The Solidarity Organization Salutes Women on the Occasion
Of International Women’s Day
Today, International Women’s Day is celebrated amidst challenges and difficulties witnessed by the world in general and women in particular. For in the past these were considered as islands isolated from one another. However today it is one world where peoples' destinies are threatened, where resources are exhausted and people who suffer from the woes of wars raging here and there under the pretext of fighting terrorism.
Countries race by all ways and means to procure weapons and budgets are geared to purchasing arms instead of meeting the basic needs of peoples. Wars break out successively from one country to another. Civilian losses in terms of women and children reached 90% whereas such a rate was confined to military losses in the past.
Although women are the most vulnerable group afflicted by wars such as in former Yugoslavia, as well as presently in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and others, yet they are not included or heard during any negotiations on peace or war. Hence, certain international institutions adopted strategies to safeguard the rights of female refugees and to protect them from being subjected to violence, physical or psychological abuse and other crimes committed against them. Nonetheless, women’s demands or rights continue to be disregarded when political decisions related to peace and war are made.
AAPSO stresses that international resolutions must be implemented such as Security Council resolution No. 1325, the recommendations of Beijing of 1995 and others that give great importance to women in war and in armed conflicts.
Furthermore, AAPSO demands that 8th March 2004 should be a new launch pad for realizing the initiative for a Middle East free from weapons of mass destruction and that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) should be adhered by all.
This can only be achieved by more transparency regarding the possession of such weapons and that all member countries should adopt the mechanisms that mitigate existing tensions.
Hence, we reaffirm the role of civil society in supporting women politically and economically so that they may have the opportunity of being on equal footing with men in securing world peace and security.