INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW MUST BE INTERPRETED FROM PERSPECTIVE OF BOTH GENDERS, DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS WOMEN'S LOBBY
Press Release
DSG/SM/1*
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW MUST BE INTERPRETED FROM PERSPECTIVE OF BOTH GENDERS, DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS WOMEN'S LOBBY
19980306 Also Cites United Nations Role as Catalyst For Action by States, Civil Society, on Women's AdvancementFollowing is the text of an address today by Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette to the European Women's Lobby in New York:
I am delighted to be here today, just four days after taking office. The fact that my first week in the job should coincide with International Women's Day was not planned, but it does turn out to have been a very happy coincidence.
Your focus at this conference is ways of combating male violence against women. And as you know, violence against women and the effects of armed conflict on women are two of the main topics on the agenda of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women as it meets here at Headquarters right now.
In today's world, those two issues take on particular urgency. I would like to quote to you what the Secretary-General said in his message for International Women's Day this week:
"Women and children first used to be a phrase that referred to the seats in the lifeboats of a sinking ship. Now it seems all too often to refer to the victims of a country in conflict.
"In all societies, women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across lines of income, class and culture. But let us not forget that among societies in conflict or crisis, women and children are particularly likely to suffer. Although entire communities bear the consequences of armed conflict, women and girls are especially affected because of their status in society and their sex."
* Statements by the Deputy Secretary-General will be issued under this new press release symbol, DSG/SM.
We owe it to women everywhere to make it clear that violence against women is not something to be explained away by cultural specificity, that women's rights are not something to be given or taken away by a government like a subsidy, that the rights of women and men alike are intrinsic to humanity.
Gender-based abuses are not an accident of war, nor are they incidental adjuncts to armed conflict. Rather, these forms of persecution reflect the inequalities that women face in their everyday lives in peacetime.
Nor can it any longer surprise anyone that gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a means to meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.
Acceptance of this fact is not new to the age we live in, nor is it limited to any one culture. Already in the twelfth century, the Arab philosopher Averroes summed up: "A society that enslaves its women is a society doomed to decay."
Thus, I would like to share with you some thoughts about how the United Nations is seeking to raise awareness about women's rights for the benefit of all Member States; how the United Nations is striving to build and sustain a global partnership for women's rights between governments and civil society; how the United Nations is working to ensure that women's rights is the responsibility not just of women, but of all humankind.
Throughout the history of the women's movement, women's groups have been the driving force. In the pioneering days, their relationship with governments was, by necessity, adversarial.
Today, however, we must look beyond national boundaries. To achieve a global partnership for women's rights, governments and civil society must build new forms of solidarity. A key contribution of the United Nations has been to draw on Member States and the forces of civil society to work as international partners for the advancement of women.
That partnership came alive at the two United Nations conferences in Vienna and Beijing that set the stage for the advancement of women in years to come.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action at the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights.
Thanks in large measure to the energy and drive of women's groups, the Conference was a watershed in the recognition of women's rights as human rights and human rights as women's rights.
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The Platform for Action adopted at Beijing in 1995 was crucial in building a common front between governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It formally recognized the changing role of the State and the growing involvement of actors from civil society.
In each of the 12 critical areas of concern spelled out by the Platform, it assigned actions to both governments and to non-governmental organizations. Just as the NGOs, who were represented by some 30,000 delegates at the NGO Forum outside Beijing, played an instrumental role in the Beijing Conference, so were they recognized as instrumental players in the follow-up.
But the role the United Nations can and does play as catalyst is even wider than that. Many of you may have come up against a tendency in your countries to marginalize women's rights entities, whether these are operating in the national machinery or in the NGO community, because they are after all "only concerned with women's issues". Government departments may consistently fail to look at the consequences for women of the policies they put forward.
But while these government departments may fail to interact and consult with women's entities in their own countries, they often do interact with the United Nations. This is especially true of the follow-ups to United Nations conferences, from Rio to Cairo to Copenhagen, that have set standards on issues from the environment, to population and development, to social development.
Policy-making on these issues is crucial to women; the participation of women is crucial to these issues. And here, the United Nations can act not only as a catalyst, but as an intermediary. We can help ensure that the concerns of women are factored into the formulation of policy among Member States.
Now, in this fiftieth anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we are given a renewed focus on women's rights and the global partnership to promote them.
The United Nations has called on Member States and civil society to get across the message that these rights belong to men and women alike. This has as much to do with how laws and conventions are applied as with the laws and conventions themselves.
Take the example of a woman who is refused by her husband the right to leave her house and go to market. She takes her case to court. The judge throws it out, saying it is a private matter.
In actual fact, you might argue, this is not a private matter at all, but a case that falls under the heading "freedom of movement" in international human rights law. The problem is that the judge does not see it that way.
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It may not be necessary to rewrite international human rights law as we know it, but it is essential that it be interpreted from the perspectives of both genders. That requires a change in the mindset of those who teach the law, among those who train law enforcement officers, among those who try cases.
And while yes, it is crucial to see participation by a greater number of women in the process, from drafting to enforcement, increasing the number of women in such positions is not the whole answer. Just because there is a woman in the picture does not mean women's rights are her responsibility alone -- they are the responsibility of men and women alike.
In this context, I would like to pay tribute to our Secretary-General for his commitment to women's rights and his achievements on behalf of women so far. You may know about his senior appointments of women to the United Nations. I suppose I stand here before you as living proof of that, along with Mary Robinson as High Commissioner for Human Rights, Elisabeth Rehn as Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rafiah Salim as Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management, and others.
Appointing women to the most senior positions in the United Nations system sends a powerful message to all members of the United Nations staff, as well as to the world at large that the Secretary-General is determined to ensure that women occupy their rightful place in the Organization. But equal attention must be paid to the fate of women at other levels of the Organization. Personnel policies must be adjusted to ensure that systemic barriers are eliminated, that women enjoy equal access to recruitment, training and promotion.
Women do not want special favours; they just want to be evaluated on their own merit. This is not only a matter of equity and justice for women. It is also in the interest of any organization to take advantage of the immense reservoir of talent and creativity of its female employees by making sure they can rise through the ranks on an equal footing with men.
Last October, the Secretary-General wrote to all executive heads of United Nations entities and senior officials in the Secretariat to inform them that the Economic and Social Council had adopted agreed conclusions on mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system.
That means integrating a gender perspective into all areas of the United Nations work, including macroeconomic questions, operational activities for development, poverty eradication, human rights, humanitarian assistance, budgeting, disarmament, peace and security, and legal matters.
"This process", the Secretary-General spelled out, "is the responsibility of all of us, and not just of gender experts in isolated units."
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Those, to me, are the key words: the responsibility of all of us. All of you here, whether you represent civil society or government, can help the United Nations in this mission.
OK que nous travaillions, que nous représentions la societé civile ou un gouvernement, nous pouvons aider l'ONU à remplir sa mission dans ce domaine, en répétant, en clamant haut et fort, que les droits des femmes sont la responsabilité de toute l'humanité; que la lutte contre toutes les formes de violence à l'égard des femmes incombe à toute l'humanité, et que l'avancement des femmes est un progrès pour toute l'humanité. Je vous remercie.
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