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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The article was written by Avi Mor, director of the Hotline, and by Malka Genachowski, director of WIZO’s Janet Burros Center for the Treatment and Prevention of Domestic Violence, in which the Hot Line operates. It showcases how WIZO is on the cutting edge of innovation in the battle against domestic violence, continually initiating new programs and services that bring a holistic and systematic approach to this complex problem, in treatment, prevention, education, advocacy and legislation.

We urge you to read this excellent article and share it widely.

Warm regards,

Anita Friedman                    Ora Korazim
Chairperson                          Chairperson
World WIZO                          WIZO Israel

Read the article from Newsweek

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General : UNCAC entered into force in December 2005. Presently it counts 186 State Parties. It recognizes the importance of both preventive and punitive measures and addresses the cross-border nature of corruption. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna serves as its Secretariat.

Interestingly the UNCAC does not define corruption as such. It rather lists and defines a series of offences that should be criminalised and covered by legal provisions, including bribery of national and foreign public officials and in the private sector, embezzlement, money laundering, concealment, and obstruction of justice. Concerning the agents of corrupt practices, UNCAC Art.2 uses a functional definition of the term “public official”, which covers anyone who holds a legislative, administrative, executive or judicial office, or performs a public function or provides a public service.

The UNCAC has eight chapters and 71 articles. Four chapters contain substantive provisions, such as preventive measures, criminalisation and law enforcement, international cooperation, and asset recovery. UNCAC Article 13 is of particular importance for civil society organisations (CSOs) as it highlights their important role. It is being debated by governments and is the basis for advocacy by the UNCAC Coalition (of civil society) and Transparency International.

Impressions from the NGO briefing held “on the margins” of the 10^th resumed session of the Implementation Review Group (IRG) of the Convention, recently held in Vienna.

The IRG sessions are open to UNCAC signatory states and intergovernmental organisations. Civil society organisations have not been permitted to participate as observers, due to opposition from a small but influential group of countries. This is problematic and inconsistent with international human rights standards, Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals and with transparency and participation standards in the Convention itself.

Government debates about the admission of CSOs as observers has led to a temporary compromise at the COSP4 (Conference of State Parties 4^th session in Marrakesh in 2011), in which Governments agreed on a “briefing” for CSOs “on the margins” of the IRG meetings on the outcomes of the review process, including the technical assistance needs identified. Only CSOs admitted to participate as observers in the COSP previous to the briefing can attend and make oral and written statements. Exceptions can be made for CSOs with ECOSOC consultative status.

These briefings are widely considered to be an inadequate substitute for observer status and has been a subject for CSO advocacy.

Apart from the Briefing, CSOs are permitted to make written submissions to the IRG of up to 1500 words. However, these submissions may not contain evaluations of country implementation of UNCAC or focus on the conduct of the review in a single country.

Governments can object to specific NGOs attending the COSP, if the applicants do not have ECOSOC status. At the last COSP in 2017, two Hungarian NGOs were not accredited due to an objection from a government. The UNCAC Coalition and Transparency International has repeatedly criticised this non-objection approach, which lacks transparency as the objecting State Party remains anonymous.

For futher reading:

https://www.unodc.org

https://uncaccoalition.org:

Growing Civic Space: UNCAC Coalition Statement to the 10th Session of the UNCAC Implementation Review Group Meeting.

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Deutscher Frauenring, DFR, for decades kept carrying on this project. In the years 1982 to 1985 I was travelling in Togo with Brigitte Pross, then a Vice-President of IAW. I soon became the main responsible  for the project CJDA, the Youth Centre at Danyi Atigba which first had as its mission to promote young people who looked for work in the cities. Stopping  the rural exodus was a priority with UNESCO and, more or less by chance, I got gift bonuses amounting to 6000 Deutschmark. This fund completed funds obtained from the German Development Ministry, BMZ, earmarked for the training of carpenters and for the salaries of two instructors. The buildings, planned and overseen by a German architect whose wife worked nearby for the German Development Service, DED, is the result of all these efforts. Our priority remained the training of seamstresses and the first eight machines were collected by my collaborators and sent to Togo on the sea route. This is the history of the CJDA in short. DFR up to now remained the only sponsor. Julia represented the DFR at the Centennial celebrations of EEPT, Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Togo, District of Danyi Atigba.

