The First Lady of the Republic of Liberia, Mrs Clar Marie Weah, has called for long lasting and meaningful solutions and actions to end all forms of violence against women and ensure women empowerment across all sectors.
Clar made the call on Tuesday at the opening of the ECOWAS Parliament Joint Committee delocalized meeting in Monrovia, Liberia with the theme “Empowerment of Women in the ECOWAS region”.
According to Clar, despite the much improved awareness of women’s worth in society, a lot of work remains undone to ensure women across the ECOWAS region are given the proper recognition.
She however noted that now is the time when collective efforts needs to be taken to find long lasting solutions to issues that affect all women, and not just women in politics or business but all women in the region.
“The theme of Empowerment of Women in the ECOWAS region, speaks of coming together to agree on a common approach.
“For ensuring that no girl or woman in our region feels abandoned or deprived of any opportunity by virtue of her gender.
“There are so many issues that require our attention and to which our focus must be clear, determined and dedicated and to which we must collectively begin to find long lasting and meaningful solutions.
“The issues such as Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), harmful practices, female genital mutilation, child marriage and teenage pregnancy remains high across the region, while access to reproductive health is low.
“Sadly, it must be said that even where there has been progress in peace-building and security across Member States, over the last decade, this has not been translated into actions to end violence against women and girls”, Weah said.
Clar however noted that in Liberia, the George Weah led government has made commitments through several policies in tackling rape and other forms of violence towards women and girls.
She further urged participants at the Joint Committee meeting to engage in the meeting with all seriousness in ensuring issues are properly debated upon and come up with salient recommendations
Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament Sidie Tunis said that ECOWAS on its part has made a clear commitment to prioritise gender equality and women’s empowerment in its framework of regional integration process.
Tunis said that that has become urgent to move from words to actions, stating that the ECOWAS Parliament has also shown several commitments to ensuring women empowerment in the ECOWAS region.
“At the just concluded 2021 1st Extra-Ordinary Session, held in Freetown, Sierra Leone, from 29th March to 2ndApril 2021, the ECOWAS Parliament considered and adopted its Strategic Plan for the 5th Legislature.
“This Plan identified the enhancement of gender equality and women's empowerment as a major strategic are under the Parliament’s participation programme.
“This, if pursued vigorously, would make the ECOWAS Parliament gender responsive and I pledge to do my best to ensure the achievement of that feat within the period of my mandate.
“All these reflect a political will clearly affirmed by all on the need to improve the status of women in our States and to ensure equal opportunity for women and men.
“However, it is clear that there is still a range of institutional, economic, and socio-cultural barriers to women's empowerment.
“Politically, women are still not involved in all the decisions that affect the future at all levels: local, national, and regional.
“This is simply because they are not significantly present in all the elected bodies and assemblies where these decisions are made.
“Socially, women's fundamental rights are still being over looked. In many of our countries, women are still unable to exercise their freedom.
“Including the right to live without the fear of violence, the right to education, the right to family planning, the right to own land and the right to choose their own destiny”, Tunis said.
Tunis however called for collective efforts to implement already existing laws to ensure the empowerment of women in the region.
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