22 September 2014 - At the 2014 UN General Assembly (UNGA), governments, donors and civil society discussed the way forward for addressing gender inequality and promoting the empowerment of women and girls, including through the post-2015 development agenda.
The importance of better data on gender through the Data Revolution was at the centre of discussions around this – in terms of data both on the problem (i.e. gender disaggregated data to determine the different needs of women, girls, men and boys) and on all available resources to tackle gender inequality. Better information is critical to ensure resources are targeted in the most effective way and have the greatest impact.
To inform these discussions at UNGA, this briefing provides an analysis of trends in donor spending on gender in development between 2006 and 2012, including overall trends, top donors, recipients and sectors, and draws upon the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Gender Equality Marker (GEM) categories for reporting expenditure. Data in this briefing was taken from the OECD DAC Creditor Reporting System (CRS).
African Women Migrants in Southern Italy – UK Daily Mail
In addition to the exceedingly high numbers of WOMEN migrants, UNHCR – The UN Refugee Agency says as many as 14,000 CHILDREN have arrived in Italy this year, and the majority of them unaccompanied.
International Organization for Migration – IOM
http://www.iom.int/cms/en/sites/iom/home/about-migration/key-migration-terms-1.html
Key Migration Terms
Assimilation - Adaptation of one ethnic or social group – usually a minority – to another. Assimilation involves the subsuming of language, traditions, values, mores and behaviour or even fundamental vital interests. Although the traditional cultural practices of the group are unlikely to be completely abandoned, on the whole assimilation will lead one group to be socially indistinguishable from other members of the society. Assimilation is the most extreme form of acculturation.
Assisted Voluntary Return - Administrative, logistical, financial and reintegration support to rejected asylum seekers, victims of trafficking in human beings, stranded migrants, qualified nationals and other migrants unable or unwilling to remain in the host country who volunteer to return to their countries of origin.
Asylum seeker - A person who seeks safety from persecution or serious harm in a country other than his or her own and awaits a decision on the application for refugee status under relevant international and national instruments. In case of a negative decision, the person must leave the country and may be expelled, as may any non-national in an irregular or unlawful situation, unless permission to stay is provided on humanitarian or other related grounds.
30 December 2014 - An estimated 21 million people globally are employed as forced labour. Many of those workers end up in domestic servitude. Working in various roles, including as housekeepers, nannies and cooks, they are often housed with their employers, unable to leave because of debts incurred for their travel and because their identity papers are withheld by their employers.
Jonalyn left her home in the Philippines and travelled to the Middle East to work as a housekeeper for a family in Lebanon. For nearly a year, she suffered severe forms of psychological and physical torture, as well as sexual abuse, at the hands of her employers.
Recounting her experiences, Jonalyn described having chlorine-based detergent poured over her body and of being subjected to electric shocks with a stun-gun. On another occasion, she said she was imprisoned on her own for ten days. She was threatened constantly with death.
Jonalyn eventually made contact with the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center (CLMC), an NGO supported by the UN Slavery Fund that manages a safe house for migrant workers who have suffered abuse by their employers. CLMC provided her with medical care, basic needs assistance, trauma counselling and legal aid. She was also counselled on the possibility of returning to the Philippines or seeking a safer job in Lebanon, and she began a lawsuit against her employers.
After a slow physical and emotional recovery, Jonalyn decided to accept her employers’ plea bargain of 20,000 USD and an airline ticket back home.
Freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and the right to participate in public affairs, are human rights that enable people to share ideas, form new ones, and join together with others to claim their rights. It is through the exercise of these public freedoms that we make informed decisions about our economic and social development.
It is through these rights that we can take part in civic activity and build democratic societies. To restrict them undermines our collective progress. This is the sixth in OHCHR’s series of human rights practical guides for civil society, and should be seen within the context of ‘Widening the democratic space’, one of OHCHR’s current thematic priorities.
This Guide highlights issues related to the work of civil society actors (CSAs). It begins with a working definition of the terms ‘civil society’ and ‘civil society space’. It then provides an overview of the conditions and A Practical Guide for Civil Society environment needed for a free and independent civil society, including relevant international human rights standards for freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and the right to participate in public affairs.
The last few years have seen historic achievements in reducing the number of people who are poor, making the end of extreme poverty possible in the coming generation. That requires cutting the multiple roots of impoverishment. One of the deepest is gender discrimination, which imposes a disproportionate burden on women.
When women are poor, their rights are not protected. They face obstacles that may be extraordinarily difficult to overcome. This results in deprivation in their own lives and losses for the broader society and economy, as women's productivity is well known as one of the greatest generators of economic dynamism.
While both men and women suffer in poverty, gender discrimination means that women have far fewer resources to cope. They are likely to be the last to eat, the ones least likely to access healthcare, and routinely trapped in time-consuming, unpaid domestic tasks. They have more limited options to work or build businesses. Adequate education may lie out of reach. Some end up forced into sexual exploitation as part of a basic struggle to survive.
And while women at large have not yet achieved an equal political voice, women in poverty face extra marginalization. Their voices are rarely heard, for example, in decisions on managing an economy, or sharing benefits and costs.
