By Chris Crowstaff, December 2010

2011 is the most significant year ever in the history of women.

There is still more progress needed!

100 YEARS OF TALK

• 100 years ago
  International Women’s Day was launched, with women demanding the right to vote, work, hold public office and an end to job discrimination.
• 66 years ago
  The Charter of the United Nations was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right.
• 63 years ago
  the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• 18 years ago
  the United Nations passed a resolution which said that States should condemn violence against women.
• 17 years ago
  the UN passed a resolution outlining a Platform for Action for States to eliminate violence against women and girls.
• 8 years ago
  the UN passed a resolution saying that States should implement the commitments made in the platform for action.
• 6 years ago
  at the World Summit, world leaders declared that ‘progress for women is progress for all’.
• 5 years ago
  Kofi Annan, Former UN Secretary-General, said… “There is no policy more effective in promoting development, health and education than the empowerment of women and girls.
• 3 years ago
  UNIFEM began a public campaign to ‘inspire’ the member states to act by 2015.
• Two years ago
  current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “Violence against women is… an attack on all of us, on the foundation of our civilization. It destroys health and perpetuates poverty. It strikes against equality and empowerment.”
• 18 months ago
  the UN adoped the Resolution to End Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones

MEANWHILE...

Women as a commodity:

Trading in women and girls is fast becoming more lucrative than the drugs trade - and just as corrupt.