WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD ARE MARCHING FOR CHANGE

Montreal. March 8, 2000 – Women from all five continents are joining today to kick off the World March of Women against poverty and violence against women. The March is comprised of over 3700 groups in over 149 countries who are committed to joint action on the world stage. Between March 8 and October 17, 2000, women will be busy, drawing the attention of the international community and their respective governments and communities to the urgent need for concrete action to improve the status of women, especially with regard to poverty and violence against women.

The World March of Women is presenting 17 demands addressed to the planet’s decision-makers. The demands represent what women from here and abroad have proposed as solutions to the problems of poverty and violence against women. With regard to poverty, the rules must be changed in the current international economic system, and therefore the March allies itself with various international campaigns in calling for: cancellation of the debt for the poorest countries; elimination of tax havens; rejection of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment; an end to structural adjustment programs for countries indebted to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and an end to cutbacks in social budgets and public services; investment of 0.7% of rich countries’ GNP in increased aid for developing countries; lifting of trade embargoes; adoption of a tax on financial transactions such as the Tobin tax; and the adoption by governments of a legal framework aimed at eliminating poverty and guaranteeing the respect of fundamental human rights.

On the front of violence against women, the World March of Women is targeting the resistance to recognizing and respecting women’s equal rights, calling for: the ratification and implementation of international conventions and covenants that treat the question of discrimination and violence against women; adoption of protocols to facilitate action against countries who refuse to comply with conventions such as the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child; harmonization of national laws with international instruments recognizing fundamental human rights, including those concerning sexual orientation; ratification and recognition of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court; adoption of national action plans to combat violence against women, including the campaign against traffic in women and girls; adoption of disarmament policies; and recognition of the right to asylum of women victims of discrimination and persecution.

The World March of Women is a political action; an affirmation of citizenship by thousands of women worldwide who have committed to impressing upon the conscience of humanity the truth that poverty and violence against women are blights incompatible with human dignity, and therefore must be eliminated.

Initiated and coordinated internationally by the Fédération des femmes du Québec, the World March of Women has been adopted by each of the participating countries. In all these countries over the coming months, groups will be holding educational workshops, conferences, festivals, rallies and marches in an effort to raise public awareness of women’s reality, to present women’s demands, and to convince their respective governments to give a positive response to the March demands.

A vast popular education campaign is being launched today, including a signature campaign in support of the World March demands. We expect to collect 10 million signatures which we will deliver to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, during the October 17 world rally in front the UN in New York.

The March demands are also addressed to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. We are inviting the presidents of these institutions to meet with the international delegation of the March who will be in Washington on the occasion of the American women’s march, on October 15, 2000. These institutions play a decisive, often disastrous, role in the lives of billions of women and men, which is why we want to present the March demands to them.

More than ever, in the months to come, women will be present on the public scene as actors of profound social change. Women are organizing concrete actions to improve the state of their communities and attack the poverty and violence of which they are the victims. As a way of paying tribute to all the women at the grassroots level who are working daily to improve women’s lives, we have produced a collection that evokes the richness of a worldwide women’s movement working for change and proposing alternative solutions. Changing the World: Step by Step, A Mosaic in Tribute to Women's Struggles Worldwide is an awareness-raising tool that illustrates women’s conditions and their commitment to survive and fight back. It is also a clarion call to action for social transformation.

October 17, 2000, will mark the crowning point of this March, undertaken collectively by women around the world. Women will gather simultaneously in communities throughout the planet to signify their support for the March and demonstrate their determination to follow in the footsteps of their 20th century foremothers, making the 21st century a time of great strides for the feminist revolution, the most beautiful and peaceful of all revolutions.

And we come marching, marching . . . in global solidarity.