Amman, 6 March 2025
Women’s Rights: A Benchmark for Democratic Practice and Social Justice
This year, Arab Trade Union Women commemorate International Women’s Day amid a dramatic decline in their civil and political rights. They continue to top the list of the most negatively affected groups in terms of economic and social gains, with a significant retreat in their participation in leadership positions — once again calling into question the credibility of democratic practice across Arab countries.
Despite continued official recognition of the importance of women’s political and civic participation in achieving comprehensive development in the Arab region, Arab women remain largely excluded from the political and civic spheres. There is no longer room to delay the review of educational and cultural approaches, which have failed to transform patriarchal mindsets and the inferior view of women.
Arab Trade Union Women call to review educational and cultural methodologies stems from their belief that legal frameworks and legislative reforms alone have never guaranteed women’s rights, especially in the absence of a sociological environment capable of protecting those rights and resisting the ongoing erosion of women’s gains.
Arab Trade Union Women strongly affirm that political and civil rights, as well as social justice for Arab women, are essential benchmarks of democratic practice and a true test of its credibility — not only in the political sphere but also in the world of work. Within this context, Arab Trade Union Women call for intensified participation in the International Trade Union Confederation’s “For Democracy” campaign to combat discriminatory and exclusionary workplace practices and build a strong labor-based foundation for democratic societies committed to gender equality.
Arab Trade Union Women also believe that trade union movements across the globe are capable of addressing the major developmental and political challenges on the global agenda, the foremost among them being achieving comprehensive and just peace and ending all forms of occupation and armed conflict.
Trade union solidarity has proven its effectiveness in resisting destruction, war, and occupation. Today, it faces a new test — to confront the escalating calls for the forced displacement of the Palestinian people from their land after even the most destructive weapons have failed to achieve such aims. Thousands of Palestinian civilians, especially women and children in Gaza and the West Bank, have paid with their lives for their attachment to their land and their right to self-determination. Meanwhile, hostages — women and men — continue to show unwavering resilience inside the prisons of a brutal occupation that has, for decades, failed to break the will of the Palestinian people.
As Arab Trade Union Women commemorate this day, they call on trade union movements around the world to forge a new epic of solidarity with the Palestinian people in support of comprehensive and just peace and to exert field pressure on political decision-makers to realize this objective and thwart all efforts to undermine Palestinian rights.
Long live Arab trade union women! Long live trade unionist women around the world! Long live Arab and international trade union solidarity for peace, democracy, and social justice!