IMCS Pax Romana Solidarity Statement On 2020 International Day of Rural Women.

IMCS Pax Romana In Solidarity With Rural Women at their 2020 International Day With the theme: “Building rural women’s resilience in the wake of COVID-19”  for “building back better” by strengthening rural women’s sustainable livelihoods and wellbeing.

Rural women play a crucial role in agriculture, food security and nutrition, land and natural resource management, and rural enterprises. They have been at the front lines of responding to the pandemic even as their unpaid care and domestic work increased under lockdowns, mobility is restricted, supply chains are disrupted, and climate and conflict crises compound COVID-19 impacts.

Over the years, as a catholic student action movement, we have collaborated with rural women in our global actions in rural communities globally and by this solidarity statement, we do not only wish to identify with our partners in progress but most importantly to reaffirm our community in continuous collaborations and partnership with the rural women even at a time like this that Covid-19 have left our work not the same. 

The pandemic has greatly heightened the vulnerability of rural women’s rights to land and resources. Discriminatory gender norms and practices impede women’s exercise of land and property rights in most countries. Since women’s land rights are often dependent on their husbands, COVID-19 widows risk disinheritance. Women’s land tenure security is also threatened as unemployed migrants return to rural communities, increasing pressure on land and resources and exacerbating gender gaps in agriculture and food security.

Gender-responsive investments to expand basic infrastructure, healthcare and care services in rural areas have never been more critical that now. Bolstering women’s land rights in law and practice can help protect women from displacement and losing their sources of livelihood. This International Day of Rural Women is a key moment to galvanize action by all stakeholders to support rural women and girls to not only rebuild their lives after COVID-19 but increase their resilience to be better prepared to face future crises.

IMCS PAX ROMANA SOLIDARITY STATEMENT FOR UNITED NATIONS DAY, 2020

The 24th of October, 1945 signifies the entry into force of the UN Charter. This year we celebrate it as the 75th UN day, marking 75 years of working towards global peace, justice, inclusivity, and sustainable development. We, as IMCS Pax Romana, acknowledge that there is no other global organization with the legitimacy, convening power and normative impact as the United Nations, so it’s only natural that we are coherent with the works of the United Nations. 

This day is imperative to us because our international student movement has been one of the first youth-led NGOs to obtain consultative status within the UN ECOSOC (United Nations Economic and Social Council) back in 1949. Ever since, we’ve not only been actively participating, but also empowering our youth to bring forth their innovations, ideas, suggestions, and beliefs to the UN in order to ensure the future of our world is bright.

UN Day this year comes with the theme: “Closing the Inequalities Gap to Achieve Social Justice”. Social justice is an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations. We recognize the giant roles United Nations are playing to follow through with the theme and ensure a peaceful world for people everywhere. We believe in these core values as well, so we’ve also been following through by acting parallel to the United Nations with our various activities that promote peace and prosperity.

As much as we value this year, we are aware that the 75th anniversary comes in a time of great disruption for the world due to the unprecedented global health crisis; the COVID-19 pandemic. With severe economic, social and political impacts, we’ve been working to create positive changes in the communities we can reach. We urge for countries to unite and cooperate to to minimize the struggle caused by the pandemic and create a positive change and transformation. 

We commemorate the 75th year of the United Nations with our optimism and expectations that the United Nations will lead to connect with the grassroots realities, the marginalized, the vulnerable and those living in abject poverty to alleviate their situations. We urge United Nations member states to show sincerity, honesty, cooperativeness and faithful in their commitments to implement the resolutions and treaties they sign each time they gather in UN Headquarters in New York.

We hope that by the year 2045 as United Nations celebrates 100 years anniversary, we must have built a United Nations where every member state is a legitimate member of the security council, a United Nations that is more proactive than reactive in providing peace among nations at war, a United Nations that treats an African and Asian Citizens in the same manner like an American and European Citizens and verse versa. 

Let’s work for a greater and inclusive United Nations with equal opportunities for all.