Category: News

MESSAGE ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY FROM SECREATRY GENERAL BAN KI- MOON "Gender equality and the empowerment of women are gaining ground worldwide. There are more women Heads of State or Government than ever, and the highest proportion of women serving as Government ministers. Women are exercising ever greater influence in business. More girls are going…

Message from International President Alice Wells: Each year around the world, International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8. Thousands of events occur not just on this day but throughout March to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women. In fact, International Women’s Day has been observed since the early 1900’s. International Women’s…

UN Women Press Release Focus is on initiatives with high impact on women’s political and economic empowerment. United Nations, New York, 1 March 2012 — At a high-level event at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York, Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director, issued a new call for proposals for…

Soroptimist International Assistant Programme Director, Anusha Santhirasthipam, was selected to address CSW member states and civil society representatives during a panel on the role of gender-responsive governance and institutions for the empowerment of rural women. Soroptimist International called Government attention to the following three areas: 1.     Information Women farmers often struggle to access the information and…

UN DESA Press Release “For 50 years, we have been working together to ensure that development is primarily about people,” underscored Mr. Sha Zukang, UN DESA’s Under-Secretary-General and the Rio+20 Secretary-General, at the opening of the 50th session of the Commission for Social Development on February 1st. The session, with its priority theme “Poverty eradication”, was…

Have you ever wondered what role UNESCO plays? Here, SI UNESCO Representatives Marie Christine De La Barbelais and Dominique Mertz report back from the 36th UNESCO Conference where the role and achievements of UNESCO in 2011 were reviewed: This was the title of the opening statement to the 36th UNESCO Conference which took place at…

SI UNESCO Representaive, Rina Dupriet, attended the January meeting of the NGO Joint Programmatic Commisson for Sustainable Development. Severals proposals were forwarded for consideration by Rio+20, closely matching the priorities of Soroptimist International: – Poverty eradication – Creation of safe water supplies – Empowerment of people through education and leadership for women – Improvement of…

Last week, SI UN Representatives Alice Odingo and Rose Mwangi attended a series of meetings at the UN Environmental Programme  (UNEP) in Nairobi. Global Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum (GMGSF): 18-19th February SI attended the second day of the meeting.  A great deal of discussion centred on Rio+20 and how success at the conference would…

Women, men and children came out in force to celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2011 with Women for Women International’s Join me on the Bridge campaign. There were 464 events in 70 countries on 6 continents worldwide – and Soroptimists were there too! SI Cambridge, UK (above) and SI Karachi…

In September, Soroptimist International joined with over 90 NGOs to sign a statement calling upon the Member States of the UN to include mental health as a non-communicable disease (NCDs), in recognition of the fact that good health requires mental well being in addition to physical well being. This was presented during the UN General…