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Honorable W/o Netsanet Asfaw (Government Assistant Whip with the rank of State Minister of the House of People’s representatives and Board Member of the National Coalition for Women against HIV/AIDS) -Ethiopian Delegate |
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Your Excellencies It’s my pleasure and honour to be invited to say a few words here today. I would like to take you on our journey here in Ethiopia, for the emancipation of women, bringing peace to the family and the community, what Ethiopia is trying to do. Ethiopia has 80 languages, cultures, and ways of life. We have one of the oldest histories in the world. We have an African alphabet and the first written music in the world; we have a unique political system you don’t find anywhere else.
We have eight heritage site and are home to the AU, this is the second home of every African. Until eighteen years ago there was also the oppression of women, and child marriage, and abduction. Now we are engaged in a struggle to get rid of this through a great constitution which provides for us equal access and control of resources, equal participation, affirmative action in education and health and the removal of all harmful practices against women and children. This law supports the women’s policy, the family law – all arrangements pushing ourselves forward. Would not be possible without women leaders fighting to remove these obstacles. Creation of Coalition of Ethiopian women against HIV/AIDS, spearheaded by the First Lady. See HIV not in isolation of gender inequality, harmful practices. Abolition of most horrendous practice of FGM in Afar. We have achieved in Afar the declaration of this practice as ‘haram’ a forbidden practice. This was an operation, cutting of mutilation of the genital parts of a little girl only eight days old. Many babies perished because of that. Scars often prevented delivery later. We approached this through the constitutional rights for a better life, for political participation, and a better humane culture. The approach of the coalition to stop HIV/AIDS was not just to speak about HIV/AIDS but poverty, gender equality and the elimination of backward practices. The FIRST LADIES joined up with the communities at every level, and last year the people of Afar along with their elders and religious leaders declared this a forbidden cultural trait and I would like this house to celebrate the lives of all these people in the Afar region for being counted to stop this practice from their community. We still have abductions, child marriages, rape, now there is trafficking. If we could remove FGM from Afar there is no region we cannot stop all these practices under which Ethiopian women have suffered for so long. I would like to recognize the great work done by the first lady of Ethiopia and the great work of the First Ladies of all Africa who are trail blazers and struggle to bring a better life for Africans in this great continent. |
