Meet millennium goals, urge women

Louise Nousratpour
Thursday March 12, 2009
The Morning Star

TUC WOMEN'S conference expressed solidarity with sisters around the world on Thursday.

And it urged global leaders to use this year's G20 summit in London to meet the Millennium Development Goals of ending poverty and inequality.

In a series of motions on the global recession, speakers challenged the assumption that the consequences of the crisis are gender neutral, when history shows that the most vulnerable groups are women, children and elder citizens.

They highlighted how women internationally still make up the majority of the poor, especially in the developing world where they also face high levels of maternal death and are forced to send their children to work.

Unite delegate Monika Taylor welcomed a recent study by the International TUC highlighting the gender aspect of the crisis.

"We need a support system for women and the most vulnerable in society to stop the downward spiral impact that the recession is having on them globally," she urged.

Conference was urged to join the demonstration in London on March 28 - before the April 2 G20 summit on the global financial crisis - to press world leaders to implement strategies that will help the downtrodden.

TSSA delegate Pauline McArdle called for a "properly financed action plan to meet the fifth millennium goal to cut global maternal deaths by 75 per cent."

More than 530,000 women die in pregnancy and childbirth each year because of a lack of medical care and sanitations, conference heard.

Prospect delegate Catherine Donaldson highlighted the horrific plight of Mayan child labour in Guatemala and urged the TUC to forge links with unions in that country.

"Four out of five Guatemalans live in poverty and three out of five in extreme poverty. Over 28 per cent of children between the ages of seven and 14 are compelled to work, an increase of over 300,000 in five years," she noted.

Supporting the motion, FDA delegate Sarah Guerra highlighted the millennium pledge of achieving universal primary education and ending child labour.

Another motion highlighted women's situation in Iraq and the violence they experience specifically because of their gender.

"There has been a 70 per cent increase in religious murders during the past year, with 47 recorded so-called honour killings," UCU delegate Veronica Killen told conference.

She urged the TUC to continue to support the Iraqi Women's League's campaign to end this "spiralling violence."