ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY MCALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF THE UNICEF LUNCH - THURSDAY 12TH MARCH 1998
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY MCALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF THE UNICEF LUNCH - THURSDAY 12TH MARCH 1998
In “commemorating motherhood” as we do every year on Mother’s Day, we pause and reflect on our own circumstances and those of other mothers throughout the world. It is a time when we count our own blessings and good fortune – a time when we compare them with the “blessings” that others endure – with the struggles, the obstacles, the good times and the bad. As a start, though, we look for the common denominator in mothering and motherhood. All of us who are fortunate to be mothers, know of the great desires and sense of duty that we have as home keepers, educators, as nurses of children and as teachers of holy things – to do what is absolutely best for our children – to show them the way – to provide for them – to educate them – to protect them – to do right by them.
That duty and responsibility puts us all into the same category. We speak the same language – we share the same fears – we have the same hopes and desires for our children. That role is summed up very well by Katherine Tynan, in her poem “Any Woman”:-
“At me the children warm their hands;
I am their light of love alive
Without me cold the hearthstone stands
Nor could the precious children thrive”
For many mothers, these duties, these dreams and hopes, cannot become a reality. For those for whom the provision of a basic existence for themselves and their families represents a dream – a dream which can seem unrealisable. The things that many of us take for granted – those natural aspirations for our children are not even “dreamt of” in their “philosophy”. For many who are enslaved by domestic violence, alcoholism or illness, or who are bearing the brunt of civil conflict – these hopes and dreams seem so far from their reality. There are those too, who have to live with the pain and frustration of watching their children suffer from abuse and deprivation – those who are like, as St. Matthew puts it, “Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not”.
It is important too to bear in mind that suffering and struggling of women is not confined to developing countries, or to places where there is conflict and disaster. In the towns and cities of the developed world, in the lanes and byways of modern economies, women too suffer from limited access to means and opportunity. Only yesterday, I spoke with a Dublin woman who had ‘missed’ an essential part of her early education and, as a result, had to face a literacy problem in recent years – a problem, I might add, that she was forced to face when one of the five children she had protected and educated, wrote to her from his new place of work in Germany, and when she found herself ashamed that she was unable to pen a reply. Her sense of anger at being deprived of a basic right was palpable and was matched by an equal sense of confidence and self-esteem at being finally allowed access to a world which we here today take for granted. Meeting that woman, who had lived with the shame of a predicament which was not of her making, brought home to me how much we need to look at our own place too – to release those who are confined by limited access to education and culture – to empower them to take their rightful place in our own society.
As we commemorate motherhood today, we think of the great strides that have been made over the last three decades, as reflected in the statistics for increased life expectancy, reduced child deaths, reduced malnutrition, and increased adult literacy in poor countries. The impressive statistics, however, conceal the great imbalance that still exists in the distribution of wealth – with 70% of the world’s poorest people being women - and the burden on women who still do two-thirds of the world’s work hours, receive a tenth of the world’s income, own less than a hundredth of the world’s property, and continue to face problems such as low life expectancy, high levels of infant, child and maternal mortality, limited access to safe water and sanitation, malnourished children and low literacy rates.
While much has been done, particularly in recent years, to address the many obstacles and burdens that women face, clearly there is much work yet to be tackled. The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing focused world attention on the grim realities of life for the millions of innocent victims of war and political upheaval. The Beijing Platform of Action emphasises that “Sustainable development and economic growth that is both sustained and sustainable are possible only through improving the economic, social, political, legal and cultural status of women.” Giving power to women is not only an essential goal in itself, but forms an essential goal in enabling society to address the challenges of the future. It is incumbent on all those who today sit in the board rooms and managerial suites of the world to look to their own workplace - to see where imbalance exists – to fulfil their duty to women - and to ask themselves to what extent they have included women in their organisations – what have they and their organisations contributed to their empowerment.
For the longer term, improving access to education for girls is the key to enabling more and more women to attain leadership positions at all levels of society – as the African proverb tells us “If we educate a boy, we educate one person. If we educate a girl, we educate a family and a whole nation.”
Tackling poverty is recognised as the most urgent task facing individual countries and the international community today. For people, poverty of choices and opportunities is far more crippling than poverty of material means. Key issues to be faced in the process of addressing the problem of poverty are participation, empowerment, access to assets – including land, credits and technologies – access to education and access to health services. For us here today, we acknowledge and salute the major role played by UNICEF in promoting this multi-faceted approach to tackling poverty in developing countries. Indeed, I happy to welcome one of UNICEFS foremost and most dedicated ambassadors, Vanessa Redgrave, who has joined us for this commemoration today.
This year, as we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we remember that human rights include social, economic and cultural rights. Human rights and human development are inextricably linked and complementary. Human rights include the right to education, the right to food security, the rights of the disadvantaged and minority groups. As the 1993 UN World Conference on Human Rights stated, “The right to development is an inalienable human right and an integral part of fundamental human freedoms.” Women and mothers across the world demand and are entitled to no less for themselves and their children.