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NCA statement on International Women's Day 2012
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
March 08, 2012

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), today joins the rest of the world in commemorating International Women's Day, being held under the theme "Empower Rural Women - End Hunger and Poverty".

We take this opportunity to salute millions of women of our country and use day to pay tribute to women and the role they have played in the struggle for national liberation, reconstruction and transformation of our country.

As we celebrate lets look beyond celebrations and take stock of how far we have come and how far we have to go. The matters that concerned women during the colonial era are the same issues that concern women of today - housing, food prices, unemployment, domestic violence, child abuse, HIV/AIDS, poverty, and gender discrimination. Freedom for women will never be real or complete while we suffer from mass unemployment, poverty and inequality, and women remain disproportionately affected by all of these.

Though they have been talk about the empowerment of women, women remain mostly affected by soaring prices of food, fuel, electricity, education and many other essentials. The commodification of education and health services affects women the most and it is in this regard that we call for an efficient and accessible public health and education systems all.

For the fifteen years that the NCA has been in existence, the female constituency has been the most active in our protracted struggle for a new democratic and people driven constitution for Zimbabwe. Also acknowledging that women constitute a greater percentage of the overall membership of the NCA, and for that they were subjected to various forms of abuse ranging from arrests, beatings while in the trenches.

In that regard the NCA, embarked on a campaign ˜Act against Political Violence Targeting Women" in 2010 to address the scourge of political violence by raising awareness, building support structures, name and shame perpetrators as well as capacitating women and communities at large to deal with the scourge. The campaign included demonstrations, community workshops, rallies in the SADC region notably South Africa as a means of spreading the gospel against violence targeting women.

More importantly, as we commemorate this special day we wish to re-affirm our commitment to Section 6 of the Zimbabwe Peoples Charter, adopted on the 9th of February 2008, and which the NCA is signatory to: And it is our hope that when finally Zimbabwe embarks on a genuine constitution reform exercise that is people driven and democratic such values contained in the Peoples Charter should be contained.

Zimbabwe Peoples Charter Section 6

Gender

6.1 We hold that all human beings are created equal, must live and be respected equally with equitable access to all resources that our society offers regardless of their gender.

Gender equality is the responsibility of women and men equally. We also hold and recognise the role that our mothers and sisters played in the liberation of our country from colonialism and their subsequent leading role in all struggles for democracy and social justice. And that this fundamental principle must be observed and upheld at all levels of the People's Charter both on paper and in practice where decisions are made over and about the following;

i. Our national budget and economy
ii. Our legislative and government processes in order to allow representative quota systems.
iii. Provision by the state of all heath care and all sanitary requirements of women
iv. An understanding that women bear the brunt of any decline in social welfare security, economic and political systems

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