Rights & Democracy supports World March of Women 2000
Today, on International Women's Day, women from around the world will launch the World March of Women 2000, an international campaign to pressure governments and the United Nations to renegotiate a new world order without poverty or violence.
MONTREAL - March 8, 2000 - Today, on International Women's Day, women from around the world will launch the World March of Women 2000, an international campaign to pressure governments and the United Nations to renegotiate a new world order without poverty or violence.
"The statistics on poverty and violence against women are alarming, particularly in conflict situations. The majority of civilian victims of war are women and children. Almost every adolescent girl who survived the Rwanda genocide was raped and during the war in the former Yugoslavia more than 20,000 young girls and women were raped by soldiers," said Warren Allmand, President of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development.
"Today Quebec women are joining women from the Balkans, South Africa, Rwanda and Sierra Leone in reconstructing a society based on peace and reconciliation. Their work cannot be ignored."
The International Centre is pleased to support the World March of Women through its Women's Rights Programme and the participation of its Coordinator Ariane Brunet on a number of advisory committees. The March will culminate with thousands of women from almost 150 countries demonstrating before the headquarters of the United Nations demanding respect of their fundamental rights.
The Centre is providing funds to allow women in developing countries, notably Burma and Thailand, to participate in the World March of Women related activities and to allow a number of indigenous women from the South to take part in this international campaign. Part of the funding has allowed the production of a special video message for the World March of Women by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma.
Since its inception, the Centre has focused on mainstreaming women's rights as human rights and has gained an expertise on violence against women, particularly in conflict situations. Through the NGO Coalition for Women's Human Rights in Conflict Situations, it works to find ways to ensure that States are held accountable for violent acts against women and to create the legal precedents needed to recognize violence against women in conflict situations. It has intervened before the International Criminal Tribunals on Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia and has extensive publications on women's rights, including: Women and Peacebuilding
It recently launched with Amnesty International a series for activists looking to collect data on women's rights violations, which includes A Methodology for Gender Sensitive Research and a booklet Documenting Human Rights Violations by State Agents: Sexual Violence. Another booklet in this series is slated for publication later this year on documenting violations against women in armed conflict situations.
The Centre continues to support the important work of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences, helping to define the legal framework of her mandate and establishing a methodology for her work. It also supports the work of the Special Rapporteur on Women's Rights in Africa.
For More Information
Patricia Poirier, Director of communications, or Tel : (514) 283-6073 Fax: (514) 283-3792
Augie van Biljouw, Deputy Director
