ARS, Inc. Signs Statement in Support of Redoubling Efforts To Achieve Worldwide Gender Equality In Education by 2015
The Armenian Relief Society, Inc. has signed a statement in support of redoubling worldwide efforts to achieve gender equality in education by 2015. The statement will be presented for consideration by those attending the 51st Session of the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), scheduled for February 26-March 9, 2007 at UN Headquarters, New York.
The statement is centered on accelerating efforts to achieve equal education for female children around the world. Although various UN declarations and conventions have promised gender equality in education by 2015, the statement emphasizes that the gender equality goal will not materialize at the current rate of progress.
“Despite the guarantees enshrined in international law and the oft repeated moral commitment to education for all, girls continue to be denied the full enjoyment of their right to education,” the statement says.
“Notwithstanding what appears to be an international consensus on the importance of improving gender parity and equality in education,” the statement emphasizes, “both from a rights-based perspective and as a means to achieving sustainable development, gender discrimination in education remains a persistent problem. In spite of the progress made over the past decade, the pace remains far too slow to achieve the twin promises of full gender parity and equality by 2015.”
The CSW’s 2007 51st conference will center on the theme, “The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child.” ARS representatives will attend the conference, as they have in the past.
“It was an easy decision for us to decide to sign the statement in support of equal education for the girl-child,” said ARS Inc. Central Executive Board Chairwoman Hasmig Derderian. “The ARS’s endorsement of equal education is consistent with our work in Armenia and in the Diaspora.”
“For example,” added Derderian, “the ARS has just concluded two separate studies in Armenia examining the challenges and risks faced by disabled children and children at risk for child trafficking. Adding the Society’s support to the statement in support of equal education for the girl-child was just another example of our work on behalf of all children, including female children.”
The statement in support of equal education for the girl-child was submitted by the School of the Sisters of Notre Dame, a non-governmental organization in special consultative status with the UN’s Economic and Social Council, known by its acronym ECOSOC. The ARS, Inc. joined with other non-government organizations in signing the statement. The ARS has roster consultative status with ECOSOC.
The ARS, Inc. was established in 1910 and is the oldest Armenian women’s organization in the world. For more information about the ARS, Inc. and its projects, visit the ARS’s website at
www.ars1910.org, call ARS Inc. Headquarters at (617) 926-5892, or email
manager@ars1910.org.
December 21, 2006