Recognizing the importance of adequate resources, the 2008 session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) addressed the issue of Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women.  At this session, CSW found that insufficient political commitment and resources posed obstacles to the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment; it expressed concern at the under-resourcing in the area of gender equality in the United Nations System; and noted that the global commitments for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women since the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women had yet to be fully implemented.

In light of these concerns, the Commission urged Governments, and other relevant actors, to take a number of actions. These included:

• increasing the investment in gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls;
• removing barriers and allocating adequate resources to enable the full representation and full and equal participation of women in political, social and economic decision-making;
• strengthening education, health, and social services and effectively utilizing resources to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and ensure women’s and girls’ rights to education at all levels and the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; and
•  creating and enhancing a supportive environment for the mobilization of resources by non-governmental organizations, in particular women’s organizations and networks, to enable them to increase their effectiveness and to contribute to gender equality and the empowerment of women.

What about at the national and local levels? Are your governments and communities taking the necessary measures to provide sufficient resources for programmes and policies promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls? Has any progress been made in this area in the last four years?

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has defined sexual harassment as including “unwelcome sexually determined behaviour as physical contact and advances, sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography and sexual demand, whether by words or actions. Such conduct can be humiliating and may constitute a health and safety problem; it is discriminatory when the woman has reasonable grounds to believe that her objection would disadvantage her in connection with her employment, including recruitment or promotion, or when it creates a hostile working environment.”

Sexual harassment often involves unequal power relationships. Since most of the world’s working women occupy lower positions in a hierarchical working market, they are particularly vulnerable to this type of harassment. This vulnerability is compounded for young women, women in small work-places, and women who do not have access to adequate support structures.

The effects on the victim can range from minor to life-threatening, depending on the duration and nature of the harassment. There is also an organizational cost, in terms of lost productivity and diverted resources.

In the last 20 years, the dialogue around sexual harassment has continued in different venues around the world, with a number of results. Some companies and organizations have adopted sexual harassment policies and now provide training and sensitization to their employees. A number of countries have defined sexual harassment and created legal guidelines to address the issue.

Although there has been meaningful progress on this issue, much work remains.  Even in places where sexual harassment is formally recognized as unacceptable, the behaviour remains prevalent. Recent studies in the United States and the United Kingdom show that claims of workplace harassment have been rising. One reason for this may be new online social media platforms, which remove the face-to-face aspect of social interactions and provide a degree of anonymity that can make aggressors more confident. Of course there also remain places where sexual harassment is openly tolerated.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has recommended that States Parties should take all legal, preventative, protective and other measures that are necessary to provide effective protection of women against gender-based violence, which they consider to include sexual harassment in the workplace.

Governments and communities need to adopt a zero-tolerance approach, sending a clear message that sexual harassment will not be accepted.  This approach needs to be reinforced with the promotion of preventative practices, and the maintenance of enforcement structures. Only in this manner will we ensure that women’s right to work in decent conditions is fully realised.

How is sexual harassment perceived and addressed in your community/country? Is there a legal framework in place to address this issue and is it enforced?

For members, a dialogue on sexual harassment is also starting on our new IFUW Members’ Forum. We invite you visit the forums, register, and discuss this and other issues with IFUW members.

• In all OECD countries, individuals with a tertiary-level degree have a greater chance of being employed than those without such a degree. On average across OECD countries, 84% of the population with a tertiary education is employed. Overall, employment rates are more than 27 percentage points higher for those with a tertiary education than for those who have not completed an upper secondary education.

• Full-time work generally increases with higher levels of education. The proportion of individuals working full-time is 10 percentage points higher among those with a tertiary education than among those without an upper secondary education. Across OECD countries, 66% of those who have not attained an upper secondary education work full-time, 72% of those with an upper secondary education do, and 75% of those with a tertiary education do.
• Education is generally good insurance against unemployment and for staying employed in difficult economic times. In 2009, average unemployment rates across OECD countries stood at 4.4% for those with a tertiary education, 6.8% for those with an upper secondary education, and 11.5% for those who have not attained an upper secondary education.
• Differences in employment rates between men and women are wider among less-educated groups. Among those adults who do not have upper secondary qualifications, men are 21 percentage points more likely to be employed than women; but among the most highly qualified adults, men are only 9 percentage points more likely than women to be employed.
• While possessing a tertiary degree is a strong positive factor in employability, it is not a guarantee of employment. Across the OECD countries, 15% of those with tertiary degrees are unemployed. Chile, Hungary, Italy, Korea, Japan, Turkey and the United States were among the countries with the lowest employment rates among individuals with tertiary education.

