Message by Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, for International Women’s Day, 8 March 2004 It is both a celebration of achievement and a reminder of how far we have to go. This year, on 8 March, the United Nations system is highlighting the many issues surrounding women and AIDS, which is also the mobilizing theme for the 2004-2005 World AIDS campaign. AIDS is damaging and threatening many advances in human development, including efforts to improve the status and well-being of women everywhere. I take this opportunity to invite all our partners to renew the commitments made in Beijing in 1995 to the empowerment of women, which is a necessary condition for development and for building a future without HIV/AIDS.