WUNRN
GENEVA ADVOCACY NOTES
June-October 2007
NGO Committee on the Status of Women
Geneva
FULL DOCUMENT IS ATTACHED.
Special Issue on Gender Integration in the UN Human Rights Council
UN HUMAN RIGHTS
COUNCIL CLOSES FIRST YEAR WITH ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION ON INSTITUTION
BUILDING PROCESSES
=======================================
EDITOR’S
FOREWORD
A positive step on
gender mainstreaming and women’s human rights has made headway in the
institution-building process of the Human Rights Council. The resolution A5/1
on Institution Building has clearly specified that the Universal Periodic
Review (UPR) and the Programme of Work of the Council should have a gender
perspective including a gender balance in special procedures, complaints
mechanisms and the expert advisory body that will replace the Sub-Commission on
the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights (See July 2006 Edition of the
GAN). The integration of a gender perspective as an essential criterion for
mandates of special procedures and a gender balance concerning mandate holders
is a fundamental guarantee and impartial enforcement of international
instruments. What we need now is the goodwill and accountability of all
member states to make this happen in reality.
In the erstwhile Commission on Human Rights,
not only was gender mainstreaming neglected but if addressed, women’s human
rights were concentrated on welfare aspects. It ignored women’s active role as
catalysts and agents in transforming patriarchy to a gender balanced society
based on non-discrimination and free of violence. The Council must now ensure
that mandate holders will be mainstreaming a gender equality perspective;
governments must exercise vigilance and show goodwill in implementing their
commitments to international principles and instruments on gender equality and
translated in national policies and practises; NGOs should provide the Council
with concrete examples from the ground of best practises as well as address
specific violations that need immediate remedial action. A year ago, the High Commissioner
created a Gender Unit and appointed a Senior Gender Official. This Unit should
ensure that the High Commissioner’s updated reports highlight progress on gender
equality on the one hand and on the other hand, identify protection gaps in
women’s human rights. It especially
should assist in institutionalising the universality, indivisibility,
interdependence and inter-relatedness of gender-equal civil and political
rights and economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to
development. All these would be balanced and transparent. These steps
include technical co-operation and expert advice to help in awareness
raising and sensitivity to gender violations, as well as through human rights
education. However, without political goodwill and accountability,
mainstreaming and integrating gender equality in the UN will not achieve a
cruising speed, worse still, will continue to remain mere paperwork.
******************
WHY HIGHLIGHT
WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL MECHANISMS?
Integration of women’s rights is not a new concept in the agenda of the UN Human
Rights Council. Its history goes back to the establishment of the Commission on
the Status of Women in 1947/48 when this terminology was used to denote
discussions and debates on the condition of women in society and economy in
contradistinction to men. It took more than four decades of transformation of
international legal and economic norms for the term integration of women
to be replaced by gender integration in the UN system in the 1990s. The
meaning and definition have changed in policy statements and legislation, as
well as in the substance and methods of its implementation and enforcement.
More recently as the process and procedure of transformation from the Human
Rights Commission to the Council continue, its usage by the governments has
expanded its meaning to include gender mainstreaming in international law on
human rights. It has also been the subject of several resolutions listing
women’s concerns in the mechanisms and mandates of the Commission and the
Council. In each session of the Council, since April 2006, during the
discussions of the program of work and agenda integration of women was
considered as a specific issue on which a resolution was adopted. Several
countries have made statements in favor of gender equality during the High
Level Segment at the 4th session of the Human Rights Council (12 to 13 March).
For example, out of the 47 membership of the Council, 18 countries made
reference to women or gender equality supporting non-discrimination clauses in
CEDAW or the Optional Protocol particularly on the representation of women in national
assemblies. Fifty-seven countries co-sponsored a statement with
Krishna Ahooja Patel, Pres.,
A GENDER PERSPECTIVE IN THE
UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW AND THE FRAMEWORK PRINCIPLES OF ITS PROGRAMME OF WORK
The Human Rights Council (HRC) institution-building
process drew to a close on 18 June 2007 with a negotiated text that included
gender perspective in the framework principles of its Programme of Work, as
well as in the Universal Periodic Review mechanism (UPR). The latter is a peer
process whereby all states parties will take turns in having their human rights
situation reviewed on a regular basis. In the agreed text, gender equality and
women’s human rights have been included. It is however not a standing item in the agenda.
