Seventy percent of the world’s poor were women, South Africa’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told the Pan-African centre for gender peace and development conference in Dakar, Senegal, on Sunday
Despite the United Nations’ noble objectives of reaffirming faith in the equal rights of man and woman, women were being generally marginalised in every human activity, she said.
”They continue to be exposed to inhuman conditions; they are still victims of domestic violence; and are at the receiving end of the violence of war, conflicts and its consequences.”
Women were also still being denied access to technology, education, health and access to political decision-making bodies.
”Ironically, despite the three world conferences on women including the Beijing Platform for Action, women are yet to see the benefits of decisions taken at these meetings,” Dlamini-Zuma continued.
Implementing the Beijing Platform for Action would go a long way to attaining the Millennium Development Goals, she said.
Dlamini-Zuma told delegates there was no dignity in hunger, disease, homelessness, unemployment, ignorance and poverty.
”To fight for the eradication of poverty will be part of restoring the dignity of the world.
”To fight against the spread of HIV/Aids, malaria, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases would be to improve the health of women and children who are disproportionately affected by these scourges,” she said.
Using women’s role in the African National Congress (ANC) as an example, she said it was women’s participation in political parties in their own countries that could change the thinking within those institutions to prioritise the struggle for the dignity of women and their emancipation. – Sapa