Greetings from the Chair Prof. Dr. Marleen Temmerman

To all women and girls worldwide: Happy International Women’s Day !

Let us celebrate the achievements and intensify our efforts towards equality, equity and inclusion. A lot of progress has been made since ICPD1994 that we marked  loudly at ICPD25 in Nairobi.  But despite this progress, societies are still failing women in relation to health and rights, most acutely in poor countries and amongst the most vulnerable women in all countries.

This year the global community will highlight the gains made since the Beijing declaration, underline that sexual and reproductive health and rights are cornerstones of Beijing+25 and reaffirm that women’s rights are human rights.

In this ICRHGlobal Newsletter we proudly highlight an impressive number of achievement by our young and young at heart women and men, working tirelessly to improve SRHR. They include the photo exhibition “Women Empower”, highlighting the strength and rights during the birth process; the Sexual and gender-based violence Sensitization Workshop; the film “Pregnancy is ours” and much more.

Therefore, let’s renew our commitment to all sisters around the world to support each other, to believe in each other and to empower each other. Let us use these powers to fight inequities and exclusion, to reduce maternal mortality, unsafe abortion, gender based violence and harmful practice so that girls and women everywhere can develop their full potential!