International Women's Day

On 7 March 2008, the Commonwealth Secretariat will celebrate International Women's Day with a special lecture by renowned academic Naila Kabeer on 'The Case for Financing Gender Equality.' The theme for this year's International Women's Day is 'investing in women and girls.'
Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Director of the Secretariat's Legal and Constitutional Affairs will speak about 'Moving towards Women's Increased Access to Justice.'

Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith is hosting the event, organised by the Secretariat's Gender Section. At the event, the Commonwealth's publication 'Mainstreaming Gender in Social Protection for the Informal Economy,' written by Dr Naila Kabeer, will be launched.
At the end of their presentations, both speakers will be given an opportunity to answer questions from the audience.

Sarojini Ganju Thakur, Head of Gender at the Secretariat, said the event aims to carry forward and disseminate issues raised on financing gender equality, that were identified by the Commonwealth's 8th Women's Affairs Ministers Meeting in Kampala last June.
In their communiqué, Commonwealth ministers noted that increased investment in gender equality within the development and democratisation processes must become a priority to ensure sustained economic growth and the achievement of democracy, peace, security and development.

The Secretariat's new publication is part of its programme to support implementation of the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015, in which member governments identified 'gender and poverty' as a priority area for action.

In this book, Dr Kabeer, a social economist and Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, highlights the need to promote gender equality in the informal economy - where jobs are not regulated by economic or legal institutions.
She also explores the constraints and barriers that confine women to poorly remunerated, casual and insecure forms of wage and self-employment.

The issues raised and recommendations made in the publication resonate with the theme of International Women's Day, which is investing in women and girls. International Women's Day will take place on Saturday 8 March 2008.

Senior U.N. officials urged all countries to mark International Women's Day on Saturday with renewed efforts to end rape, forced prostitution and other violence against women.
Joanne Sandler, acting director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women, called on member nations to seize the chance "to break new ground in the struggle for women's rights" as they mark the annual event, which is being observed Thursday at U.N. headquarters.
She said Wednesday there is an "urgent need to end violence against women in all of its forms."
Assistant Secretary-General Kathleen Cravero also focused on violence against women, urging the U.N. Security Council to back up an eight-year-old pledge to protect women and girls from rape and sexual abuse during armed conflict with bolder action.
She argued that peaceful societies cannot take shape when half their populations live in fear.
"Rape is a crime and must be stopped," said Cravero, who directs the U.N. Development Program's Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery.
In an open letter to the Security Council, she praised its members for taking the "historic step" in 2000 of approving a resolution aimed at ending rape during wartime, saying it had sparked progress in the Congo and East Timor.
But Cravero stressed that much more must be done worldwide.
"In spite of these pockets of hope, women and girls continue to be raped in alarming numbers," she wrote. "Violence against women has taken the form of ethnic cleansing, mass rapes, forced prostitution."
"In the face of the mind-numbing brutality women face in conflict situations, can a viable nation emerge? Can a nation consolidate peace when half its population lives in fear?" Cravero asked rhetorically.
She called on the council to ensure better monitoring of how states treat civilians during conflicts. She also called for a systematic collection and review of data on violence against women and for the serious investigation and punishment of perpetrators.
Sandler said in a statement that her office was working to raise more money to "end sexual and gender-based violence in women's lives, in both conflict and non-conflict situations" as part of a new campaign to fight violence against women announced by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Feb. 25.
She said the fund she heads, known as UNIFEM, aims to raise US$100 million (euro66 million) a year by 2015 — far more than the US$15 million (euro10 million) raised in 2007.