|TOP|Not long after the conclusion of the 50th Session of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), Mothers’ Union has expressed its concern over commitment to women’s rights.

The MU representatives said the failure of the CSW to adopt final conclusions on ‘Women and Development’ after two weeks of deliberating “casts a shadow of doubt over governments’ commitment to women’s rights, and to their assertion at the 2005 UN World Summit that gender equality is essential to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” in a statement released this week.

MU also highlighted a number of worrying statistics on women, with more than 600 million women worldwide remain illiterate, compared with 320 million men.

More worrying is the disproportionately high number of women who are HIV positive. Globally, women make up 60 per cent of all 15 to 24-year-olds who are HIV positive.

Despite such stark statistics showing that women are disproportionately affected by poverty, “world governments are finding it difficult to turn promises into reality,” read the statement.

|QUOTE|Ruth Lee, MU Social Policy Officer, said: “Governments have a long way to go to ensure their development efforts involve and benefit women at the grassroots.

“The time for talking is over; it is now time for action,” she said.

The recent 50th Session of the CSW in New York brought together members of Mothers’ Union from countries as diverse as Canada, Rwanda, Scotland, the Solomon Islands, the Sudan and Uganda.

The MU members took part in a dynamic MU event, ‘Bound together, knot tied down’, which used an interactive ‘string game’ to demonstrate the pressures on women from developing countries.

Claudette Kigeme, MU Provincial Trainer from Burundi, told of how women are being empowered to take control of their own development with the help of the MU Literacy and Development Programme.

She said, “Women have been occupying a place they do not deserve.”

The MU statement read: “Ensuring that the Mothers’ Union story is heard at the UN is one way to bring about a shift in the perception of women.”

It concluded: “The Mothers’ Union knows that it is only when all women can claim their rights that governments will be held to account for delivering their promises.”