Tutu says men have messed up the world and women hold the key -22/01/07

Speaking at the grassroots World Social Forum, gathered in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa has urged women to launch a nonviolent social revolution to rectify all the the world problems created by men.

The Archbishop says that men must acknolwedge that it is often they "who have made a mess of things". He cites the issues of global and domestic violence in particular, pointing out that while all have "fallen short of the glory of God", macho cultures and expectations have played a dangerous role in many societies.

Desmond Tutu says women may finally bring peace to the world. Feminist theologians have often highlighted the way problems inside and outside the church are "gendered", but it is relatively unusual for male ecclesiastics to recognise the challenge patriarchy so explicitly.

Nevertheless, the Archbishop's message is not one of division between the sexes. He believes that mean and women can and must work together creatively for justice and peace, something that the Gospel of Jesus and the world's great humanitarian traditions mandate.

The World Social Forum brings together critics of neoliberal globalisation in calling for an equitable economic order. Archbishop Tutu says the international community shall pay more attention to poverty and disease. He adds that no country can function in isolation.

Meanwhile, reports the Mail and Guardian newspaper in South Africa, the retired Archbishop has also expressed his deep disappointment at his country's vote to block a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an end to human rights abuses in Burma, saying this is a betrayal of a "noble past" on human rights.

The Nobel Laureate urged the Security Council to take action against the military regime of the South-east Asian country, in a 2005 report written with fellow Nobel laureate and former Czech President Vaclav Havel.