Olawunmi Biriyok, Chairwoman for the Sole
Practitioners’ Group (SPG) of England and Wales, has condemned the cold blooded murder of seven women who staged a peaceful demonstration in Ivory Coast.
“Seven unarmed women were cold-bloodedly gunned down in the Ivory Coast by armed police, for exercising their rights of peaceful protest. According to United Nations statistics women still experience employment, education and discrimination which is unacceptable,” she
said in a statement to commemorate the centenary anniversary of International Women’s Day (IWD).
In a statement issued in Accra and copied to the Ghana News Agency, the Ghanaian Head of SPG- Solicitors Sole Practitioners Group, congratulated and acknowledged all women in the legal profession for their remarkable achievements and contributions as well as those whose unique sacrifices had facilitated the advancement of the society.
It commended the International Women’s Movement for the remarkable achievements over a journey of 100 years.
“Without the sacrifices of the pioneers, women’s rights and gender equality advocates, the outstanding achievements we witness today may not have been possible.
“This includes the awareness to enable a woman to Chair a respectable organisation such as the Solicitors Sole Practitioners’Group. And not the least, I congratulate legislators, lawyers and
other legal practitioners who together have played significant role in effecting the necessary changes in gender equality law.
“I am however under no illusion that there is more leverage before full gender equality is attained. As we speak, women continue to encounter a stone wall of silence and abuse including human rights violations such as domestic violence, forced sex slavery, forced
marriages, murders as well as rape, torture in war torn areas of the world.”
SPG condemned the abuse of the rights of women and called for a new momentum on the occasion of the centenary anniversary for the
eradication of discrimination against women in all its forms, in accordance with the vision of the founders of IWD.
IWD is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. The first IWD
event was run in 1911 and more than one million women and men attended rallies on that day.
The statement congratulated those who have supported and continue to assist the quest for gender equality in fulfilment of the aspirations of Clara Zetkin and other pioneers of IWD.