Celebrating International Women’s Day, March 8 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark

The Chairperson of the National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC),Hon’ble Zhabtog Lyonpo, is on a week-long visit to Denmark to attend the concluding event of the Film Festival where the Bhutanese films “Yes, Madam Prime minister-Lessons from Denmark” and “Bhutan Women Forward” produced by KCD Productions with support from Danish Institute of Parties and Democracy (DIPD) were showcased. The event was
organized by the DIPD and the Denmark-Bhutan Friendship Association coinciding with the International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March 2014.
In her address at the event, the Hon’ble Chairperson said “gender inequality is not about women like us who are fortunate to be well educated, able to speak out, voice our concerns and take equal opportunity but about those girls and women who are helpless, voiceless and invisible”. She called upon all the leaders to not only look at the number representation of females in politics, bureaucracy and business; but to look beyond those girls and women in unreachable corners of the globe, living in misery and suffering from domestic violence, rape, cruel customs of female genital mutilation, abortion of female foetus, dowry deaths, setting brides on fire and many more, just because they are females; and that the Good Leaders can INPIRE CHANGE-the theme of the 2014 IWD.
The event also included a panel discussion on women in politics with panelists comprising the NCWC Chairperson, Hon’ble Zhabtog Lyonpo, Ms. Ritt Bjerregaard, former Minister and Member of the Danish Parliament, Ms. Elsebeth Krogh, Director for the Centre for Culture and Development, Ms. Kesang C. Dorjee, KCD Productions of Bhutan, and Mr. Bjorn Forde, Director, DIPD.
Given the long experiences of Denmark in democracy, Bhutan can draw many lessons for the fledgling democracy and the new and future aspiring politicians. The Chairperson was accompanied by the Director General of the NCWC.