The Impact of Corruption on Women - Strategies for Change 

Corruption is not restricted to any geographical location or industry -- but it has some specifically wrenching consequences for those who wield little power, such as women in male-dominated societies.

An October 2012 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) survey of women's perspectives on corruption revealed both how women interpret corruption and have been affected by it, particularly in developing countries.

The study focused on eight countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, and solicited responses from 471 respondents -- 392 women and 79 men.

The respondents interpreted "corruption" to mean the giving or taking of bribes, physical abuse, lack of access to food and other basic supplies, and a lack of access to essential information and employment.

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Women’s lives are impacted by a myriad of issues such as the frequent lack of basic services, de jure inequality, lack of accountability of States, corporations and other global actors, discriminatory cultural stereotypes, beliefs and the impact of harmful practices, religious fundamentalisms and development agendas which exclude consideration of the rights and experiences of women and differences among women. Within this context, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) are the two key human rights instruments which provide a forum for demanding realization of women’s human rights.

International Women’s Rights Watch (IWRAW) Asia Pacific and International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) have been consistently promoting a holistic approach to realization of women’s human rights, through mobilization and capacity building of civil society, women’s rights organizations and NGOs advocating on economic, social and cultural rights. We have also sustained engagement with the Committees monitoring State Parties fulfillment of obligations under CEDAW and ICESCR to ensure that national level realities of women’s economic, social and cultural rights are effectively raised internationally. With the adoption of the Optional Protocol to CEDAW and Optional Protocol to ICESCR, the role of activists and lawyers in using litigation to advance women’s economic, social and cultural rights becomes key to changing the situation on the ground for women claiming their rights nationally, regionally and internationally as they offer important additional opportunities to seek accountability.

Claiming Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Извор: WUNRN – 23.06.2014

“Cultural attitudes and gender ideologies frequently regard women as subordinate to men, or dictate that men should control women,” said Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “These attitudes may be so widely and deeply held within the community that they are almost invisible – except in their effects. For they perpetuate discrimination, violence and humiliation.”

Pillay was speaking at the annual day of discussion dedicated to women’s human rights during the 26th session of the Human Rights Council. She emphasized that deep-seated gender stereotypes about women’s roles were reinforced by decision-makers’ inability to make real commitments to change society’s preconceptions.

Dubravka Simonovic, Member of the Committee which observes States’ compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), stressed that the Convention’s key purpose was to achieve substantive equality between men and women. For that purpose, the Convention recommends to States to abolish discriminatory laws and modify discriminatory social norms.

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How the women's empowerment in agriculture index (WEAI) is constructed

Five Domains of Empowerment

The first sub-index—the five domains of empowerment index—assesses women’s empowerment in five general areas, or domains:

1. Decisions about agricultural production ("Production decisionmaking"): Sole or joint decisionmaking power over food or cash-crop farming, livestock, and fisheries, as well as autonomy in agricultural production.

2. Access to and decisionmaking power over productive resources ("Access to productive resources"): Ownership of, access to, and decisionmaking power over productive resources such as land, livestock, agricultural equipment, consumer durables, and credit.

3. Control over use of income: Sole or joint control over income and expenditures.

4. Leadership in the community ("Community leadership"): Membership in economic or social groups and being comfortable speaking in public.

5. Time allocation: Allocation of time to productive and domestic tasks, and satisfaction with the time available for leisure activities (IFPRI, USAID, and OPHI 2012).

Measuring progress toward empowerment - Women's empowerment in agriculture index: baseline report

Source: WUNRN – 18.06.2014

Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation-Climate Justice

All too often, it is women who are most at risk from the impacts of climate change on health. The report of Working Group II of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reveals that vulnerable groups, including women, will experience adverse effects on their health due to the impacts of climate change.....Rural women are highly dependent on subsistence agriculture to feed their families; however, their access to natural resources such as land, water, and food is often limited. Discrimination, resulting from laws or social norms and customs, and lower levels of access to education (among other factors), restrict women’s access to credit, agricultural inputs, technologies, and services like health care.

Health and Human Rights Journal

 Извор: WUNRN – 18.06.2014