Good education and skills are essential, particularly in the current economic climate. It is essential that Governments maintain investments in the education sector, including higher education.

Education at a Glance 2011 covers 34 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United States and the United Kingdom

What about other countries? Does a tertiary degree have a positive impact on employability in your country? Are there differences between men and women’s employment/unemployment at different education levels?

For the Full Report:
Education at a Glance 2011: OECD Indicators
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/61/2/48631582.pdf

The 330 sessions held at Women’s Worlds addressed major themes, such as: Breaking Cycles (dealing with oppression, poverty, inequality in its various forms); Breaking Ceilings (the glass ceiling, gender roles, women’s exclusion); Breaking Barriers (the fences of the global village, women’s restricted access to the benefits of globalization) and Breaking Ground (examples of how women are breaking ground today).

IFUW members from all over the world were present as both attendees and presenters.

Widows: neglected women?
What is their position and what roles do they perform in society?

IFUW members Anne Holden Roenning (Norway) and Louise Croot (New Zealand) presented a workshop and panel session entitled “Breaking Barriers Imposed by Widowhood – Enhancing the Millennium Goals”. This was a follow-up to Women’s Worlds in Madrid 2008 where IFUW first took up this issue. It was also a follow-up to the Beijing Platform for Action and the need to include this issue in the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Key facts

1. The face of widowhood: According to the Loomba Foundation there are 245 million widows, who account for one-tenth of the world’s population. 115 million of these women, and their 500 million children, live in conditions of dire poverty. The number of young widows with families is on the increase due to war and violence.

As the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr. Mary Robinson stated in 2001:  “Widows belong to all ages. They may be elderly women, but many are young mothers and there are also child widows … The stigma of widowhood can affect not only widows but also their children. Children may be deprived of shelter, food, health, education. They may be vulnerable to violence ….” UN Declaration of Human Rights.

2. Education and Productive Employment: Many widows have not previously worked for pay but have worked within the home, which reduces their employability and their access to financial income.

For this reason, the ability to receive adult education, at whatever level, and to earn an income is essential for widows, especially young widows, if they are ever to climb out of the pit of poverty and become self-supporting.

3. Gender Disparity and the Empowerment of Women: One of the key problems in widowhood is the right to inherit and own property. In many cultures, property passes directly to the male heirs, to the husband’s family, or to other in-laws.

Widows often have reduced or minimum pension rights because of part-time work or looking after the family. Widows are also confronted with the challenge of a single pension income, instead of the two received by couples where both partners still live.

4. Social Discrimination and Security: Many widows face social and cultural discrimination which can take many forms, such as that of being single and alone in a society that prefers couples. Single, older, or widowed women may feel uncomfortable going out alone, especially in the evenings. In some cultures, women are not permitted to leave the house without an accompanying male. Widowers are more frequently included in social arenas than widows.

5. Status of Widows: In today’s society, widows do not necessarily have family to look after them, and their human rights are frequently abused. There is often a discrepancy between customary law and statutory law. Does losing a spouse mean one becomes a single woman, an ambiguous term at best? In cultures where polygamy is practiced, a widow’s status can be even less clear.

Conclusions

The panel discussion revealed that the issue of widowhood and its impact on women is not adequately addressed in the MDGs. The participants requested that  IFUW work to add wording to the MDG’s (1, 2 and 3) and any other appropriate international conventions and documents in order to address the needs of widows and their children.

Question: How can we improve the overall position of this group of women, who form one tenth of the world’s population? What is the position of widows in your country? Is their a difference between the status of widowers and widows? Are widows valued as e.g. wise women, or are they regarded as worthless persons? Have conditions improved for widows, or are they worsening?

Louise McLeod
Member, Status of Women Committee

Les femmes migrantes venant d’Afrique se retrouvent bien souvent en situation irrégulière. Ces populations se comptent en millions  mais ne bénéficient d’aucune étude sociologique en sciences sociales, les sociologues ne cherchent pas à en constituer un sujet, aussi l’économie de cette population aussi considérable est simplement négligée.

Smaïm Laacher, sociologue au Centre d’étude des mouvements sociaux (CNRS-EHESS) a travaillé sur les violences faites aux femmes pendant les voyages clandestins dans les pays suivants : Algérie, Maroc, France, Espagne. Cette enquête sur plusieurs mois a été réalisée sous l’égide du Haut Commissariat aux Réfugiés des Nations Unies.

