Human Rights Day 2015 - 10 December
Fifty years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted two international treaties that would forever shape international human rights: The International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Created in the aftermath of WWII, the two Covenants along with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights became the International Bill of Human Rights setting out the civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights that are the birth right of all human beings.
Since that time a fundamental sea change has occurred across the world, with many countries recognizing human rights and the rule of law as the basis for truly resilient and stable societies.
By Angelika Mlinar (ALDE, AT) is the European Parliament's Rapporteur on Gender Mainstreaming.
Many decision makers don't grasp the importance of gender mainstreaming; Parliament can help improve the situation, writes Angelika Mlinar.
Angelika Mlinar
2 December 2015 - According to the European Commission, gender mainstreaming is, “the integration of a gender perspective into every aspect of EU intervention - preparation, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, legal measures and spending programmes - with a view to achieving equality between women and men.”
The EU recognises equality between women and men as a fundamental right, a common value of the EU and a necessary condition for the Union to achieve its objectives of growth, employment and social cohesion. Sadly, the concept of gender mainstreaming is either unknown or underestimated by many decision makers.
©IFAD/Pablo Corral Vega - Peru - Management of Natural Resources in the Southern Highlands Project (MARENASS)
In 1977, IFAD made improving “the nutritional level of the poorest populations in developing countries” one of the principal objectives of its founding agreement. Since then, governments, civil society and development organizations also have come to recognize the central importance of nutrition. Not only is nutrition an outcome of economic growth, but, by improving human capital, it is also an essential input into economic and social development.
Focusing on nutrition also helps to build the resilience of poor households.
Integrated homestead food production (IHFP) is considered to be a nutrition-sensitive, pro-poor and women-controlled approach to household food production that includes vegetable and fruit gardens, backyard livestock-raising and small fish ponds. It can enhance poor rural people’s access to a variety of nutritious fresh foods, grown in close proximity to their households and requiring relatively limited human, financial and productive resources.
The gender mainstreaming project has made a significant contribution towards the analysis of gender equality in and through the media, in line with Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action, which pointed out the need to correct the stereotypical and often degrading depiction of women in the media and instead realistically present women’s diversity and contribution to society. There has been very slow progress.
The eight country study of public radio and television, led by Greta Gober & Diana Iulia Nastasia, measured representation of gender and other social justice measures such as age, ethnicity, and sexual diversity, across four continents and eight countries. It has revealed that gender inequalities persist on both radio and television. Men account for a majority of those who speak in the public media across countries and continents. Additionally, there is little to no diversity among those who speak in the media in terms of sexuality, age, ethnicity, and ability. Besides the deep denial of the voice of women, female subjects are stereotypical and over sexualized.
