Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 9, 1995 TAG: 9503090086
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: COPENHAGEN, DENMARK LENGTH: Medium
Addressing an international poverty summit, Clinton said the United States wants to increase by 20 percent women's literacy and the number of girls finishing primary school in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
In a speech marking International Women's Day, Clinton reminded the 193-nation gathering that more than two-thirds of the world's nearly 1 billion illiterate people are women.
``The goals of [the U.S.] initiative are ambitious,'' she said. ``I respectfully urge other governments to join the United States in creating or expanding the opportunities for all women worldwide.''
International Women's Day dominated the 9,000-member global conference, as women worldwide celebrated their advances and protested their plights.
As Russian women received the traditional chocolates and flowers - and a day off from work - a report released by Human Rights Watch-Helsinki said they suffered from widespread domestic violence and state-sanctioned employment discrimination.
In Dhaka, 2,500 women marched through the streets to protest Islamic clerics who oppose jobs, education and family planning for Bangladeshi women.
In Copenhagen, a dozen women demanding debt relief and an end to poverty began a hunger strike at the summit center.
U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said that women's problems were at the heart of international efforts to increase social equality.
``Until the rights and full potential of women are achieved, enduring solutions to the world's most serious social, economic and political problems cannot be achieved,'' Boutros-Ghali said in a speech.
The U.N. Development Program issued a report saying nearly one-half of married women are subjected to domestic violence.
``No society treats its women as well as its men,'' the agency said.
by CNB