Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day

If you’re in or near New York City, join Sonke Gender Justice at The March for Gender Equality! We’ll be calling on the South African Government to finally develop, fund and implement a long overdue National Plan to End GBV.

Will our government listen? Or will more lip service and empty promises ensue, despite the human collateral that builds up every single day that the government fails to meaningfully act?

With current world trends, gender equality won’t be a reality for 80 years – not good enough! We’re calling on global leaders to step it up to achieve equity and equality by 2030!

No more gender-based violence, no more discrimination, no more glass ceiling, no more unequal pay for equal work, no more barriers to education for girls, no more sexist laws, no more shooting or killing those who stand up for gender equality, no more patriarchal oppression, no more child brides, no more sexual assault, no more harassment, no more rape in conflict, no more child abduction, no more forgetting about “bring back our girls” (almost a year later!), no more “corrective rape”, no more homo-or-transphobia, no more child abuse, no more sex worker abuse, no more blocking women’s access to termination of pregnancy and reproductive health rights, no more HIV and AIDS, no more domestic violence, no more police inaction, no more intimate-partner murder, no more getting away with murder, rape and abuse, no more inequality!

Globally, Sonke is calling for a standalone gender goal in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)/Post 2015 Global Agenda and for gender transformation and equality to be integrated into all of the SDGs!

Nationally, we’re calling for a comprehensive strategic plan, developed in consultation with South African civil society that is funded, that has measures for accountability, that is multisectoral and that properly addresses prevention! Without it, between now and 2030, rapes will occur in the millions, and intimate partner murders in the many thousands! And every single year, South Africa’s GDP will also lose about 1% (at current estimates).

Lip service is not good enough!

Join us to march for: Planet 50-50 by 2030 – Step It Up!
March from 2:30-5pm, March 8, 2015
Starts 47th and 1st, goes to Times Square

March organised by UN WOMEN and others. Look for the #Sonke Gender Justice banners and t-shirts and come march with us!

If you’re not in NYC, join our and the GBV NSP Campaign Partners’ call for a GBV National Plan by signing our petition: tinyurl.com/gbvplan

By Czerina Patel, Sonke Communications
czerina@genderjustice.org.za
www.genderjustice.org.za
twitter/sonketogether
FB: SonkeGenderJusticeNGO
#NSPNOW

[CP]