International Women’s Day draws my attention closer to home to appreciate the various strides made on the road to women’s emancipation and the respect for man’s and woman’s dignity in my surroundings. In Africa particularly, there have been numerous incidents in the recent past which awoke my conscience, as I strive to evaluate the progress and failures that still characterize our social input in the efforts towards the respect of human dignity regardless of sex, age, and social status.
Once termed the “rape capital of the world” by human rights activists and referred to as the “most dangerous place on earth for women,” the Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) typifies, to me, the most obvious cases of the rampant stereotypes against women and their vulnerability to human rights abuses in the recent past. As of 2013, reports stated that rape cases were estimated at an average rate of 40 women per hour, for ages from 3 to 70 years. Women have been used as a weapon of war and means to spread terror among citizens, let alone the means of family breakdowns. The deputy commander of the UN force in the DRC, Patrick Cammaerk, alluded to this in 2008 claiming “it is more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier right now in the DRC.” The culture of impunity and the lawless state of affairs in the region do nothing to improve the situation.
However, the current trend in eastern Congo is not an isolated case on the global platform as far as threats to equal rights for women are concerned. And the fact that these threats find equal resonance in other parts of the world should be a strong reason to call upon our collective consciousness to search for adequate solutions to address once and for all this situation which threaten our shared humanity.
With the current crisis, we find the Catholic principles of solidarity and defense of human dignity in a dire need of protection and promotion. For it is only through mutual respect among human races that efforts toward economic development can be successful and the recognition of each individual’s contribution to the betterment of society will make our achievements stronger and worthwhile.
Development cannot be stable in an unstable environment; it cannot be adequate and integral also if it is built on policies of inequality and abuse of human dignity. Integral development shall come from our collective efforts, whereby through the recognition of each man and woman’s worth we will be able to share responsibilities and work in unison for the common prosperity of all members of society.
The culture of the “globalization of indifference” has forced us to turn a blind eye to the world’s deadliest tendencies and unjust practices which promote inequality and disparage solidarity and charity among citizens. International Women’s Day, a day like no other, should reawaken us all as one human society to appreciate these fundamental values, namely solidarity and equal dignity; for they are assured vehicles to integral development which goes beyond short-lived gains and open windows of prosperity to future generations.
