Saharawi Women as part of that huge movement that is struggling for peace, justice and iqual rights as men, have conmemorated the International Women´s Day organizing several activities not only in the Saharawi Refugee Camps but also in the occupied cities of Western Sahara and in overseas.
The Saharawi Women´s Association in Europe (AMSE) has invited the human rights activist, El-Ghalia Djimi, to a conference that was scheduled on this occassion where it has payed a great tribute to all those women and men who sacrificed their lives for freedom and justice in the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara.
Mrs.Djimi has explained in her speech the genesis of the occupied Western Sahara conflict, expressing the serious problem of violations of human rights perpetrated by the Moroccan authorities against the Saharawi people.
She also expressed the brutal and bloody repression policy conducted by Morocco, through arbitrary arrests, beatings, incommunicado, torture, rape, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, ejecting of people from helicopters and burial of living Sahrawis.
The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March during International Women’s Year 1975.
Two years later, in December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.
International Women’s Day first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe. Since those early years, International Women’s Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women’s movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women’s conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and economic arenas.
Increasingly, International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.
