IAW Main Representative Dr Sibylle von Heydebrand gave an Oral Statement

June 15, UN Geneva. By invitation of the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid (Maldives), IAW’s Main representative at the UN Geneva, Dr Sibylle von Heydebrand, delivered an oral statement on behalf of the International Alliance of Women. She appealed to put the rights of girls, in all their diversity, at the center of attention, as they are among the most vulnerable people.

She pointed out that

• Girls under five are three times more likely to be affected by malnutrition than boys under five.
• In the developing countries, one in three girls does not complete primary education, mostly because they spend eight times as long doing household work. As a result, there are 96 million illiterate girls between the ages of 15 and 24, compared to 57 million illiterate boys. – Almost twice as many girls as boys can neither read nor write.
• Every day, 25,000 girls are victims of forced marriage.
• Pregnancy is the leading cause of death among 15- to 19-year-old girls.
• 50% of sexual assaults in the world involve girls under 16.

In many countries, girls are the first victims when children’s human rights are violated. Not only because of their age and due to their gender, other factors can be added, such as poverty, disability or belonging to a minority.

As we live in times of crisis, – the climate crisis and the consequences of Covid-19, – gender inequalities are even increasing.

She recalled the central promise of the 2030 Agenda: Leave no one behind and she strongly insisted: Leave no girl behind.

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Several women’s organisations including International Alliance of Women (IAW) have sent this statement.

Among other things the statement says:

Women play a crucial role as leaders in their communities, mothers in their families, and vital members of their societies and nation. Women have an important role for the stabilization of any society. We commend the UN bodies for their recognition that a bright future for Afghanistan rides on an inclusive and representative government. However, for women to be part of such a body, their rights and dignity as women and as major players in the society must be upheld today

The Women’s NGOs urge among other things:

1. Prioritising Humanitarian Aid: The crisis is humanitarian beyond political currently, which needs to be prioritised. We request and insist the councils and UN Bodies to stress upon member states, especially the neighbours of Afghanistan, to extend their maximum support for humanitarian aid. We also ask the international community to stress the Taliban to keep the borders and administration open for international humanitarian aid to reach the population of Afghanistan

Read the whole statement

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Photo: Green Highway sign image (picserver.org) by Nick Youngson used under Creative Commons License

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This is good news for anyone advocating for reproductive health and rights, like our good friend Gudrun Haupter

Gudrun Haupter, convener of the IAW Health commission comments:

My short assessment of the prospects of better access to abortion care in all countries according to international human rights standards is at best mixed.

Refusal by healthcare professionals on grounds of “conscientious objection” is wide-spread. The AGENDA EUROPE supporters led by ultraconservative forces in and beyond European countries are working on the roll-back of reproductive health legislation and its implementation. Their list of prohibition includes women’s and adolescents’ access to contraceptive options such as emergency contraception, one of the keys to lowering abortions rates.

After a period of relative openness following the ICPD politics of treating family planning as a taboo in development policies at national and international levels, is once again widely the norm.

Another alarm signal is the expected life-time nomination of one more conservative judge to the US Federal Constitutional Court. Brett Kavanaugh is said to be the first choice of conservative Evangelical Christians. The reason: they hope that he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade in order to uphold the dignity of all human life – the well-known position of all pro-life missionaries. These are known to spread their message all over the globe, partly with dubious methods.

Finally, I wish to mention that the implementation of women-friendly abortion laws still meets with many challenges, particularly – but not only – in rural areas. At the IAW board meeting in Lusaka some 20 years ago IAW-member Zambia Alliance of Women was complimented on the country’s liberal abortion legislation. We were told that women seeking an abortion faced disgracing conditions such as procedure performed on the bare floor, without even a blanket, no empathy of the medical personnel.

https://www.facebook.com/safeabortionzambia/posts/is-abortion-legal-in-zambiayes-safe-abortion-is-legal-in-almost-all-circumstance/1564225963794970/

Gudrun Haupter, 20 September 2018

Convener of Commission on Health

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This statement is submitted by Women’s Federation for World Peace International, together with Graduate Women International, Soroptimist International, International Alliance of Women, International Federation of Business and Professional Women, Pan Pacific and Southeast Asia Women’s Association of Thailand, Tandem Project, Mother’s Legacy Project; international NGO’s all committed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. These goals hold little hope of success if more dramatic measures are not taken to advance opportunities for women and girls as movers and leaders in society – and importantly, their economic empowerment and access to education and knowledge.