Il a pu constater que les femmes subissant des violences dans leur propres pays comme un viol,  pourrait avoir à quelques kilomètres plus loin une qualification différente entrainant un statut autre.    Pourtant quelle est la différence entre un viol dans son pays d’origine et celui commis pendant le voyage de fuite de ce pays donc à l’étranger.  Le premier serait un acte de violence, indépendamment de tout autre motif,  l’agresseur emploie la force pour contraindre, dans le but de violer pour violer. Dans le deuxième cas, à la violence du viol, s’ajoute une persécution  car un motif existe, un motif  fondé sur des causes politiques, idéologiques, raciales,  religieuses. Ces causes renvoient  aux catégories du droit existant, particulièrement pour le droit d’asile.  L’universalisme de cette étude  permet d’extrapoler pour les réfugiés du monde entier (Smaïm Laacher,  De la violence à la persécution, Les femmes sur la route de l’exil, La Dispute, 2010).

La question essentielle est de savoir si la violence faite aux femmes peut s’analyser  en persécution.  Les viols d’épuration, l’esclavage sexuel, les mutilations génitales,  la lapidation, les mariages forcés, la prostitution ne concernent qu’un genre pour l’essentiel, qu’une partie de l’espèce humaine, les femmes.  C’est   un enjeu politique  majeur  car selon la réponse, on inclut ces violences faites aux femmes dans le système légal ouvrant droit à la protection ou on les exclut du droit à la protection. Dans ce dernier cas,   des centaines de millions de personnes dans le monde sont  démunis de droit.  La manière dont on traite l’étranger est d’ailleurs un indicateur fort sur la xénophobie, le racisme d’une société.

Ainsi des femmes sont agressées, violées pendant le parcours d’un pays à l’autre. Certains prétendent que la Convention de Genève de 1951 ne s’applique pas à ces femmes, déjà  persécutées chez elles. Si on leur donne une protection, les états craignent qu’elles se disent toutes violées et  persécutées. L’idéologie dominante actuelle affirme que la violence  n’est pas de la persécution.  Ainsi, la violence subie dans son pays d’origine ou à quelques kilomètres de la frontière du pays d’accueil,  si elle est bien la même, aura des conséquences juridiques différentes. Humainement, la femme subira le viol puis une exclusion d’une vie normale. Lors du voyage, les femmes violées sont désormais  « sales »,  elles  ne peuvent plus se mélanger aux autres femmes « propres », elles sont repoussées par tous,  leur réputation les précède et les poursuivent. Elles deviennent bien souvent des prostituées car une union légitime leur est interdite.

Si les Etats ne veulent pas séparer la violence de la persécution c’est que la violence n’a pas recours à un motif, elle peut se déployer sans raison, comme un effet de la souveraineté du plus fort. Alors que la persécution a recours aux catégories du droit, à la différence.  Nos efforts doivent porter sur la reconnaissance de la persécution dont ces femmes sont trop souvent victimes.

Anne Nègre
Vice présidente IFUW

Migrant women from Africa often find themselves in a precarious situation. This group numbers in the millions but has not yet benefited from any sociological study. Sociologists have not considered these women as a subject of interest, and the considerable economic power of this group is simply neglected.

Smaïm Laacher, sociologist at the Centre for the Study of Social Movements (CNRS-EHESS), has studied the violence carried out against women during their clandestine travel in Algeria, Morocco, France and Spain. This months-long study, completed with the support of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, found that an assault, such as rape, carried out on a woman in her own country could be classified differently a few kilometers away, resulting in a different legal standing.

Yet what is the difference between rape in the country of origin and rape committed abroad while fleeing one’s country?  The first is an act of violence. Regardless of any other motive, the aggressor uses force in order to constrain, with rape as the ultimate objective. In the second case, persecution is added to the violence and this persecution is based on political, ideological, racial or religious motives. These motives can give recourse to existing categories of law, particularly the right to asylum. The universality of this study allows us to extrapolate for refugees worldwide (Smaïm Laacher, De la violence à la persécution, Les femmes sur la route de l’exil, La Dispute, 2010).

