The United Nations held Thursday the first International Widows Day to raise awareness of the plight of an estimated 245 million widows around the world, with 115 million of them in poor countries, according to dpa. The international day was organized also to ensure that societies ease discrimination, practiced in some countries, against widows and that governments enact measures to protect their human rights. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged governments to respect widows' rights, including social entitlements that allow them access to inheritance, land tenure, employment and other means of livelihood.
