World Marks International Women's Day

[Guest guest]

UNITED NATIONS - March 8, 2005 (AP) - Leaders of the fight for

women's equality say there is no going back on the revolution that

began 30 years ago, though the challenges ahead are immense.

 

The comments came at a U.N. meeting to evaluate the world's progress

toward gender equality. Now in its second and final week, the

gathering has drawn delegates from 130 countries and 6,000

representatives from women's and human rights organizations.

 

Commemorating Tuesday's International Women's Day, Rachel Mayanja,

the secretary-general's top adviser on women, warned that "the task

ahead is not going to be any less difficult than it has been during

the past decades."

 

She stressed that world leaders cannot view poverty, armed conflict

and violence in isolation.

 

"The eradication of poverty and disease is as important as dealing

with the criminal networks that traffic in women and children," she

said.

 

Nafis Sadik, a special adviser on AIDS to Secretary-General Kofi

Annan and former head of the U.N. Population Fund, said governments

spend more than $900 billion on the military while the world's

richest countries spend less than $70 billion on development

assistance - and only about $3 billion of that amount goes to gender

equality programs.

 

"What contributes more to security, $3 billion invested in women or

the $900 billion squandered on weapons?" Sadik said to loud

applause. "It is time for political leaders to stop talking about

peace and really start investing in it."

 

At a commemoration held Friday before most of the ministers and VIPs

left, two Nobel Peace Prize winners and the heads of the four U.N.

conferences on women since 1975 spoke of progress and challenges

ahead. The four conferences built the global women's movement.

 

Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, last year's Nobel laureate,

said women must celebrate their achievements, including her prize,

but must fight poverty by championing debt relief and open markets,

and tackle climate change and deforestation.

 

"It is us who will eventually have to convince our governments that

women need to be given equal space, to be given an opportunity to

exploit their potential, and that it is not a gift for women to

participate in decision-making - it is a right," Maathai said.

 

Rigoberta Menchu, the Indian rights activist from Guatemala who won

the peace prize in 1992, said women should be "a beacon of hope" to

change systems promoting racism, discrimination, exclusion and the

lack of economic opportunity.

 

"We women have to give the example of being inclusive, of fighting

exclusion, of fighting racism,'" she said. `"That is why I'm here."

 

Helvi Sipila, secretary-general of the first U.N. women's conference

in Mexico City in 1975, said in a video message from her home in

Finland that women have made "considerable strides toward gender

equality" but not enough has been done to advance peace.

 

"Today ... we must ask ourselves more seriously and with greater

determination than ever what we can do in order to end violence, to

enhance national and international understanding, and to secure

world peace," said Sipila, 89.

 

Gertrude Mongella, secretary-general of the 1995 Beijing conference

and now president of the Pan-African Parliament, recalled that in

her final speech in Beijing she said: "A revolution has begun and

there's no going back."

 

Ten years later, she said, women are more visible, gender

equality "has become a working concept worldwide," and "women and

men are now mobilized to see women's issues as societal issues,

whether they like it or not."

 

"We are here to set a new speed," Mongella said. "We are here to

remove the remaining obstacles. ... We are on the right track of our

revolution. There is no going back."

 

Former U.N. assistant secretary-general Angela King, who was Annan's

top adviser on women and organized the 2000 U.N. conference that

reviewed Beijing, said the challenges of five years ago are the

challenges of today.

 

She said an increasing number of women live in poverty, lag behind

in economic advancement, are hurt by globalization, are contracting

HIV/AIDS in greater numbers and are increasingly subject to violence

in armed conflicts and through trafficking, she said.

 

King noted there are only four women prime ministers of independent

countries and few women are at peace tables, citing them as the

difficulty in changing stereotypes of women's limited roles.

 

"In 1975, the Mexico conference ignited a spark of awareness among

women of their shared hopes and common problems," King said. "With

each successive conference, the spark grew.

 

"Let us pledge today as the United Nations community, as

governments, regions and individuals, that the flame for women's

freedom and equality become a shining beacon for action to fully

realize gender equality, development and peace."

 

SOURCE: The Guardian, London. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian

Newspapers Limited 2005, By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer

URL:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4850308,00.html