To the editor:

International Women’s Day has been celebrated in many countries around the world prior to the United Nations General Assembly’s recognition of the day in 1977, a Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace. American women used this day to protest poor working conditions in the garment factories in New York in 1909. Russian women used this day to protest World War I in 1913 and 1919. Since those early years, International Women’s Day (IWD) has become more global in its impact. Worldwide, women are celebrated for their achievements without regard for their background, status, ethnicity, or residence.

Three years after its 1945 inception, the UN General Assembly established the landmark Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For the first time in history, this declaration spells out the basic civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights that all human beings, men and women alike, should enjoy.

Many international platforms throughout the 1990s have attempted to address violence against women and to uncover the links between violence and reproductive health care and rights. Two of those platforms include the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. These historic steps help protect women’s rights and lay out a framework for global action for each participating county.

By the 2000s the UN Security Council recognized that war impacts women differently and calls for women to be a key part in the prevention, management, and resolution of conflicts. Various resolutions have been passed that recognize sexual violence as a tactic of war to putting in place stronger measures to enable women to participate in conflict resolution and recovery. The resolutions recognize that women’s participation is needed in civilian, police, and military operations for peacekeeping. An example of this is the first-ever all-female police unit that India deployed in 2007 in a peace operation to Liberia.

It is important to learn about the history of women’s rights and the role the United Nations has played in helping to achieve a fairer and more equitable world for us all.

Janice Walker

League of Women Voters

Great Bend