International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8. Adopted by the United Nations in 1977, it is a day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women and to call for accelerating women’s equality. IWD highlights the ongoing struggle for gender equality, which is a fundamental human right. Women’s rights are human rights, as enshrined in various international agreements such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
IWD serves as a reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and the importance of promoting and protecting women’s rights as integral to the broader human rights agenda. Women have the right to equality before the law and equal protection of the law without discrimination based on gender. This includes equal rights in all spheres of life, including civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights.
Discrimination based on gender violates the principle of equality and is contrary to human rights principles. IWD focuses attention on eliminating discrimination against women and girls in all areas of life, including education, employment, politics, and healthcare. Women and girls have the right to education on an equal basis with men and boys. This includes the right to access quality education at all levels and the right to receive comprehensive and non-discriminatory education on sexual and reproductive health. In a time where reproductive rights are being taken away from many women, IWD is an opportunity to promote women’s reproductive rights and bodily autonomy, advocating for policies and practices that ensure women can make informed choices about their bodies and health.
IWD also highlights the gender gap within the global workforce. Women have the right to work and to fair and equal conditions of employment, including equal pay for equal work. They also have the right to own property, access financial services, and participate in economic decision-making. However, the latest Women, Business, and the Law report released by the World Bank on March 4th, exposure significant disparities, including that women only enjoy 2/3 of the same rights as men and that even the wealthiest economies provide equal opportunities for women. This same report also revealed a shocking implementation gap on gender reforms. Of the 98 economies that have enacted legislation mandating the equal pay for women, only 35 have adopted transparency measures and enforcement mechanisms.
International Women’s Day serves as a call to action to address these disparities and advance women’s rights for a more equitable and just society.
The library has many resources available on gender equality. Some selections are below:
Women and International Human Rights law: Universal Periodic Review in Practice
Gayatri H. Patel.
ISBN: 9781351235105
On the shelf: 69:1 PAT
From the publisher: This book presents the findings of the first comprehensive study on the most recent and most unique and innovative method of monitoring international human rights law at the United Nations. Since its existence, there has yet to be a complete and comprehensive book solely dedicated to exploring the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process. Women and International Human Rights Law provides a much-needed insight to what the process is, how it operates in practice, and whether it meets its fundamental aim of promoting the universality of all human rights.
The book addresses the topics with regard to international human rights law and will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students interested in the monitoring and implementation of international human rights law at the United Nations. In addition, it will form supplementary reading for those students studying international human rights law on undergraduate programmes and will also appeal to academics and students with interests in political sciences and international relations.
The Struggle for Freedom from Fear: Contesting Violence Against Women at the Frontiers of Globalization
Alison Brysk.
ISBN: 9780190901516
On the shelf: 69:1 BRY
From the publisher: How can we understand and contest the global wave of violence against women? In this book, Alison Brysk shows that gender violence across countries tends to change as countries develop and liberalize, but not in the ways that we might predict. She shows how liberalizing authoritarian countries and transitional democracies may experience more shifting patterns and greater levels of violence than less developed and democratic countries, due to changes and uncertainties in economic and political structures.
Accordingly, Brysk analyzes the experience of semi-liberal, developing countries at the frontiers of globalization–Brazil, India, South Africa, Mexico, the Philippines, and Turkey–to map out patterns of gender violence and what can be done to change those patterns. As the book shows, gender violence is not static, nor can it be attributed to culture or individual pathology–rather it varies across a continuum that tracks economic, political, and social change. While a combination of international action, law, public policy, civil society mobilization, and changes in social values work to decrease gender violence, Brysk assesses the potential, limits, and balance of these measures. Brysk shows that a human rights approach is necessary but not sufficient to address gender violence, and that insights from feminist and development approaches are essential.
Displacement, Human Rights and Sexual and Reproductive Health: Conceptualizing Gender Protection Gaps in Latin America
Natalia Cintra, David Owen and Pía Riggirozzi.
ISBN: 9781529222791
On the shelf: 65:1 CIN
From the publisher: Focusing on the flight of women and girls from Venezuela, this book examines the gendered nature of forced displacement and the ways in which the failures of protection regimes to be sensitive to displacement’s gendered character affect women and girls, and their sexual and reproductive health. Highlighting how categorical legal distinctions between ‘refugees’ and ‘migrants’ fail to capture the dynamics of forced migration in Latin America, it investigates how the operation of this categorical divide generates responsibility and protection gaps in relation to female forced migrants which act as determinants of sexual and reproductive health. Drawing on the voices of displaced women, it argues that a robust political ethics of protection of the forcibly displaced must encompass all necessary fleers and be responsive to the gendered character of forced displacement and particularly to effective access to sexual and reproductive health rights.