Togo’s women are famous for their clothes made of imported cotton fabrics –the preferences vary  from year to year.  Men’s gowns are also tailored from these fabrics. Festive clothes use fabrics in the traditional “royal” colours gold, red, green, blue.

Much has changed since Julia was in Atigba in 2011 as our intern. On the other hand she met friends from that time, for example. la Reine-Mère In the traditional hierarchy of a village she is the « first lady».

Officially men govern the village.

FODA, an administration unit for the promotion of the village facilities like the CJDA and the health clinic, did not convene during the discord about who should be  the next village chief after the death of the old one.

Technical progress Julia documented in her report is the electrification of the village and running water. The CJDA needs the e-current for the overlock machine acquired one year ago, the fridge to cool beverages, the TV set with DVD player for educational purposes and for the guests of the motel.

To reduce the cost, water from the cistern () is used in the sanitary facilities which belong to them–with a total of 8 guestrooms.

Income from the motel helps to balance the budget. This is also true for the fees paid by the apprentices

Julia had a full program including speeches in the hall of the the CJDA’s main building.  For example, the Director was in action as one of the speakers at the festivities which started in the morning with a festive service in the EEPT. A light meal followed in a nearby school, with more speeches and plenty of guests. An extraordinary meeting of our partners with Julia, a thorough visit of the CJDA and a stop to chat with the apprentices and to encourage them, as well as visiting the local Health clinic with its village pharmacy which is also on our list of donations. Togo’s health system lacks the means to provide enough medicine, we help with generics.

The wish to have many children persists, above all with male inhabitants. Women who rear them, have to cope with everyday chores and earn money, often cultivating a patch of land, could do with fewer children.

To change their lot we recommend to work in Atigba and elsewhere, with the picture box

The future belongs to those who get up early

At this time of the year downpours are frequent, in Atigba, in Lomé, nearly everywhere in Togo

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Introduction

The aim of this essay is to give an overview on the current situation of gender equality in education and the ways to improve gender disparities in the field of education at the international and national level. The focus of this essay is on international and national mechanisms to hold governments to account, civil society activism and credible education plans.

1. The current situation

UNICEF has stated that education offers children a way out of poverty and a path to a promising future. However, approximately 264 million children and adolescents around the world do not have the opportunity to enter or complete school. They are hindered by poverty, discrimination, armed conflict, emergencies.

According to UNESCO, there are 63 million children of primary school age (from six to eleven years old) who are out of school. Of these children 34 million are girls. In 2000, 58 % of the 100 million out-of-school children were girls. By 2016 this percentage had fallen to 54 % which meant that 10 % of girls of primary school age were out of school in comparison to 8 % of boys. However, this global average does not show the differences at regional and country levels.

Girls at primary school face a disadvantage in most regions, except in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Northern America where boys are more likely to be out of school. In Europe and in Northern America in 2016 the out-of-school rate of boys was 4,1 % (1,4 million) whereas girls’ rate was 3,4% (1,1 million). In Latin America and in the Caribbean in 2016 the out-of-school rate of boys was 5,5% (1,7 million) whereas the girls’ rate was 4,4% (1,3 million). In Asia, girls face more disadvantages attending school. For example, in Southern Asia in 2016 6,4% (5,6 million) of girls were out of school compared to boys whose out-of-school rate was 4,9% (4,7 million). Sub-Saharan Africa is the region which has the largest gender disparities. There girls account for 56% of out-of-school children and 53% of all out-of-school youth.

In Northern Africa and Western Asia, 12 % of girls do not attend school, compared to 10% of boys. In the following nine countries the female primary out-of-school rate is at least 10% higher than the male rate: Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Guinea, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan and Yemen. Furthermore, more than one-half of girls of primary school age do not attend school in Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia and South Sudan.

At the global level, the out-of-school rates between women and men are almost identical. However, this average does not take into account differences between regions. For example, in Northern Africa and Western Asia 16% of adolescent girls remain excluded from education compared to 11% of boys. Whereas, in sub-Saharan Africa, the female rate for exclusion is 39% compared to 35% for males. In Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern Asia and Europe and Northern America adolescent boys are the ones who face disadvantages in attending school. In Europe and in Northern America in 2016 the out-of-school rate of boys (lower secondary school age) was 2,4 % (0,5 million) compared to girls’ rate of 1,9% (0,4 million). In Latin America and in the Caribbean the out-of-school rate of boys was 7,9% (1,5 million) whereas the out-of-school rate of girls was 7,2% (1,3 million). Furthermore, in Southern Asia the out-of-school rate of boys was 18,3% (10,2 million) and the out-of-school rate of girls was 15,9% (8 million). Also in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia the out-of-school rate of boys was higher 9,3% (4,4 million) than the one of girls 8,6% (3,6 million). Oceania is closest to gender parity in the age group of lower secondary school.

