In 1995 the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing adopted the global policy framework Platform for Action (PFA), which has been the comprehensive guidelines for women’s rights and empowerment ever since. 2010 marks the 15th anniversary of the declaration of PFA, thus a year of review of achievements, failures and future prospects. Here a brief mention of the 12 Critical Areas of concern of the PFA is in order: Poverty—education and training—health—violence against women—armed conflict—economy—power and decision-making—institutional mechanisms—human rights—environment—girl children.
From March 1s to the 12th , the CSW and more than 2000 representatives of NGOs gathered in New York City to address the issues in the above-mentioned areas to facilitate “exchange of national experiences, lessons learned and good practices.” The theme focused is “Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to gender equality and the empowerment of women” as outlined in the review report of the UN Secretary-General. The following is a very brief summary of the review of the implementation of the PFA by member States :
PFA stresses that eradication of poverty is of top priority in promoting women’s rights and empowerment. Over the past decade, good practices such as safety nets to protect women from poverty with short-term cash assistance, help with child care and support systems for families were established. However, certain groups of women are more vulnerable than men to suffer poverty, such as women farmers, migrants, older women and women with disabilities.
Progress has been uneven across regions and within countries. While poverty in eastern Asia, for example, declined from 39 percent in 1995 to 19 per cent in 2005, poverty levels in sub-Saharan Africa were only reduced from 57 percent to 51 percent over the same period. The current worldwide financial and economic crisis threatens to reverse some of the progress made in poverty reduction. Increased focus should be on to set up social protection of women in poverty and their families, to increase women’s access to land ownership, property and other productive resources, to increase their access to financial services, such as micro-credit, savings, insurance, etc.
2. Education and training
Access to education increased globally for girls at all levels especially in primary education. The ratio of girl to boy first-graders increased globally from 92 girls per 100 boys in 1999 to 95 girls per 100 boys in 2006. In 1999 there were 96 women per 100 enrolled in higher education institutions globally, by 2006 women outnumbered men, bringing the proportion to 106 women to 100 men. While in developed and transition countries, in the Caribbean and the Pacific regions and in the Middle East region, women tend to outnumber men; but they continue to lag behind men in many other parts of the world, including in sub-Saharan Africa. Gender segregation in the field of study remains widespread. Limited study choices of women and girls can lead to limited career choices and less earning prospects.
Efforts should be made to focus on education as a priority goal in national policies, to promote non-discriminatory education, to increase access to formal education and to sustain attention to non-formal education and training of skills.
3. Women and health
Over the past decade countries have made efforts to establish and to improve the health infrastructure, broadening the range of services and quality of care. Regarding HIV/AIDS, emphasis has been on prevention, education on sexual and reproductive health, counseling /therapy and testing and prevention of mother-to-child transmission. However maternal mortality rates remain high worldwide. Every year 536,000 women and girls die as a result of complications during pregnancy, childbirth or following delivery. Urgent resources and special attention are needed to reduce maternal mortality rates and to increase women’s access to health services, especially in rural and poor regions.
4. Violence against women (VAW)
Since the review of the PFA in 2005, violence against women has been a priority issue at the global, regional and national levels. Numerous countries have adopted policies on VAW in general or on particular forms of violence, such as domestic violence, trafficking, female genital mutilation/cutting and forced marriage. Many States also have incorporated VAW into their national policies on gender equality, health, HIV/AIDS and migration as part of overall goals of development.
UN Security Council adoption of Resolution 1325 in 2000 and subsequent resolutions on women, peace and security underlines its commitment to ending sexual violence in armed conflict .The global campaign “UNITED to end violence against women” launched by the UN Secretary-General in 2008, of which I wrote copiously in my 2009 report, is ongoing to run through 2015. A database was also set up on VAW, a global one-stop site for information on measures taken by member States to address VAW. As of November 2009 more than 80 States have submitted information to the database.
5. Women and armed conflict
The Security Council’s landmark Resolution 1325 in 2000 has been adopted to ensure women’s full participation in the process of peace, security and the elimination of sexual violence against women in armed conflict. Women’s role in post-conflict peace-building and reconstruction should be protected and promoted. In 2006 the Peace-building Commission was established with provisions to mandate gender perspectives be included in all aspects of its operation.
As of February 2010, out of 27 United Nations peacekeeping operations, special political missions and peace-building support offices, women headed 4 missions and were deputy heads of 5 missions. Some countries emerging from armed conflict have made efforts in promoting women in decision-making positions in government, police force and the parliament. Countries such as Rwanda, Angola, Mozambique, Nepal, Burundi, Timor-Leste and Afghanistan, are now among the 30 countries with the highest representation of women in parliament globally.
6. Women and the economy
In 2008, an estimated 52.6 percent of women were in the labor force, compared with 77.5 per cent men. Women are more likely than men to have low-paying and low-status jobs. Gender wage-gaps are estimated to range from 3 to 51 percent, with a global average of 17 percent. Women also continue to have disproportionate responsibility for unpaid work, such as home care and care for ill/disabled family members, which hinder them from full participation in education and career-building. During general economic crisis, women also are more vulnerable than men to layoffs and unemployment. Climate change also has impacted negatively on farm women in some parts of the world, where droughts and the securing of water have added hardships to women’s work.
On the positive side: countries have adopted measures through legislature and implementation of policies to address discrimination against women in the workplace, such as sexual harassment, dismissal due to pregnancy and childbirth. A few States offered the private sector tax and social security incentives for hiring women. Awareness-raising campaigns were also launched for the public through seminars, manuals and information dissemination.
