The GREAT Inititiative - Gender Right & Equality Trust

Mother’s Day plea for the rights of women

March 15, 2010  In the Press

Urgent progress still needs to be made on the rights of women in the developing world. Governments have to act now. GREAT (originally named FAST) decided to gather signatories to endorse this plea that was published in The Observer on Mother’s Day, 14th March 2010.

The world has utterly failed to make progress on the rights of women in the developing world, according to a group of celebrity campaigners who have written a letter to the Observer.

Urging people to lobby their government to protect basic human rights for millions of women, the signatories – who include Keira Knightley, Colin Firth, Naomi Campbell and Glenys Kinnock – say that, worldwide, women still make up 75% of the illiterate population, earn 10% of the income and do two-thirds of the hours worked.

The African Union has declared 2010 the start of the African women’s decade in the belief that liberating women is the key to easing poverty.

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During a week when women’s issues have featured unusually high on the agenda, culminating in Mother’s Day and encompassing both International Women’s Day and the 54th UN Commission on the Status of Women, we feel compelled to point out the lack of progress for millions of our sisters across the developing world who are denied basic human rights.

Two-thirds of all children denied school are girls. Of the world’s 876 million illiterate adults, 75% are women. Women earn only 10% of the world’s income, yet work two-thirds of the world’s working hours.

Domestic violence is the biggest cause of injury and death to women worldwide. Women hold only 14% of the world’s parliamentary seats.

While we join in the celebrations for Mother’s Day today we can’t forget the women dying needlessly in childbirth, or as the first and last victims of conflict, watching their daughters grow up without hope of change and suffering unpunished abuse at the hands of men who are charged to protect them.

We urge men and women for whom such circumstances are unimaginable to challenge their governments to make a priority of the lives of these silent millions, by linking development money with gender empowerment and holding leaders to account for denying 50% of their populations the basic rights we take for granted. It’s to our communal shame that the Beijing Platform for Action, Millennium Development Goal No 3, UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the African Union Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa all remain largely unfulfilled. The AU has declared 2010-2020 “the African women’s decade”. Join us in our fight to ensure that in 10 years these aren’t more redundant slogans.

Without the liberation of women in the developing world there can be no end to the cycle of violence and extreme poverty. The greatest asset of emerging nations is its female workforce. Our mission is to ensure they are given the tools with which to achieve their ambitions.

Bryan Adams; Damon Albarn; Yasmin Alibhai-Brown; Samantha Cameron; Melanie Chisholm; Colin and Livia Firth; Emma Freud; Esther Freud; Rupert Friend; Miriam Gonzalez; Noreena Hertz; Mishal Husain; Sandra Kamen; Beverley Knight; Keira Knightley; Jack and Monique Lang; Henry Porter; Mirella Ricciardi; Richard and Ruth Rogers; Lucy Siegle; Kate Allen, Amnesty; Brigid McConville, White Ribbon Alliance UK; Marie Louise Baricako; Vanessa Branson; Pilar Brennan; Naomi Campbell; Marc Carter; Jo Cox; Nathalie Delapalme; Bineta Diop; Dr Scilla Elworthy; Jendaye Frazer; Mariella Frostrup; Hadeel Ibrahim; Glenys Kinnock; Annie Lennox; Jason McCue; Elle MacPherson; Angelique Kidjo; Brigitte Lacombe; Karen ‘Duff’ Lambros; Ticky Monekosso; Thandi Orleyn; Karen Ruimy; Daphne Trimble; Shriti Vadera; Jasmine Whitbread; – all Femmes Africa Solidarité Trust (FAST)

To view a PDF of the letter, please click here.

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