2. Political and legal background

The international community has committed to achieving gender equality since the establishment of the United Nations. Chapter I of the UN charter notes as one of the organization’s purposes the aim to achieve international cooperation through ‘promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion’ (United Nations, 1945). Since the formulation of the UN charter, countries have been increasing their political and legal commitment to gender equality in education.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development obliges countries to take gender equality into account throughout all 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). From all the SDGs the SDG 4 on Quality education and the SDG 5 on Gender equality emphasise gender equality in education. The SDG 4 demands inclusive, equitable education of good quality whereas the SDG 5 aims at achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls. The aims of the SDG 5 include the elimination of all forms of discrimination, gender-based violence and child marriage, increasing participation of women at all levels of decision-making, and providing universal access to sexual and reproductive health services.

The Education 2030 Framework for Action, which is the international community’s guideline to achieve the SDG 4, states that gender equality is essential if the right to education is to be extended to all. According to the Framework, governments must promote gender-sensitive policies, plans and learning environments. This involves eliminating gender-based discrimination and violence and providing teacher education and support in offering gender-equitable education. However, it is important to remember that the 2030 Agenda is not legally binding.

States’ legal obligations on education derive from legally binding international treaties that outlines governments’ responsibilities to respect, protect and fulfil the right to education. States must abstain from violating the right to education. The protection of the right to education indicates that states must ensure that third parties do not prevent equal access to and enjoyment of education. In addition, the fulfilment of the right to education obliges that states must adopt legislative, administrative, budgetary, judicial and other measures towards the full realization of the right. All countries have ratified at least one treaty which protects the right to education is protected.

Three global treaties are especially important to gender equality in education. First of them is the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This treaty is considered as the most specific and substantive treaty concerning the legal obligations of states towards gender equality in education. Article 10 of CEDAW outlines state obligations and establishes acceptable norms, such as equality in access to and quality of education, the reduction of female dropout rates, programmes for women and girls who have left school prematurely, and access to educational information on health and family planning whereas Article 16 bans child marriage. However, although 189 states have ratified CEDAW, many countries have made reservations to it. This undermines their commitment to the treaty.

Secondly, the Convention against Discrimination in Education (CADE) is the only treaty specialised in the field of education. It is also considered as the most comprehensive treaty concerning discrimination in education. CADE prohibits all forms of discrimination, including gender. In addition, it focuses on discrimination both in access to and quality of education.

Thirdly, Articles 13 and 14 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) are often recognised as the foundation of the legal right to education. The treaty’s monitoring committee has outlined state practices that are necessary in bringing change to eliminate discrimination, all of which demand close monitoring and disaggregated data to identify patterns of discrimination as stated in Article 13.

3. How gender equality can be achieved in the field of education?

Even though states formally accept the responsibility to guarantee the right to gender equality in education, discriminatory practices based on gender still exist. NGOs and citizens can use both international and national and civil society channels to have their voices heard and hold governments to account. International and national channels are associated with human rights treaty bodies, parliaments and independent institutions whereas civil society channels involve civil society groups including those that address women’s rights issues.

3.1 International mechanisms to hold governments to account

Governments can be held accountable in a couple of ways when it comes to the treaties. First, authorized parties may be able to bring complaints directly to the committee monitoring the treaty. Secondly, the treaty usually demands countries to report progress on meeting treaty commitments to the committee. Thirdly, third parties might be asked to inform further the committee during a country review process.

The principal way to hold governments accountable for their commitments on the right to education is through the submission of complaints, communications, petitions or claims by anyone who feels that their human rights have been violated by the state. The committees observing CEDAW, ICESCR and CADE all have mechanisms to submit complaints.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women monitors the implementation of CEDAW. This means that the Committee is the most likely UN treaty body to receive a complaint on gender inequality in education. Even though UN treaty bodies have dealt with a small number of complaints or communications on the right to education, no UN treaty body has yet adjudicated on a specific case of gender discrimination in education. However, the Committee of CEDAW has adopted decisions that affect gender equality in education.

