International Womens Day 8th March 2007
International Women's Day (8th March) is an occasion marked by women's group around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. March 8 is a time to celebrate change, to reflect on the progress women have made. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.
International Women’s Day (IWD) is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. The Charter of the United Nations, signed in 1945, was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. The United Nations Organization has helped create a historic internationally agreed legislation, strategies, standards, programmes and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.
Today, a central organizing principle of the work of the United Nations is that no enduring solution to society’s most threatening social, economic and political problems can be found without the full participation, and the full empowerment, of the world’s women.
IWD’s dinner in Darwin has been organized by the Multicultural Council of the NT (MCNT) over the past ten years. The MCNT Committee believed that we need to celebrate and acknowledge women’s contributions to society.
This year the MCNT celebrated International Women’s Day with a Dinner at the Sky City Casino Ballroom on 8th March. The Dinner was a sell-out, with over 150 people attending, including the Hon. Clare Martin, Chief Minister; the Hon. Delia Lawrie, Minister for Multicultural Affairs; Sue Bradley, Co-Chair of the NT Statehood Committee; Carolyn Richards, Ombudsman for the NT, and women from across all sectors of the NT Community.
MCNT President, Jenny Medwell represented the Multicultural Council, Alderman Dorothy Fox presented the ‘Welcome to Country’ and Professor Helen Garnett, Vice-Chancellor Charles Darwin University gave the Key-Note speech. ABC journalist Naomi Edwards performed the role of Master of Ceremonies introducing a splendid array of entertainers ranging from the One-Mob Indigenous dancer, through to the Liberian Dancers, Aboriginal performer Mandy Garling and ending with ‘The Spanners’ (the 457 Band).