The essential question is whether violence towards women can be considered persecution. Rape as ethnic cleansing, sexual slavery, genital mutilation, stoning, forced marriages and prostitution predominantly affect only one gender – only half of the human species – women.  This is a major political issue. Depending on how we answer this question, we might cover this violence against women in the legal system. We extend to these women the right to protection or we exclude them. If we exclude these women from protection, then hundreds of millions of people in the world are deprived of rights. Moreover, the manner in which we treat foreigners is a strong gauge of xenophobia or racism in a society.

Some claim that the Geneva Convention of 1951 does not apply to these women who are assaulted and raped en route from one country to another and who are already persecuted at home. If we give them protection, States fear that all these women will claim to have been raped and persecuted. Current dominant ideology affirms that violence is not persecution. Therefore, a violent act carried out in the country of origin will have different legal consequences than the same act carried out a few kilometers from the border of the host country.

On a human level, a woman endures rape and then exclusion from a normal life. When migrating, raped women are considered “dirty”, they can no longer mix with other “clean” women, they are rejected by everyone, their reputations precede and pursue them. They often become prostitutes, as a legitimate union is forbidden to them.

If States do not want to separate violence from persecution, then violence does not need a motive. It can be deployed without reason as a result of rule by the strongest, unlike persecution which has recourse to legal categories. Our efforts must focus on the recognition of persecution, of which women are too often victims.

Anne Nègre
IFUW Vice-President

Ambassador Laura Dupuy called Uruguay’s decision, which cost the equivalent of $260 per child, a ‘social investment’. It is an investment which is already paying dividends. Moreover, as Uruguay has almost universal enrolment rates for primary education, these benefits are being spread equally among girls and boys.  Not only have schools reported higher self-esteem and greater levels of independent research among students, a follow-up survey found that 87% of the children had taught their family members to use the laptop as well. In particular, it was found that mothers were using the laptops to look up health and nutritional information. Plans by the government to increase the amount of free educational software and information available will therefore have a key impact on families, and on women.

Hans Laugesen, Senior Educational Policy Officer of Denmark’s Teacher’s Union, painted a more mixed picture of ICT’s impact on female education. He noted that ICT use in the classroom allowed teachers to better accommodate different learning styles and speeds within the same group, benefitting for example girls who are quiet or children of immigrant parents who have language difficulties. He also drew the audience’s attention to one way which ICT use in learning might disadvantage girls: online tests. When in Iceland and Denmark, the OECD’s PISA test, or Programme for International Student Assessment test, was switched to an online test, despite the same questions being asked, boys suddenly did much better while the girls’ performance decreased.

Both the examples of Uruguay and of Denmark/Iceland suggest that the introduction of ICT into learning environment can have unintended consequences for women and girls, whether good, as in the laptop scheme, or potentially harmful, as in the case of computerised testing. Educational decisions which appear to actively disadvantage girls should be discouraged, until the reasons for negative outcomes have been understood and overcome.

Have any studies been done on the impact of ICT on girls in your country? Have there been any pilot programmes to increase use of ICT for girls in your country? Do you think ICT in education has positive or negative effects on girls?

Signy Allen, IFUW Intern

Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - UN/DPI Artwork: Octavia Roth

Words shape gendered social-cultural and relational thinking. The expression “harmful practices” is often used to refer to gender-based violence. Using the expression “human rights violations” instead of “harmful practices” enacts a rights-based educational approach.

By verbalizing and visibilizing “practices” – a word that means the usual way of doing things – into a human rights “violation” framework, shifts perceptions. Decoding language and perceptions turns such “practices” into “violations”. This helps remove the misogynistic discrimination and stigmatization women and girls suffer because of gender-blaming or blaming-the-victim that occurs globally.

When we refer to acts of gender-based violence, such as harassment, acid burning and domestic sexualized torture, as “human rights violations” and not merely “harmful practices”, we shift these into the human rights framework. For example, sexualized torture is a violation of Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and of General Recommendation 19/7(b) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Both state that no one shall be “subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

Naming the human rights instruments that address the human rights violations delivers these instruments into the awareness of everyday living, immediately introducing people to a rights-based educational experience. This can translate how women and girls think about the violations they suffer, counteracting gender-based discrimination, stigmatization and devaluation as illustrated by an African woman who, after hearing me, a Canadian, talk on non-state torture (NST), said:

“Don’t stop talking … about atrocities that happen to women in your country … which I thought only happened to African women … I thought that there must be something wrong with us … with me as an African woman.”