Countries must report periodically on measures they have taken to meet their obligations. During the last reporting for CADE, completed in 2013, 40 out of 59 countries reported important policy changes. For example, in Bahrain, nursery schools were opened in continuing education centres to provide a space for childcare while parents continue their education. Whereas, in Bangladesh the Female Stipend Programme was expanded to upper secondary, allowing the 3.9 million students receiving the stipend to extend their education.

Furthermore, non-government organisations (NGOs) are given the opportunity to submit information on violations of rights committed by states during country reviews. Reports from NGOs are known as shadow or parallel reports and they take local voices into the international arena.

All in all, the multiple ways offered by international treaties are underutilized measures for holding countries accountable for gender equality in education. Although lack of an enforcement authority may limit the degree of national reporting on treaty goals, normative pressure to meet commitments has driven progress in some countries. Thus, individual citizens and civil society organizations could use more often these measures to highlight issues of discrimination and segregation because committee recommendations together with public scrutiny can prompt government action. 

3.2 National mechanisms to hold governments to account

Independent institutions present other routes for citizens to contribute complaints. National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), including ombudsman offices, are assigned to report on complaints involving government human rights violations and to recommend corrective action. In 2010, 118 countries had ombudsman offices.  For example, in Finland, the Ombudsman for Equality supervises compliance with the Act on Equality between Women and Men. The office of the Finnish Ombudsman studies inquiries and complaints on gender issues in employment, education, housing, social protection and healthcare, and goods and services. Furthermore, gender audits by independent audit institutions can also add pressure on governments.

3.3 Civil society activism

Accountability systems, including civil society movements, provide an avenue for citizens to make complaints. Women activist groups have had a huge role in many countries in holding governments into account for their commitments.

Campaigns for women’s rights are often organized by NGOs, sometimes together with governments and local authorities. For example, in Afghanistan, Nepal and Pakistan the support of local and religious leaders helped to change their communities’ attitudes towards girls’ right to education.

Progress can also be accelerated by gender-focused international NGOs. A few examples of these NGOs and their campaigns are the Campaign for Female Education, the MenEngage Alliance and Women Deliver. In addition to this, the #HeForShe campaign launched by UN Women in 2014 focuses on engaging men to become change agents and help achieve gender equality also in the field of education. This campaign has also developed programmes to address gender-based violence at universities.

Social media is more and more used to draw attention to gender issues, hold governments and other stakeholders to account and give a voice to civil society. Hashtag activism can also help convey local concerns into global consciousness. For example, the #BringBackOurGirls campaign drew global attention to the kidnapping of over 250 secondary school girls in Borno State, Nigeria, in 2014.

3.4 Credible education plans

Governments have political and legal obligations to plan and implement education policy, within their resource limitations. Governments are liable both for protecting the right to gender equality in education and for providing gender equitable education services. There is no single way on how governments can ensure gender equality in education. It is also important to remember that governments are not uniform actors; they are composed of many sectors, departments, levels and authorities with variable levels of capacity. Furthermore, fragile, post-conflict and post-reconstruction states are usually in a weaker position in enacting and enforcing policies.

In holding governments accountable for their promises on gender equality in education, a key tool is credible education plans. These credible education plans should identify clear lines of responsibility, be properly funded and have a transparent budget. Education plans promote coordination across government bodies and can gather different ministries to tackle the wide-ranging challenges that often restrict girls’ education. The involvement of different stakeholders can help in assuring that plans include and adequately fund strategies and policies that advance gender equality.

However, the existence of an education plan that meets certain criteria is by no means a guarantee of success.  For example, Afghanistan has a gender-sensitive plan. This plan recognizes the importance of female teachers in facilitating girls’ enrolment as
well as the difficulty of recruiting them. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education has introduced inducements to attract more female teachers, especially in rural areas. Unfortunately, the strategy has made little difference: 1/5 of all districts do not have a single female teacher.

According to the Global Education Monitoring Report 2018, every stage of an education plan should be considered through a gender lens. Firstly, a gender assessment should measure the potential gender implications of the policy. Secondly, gender budgeting should make sure that resources are properly targeted and equitably distributed. Thirdly, different stakeholders should be included in the examination of the plan or policy in relation to the original intention and identifying any explicit or hidden prejudice or discrimination. Finally, a report on policy implementation and results, including gender analysis and segregated data, should be prepared and published to a wider public.

This paper has been researched and drafted by Vilja Härkönen, intern at the Secretariat of IAW in Athens, under the supervision of Joanna Manganara, President of IAW.

