International Women’s Day this year marked a march for women’s rights attended by thousands of people and the beginning of a two-week long UN Commission on the Status of Women.
“Women’s rights are human rights!” shouted those marching in Manhattan yesterday, referencing the groundbreaking 14th plank of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, made famous in a speech by then First Lady Hillary Clinton. This Declaration and Platform, discussed at the Fourth World Conference on Women, will undergo a 20-year review to examine in the progress made in the implementation of the declaration in Beijing in 1995. About 3,000 people attended the march, a large delegation of which were from the Feminist Majority Foundation, led by Executive Director Katherine Spillar.
“I was proud to march with Girls Learn International and the Feminist Majority Foundation” said Lizzy Hibbard, intern for the FMF’s GLI program. Hibbard described the march as “emotional,” remarking that the number of people, which stretched from 42nd street all the way to 35th, “reassured me how many people believe in the importance of gender equality.”
The 59th Commission on the Status of Women will discuss a number of items over the two-week period, including poverty, gender-based violence, girls’ education, women’s involvement in peace and security, and the launch of Planet 50/50 by 2030, a goal of gender equality by the year 2030.
Media Resources: Chicago Tribune 3/8/15; UN Women News 3/4/15;
