International Women's Day

Lord Loomba Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Loomba]

My Lords, I am delighted that your Lordships’ House is debating the global and domestic challenges of women to mark this year’s International Women’s Day. I first thank the noble Baroness, Lady Gould.

I will focus on widows around the world who are poor, illiterate, unable to find work, and disadvantaged. In 2008, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, widely known as Chatham House, conducted a survey on widows. It found that discrimination against widows is widespread, and a global problem, as they are treated worse than the general female population.

I declare my interest as the founder and chairman trustee of the Loomba Foundation, a UN-accredited global charity that has raised awareness of the plight of widows around the world since 1997, when it was established in the UK. Last year, we commissioned a comprehensive research study on widows, which revealed that there are over 245 million widows, and 500 million children, who suffer in silence. One hundred million widows live in poverty, struggling to survive, and 1.5 million children of widows will die before they reach their fifth birthday. It also revealed that widowed women experience targeted murder, rape, prostitution, forced marriage, property theft, eviction, social isolation, and physical and psychological abuse. Children of widows face horrors such as child marriage, illiteracy, loss of schooling, forced labour, human trafficking, homelessness and rape.

Without a doubt, it is a huge problem that has not been adequately addressed by the UN or any nation so far. Unfortunately, the number of widows is increasing in the world, mainly through poverty, HIV/AIDS and conflict. We can see that the conflict in Libya will sadly leave many women as widows. In Afghanistan, due to the war, there are more than 2 million widows in a country with a population of just 26.6 million. Afghan widows are often displaced from their homes by their in-laws.

I am happy to say that, through our tireless campaign, last year the United Nations declared 23 June as International Widows Day, which was initially launched by the Loomba Foundation here at the House of Lords in 2005. The UN-recognised International Widows Day is an effective platform for national Governments, NGOs, corporates and individuals to focus on to highlight the plight of impoverished widows throughout the world. It is, indeed, the commencement of a journey to restore widows’ rights and dignity, and to empower them, that will also enable the UN to meet the millennium development goals on extreme poverty, healthcare, education, equality and empowerment. For too long, widows have been neglected and sidelined in the policy-making process. They must be at the heart of this process.