GENEVA – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo, warned that persisting and new challenges still obstruct efforts to promote and protect women’s rights and gender equality, and called for the adoption of different norms and measures to fight violence against women around the world.
In her latest report* to the UN Human Rights Council, Ms. Manjoo noted that the absence of a legally binding agreement at the international level to address violence against women, and the shift from gender specificity to gender neutrality in States’ responses to violence against women are among the main challenges to be addressed.
“The systemic, widespread and pervasive human rights violation, experienced largely by women, demands a different set of normative and practical measures to respond to and prevent it; and importantly to achieve the international law obligation of substantive equality,” the human rights expert stressed.
Open Letter to the Friends of 1325: Recommendations on the Zero Draft of the Post2015 Sustainable Development Goals
Dear Friends of Women Peace and Security,
On 14-18 July the General Assembly (GA) Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will hold its final session. Member States must now take strong action to ensure a conflict prevention approach to development that strengthens gender equality and peace in the SDGs.
Many Member States already have shown leadership and commitment to this approach. Timor Leste, Papua New Guinnea/SIDS, and Canada have all championed a peaceful and inclusive societies, rule of law, effective and capable institutions goal, and the Common African Position on the Post2015 Development Agenda includes a dedicated pillar on peace and security.
The SDG Zero Draft released 2 June 2014 brings critical attention to the importance of strengthening Women Peace and Security (WPS) considerations in the SDGs. It reaffirmed that the next development agenda must be guided by principles of freedom, peace and security, and respect for human rights, including gender equality and women’s empowerment.
This year, over 50 organizations around the world signed a joint Open Advocacy Letter by WILPF, CWGL, GJC, and GNWP to the Co-Chairs of the OWG, advocating for a conflict prevention approach to the next development agenda that builds on existing commitments on gender and conflict including CEDAW, Beijing, and the WPS agenda including a target on reducing military spending.
Report of the UN working group on discrimination against women in Law & In practice to the Human Rights Council 2014
This report addresses discrimination against women in economic and social life, with a focus on economic crisis.
Discriminatory legislation in a number of States continues to obstruct women’s enjoyment of equal rights and access to economic opportunity and resources. The roles and responsibilities assigned to women and men on the basis of stereotypes relegate women to a subordinate status and limit their economic opportunities. A significant number of countries have adopted anti-discrimination measures, but these have not resulted in equality of opportunity in women’s economic and social lives. Women are disproportionately concentrated in informal and precarious employment; they are exposed to multiple forms of discrimination; the wage gap persists; maternity protections have not been fully and effectively implemented; and in many countries women do not have equal rights and access to resources. There has been little attention the negative impacts of the business sector on women’s enjoyment of human rights. Care functions are disproportionately allocated to women and create a major barrier to women’s full participation in economic market activity. Violence against women is another obstacle to women’s equal opportunity. Austerity measures taken by some States in response to economic crisis have had a disparate impact on women, increasing the precarity of their employment and their burden of unpaid care work. The Working Group calls for the establishment of gender-responsive and effective accountability systems at the international, regional and national levels to eliminate all forms of de facto discrimination against women.
Under globalization, women have been pushed to the margins of unforgiving economies. The poverty is largely feminized, which means that women bear the burden disproportionately, since the needs of the whole household are their responsibility. As scarcity increases, so do women's burdens. It is largely up to women to work extra hard to compensate for the health care and education that many low-income country governments do not cover, and due many times to pressures from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. In times of conflict, women and children are the majority of refugees and displaced.
It is largely up to women to secure adequate food for their families amidst a global food crisis. Globalization has brought about a "race to the bottom." So that countries can be "competitive," rights to fair wages and worker safety are often not protected. Globalization has also pushed an estimated 1.75 million women into a growing international sex trade. Women are challenged and suffer in many ways in today's political economy, but Profit Rules!!
While women can absolutely be victimized by the global economy, they are, indeed, not strictly victims. No one stands to gain more from finding ways out of the current economic model than poor women, except their even more vulnerable children. Because of this, many women have stepped forward as advocates, activists, and visionaries. They are bringing strength, imagination, and creativity to make another world possible.
Sign petition for a un convention on the rights of older people
Why Do We Need a UN Convention?
Age discrimination and ageism are tolerated across the world. Older people experience discrimination and violation of their rights at a family, community and institutional level.
Unprecedented demographic ageing means that the number of people who may experience age discrimination and violation of their rights in old age is likely to increase.
Older people have specific requirements which are necessary to guarantee their rights. However, existing human rights instruments do not adequately articulate what they are. Neither do they clarify governments' obligations to protect older people's rights.
As a result, attention to older people's rights by human rights monitoring mechanisms, governments, the human rights community and civil society has been completely inadequate and older people's rights are not being sufficiently protected.