Trade provides tremendous potential towards growth and prosperity. However, unethical trade, trade which does not respect the parameters laid down by international frameworks and conventions, can and is having a negative impact on human rights, and especially on women’s rights. Women and marginalised or excluded communities, as consumers, workers or entrepreneurs, are disproportionately affected by unethical trade and policies which do not respect the criteria on which they were established.

In global trade negotiations, WTO, Bilateral trade agreements, FTAs, GSP, EBA, GSP+ etc , marginalised communities, the informal sector and women’s voices are often excluded from policy-negotiations, and even from impact assessments or safe-guard clauses. This leaves women and those at risk from poverty without any protection or livelihood security and continues the demise of women’s rights in general.

Furthermore, most countries now focus their trade policy on liberalisation and open-markets, assuming these macroeconomic policies are “gender neutral.” However, experts and activists, such as the Women’s Economic and Social Think Tank (WESTT) have warned that failing to recognise, and work to address, the disproportionate affect of trade liberalisation policies on women could have lasting effects on economies, and on society as a whole. Trade benefit programs that are currently in place must be effectively implemented so as to best serve disenfranchised groups. As well, international conventions on women’s rights, such as CEDAW must be respected in all trade agreements.

Recommendations

1. CEDAW must be respected and implemented by all countries in all trade negotiations. Immediate suspension of trade agreements, trade subsidies or preferential tariffs must be enforced where CEDAW is not being respected or implemented.
2. UN and ILO conventions on equal treatment, decent work and equal pay for equal work, must be implemented and countries who fail to comply with, or report, on such Conventions should have their trade agreements suspended ahead of an investigation into breaches of the Convention.
3. Trade policy is not gender neutral and women must be included equally in all trade discussions, especially as trade imbalances disproportionately affect the informal sector where women are mainly employed and self-employed.

HRC39 Statement_ Women and Trade Policy (2)

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Once adopted, the resolution will be a substantive contribution to the Council’s work to protect civil society space. Among other things it

• Emphasizes the positive contribution of independent, diverse and pluralistic civil society topeace, security, sustainable development and human rights, and highlights good practice in protecting and supporting this role;

• Provides useful guidance for States to ensure that legal and policy frameworks are enabling for civil society and prevent intimidation and reprisals against civil society actors;  Helps States and civil society to identify areas of legal, policy and administrative reform to safeguard the ability of civil society actors to fully exercise the rights to freedoms of expression, opinion, assembly and association, and to participate in democracy and public life, without hindrance. This includes on registration and reporting requirements, access to information, and securing resources for the vital work of civil society;

• Creates opportunities and incentives for States to voluntarily share and develop their good practices, and to lay the groundwork to benefit from the transformative potential of a vibrant civil society in any healthy, pluralistic and participatory democracy;

• Mandates OHCHR to study practices and procedures for civil society to contribute to the work of international and regional organisations, and consolidate best practices and challenges in that regard; and

• Invites United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programs to themselves contribute to the protection and expansion of space for civil society.

However, fifteen amendments (L. 51 – L. 66) tabled by the Russian Federation3 seek to remove these essential elements from the draft resolution, and insert language to justify illegitimate restrictions on civil society that would undermine the protections of international human rights law. Many of the amendments challenge previously agreed HRC or General Assembly language.

Read the whole letter

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On 9 March there was a side event in  Geneva on economic inequality, financial crisis and human rights. I attended the event because we have a side event in New York which is relevant to the subject,  and Maria Hengeveld, who is the moderator of that panel, wrote an article in a Dutch weekly magazine. Maria holds that feminism is perverted by  business,  e.g. Goldman Sachs, who says that giving women a job is good for development, because women invest most of their earnings in their family. Women have a human right to all social, economic and cultural rights, not for others but for themselves.

