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International Women's day has been observed since the 1900s and was recognised by the whole world in 1910 after a second International Conference in Copenhagen, attended by women from different countries representing unions, socialist parties, and working women's clubs. Clara Zetkin, leader of the women's desk of the German Social Democratic Party, tabled the idea of an International Women's Day to be celebrated by every country every year, for women to press their demands.

Even since then this day has remained the global date for International Women's day. It has been observed across the globe and grown from strength to strength annually.

Women all over South Africa have being vocal and active in campaigning for changes in the workplace and in the community and also recognising and celebrating the achievements of women of the past, present and future.

This year we are celebrating 15 years of South African democracy with more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights, and an increased critical mass of women's visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life.

One could think that women have gained true equality, but the unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to their male counterparts, are still not in equal numbers in business, and globally women's education, health and violence against women is still worse.

For many years the United Nations has held an annual International Women's Day conference to coordinate international efforts for women's rights and participation in social, political and economic processes. This year we mark 15 years since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Beijing Platform of Action for women. From 1-12 March the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) has organised a conference in New York to assess progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action since it was adopted in 1995 in China at the Fourth World Conference on women.

Whilst celebrating this day we would to like to give support to the UNCSW delegates from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Public Services International (PSI), Education International (EI) and Union Network International (UNI) to this 54th session of Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

This session is critical to the working class as the forum to reflect what still needs to be done by government, in partnership with unions and civil society, to achieve equality. We have learned with disappointment that participation of civil society and trade union delegations in this year's session has been made impossible and is not being appreciated. We therefore call on to the organisers and on governments to ensure that:

- What has transpired on this year's CSW does not occur again.

- Civil society, trade unions and NGOs assume their rightful place.

- All voices are heard and that member states consider the very legitimate issues brought forward by civil society.

COSATU, on this historic date, supports the call by ITUC and the Global Union Federation (GUF) on a global campaign for "Decent Work and Decent Life for Women" and we therefore call on all our unions to:

- Ensure that women are included in the negotiating teams and gender issues are included in collective bargaining and agreements.

- Promote and advocate decent work for women and gender equality e.g. maternity protection and protection from sexual harassment

- Elect women as shop stewards and shop stewards committees.

We call on government to:

- Adhere to the core labour standards of the ILO and ratify maternity protection Convention 183

- Ensure the elimination of gender disparity and improve maternal health and reproductive rights

- Protect women and children against human trafficking, violence and abuse.

We therefore call upon all workers to join hands in support of Decent Work and Decent Life for Women by promoting and protecting the rights of women workers. We also would like to support the call by the ILO governing body for the Domestic Workers Convention as this sector is the most vulnerable. They are abused by the recruitment agencies, have no social security, are expected to work long hours with less pay and they also find themselves being sexually abuse by employers.

Let us join hands in making sure that the women workers rights are in law and in practice.