UNIFEM TO DEEPEN PARTNERSHIP WITH WOMEN'S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE TO PROMOTE WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS WORLDWIDE
Press Release
WOM/1025
UNIFEM TO DEEPEN PARTNERSHIP WITH WOMEN'S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE TO PROMOTE WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS WORLDWIDE
19980204 UNIFEM Director Addresses CommitteeThe Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) agreed this morning to take up the challenge of deepening its partnership with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in order to "put more teeth" into efforts to promote women's human rights worldwide.
Reporting on the work of UNIFEM on behalf of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Noeleen Heyzer told the 23-member expert Committee, "let's walk that road and take the first step". The Fund's commitment to integrating the Convention into its own work was "stronger than ever". The international community had accepted the urgent call to recognize that women's rights were human rights. The moral struggle that lay ahead was the creation of societies that enabled women to participate fully and meaningfully in development, as well as the eradication of all forms of violence against them, and the promotion of their human rights.
The Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Angela King, told the Committee that the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in concert with UNIFEM, was finding new ways to focus on the human rights of women and the improvement of their situation. Both aimed to mainstream gender equality at the national level and prevent violence against women.
One expert drew attention to UNIFEM's success in bringing local activists and leaders of women's movements worldwide to the Committee. It had been a turning point in the Committee's work. Providing grass-roots leaders with the skills to bring the Committee's recommendations back to the ground levels of their countries had empowered them with a kind of shareholder claim in the Committee's work. Indeed, international law in the area of women's rights had emerged not in isolation but as a result of the struggles and experiences of women.
The Committee Chairperson, Salma Khan, expert from Bangladesh, said the Committee had seen an increase in the number of women afflicted by violence and poverty, which coincided with the disturbing resurgence of customary laws and traditions. The UNIFEM was called upon to take up that issue and to disseminate the Committee's recommendations, in order to encourage their implementation at the local level.
The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. today to hear a statement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson.
UNIFEM Director's Statement
NOELEEN HEYZER, Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), said that the presence of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, before the Committee this afternoon would put the issue of women's rights and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women at centre stage. In the context of United Nations reform and the emphasis on more collaboration between the various United Nations bodies, there was an opportunity to ensure that women's human rights were placed at the forefront of the development agenda. Supporting the ratification and implementation of the Convention was clearly at the centre of any strategy to promote women's human rights at the beginning of a new millennium.
The international community had accepted the urgent call to recognize that women's rights were human rights, she said. The challenge was to ensure that such rhetoric was transformed into action. For UNIFEM, the Convention was a critical tool for implementing women's rights. The UNIFEM was in a unique position to promote its ratification and implementation, and its regional advisors were often called upon to act as brokers between women's organizations and national governments. The Fund vowed to utilize that role in every venue and at every opportunity in 1998.
She said that the fundamental moral struggle of creating societies that enabled women to participate fully and meaningfully in development, eradicating all forms of violence against women and promoting human rights required initiatives at all levels of government and cooperation. Since the norms and standards of human rights were usually set in international forums, implementation must take place at the national level.
The Fund's commitment to integrating the Convention into its work was stronger than ever, she said. It would continue to build the capacity of groups working on women's human rights and facilitate the exchange of information between Committee experts and non-governmental organizations. At the national level, UNIFEM initiatives included working with such United Nations organizations as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the
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Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS to integrate a gender perspective in the operationalization of human rights. The UNIFEM also worked closely with related projects in the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, West African, and the Andean regions.
The current year marked unprecedented and positive participation of women's human rights advocates in the Committee's session, she observed. The Committee was to be saluted for working with those advocates and leaders in the struggle for women's human rights. It was crucial to forge an ever higher standard of adherence to the international standards of human rights and ensure a richer pattern of life for women worldwide. The UNIFEM would continue to focus its efforts to advance women's enjoyment of all human rights and would support the Committee in its efforts to help make that vision a tangible reality.
Follow-up Comments
A number of experts expressed their appreciation of UNIFEM programmes and said that cooperation between the Committee and the Fund should continue and increase. One expert said that UNIFEM should give special attention to the problems of women in Central and Eastern Europe. The situation for women had not improved there since the break-up of the Soviet Union, and women's democratic and economic rights were being impeded. Some of those problems stemmed from the situation under the former Soviet Union where governments misused provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The UNIFEM and the Committee should consider ways to move those countries away from the negative understanding of the concepts of the Convention. That could be done through seminars and education efforts that would be for the good of all women in those counties.
Another expert said a major problem of women's movements in many of the countries that reported to the Committee was the lack of an ability to organize anti-discrimination efforts. While many women knew the provisions of the Convention, many did not know how to implement them in their own countries. That was especially true in Bulgaria and Azerbaijan. Some of the countries were putting an emphasis on motherhood, but were not improving women's rights as individuals in society. The Fund and the Committee could have joint meetings to develop programmes to address those problems.
