Page 12 - BPW-UK - E-news - Edition 109 - February 2023 with BELFAST AGM 2023 Flyer_Neat

BPW Speaker Events: ‘Wednesday Talk’

Speaker: Margaret Owen OBE. President Widows for Peace

Talk Title: Widowhood: The Most Neglected Gender and Human Rights Issue

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Date: Wednesday 1 March 2023
Time: 7pm

To register for the event please click on the link below:

Widowhood: The Most Neglected Gender and Human Rights Issue

Margaret Owen O.B.E. is a veteran international human rights law-
yer with a focus on the rights of women and girls, especially in the
context of widowhood which she argues is the most neglected of
all gender and human rights issues.

She is the founder and President of the international NGO Widows
for Peace through Democracy (WPD), the umbrella for many wid-
ows’ NGOs in developing countries. She is a regular participant at
the UN CSW (Commission on the Status of Women) where she
promotes attention to the need for action on this issue.

In addition, she is the co-chair of the International Working Group of the UKCS-
WOMENSALLIANCE, that was set up following the Coalition’s abolition of the WNC
(Women’s National Commission).

Widely travelled, her human rights advocacy work also covers the rights of migrants
and refugees, and she is a Patron of Peace in Kurdistan.

For more information on Widows for Peace https://www.widowsforpeace.org/

Summary of her presentation to BPW

Widowhood is the most neglected of all gender and human rights issues, and its
omission from the international and national agendas is both bewildering and scan-
dalous. This omission matters both at the personal/micro and political/macro level,
since unprotected, stigmatised, discriminated and abused widowhood is endemic in
deeply patriarchal misogynist societies. This is a root cause of expanding and ex-
tending poverty and inequalities down across the generations and poverty and ine-
qualities fuel future conflicts.

In many developing countries, particularly in South Asia, Africa, parts of the Middle
East and beyond the discrimination suffered by widows of all ages is systematic and
widespread.
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