Free market capitalism is responsible for aggressive deregulation and informalisation of work, which  worldwide deprives women of economic security and employment rights.Feminist authors like Hester Eisenstein, Srilatha Batliwala and Chandra Mohanty are convinced of that.

The statement by Juan Pablo Bohoslavky, UN Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, reaffirms that. So does the research of UNRISD (UN Research Institute for Social Development) on Inequalities and the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and Combating Poverty and Inequality.

More and more inequality within and between countries is seen as hampering economic growth and social development.

Austerity measures adopted in response to financial crises have had robust negative social impacts, exacerbated inequality and pushed disadvantaged groups below minimum income thresholds.

International human rights norms require States to ensure that all persons live with dignity. The existence of extreme inequality  often implies  that States  fail to meet their minimum core obligations under international human rights law.

Inequality often contributes to social exclusion and marginalisation of certain groups and individuals. It is also common for poorer segments of the population to be marginalised or even effectively excluded from the political process. This undermines the right to vote and democracy. Bohoslavky’s report has a number of recommendations on how to reduce inequalities in the prevention of financial crises and in their response. He stressed the contribution of financial market regulation, minimum wages, progressive taxation, and social protection floors in combating  excessive inequalities and ensure better human rights compliance.

UNRISD research found that policy instruments to promote equality of outcome have largely been neglected in the name of approaches that claim to create ‘equality of opportunity’. This approach has not allowed for structural factors that influence individual outcomes and has sidelined powerful policy instruments that can reduce outcome inequalities, such as:

• macroeconomic policies to ensure that sufficient employment is created to absorb new entrants into the labour force.
• Income and social policies to ensure that labour is properly rewarded in a largely globalized economy where its bargaining power has been reduced through informalisation and liberalisation. These include policies to register and protect informal work, ensure effective compliance with minimum wage and anti-discrimination legislation, and state support for smallholder agriculture.
• Widely accessible and good quality social provisions, including education, health, food, housing and social security, to protect against sharp income drops from illness, old age, market risks etc. And compensate for persistently low incomes and their structural causes.
• Widely accessible infrastructure, domestic technology and care services to support the (re)production of labour, disproportionally undertake by women and girls on an unpaid basis.
• Land reform, corporate taxation and progressive income taxation.

Social policy is an integral part of the development strategies of countries that have transformed their economies and reduced poverty relatively quickly. A number of welfare policies are feasible and affordable for countries of fairly low levels of income.

Politics matter for poverty reduction. The protection of civic rights, active and organised citizens, well-organised and representative political parties and effective states with redistributive agendas are all important for sustained progress toward poverty reduction.

Social policies for all, paid for by taxes, are a way to reduce poverty and combat inequalities and further social cohesion.. And the social policies above, described by UNRISD,  guarantee the economic, social and cultural rights, as contained in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966).

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IAW holds human rights to be inalienable and indivisible  for all human beings.

So it is logical that we respond positively to this request.

We are an international organization, and we are inspired by people all over the world and their words.

The Netherlands have the tradition that each year a women’s representative is added to the Dutch delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations. She gets 7 minutes speaking time. This year she spoke about the plight of LGBT people. She said:

“Now is the time to ‘Step it Up’ for all women, be they heterosexual, lesbian, transgender or intersex. Let them feel protected and safe, so that they can lead happy and prosperous lives.”

IAW wholeheartedly agrees.

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Elimination of discrimination against women (A/HRC/29/L7/Rev.1)

Every year the Human Rights Council spends a day discussing the elimination of discrimination against women, informed by the latest report of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice.

This Working Group is a sequel to Beijing’s Platform for Action. In Beijing, Governments decided to abolish discriminatory laws. The five and ten year reviews made this decision even firmer.  On the occasion of the tenth year review, the Commission on the Status of Women wondered if it would not be appropriate to establish a special rapporteur to report on discriminatory laws and their consequences. The Secretary-General had produced two reports, in 2006 and 2007 on the issue; in 2009 the Human Rights Council requested the High Commissioner to present a report on discrimination in law and practice, and in 2010 the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution with the mandate of the Working Group.

