On this International Migrants Day 2014, we as women see many different dynamics in this world regarding migration – and challenges for migrant women and girls. This WUNRN release covers the spectrum from the High Level UN Convention on Migrant Workers and Their Families, to the grass roots realities of women migrants on the journey of high risk from Central America to the USA. We see their faces, their tears, their determination…
Status of Ratification of This Convention – Map of Countries
MARIA IN NOBODY’S LAND is an unprecedented and intimate look at the illegal and extremely dangerous journey of three Salvadoran women to the United States, through Mexican territory. Doña Inés, a 60 year old woman, has been looking for her daughter for five years and is following the same route her daughter took while crossing Mexico en route to the United States. Marta and Sandra, tired of the violence from their husbands and wanting to overcome poverty, decide to leave their families behind to travel to America - with only thirty dollars in their pockets. During their harrowing journey, the three women encounter prostitution, slave trade, rape, kidnap and even death, all in an unwavering quest for a better life.
Извор: WUNRN – 18.12.2014
The World Survey on the Role of Women in Development is a UN Secretary-General report mandated by the Second Committee of the General Assembly and comes out every five years. The 2014 report focuses on gender equality and sustainable development, with chapters on the green economy and care work, food security, population dynamics, and investments for gender-responsive sustainable development. The report comes at a crucial moment, as the global community grapples with the definition of the Sustainable Development Goals and the emergence of the post-2015 framework. Against this context, World Survey 2014 asserts the central role of gender equality in charting the rationale and the actions necessary to achieve sustainable development. The World Survey uses three criteria to assess whether policy actions and investments for sustainable development adequately address gender equality. Do they support women's capabilities and their enjoyment of rights? Do they reduce, rather than increase, women's unpaid care work? And do they embrace women's equal and meaningful participation as actors, leaders and decision-makers? It offers a comprehensive set of recommendations for gender-responsive policy actions and investments towards sustainable development overall, as well as for the selected areas which the World Survey emphasizes.
2014 World survey on the role of women in development: Gender equality & Sustainable development
Извор: WUNRN – 17.12.2014
The publication offers a full agenda of policy and practical responses on the range of issues facing governments and societies: better data, human rights, social protection, gender, employment and education, remittances, local government, youth participation, and development policy. It looks ahead to emerging challenges of environmental and climate change displacement and provides timely perspective for the post-2015 United Nations development agenda. Two years in the making, it is the first publication to comprehensively address the multi-dimensional issues facing millions of young people who have crossed or are crossing borders in today’s increasingly mobile world. The key innovative message of the report is that youth migration can be transformed from challenge into opportunities.
The second section of the report reviews the manner in which human rights, social protection and gender intersect with youth migration. The first chapter, Human Rights of Adolescents and Youth in the Context of Migration, was prepared under the auspices of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) with contributions by the National University of Lanús (Argentina), the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) and UNICEF.14 The chapter describes how, despite an international framework designed to protect and promote the rights of all individuals, and despite the specific provisions of the CRC protecting those under the age of 18, adolescent and youth migrants experience numerous human rights violations.
Towards a transformational change for women and girls in Africa
We, the African Ministers responsible for Gender and Women’s Affairs, attending the Ninth African Regional Conference on Women for the twenty-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, held in Addis Ababa on 19 November 2014, organized by the Economic Commission for Africa, the African Union Commission, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), agencies of the United Nations and other partners,
Reaffirmingour commitment to the Beijing Platform for Action and the importance of the objectives, principles and goals contained therein, and to scaling up and accelerating their implementation,
Recalling the outcomes of the previous African regional reviews of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action,
Welcoming the decision of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union to declare 2010-2020 as the African Women’s Decade and the year 2015 as the Year of Women’s Empowerment and Development towards Realizing Africa’s Agenda 2063,
The World Bank has enormous power to impact international financial policies. We as women often see the results of major World Bank loans to countries in required social austerity as in education, health, food and water. Though the public words of the World Bank may seem supportive of human rights, the specific language in the documents may, indeed, not provide human rights safety nets and guards against further poverty and provisions for social protections. We know that there is the challenge to: Follow the Power, Follow the Profit - Look for Women & Human Rights!!
List of UN Experts Signing on to This Highly Significant Letter to the World Bank:
The experts: Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; Michael K. Addo, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises; Patricia Arias, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination; Urmila Bhoola, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences; Heiner Bielefeldt, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief; Keita Bocoum, Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Central African Republic; Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights; Maud De Boer-Buquicchio, Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; Virginia Dandan, Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity; Hilal Elver, Special Rapporteur on the right to food; Mireille Fanon Mendes-France, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent; Leilani Farha, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context; Michel Forst, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Léo Heller, Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation; Rita Izsák, Special Rapporteur on minority issues; David Kaye, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; Maina Kiai, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; Gabriela Knaul, Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers; John Knox, Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment; Yanghee Lee, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar; Rashida Manjoo, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences; Bahame Nyanduga, Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia; Dainius Pûras, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; Frances Raday, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice; Surya Prasad Subedi, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia; Victoria Lucia Tauli-Corpuz, Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples; Baskut Tuncak, Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes; Alfred de Zayas, Independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order.
