8 March
ANNUALLY on March 8, countries celebrate International Women’s Day, providing an important moment to showcase their commitments and raise awareness about women’s equality.
On the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the UN Women’s “Generation Equality: Realizing women’s rights for an equal future” campaign demands equal pay, equal sharing of unpaid care and domestic work, an end to sexual harassment and violence against women and girls, health care services that respond to their needs, and their equal participation in political life and decision- making in all areas of life.
A democratic society is based upon the principle of “all human beings have equal rights”. Contesting for elected office and voting in elections are the rights of all people.
The Union Election Commission will hold the 2020 general elections this year, with women running for office.
According to the 2014 Myanmar census, the population of women is higher than of men, but the number of women candidates reached only four per cent in the 2010 general elections and 13 per cent in the 2015 general elections.
As more women are expected to compete in the 2020 general elections, it is necessary to prevent disinformation and hate speech directed at women candidates, to promote equality in elections.
Today, on International Women’s Day, we would like to urge the people of Myanmar to be on alert to the potential misuse of social media to spread false news and disinformation about female candidates in the general elections.
This is the pragmatic way to promote the rights of women in our country.
Globally, even as more women are participating in politics, they are facing not only the usual scrutiny involved in assuming a public role, but also a greater degree of danger due to the ways they are targeted, in terms of threats, intimidation, and personal attacks through social media.
Violence towards women and girls is being labeled as a global pandemic. The World Health Organization said that violence against women is a “global public health problem of epidemic proportions, requiring urgent action.”
Violence against women in politics is a violation of human rights, and by hindering women’s political participation, it is also a violation of women’s political rights.
Let us remind everyone what the State Counsellor said at the International Women’s Day celebration last year, “The more women get their rights, the higher the standard of human rights of a country.”
We need to protect and end all forms of discrimination against women and girls, to ensure raising the standards of human rights in our country.
GNLM