Accordingly, a joint statement delivered by the Representative of the
International Federation of University Women (IFUW) underscored two basic
reasons why these issues should be integrated in every session of the HRC.
Foremost is the fact that there are two genders in the world’s population,
one-half of which is at present unequal to the other in rights and power,
secondly, this asymmetry has been acknowledged in numerous UN principles, norms
and standards, as well as in world summit declarations and platforms for action
and voluntary pledges. To name just the very basic ones: The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women (1979), Vienna Declaration on Human Rights
(1993), Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on Women (1995), ECOSOC
Decision on Gender Mainstreaming (1997),
Declaration of the Fundamental Rights at Work of the International Labour
Conventions (1998), notably the non-discrimination Conventions 100 on equal pay
and 111 on equal occupations and employment, Millennium Development Goals
(2000); GA Millennium Summit Outcome (2005), and the latest one is the GA
Resolution on Violence Against Women (2006).
In the ECOSOC 2006 and at the General Assembly in 2007, gender equality
and women’s empowerment were in their main agenda. (Full texts of the documents
can be found on the United Nations website (www.un.org).
FIRST STEPS IN BUILDING THE
MECHANISMS
On 26 September
2007, HRC President Doru Costea, briefed the NGOs on the process of review, rationalisation and
improvement of mandates, which started with the case of the Independent expert
on
The President also announced that the formal panel on Gender Integration
was such a success with so many delegates wanting to take the floor. Between cutting short the interventions and
following strictly the calendar, he chose to extend discussion of
substance. This meant however that he
had to change the order of the day a few times to give a chance to NGOs to make
their statements. He assured that he will
try to involve NGOs more and more to the largest extent possible. As to speaking time and involvement in the
debate, this first panel was a good
lesson in terms of planning and time management. He warned that March 2008 session would be
more difficult and so will the June session in terms of workload due to the
novelty of issues. Hence, adjustments in time allocation simply would not be
possible to gain more. He will see to it however that the involvement of NGOs
will not be diminished..
A PANEL ON GENDER INTEGRATION
ORGANISED WITHIN THE FORMAL CALENDAR OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
A panel was held
within the formal calendar of the Human Rights Council on 20 September chaired
by Ambassador Maria Nzomo, permanent representative of
The conclusions highlighted the following::
v It is the
fundamental core of work of the Council to focus on gender as being a social
relation between women and men, girls and boys within all of humanity. Roles
are acquired and vary differently from one culture to another, but
evolve over time;
v Gender violence is
directly related to the unequal enjoyment between women and men of rights,
opportunities, resources and rewards.
v The Council needs
to incorporate a gender analysis that promotes and strengthens legal
frameworks, vocally prescribing gender equality and guard against ostracizing
gender integration as a matter belonging to the women’s domain.
v The General
Assembly Summit Outcome (Sept. 2005) calls on the Council to integrate gender
perspectives in all issues in its agenda, including its methods of work.
v The gender
perspective is a key priority in the work of the Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights: It should promote the adoption of gender equality legislation
and should ensure their implementation;
v It is noted that
there remains a large number of explicit and implicit discrimination in the law
and the Council should envisage the creation of a group of experts who would
look into national legislations to identify which laws exist that implement or
not implement gender equality and gender justice. In this regard, the
intervention of IFUW on behalf of 14 NGOs recommended the appointment of a
Special Rapporteur on Gender Judtice.
v
The Council
should systematically identify and give visibility to concrete issues such as
Maternal Mortality and gender based violence as human rights concerns.
v The Council should include
indicators and data disaggregated by sex and age in all monitoring mechanisms
to assess progress, consequently, there must
be a systemic data gathering and analyses disaggregated by sex and age.
