Paris, March 6 (No.2001-34) - UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura has issued a message on the occasion of International Women’s Day (March 8).

Here is the full text of the message:

“As we enter the 21st century, I am sorry to have to be writing this message.

“I should not need to.

“Violence afflicting women and abuse, especially against women and children, are still prevalent. A broad range of suffering and humiliation, spanning from family and peer violence to international/global trafficking of human beings, forced prostitution, slavery and violence associated with armed conflict and war, is still present in all our societies. We even witness - and condemn - the denial of even the most basic human rights to women in some parts of the world under misguided regimes.

“Rampant poverty and denial of human rights is one of the root causes of violence; indeed, poverty itself is a form of violence. And the victims of poverty, as we know, are above all women and children. Our most urgent task therefore is to help eradicate poverty through bold policies which lift the poor, and especially poverty-stricken women and girls, through education, decent work and sustainable livelihood, a more equitable sharing of resources, full access to information and to communication technologies and, underlying all this, through the uncompromising respect of their fundamental human rights. This agenda is a tall one and we must mobilise all our energies, capacities and resources to succeed.

“Five years after the Beijing Conference, we need to state again, loud and clear, that there can be no sustainable development, neither locally nor globally, if the intellectual capacities, creative potential, practical resourcefulness and leadership abilities of more than half of the world’s population are ignored or suppressed.

“I salute individuals and organisations who are providing leadership and inspiration on the path to gender equality. Their contribution has been seminal in many areas - science, culture, education and communication - and represents both an inspiration and a mandate for us all to do better - and to do better without delay.”

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UNESCO and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have launched the operation Women Make the News 2001 for International Women’s Day. For more information: www.unesco.org/march8