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UNITED NATIONS International Women's Day (UNIWD) NEWSLETTER, March 8, 2018.

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology.

http://omnicenter.org/donate/

OMNI began its celebrations of UN International Day of Women in 2007. See also OMNI Newsletters on UN Women’s Equality Day, August 26, 19^th Amendment Day; UN International Rural Women’s Day, Oct. 15; UN International Day to End Violence Against Women, Nov. 25. (I began establishing UN documents and newsletters as I gradually discovered the widespread omission of the name of the UN when people and media referred to UN institutions, such as IWD instead of UNIWD. And then I grew aware of how often people made derogatory remarks about the UN, and not only by extreme nationalists or xenophobes. Ignorance of the multitude of UN good works for all seemed one root cause. The UN is largely a US creation. Arkansas’ Senator Fulbright was one of its congressional advocates. LET’S CELEBRATE UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY (UNIWD)! --Dick).

MARCH IS ALSO WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH (a US celebration that began in 1857)

(Will a supporter of women and the UN please be editor of this newsletter and its countless possibilities?)

http://www.un.org/en/events/womensday/

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Women in Brazil march for women's rights. Women in Brazil march for women's rights. Photo: UN Women/Bruno Spada

"Achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls is the unfinished business of our time, and the greatest human rights challenge in our world." — UN Secretary-General, António Guterres

International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.

It is also an opportunity to consider how to accelerate the 2030 Agenda, building momentum for the effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially goal number 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; and number 4: Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning.

Some key targets of the 2030 Agenda:

By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcomes.

By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education.

End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.

Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.

Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

2018 Message by UN Secretary-General António Guterres

“The Time is Now: Rural and urban activists transforming women’s lives”

This year, International Women’s Day comes on the heels of unprecedented global movement for women’s rights, equality and justice. Sexual harassment, violence and discrimination against women has captured headlines and public discourse, propelled by a rising determination for change.

International Women’s Day 2018 is an opportunity to transform this momentum into action, to empower women in all settings, rural and urban, and celebrate the activists who are working relentlessly to claim women’s rights and realize their full potential.

Echoing the priority theme of the upcoming 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, International Women’s Day will also draw attention to the rights and activism of rural women, who make up over a quarter of the world population and majority of the 43 per cent of women in the global agricultural labour force.

They till the lands and plant seeds to feed nations, ensure food security for their communities and build climate resilience. Yet, on almost every measure of development, because of deep seated gender inequalities and discrimination, rural women fare worse than rural men or urban women. For instance, less than 20 per cent of landholders worldwide are women, and while the global pay gap between men and women stand at 23 per cent, in rural areas, it can be as high as 40 per cent. They lack infrastructure and services, decent work and social protection, and are left more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Rural women and their organizations represent an enormous potential, and they are on the move to claim their rights and improve their livelihoods and wellbeing. They are using innovative agricultural methods, setting up successful businesses and acquiring new skills, pursuing their legal entitlements and running for office.

On 8 March, join activists around the world and UN Women to seize the moment, celebrate, take action and transform women’s lives everywhere. The time is NOW.

THE GUARDIAN, MARCH 8, 2018
current edition:US edition

The Guardian - Back to home

International Women's Day

International Women’s Day marked by protests and celebrations

Events around the world put spotlight on progress and failings in achieving gender equality

Nadia Khomami, Alexandra Topping, Sam Jones, Kim Willsherand Harriet Sherwood

Thu 8 Mar 2018 12.47 ESTLast modified on Thu 8 Mar 2018 13.12 EST

Women take part in an International Women’s Day rally in Malaga, Spain. Photograph: Juan Miguel Perez Ramos/EPA

Millions of women gathered across the world to strike, protest and party to mark International Women’s Day on Thursday.

Trains stopped in Spain as female workers went on the country’s first “feminist” strike, newspapers dropped their prices for women in France, and the IWD flag flew over the UK parliament.

In India, women marched in several cities including Delhi, Karachi and Kolkata, and women also took to the streets in Bangladesh, Belarus, Nepal, Pristina and Ankara among many others.

International Women's Day 2018: protests across the world as women push for change – live

It was a day of celebration and a day in which the message was spelt out that much work still needed to be done to achieve global gender equality.

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MP Dawn Butler and the Speaker, John Bercow, with the International Women’s Day flag. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

United Kingdom

In London, an International Women’s Day flag flew over parliament for the first time as MPs and peers marked the day with a debate in both Houses of parliament.

The shadow equalities minister, Dawn Butler, said she had been inspired by the flag flying over the Transport for London building on Monday and had approached the Speaker, John Bercow, about a flag for parliament. He approved the plan with less than 24 hours to go, as the House commemorated 100 years since the first women in the UK got the vote.

Bercow said: “We must not sit smugly and think job done; there are still issues of unequal access to the labour market, occupational segregation, women and members of minority groups scaling the heights professionally, there is a substantial gender pay gap.”

More than 100 MPs and peers from all parties wrote to the home secretary, Amber Rudd, calling for women in Northern Ireland to be allowed access to abortion services locally rather than having to go to England.

United Nations

Women tweeted about the global #WikiGap event, organised in partnership with the Swedish foreign ministry. The idea was to get more women contributing to the Wikipedia website to address the gender imbalance on the world’s largest online and user-generated encyclopaedia. The Swedish foreign ministry said: “Knowledge is power and Wikipedia has the potential to colour our view of the world. But there is great imbalance between men and women on the website, like in society at large.”

It said 90% of those who added content to Wikipedia were men and there were four times more articles about men than women. “The figures vary regionally but, no matter how you look at it, the picture is clear: the information about women is less extensive than that about men. Regardless of which language version of Wikipedia you read. We want to change this.”

UN Women Europe &CIS

✔@unwomeneca

On Int’ Women’s Day, more than 50 countries organized #Wikipedia edit-a-thons in partnership with @SweMFA to make the internet more gender equal. UN Women in Georgia, Kosovo and @unwomenbih support the action to close the #Wikigap. http://www.swemfa.se/wikigap/ #TimeIsNow #IWD2018

8:00 AM - Mar 8, 2018

See UN Women Europe &CIS's other Tweets

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International Women's Day 8 March - the United Nations, Google Search,