Call to Action: Click here to add your name to
the endorsements
Deadline: 5 April 2012
This month the UN
Commission on the Status of Women failed to adopt agreed conclusions at its
56th session on the basis of safeguarding "traditional values" at the expense of
human rights and fundamental freedoms of women.
Together different feminist and women's rights organisations say NO to any re-opening of negotiations on the already established international agreements on women’s human rights and call on all governments to demonstrate their commitments to promote, protect and fulfill human rights and fundamental freedoms of women. We have outlined our concerns in the statement below, which will be submitted to UN Member States, CSW, the media and other relevant UN human rights and development entities.
Thank you for your support.
In solidarity,
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)
International Women's Heath Coalition (IWHC)
International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW ASIA
PACIFIC)
Women Living under Muslim Laws/ Violence is not our Culture
Campaign
STATEMENT OF FEMINIST AND WOMEN’S ORGANISATIONS ON THE VERY LIMITED AND CONCERNING RESULTS OF THE 56TH SESSION OF THE UN COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN We, the undersigned organisations and individuals across the globe, are alarmed and disappointed that the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) failed to adopt agreed conclusions at its 56th session. This failure has diminished the considerable work, energy, time and costs that women all over the world invested on the 56th session of the CSW. The advancement of women’s human rights should not be put on hold because of political battles between states. We say NO to any re-opening of negotiations on the already established international agreements on women’s human rights and call on all governments to demonstrate their commitments to promote, protect and fulfill human rights and fundamental freedoms of women. We are particularly concerned to learn that our governments failed to reach a consensus on the basis of safeguarding “traditional values” at the expense of human rights and fundamental freedoms of women. We remind governments that all Member States of the United Nations (UN) have accepted that “the human rights of women and of the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and individual part of universal human rights” as adopted by the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna. Governments must not condone any tradition, cultural or religious arguments which deny human rights and fundamental freedoms of any person. After more than 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was embraced and adopted by the UN, the relationship between traditional values and human rights remains highly contested. We affirm the UDHR as not only ‘a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations’ but a common standard of assessment for all traditional values. The UDHR is an embodiment of positive traditional values that are universally held by this community of nations and are consistent with the inherent dignity of all human beings. We remind governments that under the Charter of the United Nations, gender equality has been proclaimed as a fundamental human right. States cannot contravene the UN Charter by enacting or enforcing discriminatory laws directly or through religious courts nor can allow any other private actors or groups imposing their religious fundamentalist agenda in violation of the UN Charter. “No one may invoke cultural diversity to infringe upon human rights guaranteed by international law, nor limit their scope. Not all cultural practices accord with international human rights law and, although it is not always easy to identify exactly which cultural practices may be contrary to human rights, the endeavour always must be to modify and/or discard all practices pursued in the name of culture that impede the enjoyment of human rights by any individual.” (Statement by Ms. Farida Shaheed, the Independent Expert in the field of cultural rights, to the Human Rights Council at its 14th session 31 May 2010) Amongst other things, it is alarming that some governments have evoked so-called “moral” values to deny women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. Sexual and reproductive rights are a crucial and fundamental part of women’s full enjoyment of all rights as well as integral to gender equality, development and social justice. Social and religious morals and patriarchal values have been employed to justify violations against women. Violence against women, coercion and deprivation of legal and other protections of women, marital rape, honour crimes, son preference, female genital mutilation, ‘dowry’ or ‘bride price’, forced and early marriages and ‘corrective rapes’ of lesbians, bisexuals, transgender and inter-sexed persons have all been justified by reference to ‘traditional values’. We remind governments that the CSW is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women with the sole aim of promoting women’s rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields. Its mandate is to ensure the full implementation of existing international agreements on women’s human rights and gender equality as enshrined in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action as well as other international humanitarian and human rights law. We strongly demand all governments and the international community to reject any attempt to invoke traditional values or morals to infringe upon human rights guaranteed by international law, nor to limit their scope. Customs, tradition or religious considerations must not be tolerated to justify discrimination and violence against women and girls whether committed by State authorities or by non-state actors. In particular, we urge governments to ensure that the health and human rights of girls and women are secured and reaffirmed at the coming Commission on Population and Development and the International Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Any future international negotiations must move forward implementation of policies and programmes that secure the human rights of girls and women. We call upon the member states of the UN and the various UN human rights and development entities to recognise and support the important role of women’s groups and organisations working at the forefront of challenging traditional values and practices that are intolerant to fundamental human rights norms, standards and principles. ASIA PACIFIC FORUM ON WOMEN, LAW AND DEVELOPMENT (APWLD)
ASSOCIATION FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN
DEVELOPMENT (AWID)
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S HEALTH
COALITION (IWHC)
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTION
WATCH ASIA PACIFIC (IWRAW ASIA PACIFIC)
WOMEN LIVING UNDER MUSLIM LAWS
(WLUML) / VIOLENCE IS NOT OUR CULTURE CAMPAIGN
Download the full statement here Take 30 seconds to endorse our statement here. Deadline: 5 April 2012 | |||
Rufaro Madakadze, a horticultural scientist with the Alliance for a Green Revolution (AGRA) (Photo Courtesy Jeff Haskins)
In 1900, there were a mere 1.6 billion people on our planet. Today,
there are seven billion and by 2050 we will be nine billion. One would
expect that with such rapid population growth, occurring in the midst of
soaring food prices and food-related crises, we would be doing
everything we could to increase food security for our most vulnerable
people.
