EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UNFPA PLEDGES SUPPORT TO COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN
Press Release
WOM/878
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UNFPA PLEDGES SUPPORT TO COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN
19960116 The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) planned to work with governments to ensure universal ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women by the year 2000, its Executive Director, Dr. Nafis Sadik, this afternoon told the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which monitors implementation of the Convention.The Population Fund would work with other United Nations agencies to inform women's non-governmental organizations and human rights advocates of the work of the Committee, she said. The Fund hoped that such sensitization would enable such organizations to monitor the Convention's implementation at the country level.
Dr. Sadik said the Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) had stated explicitly that the "human rights of women and of the girl child are inalienable, integral and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms". The consensus reached at the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994) had stressed the need for gender equality and equity to enable women to realize their full potential. It had also urged men to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive behaviour and family roles.
The Fourth World Conference on Women had broken new ground in regard to the rights of women, she continued. It had recognized their right to control over matters related to their sexuality, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. It had condemned violence against women as a violation of fundamental human rights and had denounced systematic rape as a war crime. It had also called for equal right to inheritance and for equal access to land, to credit and to rewarding employment.
Additionally, the Beijing Platform had called for review of laws containing punitive measures against women who had undergone illegal abortion, Dr. Sadik said. Taking a human rights approach to women's health had implied that national and international policies be based on recognition of women's rights. A rights-centred approach to population would result in policies based on the needs of individuals rather than on demographic targets.
The United Nations Population Fund was committed to human rights, and specifically to women's rights, she stressed. The right to health and the right of couples and individuals to determine the number and spacing of their children had been instrumental in driving its policies. The Population Fund had been collaborating with United Nations Development Fund for Women on issues related to human and reproductive rights and with the World Health Organization on adolescent reproductive health. It had also been planning to collaborate with the Centre for Reproductive Law and Policy to develop regional reports on legal barriers affecting women's reproductive lives.
Committee Chairman Ivanka Corti of Italy said that while documents proclaiming women's rights as human rights existed, such rights were not yet realized. A written proposal was being prepared in the Committee on a meeting between human rights treaty bodies and specialized agencies to coordinate follow-up to health initiatives that had come out of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Fourth World Conference on Women.
Dr. Sadik welcomed a coordination meeting with human rights treaty bodies and other specialized agencies. She said certain practices which inhibited the realization of women's health rights had to become socially unacceptable so they would end. Perhaps the human rights treaty bodies could work towards this goal.
Experts praised the work of the UNFPA in improving the status of women by promoting women's reproductive rights and family planning programmes. They also welcomed the new approach of the agency in empowering women, and involving men in family planning.
One expert said the Committee needed a general recommendation on article 12 of the Convention, which provides for measures to be taken to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care. She also requested that the UNFPA distribute copies of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women during the course of its work.
Another expert said that the UNFPA should consider using the Committee's experts to promote the agency's work and goals in their respective countries. One expert called for a massive information campaign to inform women of their basic right to health. Another expert called attention to some population policies of the World Bank which appeared to run contrary to the goals of UNFPA.
The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 17 January, to consider the combined initial and second periodic reports of Paraguay.
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