September 23rd, 2020, marks the International Day Against Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Women and Children.

It was established by the World Conference of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Persons in coordination with the Women's Conference that took place in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in January 1999 and was organised by the International Coalition against Trafficking in Women.

Being WUCWO an international organisation that represents women from all around the world, on the occasion of International Women's Day, our President General, María Lía Zervino, Servidora, was interviewed by Vatican News and Rome Reports.

On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, an Interreligious and Ecumenical meeting on the document HUMAN FRATERNITY FOR WORLD PEACE AND LIVING TOGETHER signed by His Holiness Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmad Al-Tayyeb (Abu Dhabi, 4 February 2019) was held on the 3rd of March 2020.

On the occasion of the International Women's Day, the World Union of Catholic Women's Organisations, in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the sponsorship of the Embassy of Argentine to the Holy See, the Embassy of Austria to the Holy See, the Embassy of the Netherlands to the Holy See and the Embassy of the Philippines to the Holy See, will hold a conference entitled "Women Makers of Human Fraternity" on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 at Lungotevere Tor di Nona 7 in Rome.

Message of the WUCWO President, María Lía Zervino

on the occasion of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

Chain of women embracing against female genital mutilation

Girls between the ages of 4 and 14 are the main victims of this aberrant practice. According to the latest UN report, more than 4 million girls are at risk of female genital mutilation in 30 countries in 2020.

We thank Pope Francis for granting a private audience to the WUCWO authorities, María Lía Zervino and Andrea Ezcurra, servidoras, and Fr Gerard Whelan, SJ, who were received in his library on 10 January 2020. The meeting made it possible to express gratitude, on behalf of the 8 million members of our organisations, for the delicate and frequent attention the Holy Father gives to women, particularly the most vulnerable, throughout the world. 

The Mirabal sisters assassinated on 25 November 1960  in the Dominican Republic.

The time has come!

The World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations today renews and increases its commitment to eliminate discrimination and violence against women (Dakar Resolution 2018).

The time has come! Men and women: it is urgent to become agents of cultural change.

WUCWO also attended the last briefing on the work of the Synod on Friday 25 October. The following participated:

- Bishop Joaquín Humberto Pinzón Güiza, I.M.C., vicar apostolic of Puerto Leguízamo-Solano, titular of Ottocio, Colombia;

- Bishop Evaristo Pascoal Spengler, O.F.M., bishop-prelate of Marajó, Brazil;

- Reverend Nicolau Nascimento de Paiva, coordinator of CAIC, the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil, Brazil;

- Reverend Fr. Miguel Heinz, S.V.D., president of Adveniat, Germany;

- Reverend Suora Inés Azucena Zambrano Jara, M.M.I., of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Immaculate and of Saint Catherine of Siena, Colombia;

- Dr. Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication;

- Fr. Giacomo Costa, S.J., secretary of the Commission for Information.

“The Amazon and Beyond. Integral Ecology, Multiple Vulnerabilities and Youthful Commitments” was the title of the seminar organised on October 18 by the newly set up Observatory of the faculty of Social Sciences of the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome in which WUCWO participated the seminar held during the current Special Synod for the Pan-Amazon Region aimed to deepen, inspire and open “transdisciplinary paths illuminating new ways of relating to God, to others and to the space around us” (Evangelii gaudium n.74).

On the occasion of the Special Assembly of the Synod for the Pan-Amazon Region, WUCWO together with Italian Azione Cattolica, the International Forum of Azione Cattolica and the Pio XI Foundation (School of Holiness of Azione Cattolica) organised an event on October 15 to discuss the theme "Witnesses and martyrs of the inculturation of faith in the Amazon".

WUCWO participates to the press conference, organised in the Holy See Press Office on October 3, of presentation of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, taking place in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall from 6 to 27 October 2019, on the theme: Amazonia: new paths for the Church and for integral ecology.