14.05.2004
LWF Executive Committee Member Barnett Calls for Solidarity at UN Women's Meeting
On the occasion of this year's session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), Sierra Leonean pastor Rev. Marie Barnett urged women worldwide to support each other in times of crisis.Barnett, a member of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Council and Executive Committee was in an LWF delegation attending the 48th session of the commission at the UN headquarters in New York, USA. At a meeting organized by the National Council of Churches USA, Barnett spoke of the struggles facing her country, recovering from years of a brutal civil war, and called for prayers "for one another." The LWF's participation was coordinated by the New York-based Lutheran Office for World Community.
"When 9/11 [11 September 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States] happened some church women from Sierra Leone went to Texas and prayed with them. We expect the same. We pray for women in America who are suffering from terrorism. Let us pray for one another, let us intertwine our prayers." Barnett is chairperson of the LWF Program Committee for World Service.
During the March 1-12 CSW, the Lutheran Office for World Community organized an informal panel discussion on the role of young men and boys in using gender equality to fight HIV/AIDS. One of the panel's goals was to explore and draw attention to the reasons why young women--comprising 62 percent of the HIV infected youth in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia--are more vulnerable than the men.
The Commission passed resolutions on many crucial issues, among them, increasing women's participation in peace negotiations and post-conflict elections. The resolutions recognized the disproportionate impact that HIV and AIDS have on women, and the future program of the UN work on the advancement of women. (300 words)
(Edited from a report by Emily Freeburg, Lutheran Office for World Community.)
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