v
Gender
mainstreaming as it is presently understood (or misunderstood) should not be
limited to achieving gender equality but
should be closely linked to the right to all sustainable human development. In
this regard, integration of a
gender perspective is a strategy of the
United Nations to remedy the economic, social, political and cultural
disadvantages of women. In practical terms, a two-pronged approach should be adopted: on the one hand, mainstreaming a
gender perspective in the whole UN System and on the other hand, specifically addressing the
under-represented gender (i.e. women and girls)
v The Council should
focus its action on the law of the land as a first guarantee of human rights
v The issue of
violence against women should not be the only
focus in gender integration but should be linked to finding solutions
towards the equal enjoyment of economic and social rights of women.
v
Government
interventions expressed commitment and
support to the integration of gender perspective in the different aspects
of the Council’s work, notably within the framework of the UPR, in the mandates
of Special Procedures (SP) and in the drafting of resolutions by the
Council. In this regard, account should
be taken of the CEDAW Convention and ensure within the UPR mechanism a gender perspective
at all stages of the review.
SOME
GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS DURING THE INTERACTIVE DIALOGUE:
Slovenia: Wanted to
know how can one ensure that a gender perspective be integrated and sustained
over a long term in special procedures and in what way would it be possible to
do it at the level of national
legislation?
New Zealand: Besides
integrating a gender perspective in the UPR
and SPs, it should also be taken into account in all Council
resolutions.
Sweden: The
government is ready to extend assistance to accelerate progress notably in the
UPR. It is necessary to bring out the
gender perspective throughout the year of
the Council’s work. The speaker wanted to know how the Council could
address within this framework, conflict prevention.
Philippines: The
Council should ensure that mandate holders have the special competence in the
area of gender mainstreaming and to take particular attention .to prevention of
trafficking of women and feminisation of poverty; what role men and boys could
play; and what specific action should the Council take in promoting gender
equality. The Council should organize
debates on this theme on a regular basis in the Council’s programme of work.
Morocco: Gender perspective should be in every resolution of
the Council and to ensure equal representation of women in the organs of the
United Nations.
Portugal on behalf of the European Union: Gender
equality must be systemic in all human
rights issues. The organization of the panel debate reinforces a general
understanding of the issue and supports an update. Following from the question
of the IFUW representative, how can one monitor and update knowledge of
progress. How can the Council contribute to reinforcing the proposed gender
architecture in the UN Reform process? The Council should encourage special
procedures to establish guidelines that would contribute to the effective
integration of gender in their work. The
panelists were asked to share their
views on the expectations expressed by NGOs.
Tunisia: :Suggested that the Council should develop a long-term
modus operandi. A long-term strategy was practiced by Tunisia and bore its
fruit by a significant increase in the representation of women in public
organs.
Chile: Expressed hope
that the interactive dialogue would lead
to new ideas and concretely implement these in the work of the Council.
He recalled that the President of Chile, Michele Bachelet, made specific
reference to the issue of gender equality in her speech delivered to the
Council.
Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Conference: Declared that a process of rhis nature is a long
term one. The fact that the
institutional text recognizes gender equality, governments should make
deliberate effort to present gender balance candidates in the different organs
of the Council. Ms. Janjua congratulated
the new Gender Unit in the OHCHR and wanted to know if the coming of CEDAW to
Geneva would have an impact on its work.
STATEMENTS
ON GENDER EQUALITY PERSPECTIVES AT HRC SESSIONS ON INSTITUTION BUILDING
Members of the NGO
CSW Geneva made joint statements to the Council’s institution building process
(see complete lists in the HRC Extranet): One statement reminded the Council
that since the creation of the United Nations and the adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, women have been struggling for the
promotion, protection and enjoyment of their rights. The Vienna Declaration (1993) has
provided the legal framework that clearly acknowledged women’s rights are human
rights and should be integrated into the mainstream of United Nations
system-wide activities. It emphasized the elimination of all forms of violence
against women in public and private life and the eradication of all forms of
discrimination against women, both hidden and overt. The Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW 1979) has
provided among others that temporary measures to redress a situation are not
considered discrimination. The Beijing Platform for Action has enumerated 12
areas of concern for strategic action to empower women and improve their
status.
