Ann Garvie, International President  Human Rights Day 2014 "Soroptimists 'Your Energy is the Enabler'. The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one”.  International Human Rights Day is pivotal to the Vision and Mission of every Soroptimist globally, and to humankind

  Youth and Teen violence is an emerging priority area in relation to gender violence. Worldwide some 250 000 homicides occur among youth 10-29 years of age each year – 41% of the annual total number of homicides globally. For each young person killed, 20-40 more sustain injuries requiring hospital

   Infographic: Source Reference: http://www.statista.com/chart/2755/no-  "It is of grave concern that there are now over 10.2 million men, women and children held in penal institutions throughout the world. What is of graver concern is that the world prison population continues to rise, despite the fact that imprisonment is a highly

“Women’s rights are human rights” - a basic demand for all women recognised by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki- moon. "So what does this mean in practise? It means that all women have the right to live a life free from violence. Whilst this is what

"We, as Soroptimists, are a valuable resource in achieving the empowerment of women and girls. Individually and collectively we are able to enact changes in our daily lives, in our families and in our communities. But the world is still plagued by unacceptable harmful traditions and practices such as child

Worldwide more than 700 million women alive today were married before their 18th birthday. More than one in three (about 250 million) entered into the union before age 15. *United Nations Children's Fund, Ending Child Marriage: Progress and Prospects, UNICEF, New York, 2014. Child, early and forced marriage is clearly

Older women and widows are often left marginalised in their communities.  Sabine Kinzer is an SI UN Representative and a member of the NGO Committee on Aging at the UN in Geneva.  "The problems that surround violence against women are familiar. We know that there are problems of victim blaming,

The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, 2 December, marks the date of the adoption, by the General Assembly, of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.    Human Trafficking - A never-ceasing fight for

On the 25 November, International President Ann Garvie was invited to speak on the ‘Targeting of Women in War’, alongside the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict and the Ambassadors of Mexico and Norway, at the UN in Vienna. Ann spoke on the importance of this issue, and