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Rights, a milestone document that proclaimed the inalienable rights which everyone is inherently entitled to as a human being — regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights empowers us all. The principles enshrined in the Declaration are as relevant now as they were in 1948. We can take action in our own daily lives, to uphold the rights that protect us all.

Human rights are at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as in the absence of human dignity we cannot drive sustainable development. Human Rights are driven by progress on all SDGs, and the SDGs are driven by advancements on human rights.

Commemorating such an important document as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for one day is not enough. Lately a number of UN agencies, like UN Women, and now the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, the initiator and global coordinator of 16 days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, has adopted a new approach in order to move from awareness to accountability.

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is an international campaign coordinated by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership and used by activists around the world as an organizing strategy to call for the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence. It takes place every year between November 25 and December 10 and is run by over 6000 organizations in 187 countries.

This year the Center is asking everybody to join forces with workers’ unions and turn these 16 days into a 365 effort to end all harassment and violence in the world of work.  Every month leading up to June 2019 there will be a focus on different sectors of work, highlighting gender based violence for domestic workers, politicians, journalists and in garment factories, in the agricultural sector and more. This is a transforming experience which can bring powerful results.

The IAW has since a number of years been working on the issue of accountability adopting Declarations after every Board meeting asking our members to hold their governments and other relevant stakeholders accountable for the realisation of women’s human rights and gender equality.

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Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations. In our world today violence against women and girls remains largely unreported due to impunity, silence, stigma and shame surrounding it but also due to lack of political will by governments to implement relevant policies to help victims.

On the 25th of November every year we commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on the basis of resolution 54/134 of the General Assembly which invites governments, international organisations as well as NGOs to join together and organise activities designed to raise public awareness of the issue every year on that date.

I find raising awareness for one day too little. We must find other ways to commemorate the International Day.

The executive director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in her speech at the official commemoration of this day in New York City this year called for turning the struggle to end impunity to a global movement for accountability. This is a very good approach to the issue of violence against women.

IAW has for a couple of years now issued Declarations on Accountability by governments on issues that have to do with the gender equality and women’s human rights. The last IAW Declaration of 2018 is even more important because it refers to civil society, in particular women’s organisations and feminist groups, and the shrinking space they encounter which creates enormous difficulties for them to work.

The reason this is taking place is that CSOs are key players in holding governments to account to ensure their role as duty bearers for the fulfillment of human rights.

So, without a strong civil society, we cannot proceed with what the Executive Director of UN Women is calling for.

We should mobilize to work against overregulation of civil society organisations putting in place restrictions in their funding, taxation, membership registration and thus their functioning.

As the UN Executive Secretary is saying we should turn decades of difficult struggle to end impunity into tangible sisterhood that is getting stronger and telling perpetrators that time is up.

More importantly it is about building partnerships and changing the culture in our society that makes these violations possible and tolerated.

The independence of CSOs is a perquisite for the effective accountability of governments and for building a human rights and gender equality culture.

We have to mobilize to ensure that governments stop using symbolic policies and practices with limited impact as a substitute for the real political and economic commitments that are needed to overcome the structural barriers to eliminating violence against women and more generally the realization of women’s and girls’ human rights.

One way of demonstrating to governments their lack of effective policies and accountability is by gathering data that are comparable at the international level. To that effect I have to reiterate the call of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women who urges the worldwide adoption of femicide watches or gender related killings observatories, in order to collect, analyze and review data at the national, regional and global level.

These data concerning gender related killings would contribute to identifying existing failures of protection, boost preventive measures as well as tackle impunity of perpetrators.

The aim is to move in the direction of collection of comparable world data on femicide and towards the development of modalities of data collection and analysis. Such data could then be turned into femicide rates in order to enable states to objectively assess where they stand on the regional and global level to scale and to adopt actions needed to prevent many preventable deaths of women.

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We the undersigned feminists, women’s rights groups and civil society allies from all over the world call on governments to support the legally-binding instrument on transnational corporations and human rights. The negotiations at the United Nations is the very chance for Member States to demonstrate political will to put economic justice, environmental justice, gender justice and accountability to people above corporate interests.

The time is now for UN Member States to finally fulfill their obligation to respect, promote and protect human rights and the environment, and put an end to corporate impunity.