Other experts said there was insufficient contact with UNIFEM in Africa. Moreover, it was time that Africa had its own women's rights organization, not under the auspices of the efforts under way in the Asia-Pacific region. Africans could always be relied upon to redouble their efforts towards the advancement of women. The magnitude of the task required constant and close cooperation and coordination. Not enough headway was being made in the economic and judicial spheres, and it had been extremely difficult to disseminate the Convention. In Europe, there was at least a minimum package provided for women, but in Africa,
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where there was a problem of "triple discrimination", much remained to be done, requiring the intensified support of UNIFEM.
For the last two years, bringing local activists and leaders of women's movements worldwide to the Committee had been a kind of turning point in its work, another expert said. Bringing in grass-roots leaders not only provided them with skills to better understand the Committee, but enabled them to bring the recommendations of the Committee back to the ground level. After all, international law "did not pop out of the blue", but emerged from the struggles and experiences of women. Those were somehow codified into international law, but for the longest time, that law had been detached from concrete integration into the real lives of women. Bringing in women strengthened their ability to become "stakeholders" in claiming the work of the Committee as their own.
The Committee's examination of country reports revealed a growing willingness to discuss the question of violence against women, she said. That validated the general recommendation of the Committee, as well as the concern that such violence was invisible in many countries. Although more countries were beginning to confront that issue, there was no standardization in the collection of data. Furthermore, culture and religion continued to play a role in all States parties. Practices of violence against women were almost always justified by cultural and religious practices. The UNIFEM might wish to take up that issue.
Another persistent major problem was the lack of use of the Convention, she said. It was not used because the justices were either unaware, ignorant, or downright discriminatory themselves. Another concern was the development of general recommendations by the Committee, which had been very uneven. A general recommendation in the area of health was about to be concluded in the current session. However, there was still no general action on affirmative action measures, on the refugee question, or on the issue of migrant workers.
An expert said greater attention should also be given to the area of Central Asia and the Caucasus where women continued to be isolated. Efforts could be made to ensure that women were important in those societies as they grow in their independence. In countries such as Azerbaijan, there was a very educated population of women and they provide great human power, but there was also a tremendous lack of information on women's human rights. Women in those countries needed greater contact with the notion of women's rights and the concepts presented by the Convention. The UNIFEM and the Committee were the instruments to do that, and those bodies should hold campaigns or regional workshops to familiarize women with their rights and provide legitimacy to the idea of women's human rights in those societies.
Another expert said there was a need to involve experts in the areas of children's rights and AIDS prevention in the work of the United Nations on
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women's rights. Regional experts should also be involved when UNIFEM visited countries in order to improve understanding of the issues effecting women.
ANGELA KING, Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, said that efforts to advance the situation of women were now taken up in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. That Department was finding new ways to focus on human rights and the improvement of the situation of women. A main partner in those efforts would be UNIFEM, particularly in dealing with human rights at the national level. The Fund's efforts to prevent violence against women and its workshops on women's human rights were critical to the United Nations system. Another priority for the Department was gender mainstreaming at the national level and it would coordinate efforts with other bodies involved with women's rights to ensure equality for women.
The Chairperson of the Committee, SALMA KHAN, expert from Bangladesh, said the Committee had seen an alarming increase in women suffering from violence and poverty. Those increases coincided with the emergence of traditional values that impinged on women's rights. The UNIFEM should address that issue in African and Asian countries and in other parts of the world. It could also work on disseminating the Committee's concluding comments and recommendations on the country reports. Often, those comments went unnoticed and unheeded and they were not addressed in subsequent country reports to the Committee. Efforts should be made to encourage countries to take those recommendations more seriously so they could be implemented at the local level.
Responding to the expert's comments, Ms. HEYZER, UNIFEM Director, said she had once agreed to take up the major challenge to start partnership with the Committee. She would now take up the challenge to deepen that partnership. There were a number of ways of doing it, which included regional training and using the Committee as a resource. The training of certain judges in the legal system was also interesting. The UNIFEM could serve as a catalyst to implement the provisions of the Convention at the international level. The Convention on the Rights of the Child had much power because of the considerable resources and expertise behind it. If the Convention was to have "that kind of teeth", then it needed muscle behind it. "Let's walk that road and take the first step", she said.
She said that she understood the points raised regarding the Western African region. There was a regional adviser for UNIFEM in Senegal who had been covering West Africa, but one person covering 23 countries was not possible. She, therefore, covered five countries well. However, UNIFEM intended to build its capacity in the region and was about to appoint another adviser to cover such additional countries as Ghana and Nigeria. She drew attention to a West African UNIFEM project aimed at building women's economic power, adding that it was important to link women directly to new and emerging markets.
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