Dharamshala: The Women’s Empowerment Desk (WED) under SARD, Department of Finance (CTA), organised a celebration of International Women’s Day this evening at Sikyong Hall in the attendance of Sikyong Penpa Tsering and Deputy Speaker Dolma Tsering Teykhang.
The celebration was also joined by the honourable Michael Brand, a long-serving Member of the German Parliament and a profiled advocate on human rights, and Kai Muller, the executive director of the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) in Germany, who are currently in Dharamshala to commemorate the 65th Tibetan National Uprising Day. Security Kalon (Minister) Dolma Gyari and Election and Public Service Commissioner Wangdue Tsering Pesur also attended the event.
The celebration began with an introduction of International Women’s Day, a day that celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women across the globe, followed by an address from the guests.
In his keynote speech, Sikyong Penpa Tsering underscored that irrespective of the existence of gender-based parity in Tibet prior to Tibetan’s journey into exile, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has made all efforts to promote gender equality in exile since the very beginning, such as making it permanent to include a woman representative in members of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TPiE), then called Commission of Tibetan People’s Deputies, as early as during the 4th TPiE.
On that same note, given the increasing number of female representatives at all levels of exile Tibetan administration, Sikyong said that the 16th Kashag of Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) also prioritises the inclusion of female candidates in the top-level decision-making bodies. However, Sikyong acknowledged that a handful of gender-based violence and inequality persist in the Tibetan community and hence urged all to take serious action. He said, according to the CTA’s policy and current Kashag’s zero-tolerance policy, anyone involved in such crimes must sue immediately to the respective legal authorities. Above all, the Tibetan political leader stressed educating male members of the society to completely eradicate violence against women. He further instructed CTA staff and representatives to constantly talk about this issue during the official visits to Tibetan settlements to promote awareness.
Before concluding his address, Sikyong emphasised revising and strengthening the roles and responsibilities of the CTA’s Women’s Empowerment Desk to accelerate and enhance their objectives.
Following Sikyong Penpa Tsering, Deputy Speaker Dolma Tsering Teykhang spoke on the occasion’s theme, “Invest in women: accelerate progress,” and said investing in women has so far proved more productive. In her half an hour talk, she also highlighted the role of parents and teachers in shaping society’s minds by imparting comprehensive sex education.