7th March, 2020
The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) says in spite of the ongoing efforts to promote same opportunities in all areas for the sexes, gender equality has not been attained by any country of the world.
The Chairperson of the Lagos Chapter of FIDA, Mrs Philomena Nneji, made the assertion on Saturday ahead of the 2020 International Women’s Day, commemorated annually on March 8.
The day is to celebrate the social, cultural, economic and political achievements of women and also serves as a focal point in the movement for women’s rights.
The theme for the 2020 celebration is: “An Equal World Is An Enabled World”.
Nneji also noted that the celebration was very significant because year 2020 marks the 25th Anniversary of the 1995 World Conference on Women, which had established the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
She said in spite of the Beijing Declaration, there was still a lot of disparity in the opportunities availed to women in various areas such as education, health and security.
“As a result, no country has been able to achieve gender equality.
“In the year of the anniversary of the Beijing Conference, one is to ask pertinent questions like what is the progress so far?, what has been achieved knowing fully well that over a 189 are in support of the Beijing Declaration.
“They were committed into taking strategic and bold action on 12 important areas of lack, some of which are: poverty, health, health, education, media coverage, among others.
“Looking at all these, 35 per cent of the affirmative action is imperative, how far have we gone? how far have all these things been achieved?
“It is very unfortunate that no country in the whole world can claim to have achieved gender equality, progress has been agonisingly very slow.”
The FIDA chairperson called for equal opportunities for women to make various choices at the workplace, noting that society should not constrain the female gender into being what they do not want to be.
She said that every individual has joined in discussions regarding gender equality in all areas, especially in the workplaces and government.
“The discussion of gender equality is not meant for just women alone; we all are supposed to talk about it, join hands and make it happen by ensuring that we create a world of equal opportunities.
“In a world of gender equality, the citizens will be happier and healthier,” she said.