HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, IN KABUL, CALLS FOR SOLIDARITY WITH AFGHAN WOMEN IN WORKING FOR EQUALITY EVERYWHERE

8 March 2002



The following is the message of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson on the occasion of International Women’s Day, today 8 March:

On this International Women’s Day, I am in Kabul, Afghanistan. I will participate today in a workshop on womens rights organised by the Minister for Women of the new Interim Administration, Sima Samar. Afghanistan gives us a fragile, but none the less real, reason for hope. The country whose name had become synonymous with the worst oppression of women is emerging from its nightmare. Afghanistan is taking its first tentative steps towards reconstruction, even if armed conflict lingers on in parts of this ravaged land. The rebuilding of Afghanistan with the support of the international community holds the promise of returning women to their rightful place in their country’s society. I have met so many committed and capable Afghan women here and can see plainly how much they have to offer to reconstruction and reconciliation. Afghan women survived with courage and dignity one of the most repressive and backward regimes in modern history. Full respect for their human rights must flourish in the coming peace.

The women of Afghanistan can today allow themselves to imagine a life of respect and human dignity. That is still not the case for too many of their sisters around the world. We know too well how widespread trafficking of women, domestic violence and lack of access to health and education are. We know that, sadly, being a woman increases vulnerability to virtually every kind of human rights abuse. At the World Conference against Racism last year, we learned how gender bias compounds racial discrimination. In Bosnia, Sierra Leone and elsewhere, we have seen with our own eyes how women fall prey to gender-based violence during war.

Worst of all because of its pervasiveness is poverty. Poverty hits women harder than men. Women and children make up the majority of the marginalized and impoverished. The work women do is often unpaid and under-valued. Furthermore, women are frequently excluded from economic decision making, and their concerns ignored. Globalization, if left to operate without a human rights compass, will continue to marginalize millions of women in all parts of the world. Vital financial resources for development must be increased and steered towards meeting basic human needs, such as health, education and social services. More must be done to relieve the burden of debt servicing, and to target development assistance to women's needs. We must listen to women’s voices and recognize fully their role and contributions if we are serious about poverty reduction and sustainable development for all. The upcoming International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico offers an important opportunity to make progress in these areas.

The persistence of discrimination against women, and of all forms of bias, stems from a failure to recognize the basic unity of the human family, and within that family, of its members. In denying the other’s basic humanity, I deny myself. This is not a purely abstract observation. It is borne out by one cold, hard fact: without the full, equal participation of women, there is no real development. We have for the most part the laws, the programmes of action, the initiatives. In solidarity with the women of Afghanistan, we must continue to work to bring about a world in which women are everywhere equal in dignity and rights.




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