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| Peace Petition Background |
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International Women's Day, March 8: Commemorated by women and women's groups around the world, this date is designated as a national holiday in an increasing number of countries. The idea of an International Women's Day has multiple roots in events that took place at the turn of the century, including: 1909-In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day was observed across the USA on 28 February. 1910-The Socialist International meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, established a Women's Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women's rights and to assist in achieving universal suffrage for women. 1911-As a result of the decision taken at Copenhagen, International Women's Day was marked for the first time on 19 March in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Less than a week later, on 25 March, the tragic Triangle Fire in New York City took the lives of more than 140 women garment workers, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This event had a significant impact on labour legislation in the US, and the working conditions leading up to the disaster were invoked during subsequent observances of IWD. 1913-1914-Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February, as part of the peace movement brewing on the eve of World War I. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March, 1914, women held rallies to protest the war and express solidarity with their sisters. 1917-With two million Russian soldiers dead in the war, Russian women led a strike for "bread and peace" on the last Sunday in February. Four days later, the Czar was forced to abdicate and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. That historic Sunday fell on 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, but on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere. In recent years, the growing international women's movement, strengthened by four global United Nations women's conferences and parallel NGO forums, has helped make IWD a rallying point for coordinated efforts to demand women's rights and participation in the political and economic process. Adapted from an information sheet produced by Development and Human Rights Section, UN Department of Public Information, Fax: (1-212) 963-1186. Email: vasic@un.org International Women's Day 1998: An appeal on behalf of women in Afghanistan living under the rule of the Taliban has been suggested as a focus for IWD 1998 by Emma Bonino of the European Union. Others have suggested expanding the focus to include all women living in situations of armed conflict. Among demands being put forward are a call for recognition of rape as a war crime, an improvement in the status of women refugees, and human rights training with a gender perspective for all government personnel. Petition from Women of the World to Governments of the World: In 1997, the Women's Peace Petition was launched on International Women's Day, with a demand that annually, for the next 5 years, at least five per cent of national military expenditures be redirected to health, education and employment programmes. This petition has close to 150,000 signatures to date, and will again be "launched" on IWD 1998. The number of co-sponsors has grown to around 150 organizations from every world region. Copies of the petition are available via e-mail, fax, mail or World Wide Web.
Petition information forwarded by International Women's Tribune Centre iwtc@igc.org |
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