The scale and impact of corporate operations across the world is causing great harm to millions of people and the environment: from land-grabbing and displacements to the contamination of water and soil, to the loss of lives of women human rights defenders protecting their fundamental human rights, livelihoods, freedoms and territories. Thousands of trade and investment agreements safeguard corporate interests, without any respect for the free, prior and informed consent, consultation of affected communities, nor any corresponding regulatory framework to protect human rights and the environment from corporate abuse.

We, women, girls and people of all gender, age, racial and ethnic identities experience rights violations, violence and discrimination by corporations. Patriarchy, racism and capitalism work together in oppressing women, particularly in the Global South and in marginalised communities:

• We produce most of the food in the world and yet are the most likely to suffer from extreme level of poverty, hunger, malnutrition, loss of land, water and livelihoods.● We are employed in the most precarious working environments with least labour protection (e.g. informal sector & rural women workers), earn the lowest wages and shoulder the vast majority of the world’s unpaid care work.
• We experience massive violations of labour rights, attacks to our right to organise and freedom of association, and sexualised violence at work.
• We are most affected by land-grabbing, community displacements and massive extraction of natural resources, yet denied of access to land and excluded from decision-making, compensation and access to justice.
• We bear the brunt of militarised corporate activities, which enable multiple cases of rape by public and private security forces and attacks against women human rights defenders.
• We are most affected by all forms of tax injustice and the privatization of public services, often driven by trade and investment agreements and austerity policies imposed by international financial institutions.
• We are most significantly affected by climate change and extreme weather events fuelled by the fossil fuel industries and Global North countries. Women are more likely to be killed during disasters and face an increased risk of gender-based and sexual violence during disasters.
• We face threats, criminalisation, repressions, gender-based and sexual violence and even killings because of our work to resist corporate abuses in defense of human rights, fundamental freedoms and accountable democracy.

We recognize that the current global economic system is built to prioritise profit over people’s lives and the environment. Transnational corporations in particular, are able to escape accountability because of legal loopholes that enable impunity at multiple levels, undermining democracy and the rule of law. The unprecedented level of power transnational corporations enjoy through trade and investment agreements’ investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clauses are particularly concerning. They grant one-sided power to corporations to nullify national laws and policies if they reduce ‘investors’ expected profits. States’ legitimate regulatory space to establish public social policies, protect human rights and hold corporations accountable is fundamentally undermined by growing corporate power, corporate capture and the power structures that further cements this.

Transnational corporations exploit ideas of feminism and gender equality to improve their image in some countries, while systematically abusing women’s human rights in other parts of the world. We note with significant concern that women’s empowerment, once a radical feminist idea of transforming society, has been manipulated and reduced to individualistic focus on self-esteem, entrepreneurship, and consumerism.

We reject these propaganda of “corporate feminism” and “corporate social responsibility”. An agenda limited to work-life balance, having more women in managerial positions or parental leaves fails to tackle the systemic corporate abuse against women. These neoliberal and corporate versions of feminism fundamentally reinforce the exploitative nature of women’s labour under capitalism, fail to challenge patriarchy and white supremacy, and advance the belief that women’s liberation can be achieved within the existing economic model.

We insist that an instrumental approach to gender equality as a means to achieve economic growth, while ignoring corporate human rights abuses, will only further entrench gender discrimination, poverty, labour exploitation and result in growing inequalities between countries, the rich and the poor and between men and women.

We know that business interests interfere with political decisions. Corporations today hold more economic power than many States. Their political influence and the corporate capture of decision-making threaten women’s human rights and gravely undermine decisions that should be made in the public interest, not for corporate profits.

➪ We urge States to stop eroding their duty to regulate business and protect the environment and people through trade and investment agreements and to live up to their responsibility to protect human rights, including by safeguarding political institutions from the undue influence of corporations and said trade and investment agreements.

➪ We demand that States take a bold and responsible step to regulate corporate activities, make political and legal decisions to prioritise people and environment over corporate interest/profits and advance gender equality and women’s human rights regardless of gender, race, ethnicity.

➪ We call on women and feminist allies around the world to support an international legally-binding instrument to hold corporations accountable for human rights abuses.

Together, we join efforts to mobilise for a treaty that acknowledges the disproportionate and gender specific impacts of corporate abuse, adopts a non-discrimination and gender justice approach and ensures women’s access to justice, and explicitly recognises and protects Women Human Rights Defenders challenging corporate power and impunity in defense of rights, people and nature.

Read more

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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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