Greetings. On International Women�s Day, 8th March, we celebrated calling for " Safe workplace for the woman workers ". Other issues were � equal salary, equal promotion, equal rights and equal dignity for the woman worker.

In Solidarity

National Garment Workers Federation, Bangladesh

On 6^th March 2006, at 6.30 pm another fire broke out in a factory - Saiem Fashion Ltd. There are two other factories in the same building called SK Sweater, Radiance Sweater. These factories are in the district Gazipur. We received names of three dead workers . They are :

Mrs. Rahima, Mrs Rafija and Miss Lucky . More than 50 workers were injured . We got names of 31 injured workers.

National Garment Workers Federation has good contact with the workers of this factory and we are very much involved in this case . NGWF Gazipur branch has been involved from the beginning with the workers. Besides looking after the injured, NGWF Gazipur branch organized a protest demonstration in the area and NGWF central organized a demonstration in the Dhaka city o­n 7th March at 3pm.

In the factory there have been some other violations like long working hours , absence of weekly holiday etc.
In solidarity
National Garments Workers Federation
Dhaka

March10- Three recognised confederations- GEFONT, NTUC and DECONT have issued a joint press release as the immediate reaction against the Royal step imposing anti-worker ordinance. Signed by the Chairs the release states - "Present unconstitutional government of Nepal has imposed most unfair, unfavourable and anti-worker Royal Ordinance to amend existing Labour Act-1992, by defying previous understanding made by Central Labour Advisory Committee- CLAC (a high level tripartite committee)."

"We strongly oppose this ordinance", the release says- "We demand with the Government to withdraw and appeal to the workers to defy this ordinance and also request the employers not to implement it."

"We would like to inform that we o­n behalf of the Confederations are launching phase wise protest programmes of our movement. As the first phase of the programme, we announce the "Nation-wide Workers Demonstration" o­n March 18, 2006."

UN Reform is high up o­n the agenda of this year�s UN Commission o­n the Status of Women (UN CSW) session. Two panel discussions o­n this topic were held--one at the NGO Consultation coordinated by the NGO Committee o­n the Status of Women and another organized by the International Women's Tribune Centre and the Heinrich Boll Foundation that specifically examined the UN Reform agenda�s relevance to women.

Following these, more discussions o­n this topic took place in regional caucuses as well as in the Linkage Caucus. In its statement to the official plenary o­n February 28, 2006, the Asia-Pacific Caucus called for the setting up of a women�s task force o­n the Reform of the UN. It noted the under-representation of women in decision making roles within the UN system and urged the UN to be a role model of its member states in promoting equal participation of women and men in development. In addition, the Asia-Pacific women emphasized that women�s equal participation in all levels of decision-making will strengthen the gender architecture of the UN structure, processes and mechanisms, and reinforce its commitments to the Convention o­n the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Security Council Resolution 1325 and the Beijing Platform for Action.

The 96th International Women�s Day is being celebrated today with the slogan

"The role of women in decision making is central to the advancement of women around the world and to the progress of humankind as a whole.

Nepal is celebrating the day amid very little participation of women in development process and representation in the decision-making level of the country.

The flaring conflict of the country has also adversely affected the development of women.