We are gathered here today to advance the objectives of International Women's Day, which first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the 20th century in North America and across Europe.
This is a day when women are recognised for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural or economic. It is an occasion for looking back on the struggles and accomplishments and, more importantly, for looking ahead to the untapped potential of future generations of women and the opportunities that await them. In South Africa, through the revolutionary work of the late Charlotte Maxeke, this day becomes important in our calendar and advances the cause of women.
As the ANC, we want to join the global community, particularly the women of the world, in commemorating this year's International Women's Day. The theme accords the global community and our nation the opportunity to affirm our crucial commitment to equality, freedom and the advancement of women.
The ANC wants to acknowledge that the landscape for women's rights has dramatically changed over the past two decades and that in many countries across the world the fight for gender equality, particularly ensuring that women and men enjoy equal rights, is no longer as much about women's legal status but more about the socioeconomic conditions that women face in their daily lives.
We would like to take this opportunity to salute and pay tribute to the many women and civil society organisations across the globe for their courageous and resolute fight for gender equality. As we commemorate International Women's Day this year, the people of North Africa are in protest and struggle to democratise their countries and protect their national sovereignty. No doubt these developments have claimed hundreds of lives and left many women and children in even more desperate conditions of destitution, hunger, homelessness and violence. We want to take this opportunity to affirm our continued support for the people of the Arab world, in particular women, as they undertake the daunting task of reclaiming and rebuilding their lives.
We want to call on agencies such as the United Nations and on government leaders, including the government of our country, to expand their focus in prioritising the provision of aid and assistance to women and children when it is required.
We also want to take this opportunity to express our solidarity with the women of all conflict-ridden regions of the world. As much as we want to acknowledge that our nation has more enormous progress to make in dismantling discriminatory legislation, policies and practices that undermine and attack the dignity and rights of women, we are also concerned that we have not moved decisively in advancing the objectives of this day. We want to see more resolute political will and firmer commitment to equal access to education and training for women, as well as decent work.
As much as we as a country are proud of ourselves for being among the 10 nations of the world with the highest representation of women in Parliament and in the executive, we are under no illusion that the daunting challenges that lie ahead are not numerous. We are also aware that the battle for gender equality has shifted towards putting together all our efforts to ensure that women genuinely experience a better quality of life and equality in all aspects of their lives.
We continue to be concerned by the fact that despite the rights espoused by our Constitution and other pieces of ground-breaking legislation, some women in South Africa have not yet enjoyed their rights due to the lack of monitoring and implementation thereof. Similarly, in some parts of the world, women are marginalised.
South Africa is committed to advancing the rights of women and children and people with disabilities and the struggle for decent work. We have made tremendous progress in the real meaning of equality, despite the fact that women are still trapped in poverty and unemployment.
In the light of globalisation, cross-border movement and the possibilities for sex trafficking and the trafficking of humans and children seem to be on the rise internationally. In South Africa women continue to be vulnerable to being prostituted by male-dominated ranks. Prostitution is a cornerstone of the system of inequality between the sexes.
In some rural areas and sections of provinces such as the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, schoolgirls are subjected to forced marriages in the name of tradition. We must distinguish between our cultural traditional practices and crime in the form of child trafficking and abduction, and our police must arrest the perpetrators of such crimes.
The achievement of gender equality will only be realised through leadership and commitment from both men and women. Article 13 of the Southern African Development Community protocol commits all of us to ensuring the inclusion of men in all gender-related activities, including gender training and community mobilisation. This means that all men and women bear the responsibility of combating the abuse of the human rights of women and children and we must support initiatives where men are also actively involved in the efforts of women, children and people with disabilities.
We have a very clear commitment to gender equality at the national and regional level. We must not give up pursuing our goal of closing the gap between the daily experiences of women in South Africa and the aspirations expressed in our Constitution. As the ANC, we want to affirm our commitment to remain at the forefront of the struggle to address and improve the condition of women in our country and enhance solidarity with international struggles.
We know that emancipation of women in our country and the world is incomplete without the eradication of poverty. We therefore call on this House to embrace the theme put forward by the United Nations this year, namely that all of us have to fight for equal access to education, training, science and technology as the pathway to decent work for women.
In conclusion, we need to focus on the needs of women, children and people with disabilities and mount local, regional and international campaigns to advance the objectives of this day. It is through mass-driven and socioeconomic transformation that we can transform gender relations and dismantle patriarchal power structures within the world system. This requires a co-ordinated struggle led by the international women's movement. Malibongwe! [Let it be praised!] I thank you.