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International Women’s Day
| BACKGROUND |
Injustice, exploitation and discrimination against women justify the institutionalisation of the International Women’s Day (IWD).
8 March 1857, the female workers of a New York textile industry demonstrated against the ill-treatment inflicted on them in their working environment.
8 March 1908, female labourers, once more, staged a protest, insisting more on the injustices they suffer.
In 1910, under the aegis of the Socialist International whose 2nd meeting held in Copenhagen, and through the voice of Clara ZETKIN, the German representative, women denounced all forms of discrimination against them and claimed the right to vote. This was the first demand for Gender equality for which advocated the movement which proclaimed: “We should suppress all that prevents women as well as men from creating, producing, each according to his/her sexually differential human particularity”.
During that same occasion, 8 March was proposed to be declared as International Women’s Day for the purpose of commemorating, rekindling and institutionalising the vital struggle of women for their emancipation. This call was received favourably on all continents.
In 1975, during the first World Conference on Women held in Mexico, the call for Gender equality was reiterated and endorsed by the United Nations. Recommendations were made along that line. The year 1975 and the 1975-1985 decade were respectively declared International Year and Decade of the United Nations for the Woman in order to ensure the implementation of these recommendations. It is in this spirit that in 1977, 8 March was institutionalised by the UNO as the International Women’s Day.
The International Women’s Day is therefore dedicated to the struggle for women’s emancipation. It pays hommage to the women who strated this fight and stands, as the years go by, as the tangible expression of the seriouseness, constancy and above all the topicality of the issue of women’s empowerment that several decades of efforts have failed to resolve. At the same time, it symbolises the awakeness of the conscience of women and the existential struggle of the human being against the environment.
This is an opportunity to review the actions carried out to advance the status and improve the welfare of women, identify the difficulties encoutered and consider the way forward while taking into account new challenges. It is also the moment to develop female capacities, potentials, competence at the service of humanity for a sustainable development.
The International Women’s Day is therefore not an opportunity to take pleasure in feasting and indulging in drunken orgies whiling ackwardly raising the issue of gender equality thereby giving room for pointless debates that only spark off violent debates in the society.
The IWD targets four key objectives:
Sensitising public authorities, the population and the international community on the need to eradicate all that prevents women as well as men from creating, producing, each according to his/her sexually different human particularity;
Sensitising men and women on the socio-cultural obstacles to the effective involvement of women in daily management;
Promoting women as actors of development;
Developing citizenship responsibility.
With a view to implementing the recommendations derived from the first World Conference on Women, held in Mexico in 1975, Cameroon created the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MINCOF) in 1984. This ministry that has undergone several chnages in an attempt to better meet the expectations of women is in charge of elaborating and implementing measures relating to the respect of Cameroonian women’s rights in society, the eradication of all forms of discrimination against women, strengthening guarantees towards equality in all aspects: political, economic, social and cultural.
The International Women’s Day has been celebrated in Cameroon since 1986. Reflections on this day have always centred on the issue of gender and women’s empowerment as is revealed by the themes of the past six years:
1998: Pratices and Discriminatory Customs Against Women.
1999: Women and Leadership
2000: Women and Men of the 21st century for a more equitable and harmonious Cameroonian society.
2001: Together for a Millennium without Discrimination, without HIV/AIDS, without Poverty.
2002: Training and Information of Women towards the fight against poverty.
2003: Gender: Man/Woman Partnership and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
2004: Gender and the fight against HIV/AIDS.
For 2004, the theme follows the same trend and takes into account another problem equally vital to the future of humanity with the objective of further awakening consciences:
The vulnerability of women;
The responsibility of men and women in the development of this vulnerability and in the spread of HIV/AIDA;
Measures to be taken to curb the vulnerability of women and minimise the risk of HIV/AIDS.
International Women’s Day (Complements)
Background
Injustice, exploitation and discrimination against women justify the institutionalisation of the International Women’s Day (IWD).
Actually, 8 March 1957, the female worksers of a New York textile industry demonstrated against the ill-treatment inflicted on them in their working environment.
8 March 1908, female labourers, once more, staged a protest, insisting more on the injustices they suffer.
In 1910, under the aegis of the Socialist International whose 2nd meeting held in Copenhagen, and through the voice of Clara ZETKIN, the German representative, women denounced all forms of discrimination against them and claimed the right to vote. This was the first demand for Gender equality for which advocated the movement which proclaimed: “We should suppress all that prevents women as well as men from creating, producing, each according to his/her sexually differential human particularity”.
During that same occasion, 8 March was proposed to be declared as International Women’s Day for the purpose of commemorating, rekindling and institutionalising the vital struggle of women for their emancipation. This call was received favourably on all continents.
In 1975, during the first World Conference on Women held in Mexico, the call for Gender equality was reiterated and endorsed by the United Nations. Recommendations were made along that line. The year 1975 and the 1975-1985 decade were respectively declared International Year and Decade of the United Nations for the Woman in order to ensure the implementation of these recommendations. It is in this spirit that in 1977, 8 March was institutionalised by the UNO as the International Women’s Day.
The International Women’s Day is therefore dedicated to the struggle for women’s emancipation.
Beyond its commemorative dimension, the IWD stands, as the years go by, as a palpable expression of the seriousness, constancy and above all the topicality, of the issue of women’s emancipation that several decades of efforts have failed to resolve.
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