple benefits attendance bestows, such as delaying the age at which women first give birth, enhancing maternal health, and strengthening women’s bargaining power within households, which translates into greater economic and political participation.   “Just as we are using the commemoration of the anniversaries of the refugee and statelessness conventions to help forge a new protection dynamic, let us use the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day to make the Millennium Development Goal of gender parity in primary and secondary education a reality.”   UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and other UN Independent Experts   On IWD, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo, along with other Independent Experts, urged States to respect, protect and fulfill women’s right to non-discrimination and equality.   “The challenge is to move more decisively from an era of rhetorical engagement to one of implementation and enforcement…. The human rights of women and girls are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights,” the group of experts said, reminding governments around the world of their obligations to ensure the realization of women’s rights. The experts urged States to ensure that laws, policies, programmes and institutional structures ultimately result in the equal enjoyment by women of their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.   “While, in many cases, advances have been made in the adoption of standards and the recognition of women’s rights,” the experts said, “the reality of the lives of so many women shows that implementation of standards and commitment on the ground is still unacceptably weak.”   (Special Rapporteur on housing, Raquel Rolnik; SR on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue; SR on human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya; SR on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, SR on migrants, Jorge A. Bustamante; SR on trafficking in persons, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo; SR on Palestinian territories, Richard Falk; Working Group on people of African descent; Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances).   WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan   “This year, we mark a century of women as agents of change to improve their lives, communities and health. Over the past 100 years, many advances have improved the health of women and girls…. But the health of women involves much more than reproduction and many diseases manifest themselves and are treated differently in women. Women scientists, clinicians, advocates and women’s health researchers have strengthened medical knowledge and practice of many common conditions, including cardiovascular disease – now one of the top 10 causes of female deaths across the world.   “Access to science and technology empowers women to take control of their health and enables women and girls to participate in specialized training and educational programmes. With such training, women and girls benefit from innovative health campaigns often disseminated through online or mobile phone technology. If we are going to be innovative with health strategies, we must make sure that women and girls are not left behind because they do not know how to use them or do not have access to them.   “Today, let us take the time to celebrate achievements made for and by women over the past century. Let us also move forward to address critical gaps, building on lessons learned since the first International Women’s Day, to realize the full potential of women and girls the world over.”   Mar 2011 (WHO Statement)   Over the past 100 years, many advances have improved the health of women and girls. Examples include: social and legal reforms regarding the minimum age of marriage and sexual consent; contraception, mammograms and other health technologies; and progress towards ending harmful practices such as sexual and gender-based violence, including female genital mutilation.   But the health of women involves much more than reproduction and many diseases manifest themselves and are treated differently in women. Yes, there is much to celebrate on this 100th anniversary. But we are also faced with many ongoing challenges. Maternal mortality rates and HIV rates among young women are still too high, tobacco consumption among women is increasing, sexual and other forms of gender-based violence continue to be widespread, and there is an increasingly heavy burden of noncommunicable diseases on women.   The direct and indirect ways that gender inequality prevents women of all ages from realizing their human right to health requires action now.   Education and training equip girls and women with skills needed to protect their health but social norms deny many the chance to attend and complete primary and secondary levels of education. This negatively affects fertility and smoking rates and HIV prevention, and is associated with increased risk of experiencing sexual and other forms of gender -based violence.   Access to science and technology empowers women to take control of their health and enables women and girls to participate in specialized training and educational programmes. With such training, women and girls benefit from innovative health campaigns often disseminated through online or mobile phone technology.   If we are going to be innovative with health strategies, we must make sure that women and girls are not left behind because they do not know how to use them or do not have access to them.   When women benefit from decent work conditions they are more likely to benefit from social protection measures such as employer-based health insurance, maternity benefits, occupational health and safety measures - all factors that improve access to health care and health outcomes.   In sum, when women and girls do not have equal access to these determinants of health, education, employment and health systems have failed them. It is time we stop failing women and girls. Visit the related web page
	Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo awarded peace prize by Irina Bokova UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Argentina   March 2011   The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a non-governmental organization that has been working for over 30 years to locate the families of children kidnapped and “disappeared” during the military dictatorship in Argentina, is this year’s recipient of the United Nations cultural agency’s peace prize.   The Jury of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize, meeting in Paris, awarded the 2010 prize to the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo for their “tireless battle for human rights and peace by standing up to oppression, injustice and impunity.”   The award, created in 1989 by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), honours people, institutions and organizations that have contributed significantly to the promotion, research, preservation or maintenance of peace.   The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo was founded in 1977 and seeks to ensure that violations of children’s rights such as those that occurred during the military dictatorship in Argentina never happen again by demanding the prosecution of all those responsible for the tragedy.   “With all my heart I congratulate the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and their president Estela Carlotto,” said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova.   “Their ceaseless effort has made it possible for 100 young people to rediscover their true identities, thereby setting right a flagrant injustice. This is an inspiring example of the defense of human rights."   March 2011   Ex-dictators on trial over baby thefts.(AFP)   Two former Argentine dictators have appeared in court to face charges for the first time for kidnapping hundreds of babies seized from their mothers in secret maternity units minutes after birth.   About 80 people are expected to testify about how babies were taken from political opponents, in a systematic plan ordered by the highest levels of Argentina"s brutal military dictatorship from 1976-1983.   Charges were read linked to 35 cases of stolen babies.   Former rulers Jorge Videla, who headed a military junta from 1976 to 1981, and the last dictator of the military regime, Reynaldo Bignone (1982-1983), will appear before the court alongside six other former military leaders for the first hearing in a trial expected to last until the end of the year.   Outside the court steps, protesters from the rights group HIJOS (children) waved flags and chanted for justice on behalf of the detained and disappeared.   Women who were dissidents or otherwise found themselves in the right wing junta"s wrath were interned at wards in the heart of torture centers. The women were kept alive during their pregnancies, only to be killed after giving birth. A hood was placed over their heads during childbirth so they could not see their babies, who were then handed to a military official.   At least 500 babies were stolen during the dictatorship, according to the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an organization which has so far been able to track down and identify 102 of them.   Several of those who discovered their true identity have become politicians or human rights activists.   "The population had to be "normalized" you were either the way you were supposed to be or you were eliminated," prosecutor Federico Delgado told the court. "You had to break family ties" between the children and their parents, he added. "It"s one of the darkest chapters of Argentina"s history."   "We have waited 30 years to get justice and see them in jail," said Chela Fontana, whose daughter Liliana, was kidnapped when she was two months pregnant.   Over 30,000 innocent people were killed under the dictatorship, according to rights groups.
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