Gov'ts, U.N. urged to take greater role in women's rights: survey

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Yonhap) -- More than two-thirds of South Koreans want their government and the United Nations to play a greater role in ending discrimination against women, a survey said Sunday.

As many as 73 percent of South Koreans surveyed by World Public Opinion said that
the South Korean government should take "an active role to further women's
rights," according to a report posted on the pollster's Web site. World Public
Opinion conducted the survey of 20,227 people in 22 countries between January and
October in 2008.
The figure was the second-highest among all populations polled, after Mexico's 83
percent.
Other nations that topped the list in terms of wanting more government
intervention to improve women's rights included Thailand with 72 percent,
followed by China (70 percent), Indonesia (69 percent), Kenya (69 percent) and
France (68 percent).
The figures were lowest for Ukraine (46 percent) and Russia (39 percent), with
the majority of respondents in those countries saying, "The government should not
be involved in this kind of thing."
Seventy-eight percent of South Koreans, meanwhile, supported the idea of the
United Nations working to further women's rights despite concerns over improper
interference in a country's internal affairs.
Kenya led the category with 91 percent, followed by Mexico (88 percent), China
(86 percent) and Argentina (78 percent).
The majority of surveyed countries supported the idea of U.N. involvement in
women's rights.
"The two exceptions were Egypt, where most of those polled (70 percent) thought
the United Nations should not get involved in efforts to improve women's rights,
and the Palestinian territories where views were evenly divided," the survey
report said.
Other predominantly Muslim countries mostly supported U.N. efforts with 74
percent of Indonesians in favor, followed by Turkey (70 percent), Azerbaijan (66
percent) and Iran (55 percent).
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END