And yet, incredibly, in areas where the need is the greatest, the
opposite often is true. Today, in many developing countries, home to the
majority of the world's 925 million undernourished people, there is a
tangled web of policies and practices that specifically and sometimes
intentionally inhibit a large group of farmers from producing more food
in their fields and pastures. Despite the fact that in many places they
often comprise half or more of the agriculture workforce, these farmers
face restrictions on their ability to buy, sell, or inherit land and
livestock. They often are forbidden from opening savings accounts,
borrowing money, or even selling crops at market.
And what is the basis for these self-defeating practices? It is the simple fact that these farmers happen to be women.
For example, the United Nations Children's Agency (Unicef)
estimates that women in Cameroon are doing 75 percent of the
agricultural work, yet own less than 10 percent of the farmland. And the
situation is much the same in Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania. Similarly,
in Southeast Asia, women are responsible for 90 percent of the rice
production. But in India, Nepal and Thailand, they own less than 10
percent of the land. A study in Burkina Faso links gender-based
restrictions on access to labor and fertilizer with a 30-percent
reduction in yields on plots farmed by women versus those maintained by
men. In Namibia, it is still common for a woman to lose all of her
livestock if her husband dies.
This type of agriculture inequity affects more than just women. It is
handicapping entire regions. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
estimates that leveling the plowing field for women could increase
total agriculture output in developing countries by 2.5 to four percent
and reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12 to 17
percent-that's 100 to 150 million people. Put another way, gender bias
in agriculture is condemning millions of boys and girls to growing up
hungry, a condition that routinely leads to a life of poor health and
poverty.
There is, thankfully, a growing recognition that these discriminatory practices have to end.
This week a dream team of World Food Prize laureates,
government ministers, farmers, agriculture researchers, gender experts
and community development organizations will be in New Delhi, India for
the first ever Global Conference on Women in Agriculture. It is sponsored by the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), along with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Asian-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI).
The goal of the conference is to focus on the many ways in which
equalizing the status of the woman farmer is critical to reducing
poverty in the developing world and ensuring food production keeps pace
with population growth. Conference participants see gender equity in
agriculture as particularly important given that investors, donor
governments, philanthropic organizations and developing countries
themselves are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into
agriculture-oriented development efforts. But in many cases they are
doing so without properly assessing the importance of women to their
success.
India offers a cautionary story. While its Green Revolution has
powered spectacular increases in food production and income, 46 percent
of India's children still experience stunted growth, a prime indication
of malnutrition. The World Bank notes that throughout South Asia, the
inferior status of women is a key reason agriculture production
increases have not generated the expected nutritional improvements.
Countries in sub-Saharan Africa, which are rightly pursuing their own
Green Revolution, should be particularly mindful of the need to make
women an equal partner in agriculture development. In particular, women
farmers need to have a seat at the table as African governments deal
with the surge of land investment from the so-called BRIC nations of
Brazil, Russia, India and China who are seeking land for food and
biofuel production. Efforts being made to transform African agriculture
will require interventions, investments and policies that focus
explicitly on empowering women and ensuring that their voice is heard on
the farm, in the lab, in the boardroom and in the halls of parliament
and government.
A recent report from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
warns that given their long-standing lack of land rights, these land
deals-which involve millions of hectares-threaten to further marginalize
women farmers and thus undermine efforts to improve food security in
Africa.
Western countries eager to assist agriculture-oriented poverty
reduction efforts also need to rethink their common assumptions of
gender roles in food security: the man as food producer (the farmer
beside his tractor or horse) and the woman as food preparer, making
nutritional choices and managing the children.
Today, in much of the world, when the family sits down to dinner at
night, the woman has not just cooked the food. She also has likely
planted, harvested, milked or butchered what's on the table.
Idah Sithole-Niang is an associate professor at the University of
Zimbabwe, and steering committee chair of the African Women in
Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) program.
