The objective of this briefing paper is to provide background information drawn from the international literature on sexual exploitation and prostitution and its impact on gender equality in relation to the report of the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee. The study concentrates on the debate on whether prostitution could be voluntary or has rather to be regarded in any case as a violation of women’s human rights. It also presents an overview of the policies on prostitution in the Member States as well as four case studies: Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden. Conclusions are presented with the view to enhance the debate.
Eu-European Parliament study - Sexual exploitation & prostitution & impact on gender equality
Извор: WUNRN – 17.03.2014
Mar. 11, 2014 CSW event on accelerating progress on MDGs for women and girls. Credit: UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras
By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury *
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 13 2014 (IPS) - The largest annual gathering with special focus on issues which impact on women and thereby humanity as a whole is now taking place in New York.
It is the annual session of the Commission on Status of Women (UN-CSW) under the United Nations umbrella, attracting hundreds of government and civil society participants representing their nations and organisations.
This is the 58th time that CSW is meeting and over the years, its agenda has evolved in a meaningful way to bring to global attention to women’s equality and their contribution to human progress.
For last few years, equality of women’s participation at all decision making levels has taken a special profile in its deliberations and many parallel events. Participation has emerged as the major area of practical application for women’s agenda.
Courtesy of Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury
At the same time, engaging men and boys for gender equality is being seen as an essential component of any proactive strategy.
Adoption of the landmark U.N. Security Council resolution 1325 boosted the essential value of women’s participation. For a long time, the impression has been that women were helpless victims of wars and conflicts.
In reality, women have shown great capacity as peacemakers. They assumed activist roles during conflicts while holding together their families and communities.
This United Nations Security Council Report analyses statistical information on women, peace and security in country-specific decisions of the Security Council with a particular focus in the case study on the nexus between sexual violence in conflict and sanctions imposed by the Security Council.
The overarching observation of the report is that there has been significant pushback on women, peace and security issues. However, this dynamic has largely been played out in difficult negotiations at the thematic level rather than in any particular rollback in country-specific decisions of the Council. The report also demonstrates that the Council has created several tools with considerable potential of having an impact on women, peace and security issues on the ground.
The authors stress that It has not, however, applied these tools consistently or, in some cases, at all. It also seems as if the Council’s focus on the broad women, peace and security agenda is uneven.
Women, Peace and Security: Sexual Violence in Conflict and Sanctions
Извор: WUNRN – 10.03.2014
Wrongful gender stereotyping is a pervasive human rights violation. As this report shows, it is a frequent cause of discrimination against women and a contributing factor in violations of rights ranging from the right to an adequate standard of living through to the freedom from gender-based violence. Yet, despite the substantial harm they have caused, gender stereotypes and gender stereotyping are often misunderstood in human rights discourses. It is significant, for instance, that gender stereotyping is regularly overlooked as the cause of human rights violations, gender stereotypes are frequently misidentified, if they are identified at all, and there is little in-depth discussion of the myriad ways in which gender stereotypes and gender stereotyping harm women. Moreover, there is surprisingly limited awareness of the full extent and breath of international human rights obligations related to stereotypes and stereotyping, with much of the focus to date limited only to the obligations enumerated in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This is in spite of the fact that it is not the only international human rights treaty to impose obligations related to stereotypes and stereotyping. It is also in spite of the fact that many of the human rights treaty bodies have recognised that the rights to non-discrimination and equality – and through them, other rights and freedoms – contain an implied obligation to address harmful stereotypes and wrongful stereotyping.
The Open Government Partnership was launched in 2011 to provide an international platform for domestic reformers committed to making their governments more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens. Since then, OGP has grown from 8 countries to the 63 participating countries. In all of these countries, government and civil society are working together to develop and implement ambitious open government reforms.
Read the whole report on the following link: http://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/attachments/OGPAnnualReport2013.pdf
