Special Events

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
March 8

International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.
 
The Charter of the United Nations, signed in San Francisco in 1945, was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. Since then, the Organization has helped create a historic legacy of internationally agreed strategies, standards, programmes and goals to advance the status of women worldwide. Over the years, United Nations action for the advancement of women has taken four clear directions: promotion of legal measures; mobilization of public opinion and international action; training and research, including the compilation of gender desegregated statistics; and direct assistance to disadvantaged groups. Today a central organizing principle of the work of the United Nations is that no enduring solution to society's most threatening social, economic and political problems can be found without the full participation, and the full empowerment, of the world's women. (Source: the United Nations Department of Public, 1997)

For more information:
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/women/womday97.htm
 
Up-coming Activities

International Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament: 24 May 2002
began in Europe in early 1980s, when hundreds of thousands of women organised against nuclear weapons and the arms race. Since the 1995 UN world Conference on Women in Beijing, the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and the International Peace Bureau (IPB) have published a booklet to raise awareness of an increase support for women's peace initiatives. Events such as marches, street theatre, debates, and seminars take place around the world on this date. For more information: http://www.ifor.org or http://www.ifor.org/wpp/index.htm
 
More Readings and Linkages with Women Movement

Targeting women - Gender perspectives in conflicts and peace building
http://www.life-peace.org/newroutes/newroutes2001/nr200103/index.htm

The International Restructuring Education Network Europe (IRENE)
has been stimulating and facilitating the wxchange of information on labour issues since 1981and has contacts, resources and a European Programme of work which covers current international labour issues. 'News from IRENE' issue no. 31, December 2001, published two interesting articles; Beyond Voluntary Codes of Conduct - Corporate Liability and Law; and IRENE Activities on Women Workers and the Informal Sector. Please subscribe 'News from IRENE' at e-mail: irene@antenna.nl

WomenWatch
is a joint UN project to create a core Internet space on global women's issues. It was created to monitor the results of the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995. It was founded in March 1997 by the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW). For more information: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
promotes communication between women's group and the UN system: http://www.wilpf.int.ch

Women Waging Peace
is a global initiative of Harward's Kennedy School of Government that breaks new ground by identifying the essential role and contribution of women in preventing violent conflict, stopping war, and sustaining peace in fragile areas around the world. For further information: http://www.womenwagingpeace.net or for recent report http://www.womenwagingpeace.net/content/whatwedo/colloquium/2001index.asp

Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
is an independent, non-government, non-profit organisation. It is committed to enabling women to use law as an instrument of social change for equality, justice and development. APWLD works in partnership with women's groups, human rights groups and development NGOs in the Asia-Pacific to promote the status of women in the different countries of the region. For more information: http://www.apwld.org

WomenAction Network
follows developments of the Beijing +5 conferences, with a special focus on women and media. For further information: http://www.womenaction.org
 

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