International Women's Day marked across world

Updated: 2015-03-09 11:19

(chinadaily.com.cn)

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Center) and wife SeBan Soon-taek (third from left) march in the International Women's Day March for Gender Equality and Women's right in front of the United Nations in New York, NY, on March 8, 2015.[Photo/IC]

UN officials say much has been achieved under the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, signed by 189 governments in 1995 as a pledge for realizing women's rights. But UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the gains have been too slow and uneven.

He says the most urgent issue is rape being used as a war weapon, from Nigeria and Somalia to Iraq and Syria.