It is the second special procedure of the Human Rights Council dedicated to addressing women’s human rights, complementing the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its causes and consequences,which was established in 1994 immediately following the World Conference on Human Rights.  In Vienna in 1993 it had been decided to integrate women’s human rights into the overall human rights system.

The first report of the Working Group was about its history and plans for the future. Its second report in 2013 was dedicated to discrimination in law and practice in public and political life. In 2014 the subject was eliminating discrimination in economic and social life with a focus on economic crisis, and this year eliminating discrimination in cultural and family life with a focus on the family as a cultural space.(A/HRC/29/40)

This 2015 report is a radical accusation against patriarchy. It says that Article 5 (eliminate prejudice) of CEDAW is of vital importance. Human Rights Council resolutions – 16/3 on promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms through a better understanding of traditional values of humankind and 26/11 on the protection of the family – threaten to undermine international achievements in the field of human rights in the name of cultural and religious diversity.

It relies heavily on the definition of gender in General Recommendation 28 of the CEDAW Committee.

12. The construction of gender is deeply embedded in culture. In its general recommendation No. 28, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women indicates that “the term ‘gender’ refers to socially constructed identities, attributes and roles for women and men and society’s social and cultural meaning for these biological differences resulting in hierarchical relationships between women and men and in the distribution of power and rights favouring men and disadvantaging women. This social positioning of women and men is affected by political, economic, cultural, social, religious, ideological and environmental factors and can be changed by culture, society and community.”[1]

Gender is a discriminatory factor in all societies. Culture however can be changed.

The recommendations the Working Group makes are all furthering equality, especially within the family.

The resolution (A/HRC/29?L.7?Rev.1) the Human Rights Council adopted is a weak ‘infusion’ of the working group’s analysis.

However it

3. Calls upon States to ensure women’s equal enjoyment of all human rights by, inter alia:

(a)           Adopting and strengthening national legal frameworks promoting and guaranteeing gender equality in cultural and family life, in accordance with their international obligations and commitments;

(b)           Promoting the equal and full access, participation and contribution of women and girls in all aspects of life, including in cultural and family life;

(c)           Rejecting any discriminatory practice and gender stereotype;

(d)           Adopting or strengthening measures to combat multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, in particular against those belonging to vulnerable groups;

4. Also calls upon States to promote a culture free from all forms of discrimination against women and girls and to address its root causes by, inter alia:

(a)           Developing national mechanisms, measures and policies, as appropriate;

(b)           Adopting awareness-raising campaigns, educational and informational programmes;

(c)           Promoting the mobilization and engagement of civil society organizations and other relevant stakeholders, including that of men and boys;

(d)           Providing gender-equality training for State civil servants, including those working on the judiciary;

(e)           Adopting a coherent set of gender-responsive social and economic policies;

(f)            Addressing poverty and social exclusion in order to overcome the structural barriers and inequality that they face;

5. Urges States to take all appropriate measures to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices that are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women;
6. Calls upon States to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations, and to guarantee women’s equality in law and in practice in family life, in accordance with their respective international obligations and commitments by, inter alia:

(a)           Recognizing the equality of all family members before the law;

(b)           Opposing all forms of marriage that constitute a violation of women’s and girls’ rights, well-being and dignity;

(c)           Ensuring that men and women have the same right freely to choose a spouse, to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent and the same rights and responsibilities during marriage and at its dissolution;

(d)           Ensuring the same rights for both spouses in respect of the ownership, acquisition, management, administration, enjoyment and disposition of property;

(e)           Ensuring the same rights and responsibilities with regard to guardianship, wardship, trusteeship and the adoption of children, or similar institutions where these concepts exist in national legislation; in all the cases, the interest of the children shall be paramount.

Further the resolution calls for combating violence, an end to impunity, and access to justice for all women regardless of their status.

I started out noticing that there was so much language about the family in this resolution. Then I understood that this was because the Working Group’s report focused on it. Then I read the report and was impressed with the thorough analysis and description of legal systems regarding personal law.

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