ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT CALLS FOR EFFORTS TO GIVE MEANING TO IDEALS OF WOMEN'S EQUALITY AND EMPOWERMENT, IN INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY MESSAGE

WOM/1042
6 March 1998


Following is the message of General Assembly President Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine) on the occasion of International Women's Day (8 March):

Since 1975, when the United Nations first began marking International Women's Day, the observance served as an important occasion not only to celebrate the contribution of women to securing peace and social progress but also to take stock of how far women have come in their struggle for the full enjoyment of their fundamental freedoms and economic and social rights.

In the recent decades, the world's women have made huge strides towards achieving equality with men, and each year, International Women's Day helped to highlight their accomplishments and focus on existing problems and continuing equalities.

Falling on the year of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Women's Day 1998 takes on special significance as it puts in particularly stark relief the question of human rights as inherent to all human beings, irrespective of their sex, race or nationality. Sadly, as we look at the world today, women still represent a striking majority among those who are most exposed to inequality and injustice. They constitute 70 per cent of the world's poor, they are a vast majority of the world's illiterate adults and they suffer the most from different forms of violence. Their plight is particularly tragic in societies torn apart by conflict and crisis, where women and girls are usually among the first to become victims of strife.

Over the years, the United Nations has striven to create a legacy of internationally agreed strategies, standards, programmes and goals to advance women's rights around the world. In fact, the Charter itself was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. This cornerstone United Nations principle was reaffirmed at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, which declared that the human rights of women were an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights.

This historic legacy carries with it a powerful message that advancement of women's rights is our common responsibility. Today, however, it should be matched with an equally strong action in all areas of critical concern to women's advancement, including such vital issues as poverty, education, health, violence against women, and women's participation in economic and political life. And as we observe International Women's Day, let us join our efforts to give concrete and practical meaning to the noble ideals of women's equality and empowerment .