7. Women in power and decision-making
Progress has been made in women’s political participation and decision-making positions. Globally women held 18.8 percent of seats in single/lower chambers of parliament as of November 2009, compared to 11.3 percent in 1995. Women’s parliamentary representation has its greatest gains in the Americas, with 22.6 percent women in parliament, in the European countries with 21.5 percent , in Asia, 18.6 percent, in sub-Saharan Africa 17.8 percent, in the Pacific region 13 percent, in the Arab States 9 percent.
As of November 2009, women were heads of State in 8 countries and heads of Government in 6 countries. In comparison, in 1995, 12 women were heads of State or Government. In the civil service, women have made progress in representation at the middle managerial levels. The judiciary and law enforcement sector remain mainly male dominated. However at the international level, 9 out of the 18 judges of the International Criminal Court are women, as of November 2009. Women make up 30 percent of the police force in only two countries---Australia and South Africa, with the global average below 10 percent.
Quotas and other temporary measure have been instrumental in increasing women’s representation in public life. Quotas have also been used in civil service recruitment processes, and in the selection of judges. Some Member States have made the mandatory requirement that women represent 40 percent of the board of directors of State-owned companies within a specified time frame. Training and capacity development of women leaders as candidates and elected officials in public speaking and fund- raising and other skills have been pivotal in women’s increased political representation.
8. Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women
Increasingly countries have established institutional mechanisms for gender equality in the legislative branch. Many countries report that all critical areas of concern outlined in Platform for Action (PFA) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women ( CEDAW) have been addressed by national institutional mechanisms. But the effectiveness of these agencies has been hampered by inadequate human and financial resources. Reliable data are also not available to adequately monitor the implementation of gender equality in all its aspects.
9. Human rights of women
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW ) has been the most comprehensive legal frame work for action to promote women’s human rights. With 186 States parties as of December 2009, the Convention is the second most ratified international human rights instrument. Countries have increasingly included in national constitutions and legal reforms the principles of gender equality. Several States have adopted legal provisions prohibiting discrimination against women and women’s legal rights on housing, education, health care, the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS , disability and other social entitlements.
Many States have launched national awareness-raising campaigns to promote women’s human rights and to combat negative attitudes on gender stereotypes. Public media, print, electronic, audio and other means, have been used to spread human rights information on large scale. The increasing cooperation between Governments and NGOs in legal and policy reforms on gender issues has proved to be of great value.
10. Women and the media
Public media is the most important and effective tool to disseminate information. PFA stresses the two strategic objectives to promote women’s rights and educate public attitude on gender stereotypes through the media: “to increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication; and to promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media.”
More than a decade after PFA, women worldwide have increased their role in the public media, however employment inequalities between women and men persist, and women are underrepresented in decision-making positions, such as in advisory, management and regulatory bodies of the media industry. Gender stereotypes in media also persist. The data collected from 76 countries by the Global Media Monitoring Project in 2005 indicated some progress of women in media. For example, women reporters increased from 28 percent in 1995 to 38 percent in 2005 across all media types.
11. Women and the environment
Some progress in this area has been made as countries have started to make plans to include women in environmental decision-making, to recognize women’s right to access to natural resources for their livelihoods, their right to property and land ownership, as well as their right as consumers of agriculture, health and sanitation resources. But the under-representation of women in key positions in environmental agencies has limited their contributions to public policy-making, such as strategies on climate change. There is still a broad gap in public awareness of “gender-specific perspective on natural resources management and of the benefits of gender equality for the promotion of sustainable development and environmental protection.”
12. The Girl child.
PFA recognizes the importance of the protection of the basic rights of the girl children, such as education, health, security and the chance to develop their full potential as human beings. In developing regions, the girl child is almost always treated as a lesser human being than her male counterpart. Countries increasingly have recognized that the laws and legal reforms on the protection of children should include provisions to protect the girl child. A number of African countries and countries with immigrant communities have criminalized female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM)--a special form of violence against the girl child. Some countries enacted laws to prohibit forced marriage, others raised the legal age of marriage to protect girls. A growing number of countries enacted legislation to combat the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography and the trafficking of children. Countries also responded to the risks posed by the Internet by setting up measures and/or cybercrime police units against the spread of paedophilia and pornography. A growing number of States conducted awareness-raising campaigns to prevent violence against children with public marches, exhibitions, publicized announcements and the creation of specific websites. Crimes and violence against children, especially the girl child, remain wide-spread and unabated .Trafficking, child prostitution, forced early marriage, FGM and other issues are still tasks to be tackled.
Besides the information on the review of Beijing+15 provided by a number of UN sessions and official UN documents, there were a few interesting panels conducted by the NGOs on the latest developments on women. Sex trafficking of women and young girls was discussed and updated in several panels by the Soroptimist International, The Coalition against Trafficking of Women and other NGOs. The first two of the above-mentioned NGOs have done great work and are very reputable in their chosen field. The conclusion of the discussions is that vigilance, legislation and the enforcement of existing laws are all much needed. A panel entitled “Voices of Haitian Women” gave perspectives of Haitian women in general and on their role in crisis in particular. Several panels on pro-life issues, of which one entitled “Conceived in Rape Symposium” was the most controversial. The nine panelists who were conceived either in rape and/or incest, gave their testimony of life experiences. Many panels on health and gender equality were also educational and thought-provoking.
CSW/2010 stands out not only as the review year of the Beijing Plus 15, it also could be known as the year of General Chaos at the UN. UP-to-six-hours-queuing for registration, roped-off corridors, darkened familiar conference rooms, detoured passage- way to unfamiliar rooms, less-than-spirited panel discussions, hard-to-get-admissions to panels, etc. Ah, all the irregularities were due to the current renovation and construction at the grand old shining edifice on the East River! One knows that it is not elegant to complain about such trivialities, especially when one realizes that there are still millions of women, in many dark and lightless corners of the world, still struggle daily in drudgery and despair.