The Words of the Duggan Family
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The Words of the Duggan Family |
New York, USA -- In parallel and side events during the 56th Session of the UN's Commission on the Status of Women, UPF representatives spoke about strengthening the family and combating trafficking of women.
Thousands of women travelled to the United Nations Headquarters in New York to attend governmental, intergovernmental, and NGO meetings regarding the concerns of women around the globe during the 56th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, from February 27 to March 6. The theme of this year's session was: "The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development, and current challenges."
Mrs. Lynn Walsh, Director of the Office of Marriage and Family, and Ms. Genie Kagawa, Deputy Director of the Office of UN Relations, attended the Opening Reception and Women of Distinction Awards Ceremony at the Turkish Mission to the UN. Mrs. Walsh led a "Conversation Circle" on the topic of the family on February 27, to facilitate and network for future collaboration among women. On March 9, Mrs. Kagawa spoke on the dangers of trafficking of women at the 2012 Women's Day Observance sponsored by several NGOs focused on solving the problems of trafficking, enslavement, and HIV/AIDS.
The UN General Assembly passed a resolution on July 2, 2010 creating a new gender entity, UN Women. On September 14 of that year, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Ms. Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile, as Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. UN Women has five pillars with regard to women's issues: (1) encouraging women's economic empowerment; (2) increasing female political participation and leadership; (3) involving women in national development planning and gender budgeting; (4) ending violence against women; and (5) engaging women in peacemaking and peace-building, recovery and reconstruction processes. UN Women is working to have women be the agents as well as subjects of change.
On March 14, Mrs. Tomiko Duggan, Director of the Office of Embassy Relations in Washington, DC, and Ms. Kagawa attended a Women's Foreign Policy Group luncheon in Washington in honor of Ms. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, and Ms. Lakshimi Puri, UN Women Assistant-Secretary-General.
Why was there emphasis on rural women this year? Out of the 7 billion people in the world, 1 billion live below the poverty line of $1.25 per day. Among the poor, 60 percent are women and children. Women are the majority of the poor, and the majority of the poor live in rural areas. Thus, rural women are doubly disadvantaged by being women and by being rural. Traditional practices have often harmed women, leaving them with no property or land inheritance and little access to essential services such as health care and education. There is wide acknowledgement of this disparity. Women produce 60 to 80 percent of the food consumed but own only a fraction of the land; they receive less than 10 percent of all loans and 5 percent of technical assistance resources. But, UN Women encourages women not to be disheartened by such statistics. There is potential, in spite of the problems.
What can UN Women do to address these problems? UN Women is trying to stimulate national governments, the private sector, and development partners to help provide central services. They are looking for an integrated, sustained approach to uplifting rural women and disadvantaged women. In sessions organized by UN Women, best practices in various countries were discussed, such as Timor-Leste, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
"The creation of UN Women has coincided with deep changes in our world -- from rising protests against inequality to uprisings for freedom and democracy in the Arab world," Ms. Bachelet said in her message on International Women's Day, March 8. "These events have strengthened my conviction that a sustainable future can only be reached by women, men and young people enjoying equality together." She added that UN Women will place special focus this year on advancing women's economic empowerment and political participation and leadership.