Statement: International Women's Day 2014
By William Lacy Swing Director General, The International Organization for Migration
ONE of the most significant recent trends in migration has been the rise in the number of women using dangerous migration routes previously mainly used by men.
More and more women, fleeing hardship, violence, war and poverty, are now taking the same desperate risks as men in search of a better life for themselves and their children. This is desperation migration.
While many women travel with their families, IOM is seeing an increasing number of women migrating on their own to an unknown, unpredictable and often dangerous future. Woman and children migrants die all the time at sea, crossing deserts and other dangerous routes. What has changed?
There are many factors pushing women to migrate. They include discrimination in the job market and social prejudices against single mothers or widows in their country of origin. But poverty is almost always the strongest driving force that causes migrant women to leave.
In most developing countries, women are poorer than men because of the systemic discrimination that they face in accessing education, health care, employment and control of assets.
Many migrant women, of course, do not encounter abuse and in fact derive real benefits from migration. But among the world’s estimated 111 million migrant women (half the total number of migrants) violence and discrimination can begin at the very outset of the migration process.
The variety of risks and violations that Women Human Rights Defenders face requires the adoption of differential support programs and gender-specific protection measures, taking into account the contexts in which women defenders live and work as well as other conditions and identities present in the diversity of Women Human Rights Defenders.
When asked what protection and security meant to her, a women human rights defender explained: “I am a single mother and had to leave my home with my daughter and be relocated. I had to look for a job in my new place of residence and could not take care of my daughter, so I requested the state if they could cover these expenses as part of the relocation scheme. But the state did not understand that this should be part of the protection measures.”[1]
Another defender interviewed for the research also explained that when they were negotiating with the government to cover certain expenses related to education and health under the protection measure, the government responded that the goal of their protection measures was not to eradicate poverty.
These examples—as well as the many others that are included in the publication—help illustrate the complex situations that WHRDs face when they are threatened with violence because of their work. It is this complexity that this new publication seeks to address.
Само во изминатите три месеци, Светската банка одобри 60 милиони Евра на име кредити за Република Македонија. Овие средства Македонија ќе ги враќа во наредните 23 години (5 години грејс период и 18 години период на отплата). Средствата обезбедени од Светската Банка претставуваат 2,3% о вкупно планираните приходи на државата или 60% од вкупно планираните приходи од задолжување во странство во државниот буџет.
Women participating in a sweep campaign before local elections India's Bihar state. Photo: UN Women/Ashutosh Negi
The head of the United Nations office focusing on the world's women has welcomed the outcome of a two-week meeting in New York that she says represents a “milestone” towards a transformative global development agenda that puts the empowerment of women and girls at its centre.
“We know that equality for women means progress for all,” Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), said in a statement on the outcome of the 58th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
“Through the development of a comprehensive roadmap for the future, we have the opportunity to realize this premise and promise,” she added. “The 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women has given important impetus to making equality between men and women a reality.”
This collection raises difficult questions about people at risk for contact with the criminal justice system and the dramatic increase in the nation’s prison population over the last several decades. The lessons are student-centered and interactive with a goal of full participation among participants. In that spirit and as a way to prepare to work with this challenging material, we ask that you take some time now (or before you start using this resource) to complete the following steps:
1. Make a short list of all that comes to mind when you think about prisons, jails, and crime.
2. Consider the following statistics: One in one hundred Americans is incarcerated. For black males it is 1 in 15. More than one million women are under the supervision of the criminal justice system. The U.S. houses one-fourth of the world’s prison population.* Then, respond to the following quote from Senator Jim Webb: “With so many of our citizens in prison compared to the rest of the world, there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different–and vastly counterproductive.” What do you think explains the vast increase in our prison population?
3. Finally, examine your notes and responses and make some objective observations about where you stand on these issues. Think about what you bring to the table as you begin this work with your group.
