Women's Day: Gender equality is a human rights issue
A Ugandan activist at the National Museum in a 2017 retire the hoe campaign. AGENCIES PHOTO
What you need to know:
- At the global level, UN Secretary General, António Guterres says the world is at a pivotal moment for women's rights.
Uganda joins the rest of the World today to mark the annual International Women's day.
International Women's Day and national celebrations will be held in Mityana District under the theme: "Empowerment of Rural Women and Girls: Challenges and Opportunities."
The day according to Gender Ministry's Director of Gender and Community Development, Jane Mpagi is also being used to celebrate what she calls tremendous progress in legal and policy reforms when it comes to address women issues in Uganda.
Ms Mapgi says several legal reforms targeting women have been in place right from 1962 but adds that the 1995 constitution and other reforms that have come in place have accorded full equality for all women.
At the global level, UN Secretary General, António Guterres says the world is at a pivotal moment for women's rights.
He says the historical and structural inequalities that have allowed oppression and discrimination to flourish are being exposed like never before.
Guterres says achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls is the unfinished business of our time and the greatest human rights challenge in our world.
He notes that activism and advocacy of generations of women has borne fruit with more girls in school than ever before; more women doing paid work and in senior roles in the private sector, academia, politics and in international organizations, including the United Nations.
Gender equality according Guterres is enshrined in countless laws, and harmful practices like female genital mutilation and child marriage have been outlawed in many countries.
He says he is determined to ensure that during his tenure that the United Nations should set an example for the world.
He says Women's empowerment is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and that progress on the Sustainable Development Goals means progress for all women, everywhere.
Guterres observes that gender equality is a human rights issue, but it is also in all our interests: men and boys, women and girls and that gender inequality and discrimination against women harms us all.
