International Human Rights Days

The International Day of Rural Women is celebrated every year on October 15th and was first organized and promoted by the Women’s World Summit Foundation (WWSF) in 1995. In 2007 it was adopted by the UN General Assembly through the resolution 62/136 and first promoted with the theme “Rural Women Cultivating Good Food for All” in 2008. Hereby, the resolution recognizes the “the critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty” (UN, 2008).

The International Day of Rural Women seeks to address three of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which are SDG 1 ‘No poverty’, SDG 2 ‘No Hunger’ and SDG 5 ‘Gender Equality’. Rural women contribute greatly to the world’s food system, as they play an important role in the agricultural labor force and in adopting climate resilient land management principles. They make up 43% of the agricultural workforce in developing countries and are responsible for half of the world’s food production. 

However, due to gender inequality rural women are often neglected and treated unequal in land and livestock ownership, decision making, pay, access to resources, credit, markets, education and health care. Thus, they are disproportionately affected by poverty, inequality, exclusion and the effects of climate change ,which due to their position on the frontline of climate change and their agricultural dependence, has a pronounced impact on their living conditions and marginalization. This social group is also more subjected to domestic violence, both physical and sexual, and through a system of shame is often suppressed and unable to report it.

Therefore, due to the marginalized position of rural women, enhancing their equality, through investing in sustainable infrastructure, services and social protection, not only improves their livelihoods, well-being and resilience, but also is “essential to building a prosperous, equitable and peaceful future for all on a healthy planet”, as secretary-general of the United Nations Antonio Guterres pointed out. Changing the situation of rural women for the better is also important in achieving the UN SDG because it would help closing the gap to achieve SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 5. It would also contribute significantly to reaching all the other SDGs as women are lacking behind in all of those according to UN Women (2018). Therefore, helping rural women would help to lead the world to a more sustainable future.

Sources

Jones, R., Usher, K., Rice, K., Morley, L. and Durkin, J. (2023). The shame of sexual violence towards women in rural areas. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing 

Multicultural Cooperation. INTERNATIONAL DAY OF RURAL WOMEN

Peek-Asa, C., Wallis, A., Harland, K., Beyer, K., Dickey, P. and Saftlas, A. (2011). Rural Disparity in Domestic Violence Prevalence and Access to Resources. Journal of Women’s Health, 20(11), pp.1743–1749

SDG knowledge hub (2020). International Day of Rural Women

UN Women. In Focus: International Day of Rural Women

UN Women (2019). Rural women | What we do: Economic empowerment

United Nations. Rural Women’s Day

United Nations. Rural Women’s Day | Background

Vatican News (2018). UN: rights of rural women and girls for peaceful, healthy world

Written by Selma von den Hoff for Yonsei GSIS Human Rights Hub