International Women's Day: 8th March 2009

Progress for Women Is Progress for All

International Women's Day is an occasion to reflect on where we are in our struggle for equality, peace and development, and a chance to mobilise for meaningful change. This year there is much to celebrate. The vision women marched for over a century ago, of a life free of poverty and violence, has spread to countries around the globe. People everywhere believe that lives of men and women can be different, and governments have the fundamental obligation to respect and protect human rights.

For over two decades, women's rights advocates have lobbied, campaigned and marched to put gender equality on the public policy agenda, demanding recognition that women's rights are human rights, and that violence against women and girls be addressed within the human rights framework.

CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women adopted in 1979, recognised gender discrimination as the root of violence against women. In 1993, at the World Conference on Human Rights, governments recognised women's rights as human rights, and violence against women as an abuse of these rights.

Violence against women undermines poverty reduction and development efforts, hampers women's productivity, destroys their health, prevents girls from attending school and being safe, and has been a silent driver of the rapid feminisation of HIV and AIDS. It is no coincidence that the deadline for the UN Secretary General's UNiTE to End Violence against Women Campaign is 2015, the deadline to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals. In doing so, the campaign locates ending violence against women alongside these goals - and basic to their achievement.

Mid-way to 2015, the momentum is building. A total of 185 states have ratified the CEDAW Convention, and 90 have ratified its ‘optional protocol', giving individuals and groups of women the right to take complaints about violations of their rights directly to the Commission and request an investigation. Most states have adopted laws and policies to eliminate gender discrimination in health, education, employment and political life and at least 89 states have some legislative provisions to address domestic violence. Rape is now a crime in almost all states, and marital rape can be prosecuted in at least 104 states.

Today it is vital to sustain this momentum. Gains can be reversed, as we witness every day. New threats arise, including climate change, widespread food insecurity and a global financial crisis that is expected to push 46 million more people into extreme poverty. The crisis has intensified the struggle for resources, fuelling a resurgence of fear and armed conflicts and endangering progress on women's rights.

Despite more commitments, including at the highest levels, the gaps on the ground are vast: violence against women continues, and impunity remains the norm, rather than the exception. To mark International Women's Day, the UN system is mobilising to sustain the momentum of the Secretary-General's Campaign. This year UN Women is taking the campaign to the regions, working with inter-agency teams in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, demanding the right of women to a life free of violence.

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