Blog – I Am My Bodyguard

#EachforEqual: Women’s Rights are Human Rights

This being the month that we celebrate the International Women’s Day on 8th March, it has been quite refreshing to wake up to the news of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sentencing. Harvey was sentenced on Wednesday to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault. Finally the women get retribution for the awful crimes Harvey committed against them. Cheers to Judge James Burke! I trust 68-year-old Harvey will have a long period in jail to reflect on all the women he has assaulted over the years, and perhaps be remorseful enough to own up to his felonies and apologies to the survivors.

Cringe. Away with Harvey. This year’s International Women’s Day theme was ‘I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights’, which seeks to bring together people of every gender, age, ethnicity, race, religion and country, to drive actions that will create the gender-equal world we all deserve. Women’s rights are human rights. And these rights include the right of self-defense, which is the right for people to use reasonable force or defensive force, for the purpose of defending one’s own life, including in certain circumstances the use of deadly force. In 2020, women’s rights and gender equality will take center stage.

The world also marks the 25th anniversary of the fourth World Conference on women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) — a progressive roadmap for gender equality; and the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in March. The women’s movement and its allies are calling for economic justice and rights for all; bodily autonomy, sexual and reproductive health and rights; and feminist action for climate justice.

Since its inception I Am my Bodyguard has continued to lend firm support to the Beijing Platform for Action especially in implementing section D on ‘preventing and eliminating violence against women’. It is widely recognized that preventing violence against women plays a key role in helping to address structural barriers and discriminatory norms in society. I Am My Bodyguard is a central stakeholder in the achievement of gender equality and women’s rights.

As we recognize all of the actions we can take as individuals to challenge stereotypes, fight prejudices and celebrate women’s achievements, let’s acknowledge small actions can have big impacts in making this vision a reality. And so does your support to I Am My Bodyguard, whether you contribute in kind or by spreading the word, your support is invaluable to us. By becoming a FRIEND of I Am My Bodyguard, you will be supporting us in many ways.

PS: We will be conducting several workshops end of March in Nairobi, Kenya, where we will introduce the Fight Like A Girl training. Let’s hope the Corona Virus will be contained by then.

Remember wash/sanitize your hands at ALL times. Stay Safe.

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