Source: Pambazuka News
We celebrate this year's International Women's Day (IWD) under the slogan "Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures". This slogan is taken from the internationally agreeable logo, which embodies a lot of contents in support of women and their rights all over the world; the slogan was chosen particularly as the youth group in our country is considered as the largest among the population, exceeding 65 % of the total population.

Affirming the importance of this day for us, we fully know that our action is a modest contribution in order to draw attention to the necessity of promoting and enhancing the role of women in the Sudanese society; despite the fact that many other bodies perceive women as reproductive tools rather than productive human beings who have an effective input in the process of building and developing the communities. This is one of the defective views that attempt to hinder women and socially isolate them.

We affirm our commitment to the issues that we address in order to empower women and achieve gender equity in the society, and there is no way for bargaining on our positions towards these issues; only when we deviate from our core principles which we abide by in all of our programs and activities, which of course include the tradition of celebrating IWD. This day is integral to the global efforts towards the development of women, and which cannot be considered, in any way, as a transient moment of celebration. IWD increases the value of solidarity and advocacy for women's issues starting from, but not limited to, the women in conflict and war areas, women who suffer from poverty and lack of health services and women in the cities and rural areas who lack fair laws and where there is an absence of an equitable society.

We further more affirm that our annual celebration of IWD on 8 March, does not imply any reduction in our strenuous efforts to advocate and support women in all parts of Sudan. It is rather a work parallel to all of the efforts aimed at identifying the violence posed on women, women's rights, and the announcement of advocacy and support that enable women to enjoy their human dignity-and to attract other groups in this society to join the voice that calls for justice and gender equality. Accordingly, the celebration on this day cannot be separated in any way from what we and other actors are doing in this area.

We have always affirmed and will continue to assert that the violence against women that takes place in Sudan is not instantaneous and cannot be addressed through the immediate standpoints and the "Day to Day" methodology. That is why we called for the non-exploitation of women, particularly, as a disguise within the political conflicts, and also called for the treatment of women within the framework of the law and the respect for human/women's' rights, with special focus on the issuance of laws that deal with the increasing sexual harassment and violence against women including rape and the repeated physical assaults.

The development of a permanent constitution for Sudan is the affair of none and inclusive to nobody either. The international laws are present and operative in the organization of the life and the communities all over the civilized world, and they have become a part of the Interim Constitution of 2005. Therefore any abandonment to these laws is considered a crime against the country and the citizens, especially since the call for a democratic society in which human rights and privacy are respected, has become a global call. Accordingly, there is a need for an agreeable commitment to translate the constitutional provisions into valid powerful laws in order to bring balance to laws under the Constitution. This inescapable commitment is highly needed for the development of a constitution that prioritizes the respect for women and reflects the awareness of the legislators about gender and gender sensitivity.

The involvement of several Sudanese sects, groups, and institutions in the campaigns and events for women is our desired success as an organization working to support women's rights . We particularly mean the young men and women with their varied interests, the media, and service institutions, and this confirms that we are moving in the right direction. We hope that all the components of the Sudanese society will take part in this celebration and all activities that support the women.

Long live the unity of the Sudanese women...long live our beloved country

• Sudan