Use their brains, their creativity, their energy. A healthier, better-informed, and more productive world is sure to follow. Eliminate the threat of violence, for it is the most widespread and entrenched violation of women's fundamental human rights. End dowry deaths, widow burning, and female infanticide. The next century needs all its citizens, Mr. Chairman, not just half of them.
Women are an essential element of civil society.
Where they have access to economic, social, and political power, the nations they live in are more likely to prosper. Where they do not, they more often fail. A society which values all its citizens, benefits from all of them. A society which neglects and abuses them, limits itself and its future potential. Still, it is not enough for the women of the world simply to declare their case and petition for their human rights.