In 2010, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted Resolution 64/289 establishing UN-Women, merging the Directorate for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the International Institute for Research and Training in Women (INSTRAW-1976), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Equality and the Advancement of Women (OSAG), and the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
The General Assembly, ECOSOC and the Committee on the Status of Women oversee the above bodies, as well as the UN Executive Board. It consists of 45 members: 13 from Africa, 11 from Asia, 9 from Latin America etc. countries, 8 from Western Europe, 6 from Eastern Europe, 6 from various other countries. Purpose: 1) Leadership and political participation, 2) Economic Empowerment, 3) End Violence against Women, 4) Humanitarian Action, 5) Peace and Security, 6) Governance and National Planning, 7) 2030 Guide to Sustainable Development, 8) HIV-AIDS.
World Conferences for women.
1976-1985 International Women's Decade. 1975 Mexico City Conference. 1985 Nairobi Conference. 1995 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing. In 2009, the 30th Anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was celebrated in Copenhagen. Also, the Conference on the Development of Women in Addis Ababa in 2015.
Certainly, the frequent tragic incidents are known worldwide and especially in our country during the crisis with Covid. In some countries, genital mutilation, gang rape, etc. continue. crimes against women.
And in South Africa the most tragic thing that happens is related to HIV. Whether due to some kind of prejudice, superstition or miserable propaganda, men, believing that if they meet a virgin, they are cured of HIV, blackmail, rape innocent women, thus transmitting the disease to millions.
And a few words about March 8, International Women's Day, whose origins go back 165 years when, on March 8, 1857, the first demonstration of textile workers took place in New York to demand improved working conditions, and which ended in tragedy, as well as the tragic work accident in the same city where 14 immigrant women lost their lives.
Subsequently, and in memory and in tribute to the above tragedies, in 1910 the German Clara Zetkin, a delegate to the Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen, proposed the establishment of March 8 as International Women's Day, which was celebrated in 1911 and adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1977, and is observed by most member countries of the Organization.
Of course, with what is happening dramatically and tragically to the detriment of women's rights in many countries, I wonder if we have the right to talk about a "celebration" of the Day, or perhaps better about a "memorial service"?
Unfortunately, despite the "progress" that has been made in many areas with the significant contribution of the UN and its Organizations, in many cases there is apathy or even regression, especially in some countries. The slave trade of women continues, as well as their social, etc. exclusion, e.g. non-employment of pregnant women, exhausting working hours, low wages, undermining of trade union rights, indirect blackmail and sexual harassment, etc., plus the notorious party and para-party and trade union bribery, as a result of which many young girls are forced to emigrate. This is the notorious brainwashing and labor that some powerful countries have reduced to a super-science!
As for our country, where in World War II tens of thousands of women sacrificed themselves in the sacred struggle for freedom, peace and democracy, they have obviously been forgotten, and it is a tragic irony that leaders of powerful countries, with excessive ingratitude, have ignored our country's vindication of war reparations from the Nazis, who destroyed Greece.
Also, for the tragedy of the Republic of Cyprus, where many women were killed or are missing, and for 47 years there have been Turkish occupation troops in violation of dozens of UN, international law and ODDA decisions.
In March 1908, 15 women demonstrated in New York under the slogan "Bread and Roses," the first symbolizing livelihood and the second general prosperity.
Apparently, however, the world leaders, in the context of unbridled competition, materialistic madness and the arrogance of power, make sure to distribute "sponge cake" instead of bread, and only the thorns from the roses! Apparently, they keep the latter for those, according to Demosthenes, "who are happy in the extreme."
Should, therefore, on the occasion of the "celebration" (observance, it would be more correct) of Women's Day, women, but also men in support, demonstrate with a crown of thorns on their heads?
