Women call for greater equality on rights day
‘No country is entirely free from gender-based
discrimination’:
TUNISIA: UN women leaders on Thursday called for greater equality
between the sexes as they marked International Women's Day amid
demonstrations and marches for female rights.
“No country can claim to be entirely free from gender-based
discrimination,” Michele Bachelet, a former president of Chile who heads
the newly-created UN Women agency, told AFP in Rabat.
“This inequality can be seen in persistent wage gaps and unequal
opportunities... in forced child marriage and also in continuing
violence against women in all of its forms.” She called for greater
equality, especially in rural areas where inequality between men and
women is “most marked,” saying progress would help reduce the number of
malnourished children.
UN leaders proposed to hold, for the first time in 20 years, a world
conference on women in 2015, citing “the importance and relevance of
women's issues for global progress.”
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed “enormous progress” on
women's rights but warned that “challenges still remain.” The exclusion
of women from politics and the economy remains the norm around the
world, said Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Official statistics show that women held just 19.3 percent of
parliamentary seats around the world last year. And on the economic
front, just 12 of the world's top 500 businesses are led by women. Four
out of five landowners are men, according to the Food and Agriculture
Organisation, a UN body.
European Union Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom
criticized the low number of women in European governments, while French
euro-MP Sylvie Goulard noted that all European central bank directors
were men.In Europe, three women are heads of government -- in Germany,
Denmark and Slovakia -- while men hold two thirds of seats in the
European parliament.In national parliaments, Sweden has the most women
-- 44.7 percent -- while Hungary has just 8.8 percent.
Nicaragua's parliament on Thursday unanimously approved a law
requiring political parties to have women account for at least half of
their candidates in municipal elections.
Several hundred women demonstrated in Sarajevo in favour of greater
female representation in politics. Quotas say women should hold at least
40 percent of elected posts in Bosnia, but the figure is just 17
percent, protesters say.
“When you read the laws on sexual equality adopted by Bosnia, it
makes the country seem ideal for women, but it's just the opposite,”
said demonstrator Alma Budakovic in Sarajevo.
Thousands demonstrated outside parliament in Tunis to warn against
any attempt by the new Islamist-dominated government to curtail their
rights.
Parliament has begun discussing the new constitution amid calls by
some Islamist parties for base it on religious Sharia law.
“I've come to tell our elected leaders that the rights of Tunisian
women must be written into the constitution,” said Jelila Bellalouna, a
religious teacher in Tunis. AFP |