WUNRN
Miloon Kothari is the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on Adequate
Housing.
Statement by
Mr. Miloon Kothari
Human Rights Council
Discussion on the integration of a gender
perspective in the work of the HRC
Thursday, 20 September 2007
Madam
Moderator, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am very
happy to be here with you today for this thematic discussion on gender
perspectives in the work of the Council. I welcome this dialogue during a
plenary meeting, and believe that such discussions have the potential to focus
the work of the Council and draw attention to specific issues deserving
attention.
My fellow
special procedures mandate holders and I attach great importance to integrating
gender perspectives into the work of the Council. Several resolutions of the
former Commission on Human Rights call on special procedures in general to
ensure that gender perspectives are fully integrated into their work. Most
recently, resolution 2005/42 requested “all special procedures
and other human rights mechanisms [of the Commission on Human Rights to]
regularly and systematically [to] integrate a gender perspective into the
implementation of their mandates and to include in their reports information on
and qualitative analysis of human rights of women and girls.” Some thematic
mandates have also been specifically tasked with integrating gender
perspectives into their work - for example, resolutions concerning the mandates on freedom of religion or belief,
the right to education, the right to food, migrants, minorities, and the right
to adequate housing include specific language on applying gender perspectives.
I wish to
take this opportunity to underline that applying gender perspectives does not
simply imply focusing on women and girls, but rather to particularly examine
situations where women, girls, men or boys experience specific issues with
respect to the enjoyment of their human rights on the basis of gender. As an
illustration, the former Special Rapporteur on the right to education, while
noting that girls were more likely to never attend school, also raised the
issue of child labour and the link with high drop-out levels of boys from primary
and secondary education. Effectively adopting a gender perspective, given the
extent of gender inequality that persists world wide, results in a stronger
focus on the human rights of women and girls. The Council may wish, however, to
initiate reflection on how men and boys can also suffer distinct or
disproportionately human rights violations – as we see when looking at street
children in many countries, at victims of some types of torture and so forth.
Several mandates have taken important
initiatives to integrate gender perspectives in their work. For example, next
week, the Special Rapporteur on torture will be here in
I have also
looked at how different global phenomena impact specifically on women’s
struggle for adequate housing and land. Women and men do not always have the
same experiences of globalisation and economic liberalisation, forced evictions,
privatisation of housing, land and civic services, natural and man-made
disasters and urbanisation and migration. In my standard-setting work,
including the principles and guidelines on development based evictions and
displacement that I presented to the Council last year, I have also highlighted
the particular dimensions of women’s experience that need to be protected and
monitored.
I was assisted in my efforts by the Commission, which entrusted me - in its resolution 2002/49 on women’s equal ownership of, access to and control over land and the equal rights to own property and to adequate housing - with the additional task of reporting on women and adequate housing. That mandate led to the elaboration of a detailed questionnaire that reflects the indivisibility of human rights as well as to the holding of a series of regional consultations with civil society groups, which included a capacity building program. It resulted in the elaboration of recommendations contained in the three reports I submitted to the Commission on women and housing: I have, for example, called on States to collect more reliable sex-disaggregated data; to ensure at the policy and legislative levels harmonization between provisions in international human rights instruments and religious and customary law and practice in relation to women’s equal rights to housing, land, property and inheritance; and to ensure that domestic violence laws include provisions to protect women’s right to adequate housing.
The
insights that the Special Rapporteur on violence on women and I have gained
with respect to economic and social policies and their impact on violence
against women, underscore, in particular, that women’s poverty, together with a
lack of alternative housing options, make it difficult for women to leave
violent family situations, and reaffirm that forced relocation and forced
eviction from home and land have a disproportionately severe impact on women
and make them more vulnerable to violence. In the light of these findings, the
Commission on Human Rights, in its resolution 2005/25 requested us to jointly
elaborate and present model provisions to protect women’s rights
in housing and domestic violence legislation, to ensure women’s full and equal
access to national legal aid schemes to protect their housing, land and
property rights in cases of divorce, inheritance and domestic violence. I am
firmly convinced that the above illustrates the added value in ensuring a
gender perspective, and the importance of follow-up on findings using such an
analysis.
Whilst
regional consultations or campaigns as previously mentioned have yet to become
a common practice amongst mandate holders, several special procedures (e.g.,
minorities, indigenous people, freedom of expression, independence of judges
and lawyers) regularly consult with women’s groups during their country
missions, and in preparing thematic reports, in order to ensure that they
collect information which reflects the situation of women. Mandate holders have
also particularly examined the gender aspects of human rights violations
through analysing how various forms of discrimination intersect, compounding
the violations suffered by women because of their gender.
Based on
these practices, we can suggest some practical recommendations to continue and
improve the integration of gender perspectives into the work of all special
procedures mandates.
Concerning
the review of mandates, this is an important occasion to highlight the gendered
aspects of human rights violations and assess the degree to which mandates have
taken up these issues. Although the resolutions of some mandates include
specific language calling upon mandate holders to integrate gender perspectives
into their respective mandates, this is not consistent across all mandates. In
renewing the mandates, sponsors could ensure that each and every resolution
specifically calls upon each special procedure mandate to fully integrate
gender considerations into its work. Furthermore, while a general call to
integrate gender perspectives is an important first step, the resolutions could
go into more detail with specific suggestions of topics to address, studies to
be undertaken, or other similar suggestions.
In
addition, during the interactive dialogue, mandate holders and Member States,
as well as other interlocutors, could discuss initiatives taken under the
mandate to address gender perspectives. This is a good entry point for
understanding how the gender aspects of the mandate have been approached, and
identifying priority areas for follow up by the mandate holders.
As the
Council considers the overall system of special procedures, and identifies
protection gaps, it must be noted that full consideration of the gender aspects
of human rights violations is a serious protection gap. The currently existing
mandates do undertake to include gender considerations in their work, but they
may only do so insofar as it is within their current mandate. The work of the
Council to identify protection gaps must include gender analysis to ensure more
comprehensive treatment of this issue in the future.
The newly
established selection procedure is also an opportunity to ensure better
attention to these issues by ensuring that the experts selected to serve as
special procedures mandate holders are familiar with and committed to
addressing gender perspectives and women’s human rights as aspects of their
work. In addition, the Council should assure gender balance among special
procedures mandate holders.
In its work
on follow-up measures, (including in the UPR process) I would also urge the
Council to monitor the implementation, at national levels, of the many
recommendations, that are contained in Special Procedures’ annual and country
reports. These recommendations are aimed at ensuring a fuller integration of
gender dimensions in policy, legislative and administrative decisions. Failure
to achieve this integration makes it impossible to translate State commitment
to gender equality into real improvement.
I would
urge the Council to hold thematic discussions, such as the one we are having
today, on gender perspectives, on an annual basis. An annual discussion on
gender and human rights would provide an opportunity for the Council to take up
this cross-cutting issue in a focused manner, and to devise strategies and
recommendations ensuring it is fully addressed by all mechanisms of the
Council.
Finally, as
this issue is of great importance to special procedures mandate holders, we
intend to take this up at our next Annual meeting. We will share the various
strategies we have employed in our own work to integrate gender perspectives,
as well as discuss the Council’s consideration of the gendered aspects of human
rights violations. In this regard, we may have further suggestions for you next
year on how to integrate gender perspectives into the work of the Council, and
especially the work of special procedures.
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