The implementation of these existing
international legal instruments is being undermined due to, inter alia,
practices of patriarchal cultures, customs and religious fundamentalism. The
IFUW speaker noted that social, economic and cultural forces have often
determined people’s behaviour more than legal regulations, especially for those
whose illiteracy denies them access to legal information. Often a woman’s right to life is violated
because they challenge either political systems or traditional gender-based
standards of behaviour in their cultural or religious settings. It is essential
that UPR, and other HRC mechanisms’ mandates and methods of work, should include a gender equal perspective
as a prescriptive concept and to test for gender bias by asking the
question ‘Does a woman have a choice in a given situation?’ Much of the failure
to redress gender inequality is in fact primarily due to the absence of
systematic sex and age disaggregated national statistics that identify
characteristics and practices of human rights violations specific to or
primarily directed against women or to which women are particularly vulnerable.
In this regard, UPR should include gender-specific sensitivity factors, impact
assessment and evaluation measures with time lines.
A statement of the International
Federation for Human Rights during the 3rd session of the HRC
reminded the Council that this year is the 25th anniversary of
CEDAW. 184 states have ratified this,
but only 79 have ratified the optional protocol. Many have expressed reservations that
override their adoption. It also
indicated that certain national legislations are incompatible with CEDAW. It is this contradiction that the FIDH and
the Association démocratique des femmes du Maroc launched a campaign for
“equality without reservations in all Arab countries.” It’s objective is to make all states renounce
reservations in the CEDAW convention, to harmonise all their legislations with the prescriptions of the
convention, and to ratify the optional protocol. Finally, it underscored the necessity to
ensure that a specific item on women’s rights should be on its agenda so that
such questions would systematically be debated in the main organ responsible
for the promotion and protection of individual and collective rights of women.
The representative
of the International Alliance of Women, addressed Maternal Mortality.
The following is the unedited statement of Helene Sakstein: “The Special Rapporteur on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard
of Health, Mr. Hunt challenges human rights civil society organizations and
health professionals alike to give more attention to economic, social and
cultural rights in general and the right to health in particular. One shocking
example is maternal mortality. The report notes that each year there are
500.000 maternal deaths, or one every minute; 95% of these are in Africa and
Asia and most could be avoided. There is no single cause of death and
disability for men between the ages of 15 and 44 that is close to this
magnitude.
Maternal mortality reveals sharp discrepancies between men and women in
their enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health rights. Maternal mortality
exposes profound and multiple inequalities. It’s not just a health issue,
argues the report, it is a human rights issue which violates women’s rights to
life, health, and non-discrimination. Unfortunately, although it represents a
massive human rights catastrophe, it has not attracted adequate
attention. Fighting maternal mortality could become a powerful vehicle for
strengthening health systems accessible to all. It provides an entry to the
full implementation of the right to health and all related rights. Such as the
right to drinking water, to food, to housing, to privacy, to education, to
information, to healthy occupational and environmental conditions, etc. Maternal mortality
could also be used as an equally powerful vehicle to better integrate the human
rights of women in economic, social, and cultural rights, for all special
groups enumerated in the Council’s agenda such as minorities, indigenous
peoples, children, migrants, etc.
The statement of
the Executive Director of the Center for Women’s Leadership to the Fourth
Session referred to the Study of the UN Secretary General on VAW which called
on the Human Rights Council to discuss by 2008, the question of violence against
women in relation to their mandates and to set priorities for addressing this
issue in their future efforts and work programmes and to identify and address
gaps pertaining to VAW. She emphasised, among others, that “The work of
achieving human rights for all has always involved “making changes in all of
our cultures where they conflict with equality and non-discrimination and
working to end violence against women is no exception.” She mentioned the report of the Special
Rapporteur on VAW Yakin Erturk on the
“gun culture” in the United States as a cultural manifestation that is
lethal for many victims of domestic violence
She ended by stating that the Council requires that a gender perspective
be integrated in all of its work.
The delegate of Argentna
made a statement on behalf of 57
co-sponsors on the importance of integrating a gender perspective in the work
of the Council. (see full text in Human Rights Council Website and HRC Extranet
).
Algeria representative declared that his country,
which had ratified on January 1996 the
CEDAW convention, the Convention on political rights of women and the
international labour conventions, is resolved to modernise and to rehabilitate women’s entire
human rights and its objective is to reach equal rights of women and men in its
process of development such as shown over the recent years. Women have the right to vote, right to be political
candidates and in judiciary positions. Women are encouraged to engage in
economic activities, in particular in rural zones and distant regions. He said
that the worst form of violence against
women is poverty.
RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS ADOPTED AT THE SIXTH SESSION OF THE HUMAN
RIGHTS COUNCIL WITH GENDER, AGE
PERSPECTIVES AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Out of around 30
resolutions and decisions, only the
following six had women’s
rights and/or a gender
perspective. The postponement of
discussion on the resolution regarding
gender integration in the UN System, has
been postponed to the sixth extended session in December this year. It is crucial that there be extra vigilance
in following the redrafting exercise of this
omnibus resolution. The
resolution should emphasize implementation by states parties from a
rights-based approach to gender equality and to fill in specific protection and
promotion gaps in women’s rights. For
advocates in the Council, the more controversial issues which have to be
tackled are those based on multiple forms of discrimination that intersects
with gender, i.e. race, ethnicity, culture, traditions that have led to
stereotypes and customary laws, religious beliefs, moral values and
intergenerational discrimination based on age.
.
A/HRC/6/L.5/Rev.1 -Mandate of
the Special Rapporteur on the right to food is extended for a period of
three years and to continue mainstreaming a gender perspective and take into
account an age dimension, considering that women and children are
disproportionately affected by hunger, food insecurity and poverty.
A/HRC/6/L.15. Mandate of the
Special Rapporteur on freedom of religio or belief for a furthr period of three
years. Both in the preambular and
operative paragraphs, practices of discrimination against women in situations
of violence and religious extremisms that affect women need to be addressed and to ensure appropriate
measures are taken to guarantee the freedom of religion or belief of women,
persons deprived of their liberty, refugees, children, persons belonging to
minorities and migrants, including appropriate education or training provided to public officials, civil
servants, enforcement bodies, the military and educators and broader
participation of women in strengthening dialogue.
A/HRC/6/L.34 Forum on Minority
Issues. Adopted to establish a forum as a platform for dialogue and
cooperation, to meet annually for 2 working days with participation of all relevant
stakeholders from every region and giving particular attention to the
representation of women. The work of the
forum will be reviewed after four years.
A/HRC/6/L.26 Indigenous Peoples – Mandate of the
Special Rapporteur extended for three years – to pay special attention to the
human rights and fundamental freedom of indigenous children and women, and to
take into account a gender perspective in the performance of his/her mandate.
A/HRC/6/L.23/REV.1 – Special
Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery. Decides to appoint for a
three-year period a Special Rapporteur to replace the Working Group.. Will
cover other issues as forced prostitution and its human rights dimensions, to
include examples of best practi ces and to take account of the gender and age
dimensions of contemporary forms of slavery.
The SR should cooperate fully and effectively with other existing
mechanisms and treaty bodies including trafficking in persons, especially in
women and children, SR on the sale of children and child pornographc, , SR on
racial discrimination, etc. SR on violence against women, its causes and
consequences , Special Representative of the Secretary-General on children in
armed conflict, SR on human rights of migrants.
A/HRC/6/L.28 – Situation of
human rights in
************
REFERENCES
General
Assembly Resolution A(60/251 – Creation and Mandate of
the Human Rights Council and HRC 5/1:
ABC
of women workers rights and gender equality,
ILO,2nd edition, 2007, ISBN 978-92-2-119622-8
Gender
Mainstreaming in practice.A Toolkit -Methodology,
Sectoral briefs and Case Studies, 3rd ed..2007. ISBN :978-92-9504-265-0
Claiming
Rights, Claiming Justice. A Guidebook on
Women Human Rights Defenders. 2007
Gender
Equality Around the World. Articles from
World of Work magazine 1999-2006. ILO publication.
Addressing
Intersectional Discrimination with Temporary Special Measures. International Women’s Rights Action Watch
Asia Pacific. Occasional Papers Series
No. 8., 2006
What are the “
The newsletter reports on events of importance
to women taking place at the United Nations, its specialized agencies and NGOs
in
Editorial Committee
Conchita Poncini (IFUW), Managing Editor
Krishna Ahooja Patel (WILPF), President,
Jannine
de Boccard (ICW)
================================================================
To leave the list, send your request by email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.