Skip to content
Call Us Today! 212-533-4646 | MON-FRI 12PM - 4PM (EST)
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Search for:
About Us
UNWLA 100
Publications
FAQ
Annual Report 2023
Annual Report 2022
Annual Report 2021
Initiatives
Advocate
Educate
Cultivate
Care
News
Newsletters
Sign Up For Our Newsletter
Join UNWLA
Become a Member
Volunteer With Us
Donate to UNWLA
Members Portal
Calendar
Shop to Support Ukraine
Search for:
Print
Print Page
Download
Download Page
Download Right Page
Open
1
2-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
16-17
18-19
20-21
22-23
24-25
26-27
28-29
30-31
32-33
34-35
36-37
38-39
40
“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, БЕРЕЗЕНЬ 2012 WWW. UNWLA.ORG 13 While the status of women has been ste a- dily improving in the United States with gains in both the societal and business spheres (as d e- tailed by Editor Lida Slysh in her article on page 1), the plight of the rural woman continues around the world. This problem is so pressing that this year’s meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which is taking place in New York from February 27th to March 9th, is dedicated to “ the empowe r- ment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current cha l- lenges .” Women in villages, whether it be in Ukraine or any other country, play critical roles by taking on farming chores while simultaneously caring for their families. They perform their house hold tasks, care for community members, grow and harvest crops, tend to livestock, and thus generate fam ily income. Their work is not given its full societal value because it is con si - dered housework when, in fact, it is also actually fundamental to agricultural production. Today’s challenges in rural women ’ s life have been in ten - sified because of worldwid e economic insta bil ity and climate change. (An applicable example is the extremely cold winter experienced during the end of January and the beginning of February in Eas t- ern Europ e.) According to the Non - Govern mental Organizations/CSW Forum 2012 Hand b ook, “r u- ral women are truly the experts in knowing the issues and needs of their families and commun i- ties — and they are taking action to ensure these needs are met. Across the world, they have i n- creasingly been organizing to seek and implement solutions to the challenges they face.” The emp o- werment of rural women can only be realized through the full attainment of their human rights. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which came into force on September 3, 1981, and has been described as an international bill of rights for women , specifically calls for the cou n- tries which ratified this convention to guarantee the protection of the human rights of rural wo m- en. (Ukraine signed the CEDAW agree ment on July 17, 1980, as the Ukrainian SSR.) This year’s CSW session will give partici - pants an opportunity to hear about and share the issues of rural women worldwide through various panel presentations. The World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations, for example, will be hosting a panel entitled “Rural Women: Realities & Initiatives toward Empowerment” and the UNWLA will be participating , with its Pre - sident serving as a moderator. “Conversation ci r- cles” during the CSW meeting will hopefully spur discussions among groups about mutual interests and concerns and give the participants a chance to network and to develop strategie s to help e n- sure that their programs accelerate the emp o- werment of women in rural areas. It is the goal of this year’s session to strive to empower rural women to become the agents of change. While the discussions at the CSW meeting will be all about chang e, one of our themes for the March issue remains the same through the years: it is this month's traditional annual commemora - tion of one of the geniuses of the Ukrainian nation and its culture, Taras Shevchenko. When Alex - ander Archipenko was asked why he created the bust of Shevchenko, he replied, “I am doing this because I believe that likenesses of great national figures of genius are capable of evoking ideas and feelings which will help keep the national co n- science alive. We are well aware that the spir it of a nation always rests on two pillars — one of them political, the other cultural. They cannot exist apart.....together they constitute national unity.” Alexander Archipenko made this pro phet ic state - ment in 1989, two years before Ukraine declared its i ndependence. In response to several recent disturbing events in Kharkiv, in Kyiv, and beyond, where some Ukrainian cultural institutions are threat - ened with elimination, we should remind the a u- thorities in Ukraine that our cultural and histor i- cal awaren ess must be preserved, our na tional consciousness uplifted and not endan gered! And in reaction to the current circum stances of Yulia Tymoshenko's imprison ment, as detailed in the testimony of her daughter, Eugenia Tymoshenko, in Washington, D.C., we should also remind the authorities in Ukraine that its government ratified the CEDAW agreement, guaranteeing the human rights of all women! We look forward to the UNWLA’ s partic i- pation in the NGO/CSW forum and to updating our readers on the results of its sessions in the April issue of Our Life .
Page load link
Go to Top
1 
2-3 
4-5 
6-7 
8-9 
10-11 
12-13 
14-15 
16-17 
18-19 
20-21 
22-23 
24-25 
26-27 
28-29 
30-31 
32-33 
34-35 
36-37 
38-39 
40 
