7 March 2003
Statement by Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM
International Women's Day 2003 dawns on a world in which there is both a need and cause for hope; but also at a time of widespread fear and insecurity. On the day that commemorates women's rights and struggles, the signposts of progress are undeniable. The commitments agreed to by leaders of 189 Member States of the United Nations in the Millennium Declaration (2000) placed gender equality and women's empowerment as a goal in its own right, as well as being central to achieving the seven additional goals. One month ago, on 7 February, state signatories to the new International Criminal Court elected seven women judges, over a third of the total.
Advocates for gender equality and countless communities and countries that have turned commitments to women into realities have many reasons to be proud of these and many other achievements.
Yet, we live in a world where human rights and human security remain a dream for far too many women and men. Emphasizing human security would see poverty, environmental destruction, illiteracy and HIV/AIDS as the real threats faced by millions, and would prioritize money for health care and education over spending on fighter jets and other weapons. On International Women's Day, like any other day, hundreds of women will lose their limbs from exploding landmines, thousands of women will be raped at the point of a gun in countries ravaged by war and armed conflict, and hundreds of thousands will sit in camps displaced by bombing of their towns and villages. A recent study by the World Health Organization noted that approximately one in three women in the world can expect to be beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. On International Women's Day, like any other day, the abuser will usually be a member of her family or someone known to her. All of these point to a horrifying conclusion: a central factor for becoming a victim of violence is simply being female.
Growing recognition of specific and omnipresent threats and violations to women's security and rights has yielded an impressive array of commitments over the past years. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and its Optional Protocol, the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, and a growing number of regional commitments require States to take concrete actions to protect and promote women's rights. On October 2000, one month after the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1325, calling for the protection of women in conflict zones and for their participation in the processes of peace-making and peace-building. In passing this resolution, the Security Council acknowledged that women are waging peace in the face of the multiple and nefarious forms of violence that they confront.
To make this resolution meaningful, greater support for the innovative and courageous initiatives undertaken by women in countries and communities around the globe is critical. In Southeastern Europe, women from Kosovo's new Assembly have banded together across party lines to form a women's caucus - a non-partisan effort in a community traumatized by conflict and ethnic strife. In war-ravaged Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Colombia, women have demanded inclusion in peace talks and have contributed their efforts to building peace in their communities. Since 1997, through a Trust Fund to Eliminate Violence against Women established in UNIFEM by the General Assembly, we have been able to provide more than $7 million to groups in 73 countries who are using creative strategies to challenge and reduce femicide, domestic violence, trafficking, rape and the wide range of forms of violence that women face everywhere, whether during war or peace.
Last year, in response to Security Council resolution 1325, UNIFEM commissioned an Independent Experts' Assessment entitled Women, War, Peace. The experts visited women survivors of violence in more than 14 conflict and post-conflict countries. Today, as world leaders debate whether to enter into war, we know that the hundreds of heroic women that the experts met would bring their unrelenting commitment to the task of finding creative alternatives to massive violence and devastation. But, still, women are rarely at the tables where war is decided upon, or the tables where peace is negotiated.
Women around the world who are courageously bridging differences and divides need the world's peace and security institutions to share their vision of human security and rights. Women around the world want to know that the Millennium Development Goals offer a set of time-bound targets, tied to principles and commitments that put a priority on achieving a world free of poverty, violence and inequality. On International Women's Day 2003 let us recommit to implementing Security Council Resolution 1325 and to fulfilling the spirit of the Millennium Development Goals, so that we can achieve security for all.
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