A rights-based educational approach decodes socio-cultural relational misogynistic cover-ups and challenges the minimization of gender-based violence. For example, in Bangladesh, “eve-teasing” is a coded term that covers up or diminishes misogynistic bullying and harassment of girls, often preventing them from attending school [1]. Using a rights-based approach, “eve-teasing” can be considered a human rights violation under article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Acid burning [2], and domestic sexualized torture [3], can be situated as forms of NST under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) thereby claiming women and girls’ human right not to be subjected to torture.

All human rights are women and girls’ human rights – there must not be gender-biased exceptions.

Jeanne Sarson, Canadian Federation

Jeanne Sarson has been a Member-at-Large of the Canadian Federation since 2009.  She is a grass root supporter and human rights defender, researcher, published author and educator focused on the human rights violation of non-state torture in the private sphere. With a colleague she manages the website: www.nonstatetorture.org

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. IRIN. (2011, April 22). Bangladesh: When sexual harassment leads to suicide

2. Nowak, M. (2010, September 15). Side-event: Acid burning attacks – victimization, survivors, support. Paper presented at Strengthening the Protection of Women from Torture and Ill-treatment. Women’s UN Report Network, Worldwide Organization for Women and NGO Committee on the Status of Women-Geneva.

3. Nowak, M. (2010, February 5). Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. A/HRC/13/39/Add.5.

How a woman is affected by globalization really depends on intersecting factors such as class, nationality, race, ability, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, age and education. For instance, there are women in the burgeoning middle-classes of India and China who have significantly benefited through better employment opportunities, new technologies and increased purchasing power.

However, the vast majority of women in all developing countries are worse off now than before. To illustrate: Structural Adjustment Programs have required governments to   cutback on food and healthcare subsidies, increasing the burdens already shouldered by women and their families. Additionally, food security is threatened by free trade policies that dictate food be produced for trade rather than domestic consumption. Instead of reforming public healthcare and its delivery, globalization has resulted in the rapid privatization of healthcare and the decline of government facilities which serve poor women and their children. Without primary healthcare, diseases such as leprosy, malaria, measles, neonatal tetanus, polio, and tuberculosis are in evidence again. Also affecting women are high infant mortality rates and the rates of death during childbirth. But, by far the worst consequence of globalization is the uptick in human and sex- trafficking as thousands of women have gone missing while looking for much – needed employment far away from the safety nets of their families and communities.

As far back as in September 2003, in his address to the United Nations General Assembly, Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, warned that the world’s perspective on globalization must shift from a narrow preoccupation with markets to a broader preoccupation with people.

The question to consider is: Can we develop a form of globalization that is not at odds with sustainable development?

Geeta Desai, Member WG-USA

Geeta Desai, originally from Mumbai, India, has lived in  America for 40 years. She is an Organizational Development Consultant and works with private foundations and non-profit agencies to help them design, develop and evaluate programs that respond to emerging human needs. She is also an independent scholar on women’s issues. She researches,  writes and presents papers at conferences and colleges.

A recent roundtable organized by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) looked at some of the issues that must be addressed for empowering women and enhancing their capacity as active agents of change for sustainable development.

One of the key issues was the unequal distribution of income. Women accrue less income than men over their lifetime for a variety of reasons. They get paid less for the same work and are more likely to work less in order to reconcile their careers with child or elder care. These gaps in women’s employment history reduce the amount of social security women gain. It also decreases the likelihood of receiving credit or loans. All these facts increase women’s vulnerability to poverty, especially in old age. Governments must introduce policies, programmes and quota systems which correct this imbalance.

Another concern voiced was the lack of sex-disaggregated environment statistics which makes it difficult to gage gender differences, especially when it comes to the management of natural resources and the protection of environment. The background paper for the roundtable suggested that natural resource management is an area where women are seriously underrepresented, as well as a field guaranteed to expand as concerns over the environment increase. Management of natural resources is an area that governments could target in order to increase female representation through skills development and the possible use of quotas.

Women’s contribution to sustainable development must be recognized. Women have a strong role in education and socializing their children, including teaching them care and responsibility with regard to the use and protection of natural resources. More should be done to increase women’s voice in environmental decision making and to enable women to seize opportunities in the “green economy”. More capacity building programmes and training tailored to the needs of women are needed.

Does your country undertake the systematic collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated environment data? In your country, are women represented in the fields addressing sustainable development ? If not, how do you think this will affect your nation’s policy development on the issue?

Caitlin Flannery, IFUW Intern

Read Caitlin’s full report here: ECE Roundtable on Empowering Women for Sustainable Development in the UNECE Region