Celebrating rights by facing today’s challenges
In the past 20 years, over 100 countries have written new, or revised, Constitutions to include equality rights for women.
This year is the 30th anniversary of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Women the world over have always taken an active role in the pursuit of democracy.and it is then that the struggle for women’s equality must intensify.
Research has shown over and over that investing in girls and women is the number one wayto achieve democracy,peace and development. We have just seen three women peacemakers win the Nobel Peace Prize. Women have helped to achieve peace, end conflict and em- power women in their countries, and where there is an increase in women’s empowerment there is a decline in violence and conflict.
In this past year we have witnessed the Arab Spring and the inspirational uprising of women participating equally in seeking justice, freedom, and equality. And we witness the harassment and violence perpetrated against the same women who were marching in Tahrir Square, while women were eliminated from the Egyptian constitutional process. Just as women in the Arab regions will continue with the struggle,so too do Canadian women. Over 40 years ago in Canada the Royal Commission on the Status of Women tabled a massive report on critical issues affecting Canadian women, with over 150 recommendations. Women’s activism on these issues galvanized the unprecedented mobilization of Canadian women to ensure that our equality rights were entrenched in the Charter. Yet half of these recommendations have not been met. In 2012 the Canadian government is being investigated by the United Nations for discrimination against native women and its shocking inaction on the cases of the Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women. The Canadian Government is a signatory to the CEDAWCONVENtion (Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women). Never has its non-compliance been more egregious.
Instead of reducing international development aid and slashing funding to Canadian equality seeking organizations, Canada needs to celebrate International Women’s Day and our Charter of Rights and Freedoms with a vigorous stance on equality. Canada needs to move forward,not backward.