Women's Rights in Focus: International Women's Day Celebrated Worldwide on the Streets and in Courts

Today, 8 March, the world marked International Women's Day with protests, demonstrations and celebrations. Some countries marked the day by voting or approving innovative legislation, France24 reports.

Irish voters are taking part in a double referendum on proposals to modernise the constitution, which could expand the definition of family from a marriage-based family to a "long-term relationship".

Another proposed change would replace old-fashioned language about a mother's "duties in the home" with a clause recognising the care provided by family members.

In Italy, thousands of people marched in Rome and Milan to call for an end to violence against women following a series of high-profile cases of young women being killed by their boyfriends. Holding banners, dancing and chanting slogans, at least 10,000 people gathered in the Italian capital at the Circo Massimo, an ancient Roman racing track, according to police.

In London, protesters dressed as characters from The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel about a future in which women have been reduced to chattel. They held placards calling for the protection of women's rights in Iran. A separate demonstration in Parliament Square highlighted the plight of women in Afghanistan and called for girls' right to go to school.

French President Emmanuel Macron presided over a ceremony to enshrine the right to abortion in the French constitution, the first country to do so.

"We will not rest until this promise is fulfilled around the world," he said.

In Belgium, some 15,000 women gathered for a national march to mark Women's Rights Day. In Brussels and beyond, women are mobilising to highlight the gender discrimination they face every day. "When women stop, the world stops". That's the message from Collecti.ef 8 maars, a coalition that believes that striking is the single most effective way to demonstrate society's dependence on women and the work they do, paid or not.

In Japan, six couples celebrated International Women's Day by filing a lawsuit against the government for the right to use different surnames after marriage. Under laws that have been in place since the 19th century, married couples must choose the name of their husband or wife, and about 95 per cent take the husband's name, according to the plaintiffs' lawyers.

Thousands of Congolese women dressed in black marched in the Democratic Republic of Congo to mourn those killed in the conflicts in the east of the country.

Women from all walks of life gathered in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province in the east of the country, which has been devastated by decades of armed violence.

In Kosovo's capital, Priština, women rallied to push for gender equality and protest violence against women. Incidents of gender-based violence remain high, in part due to Kosovo's patriarchal culture, war-related post-traumatic stress, and a legal system that has allowed domestic violence to take deep roots.

In South Africa, a group of Jewish women marched to condemn the government's silence on the violence of Hamas fighters against Israeli hostages.

Organised by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), the women marched under the scorching Johannesburg sun under the banner "Me too, if you're not Jewish".

In Afghanistan, small groups of women staged rare demonstrations in private spaces after the Taliban government suppressed activists from the streets. A handful of women in several provinces gathered to demand the lifting of restrictions on work, travel and education, according to activists from the Purple Saturdays group.

In Pakistan, hundreds of women rallied in major cities to highlight street harassment, bonded labour and the lack of women's representation in parliament. "We face all kinds of violence: physical, sexual, cultural violence, when women are exchanged to settle disputes, child marriage, rape, harassment in the workplace, on the streets," said Farzana Bari, the main organiser of the event in Islamabad.

A video from the Russian Ministry of Defence shows soldiers with scarves over their faces handing out flowers on the streets in Mariupol, a Ukrainian port city captured and occupied by Russian forces at the start of the Russian war in Ukraine.