DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WIDOWS MUST END, URGES SENIOR UN OFFICIAL ON INTERNATIONAL DAY

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From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 23 Jun 2013 13:00:01 -0400
Subject: DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WIDOWS MUST END, URGES SENIOR UN
OFFICIAL ON INTERNATIONAL DAY
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WIDOWS MUST END, URGES SENIOR UN OFFICIAL ON
INTERNATIONAL DAY
New York, Jun 23 2013 1:00PM
The international community must take stronger action to end
widespread discrimination against widows, the acting head of the
United Nations entity mandated to promote gender equality today said
reiterating that an estimated 115 million widows around the live below
the poverty line and 81 million are subject to physical abuse.

"On this International Widows' Day, UN Women calls for action to end
discrimination against widows so they can live in dignity and enjoy
equal rights, opportunities and full participation in society," the UN
entity's acting head and deputy executive director Lakshmi Puri
<"http://www.unwomen.org/2013/06/international-widows-day-message-of-lakshmi-puri-acting-head-of-un-women/
">said in her message for the Day.

"Absent in statistics, unnoticed by researchers, neglected by national
and local authorities and mostly overlooked by civil society
organizations -- the situation of widows is, in effect, invisible,"
the UN General Assembly said in 2011 when it declared the first
International Widow's Day to be marked annually on 23 June.

Women whose husbands died are at a greater risk of slipping into
poverty, their economic resources often exacerbated by little or no
access to credit or private property, and by illiteracy or lack of
education.

Millions of the world's widows endure extreme poverty, ostracism,
violence, homelessness, ill health and discrimination in law and
custom. Yet widows contribute to society as mothers, caregivers and
heads of households, added Ms. Puri, and their rights should be upheld
by national laws and policies.

These should be guided by the Convention on the Elimination of all
Forms of Discrimination against Women which the UN General Assembly
adopted in 1979, and is often described as a bill of rights for women,
and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

There are more widows this year than ever before, Ms. Puri said. She
attributed the rise to armed conflicts, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the
age difference between partners, with many girls being married off to
much older men.

"Young widows, who were child brides, face great risk with little
protection," the UN official said.

If current child marriage rates continue, more than 140 million girls
will become child brides between 2011 and 2020, according to UN
Population Fund (UNFPA) figures.

The annual session 2013 of the Executive Board of UN-Women is due to
start next week at the UN headquarters in New York.

Jun 23 2013 1:00PM
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