Rice: Time for action on women’s rights

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that actions rather than words are needed to improve the position of women.

Speaking to the press after appearing at a conference of women leaders in Brussels, she said, "Women who are in ‘non-traditional roles’ say that the horizons are limitless.

"But in order to make that true, it has to not just be a statement, it has to be an effort to really remove the barriers that prevent that from being true. That means educating girls, protecting girls, giving political rights to women."

The conference, ‘Women: stabilising an insecure world’, was held in advance of international women’s day, which will be celebrated on 8 March.

EU external relations chief Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who organised the event in Brussels, said, "Our focus today is not only on women as victims. Women hold the social fabric together and have extraordinary talents as peacebuilders.

"From Aceh to Guatemala to Northern Ireland, women consistently successfully advocated for greater attention to key social and economic concerns in peace accords."

Rice thinks both men and women should have a role in leadership. "The issue is who can bring leadership?," she said.

"Sometimes women are able to bring leadership on issues that are not broad and not precisely concerning women’s issues. And men have to bring leadership on issues that are broad and relate to women."

However, she does admit that separate value systems still exist for men and women. "The signals that sometimes go to girls and to women about what is possible for them are signals that are different than go to men about what is possible for them."

At another event held for women’s day, European parliament president Hans-Gert Pöttering said that there is a special obligation, especially on men, to help women in difficult situations.

He told the audience at the parliament in Brussels that he would support the idea of a special EU envoy for women’s rights in international relations. The envoy, he said, would form part of the EU’s common foreign and security policy, but must be supported by all institutions.

"The special envoy will speak on behalf of the EU whenever women’s rights are under threat."

• Previous article
• Next article