Since 1995 the greatest change experienced in everyday life is the exponential growth of the internet and all forms of mobile communication. Developing countries have also embraced mobile phones as a less expensive way to have a communication infrastructure than land lines. However, this technology has also led to serious misuse, including the harassment and abuse particularly of women and girls. Even as it offers, through social media, opportunities being used by women as well as men for influencing governments, it also offers opportunities for the sale and coercion of human beings and the invasion of
privacy. At the Beijing Conference, we still sent documents by fax. If there was email it was slow and not reliable, and laptops were heavy and expensive. There were no tablets. The preceding three ‘women’s conferences’ – actually named ‘Equality, Development and Peace’ – had already paved the way for a thoroughgoing understanding of women’s inequality and pervasive experience of discrimination in every area and at every level – in all countries, communities, and social groups. And within families and couples. Men’s violence against women and girls was recognised as endemic. The EU, from the Treaty of Rome onwards, identified equality between women and men as a value of the Union and sought through Gender Equality Road Maps and measures to prevent discrimination, not only against women and girls but also against those within the range of ‘protected characteristics’ – all of which are cross - cutting with gender. But at Beijing in 1995, 35,000 to 40,000 women from all over the world gathered in Huairou to exchange stories and develop their vision and plans for a different future. The half hour distance from where the governments (overwhelmingly male) were gathered making history did not prevent the lobbying and the support for the UN agencies seeking to achieve the goals many, including the UK Government, shared.
UK - Beijing + 20 Shadow Report - UK Women: Rights & Progress
Извор: WUNRN – 07.02.2015
Anne Marie Goetz and Joanne Sandler
There is no blueprint for holding fast against the arguments used to dismiss women's humanity, or defending our hard won human rights. It's time to meet, to brainstorm and try new formats.
At the 2012 Forum of the Association of Women’s Rights for Development (AWID) in Istanbul, there were heated discussions about whether to lobby for a Fifth World Conference on Women in 2015. The majority of older generation feminists taking part expressed reluctance. A young Turkish feminist took the floor and challenged us, essentially saying: “It’s fine for those of you who had the chance to go to Beijing and Nairobi to decline this opportunity. But what about my generation? We never had the chance to mobilize the way that you did. We need this!”
The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing – including the official governmental meeting and its parallel NGO Forum – is widely hailed as a watershed. We both attended the NGO Forum, held in Huairou, a town an hour north of Beijing. In a deeply muddy field, covered in makeshift tents to ward off the insistent rain, with hundreds of yards of garlands made of discarded plastic water bottles festooning the few hastily erected buildings in which the concrete had barely dried, 40,000 women from civil society around the world converged to make history. And they did. In spite of being accommodated at such a great distance from the official event, women from NGOs and networks joined their allies on official delegations to make sure that the final Platform for Action fought off attacks from the Vatican, from Iran and from a host of others who lobbied to diminish commitments to women’s equality and freedoms. We left with a sense of purpose and a roadmap to gender equality: the Beijing Platform for Action.
By: Uzma S. Burney, American Society of International Law
On July 13, 2010 and September 14, 2010, respectively, the French National Assembly and Senate passed a law banning the wearing of “clothing designed to conceal the face” in public areas. The law provided for criminal penalties including a fine of up to 150 euros and a citizenship course in the case of violations.[1] Exceptions were permitted where allowed by legislation for health or occupational reasons, as well as in the context of athletic, artistic, or traditional events, and festivals.[2] The law was declared constitutional by the French Constitutional Court on October 7, 2010 and entered into force on April 11, 2011. Similar bans were enacted by legislation in Belgium in 2011, enacted through municipal ordinance in Spain (but subsequently annulled by the Supreme Court), and contemplated in the Netherlands, but rejected by the Council of State.
An application challenging the French measure was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) on the day the law came into effect. The applicant, a French national, alleged that the law violated her rights under the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the Convention),[3] specifically Articles 3 (torture, inhuman or degrading treatment), 8 (right to private life), 9 (freedom to manifest religion), 10 (freedom of expression), 11 (freedom of association), and 14 (enjoyment of the rights and freedoms of the Convention without discrimination). Hearings took place at the Court in November 2013 and a number of third parties submitted written comments. On July 1, 2014, the Grand Chamber of the Court issued its judgment, upholding the French law as a legitimate and proportionate measure designed to protect “respect for the minimum requirements of life in society,” “the protection of the rights and freedoms of others,” and the principle of “living together.”[4] The Court ruled that the French law did not violate Articles 8, 9, 10, or 14 of the Convention and dismissed the remaining claims as inadmissible. Judges Nussberger and Jäderblom dissented.
Obstetric fistula is one of the most serious and tragic injuries that can occur during childbirth. It is a hole between the birth canal and the bladder or rectum caused by prolonged, obstructed labour without treatment. It leaves women leaking urine, faeces or both, and over time, it leads to chronic medical problems. Sufferers also often endure depression, social isolation and deepening poverty.
An estimated 2 million women in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Arab region, and Latin America and the Caribbean are living with this injury, and some 50,000 to 100,000 new cases develop each year. Yet fistula is almost entirely preventable. Its persistence is a sign that health systems are failing to meet women’s essential needs.
UNFPA provides medical supplies, training and funds to fistula prevent, treatment and social reintegration programmes. UNFPA also strengthens maternal health and emergency obstetric services to prevent this injury from occurring in the first place.
Извор: WUNRN – 06.02.2015
Female genital mutilation (FGM) includes procedures that intentionally alter or cause injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. This harmful traditional practice is most common in the western, eastern, and north-eastern regions of Africa; in some countries in Asia and the Middle East; and among migrant and refugee communities from these areas in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States of America. FGM is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
The practice also violates a person’s rights to health, security and physical integrity; the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; and the right to life when the procedure results in death. The practice of FGM is also considered as a criminal act in all EU Member States.
This statistical overview has been prepared on the occasion of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) study on FGM in the European Union and Croatia. Little is known about FGM in the European Union in general, and this statement holds true about FGM and asylum more specifically.
