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FULL STATEMENT IS ATTACHED.

Contact: Margaret Owen - director.wpd@googlemail.com

WIDOWS FOR PEACE THROUGH DEMOCRACY (WPD)

STATEMENT BY WPD TO THE 52^nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women 25^th February- 7^th March, 2008

With reference to the main theme: Financing Gender Equality in Development Policies

And the sub-theme: Women and Armed Conflict (reviewing the agreed conclusions of the 43^rd CSW of 1988)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Widows for Peace through Democracy (WPD), based in London, is the lead international organisation focusing specifically on the status of widows and wives of the “disappeared” in conflict-afflicted countries. It also addresses the situation of widows in all developing countries where they face discrimination, abuse, violence, poverty and marginalisation as a result of their personal status, lack of legal protection or access to the justice system.

A Fringe Meeting on Widows: Needs and Roles in Conflict and Post-Conflict Scenarios will take place during the 52^nd CSW. All those interested in this area of gender equality are welcome to participate.

WPD is the umbrella organisation for some 20 widows’ groups in developing countries, including several afflicted by wars. It encourages the formation of federations of widows’ groups wherever widowhood is a stigma and a “social death”. In 2005, it promoted the established of the first regional caucus of widows’ groups for South Asia: SANWED (South Asian Network for Widows’ Empowerment in Development), which brings together those representing widows of the six countries of the region, facilitating the exchange of experience and best practice on securing law reform, eliminating violence and harmful traditional practices, and ensuring widows’ enjoy the rights enshrined in international and domestic law. It has produced a “Widows’ Charter”, based on the CEDAW, for adaptation by widows’ NGOs and activists lobbying for law reforms. As a member of GAPS UK (Gender Action on Peace and Security), it promotes the inclusion of widows’ representatives in peace-building activities and documents the impact of conflict on their lives, in accordance with the requirements of UN SCR 1325.

A Neglected Gender Issue

Widowhood is one of the most neglected and hidden of all gender issues. Given the ever increasing numbers of widows in war-affected regions, their vulnerability to violence (within and outside the family)h and their crucial social and economic roles in peace-building, reconstruction, the UN and the international community now needs urgently to prioritise the complex issues of widowhood across the whole spectrum of development policies.

Development policies tend to assume that “women” are a homogenous whole, thus diverting attention to some of the most vulnerable groups of women - such as widows. These women have very specific needs but they are never mentioned in any of the 12 action areas of the Beijing Platform for Action, nor in the Outcome Document of Bejing+5, in spite of their extreme poverty and their exploitation and oppression as the result of discriminatory interpretations of religion and custom. Law reforms, to comply with international standards such as the CEDAW have failed to bring justice to widows due to the dominance of traditional codes over modern laws in areas of personal status land and inheritance and rights. “Chasing-off” and “property-grabbing” are common features of widowhood across regions, cultures, class and caste. Harmful traditional practices relating to mourning and burial rites, some of which can be life-threatening and degrading to widows have received very little attention.

Huge Increase in Numbers of Widows

Today, the numbers of widows, of all ages, has increased to unprecedented figures due to armed conflict and ethnic cleansing. Although reliable statistics are rare it is estimated that in several countries, for example, such as Iraq, DRC, Sudan, Afghanistan, Burundi, Rwanda, every 3^rd family is widow-headed. NGOs’ reports suggest that in Iraq, parts of DRC and in Darfur, over 40% of all adult women are in this category and over 50% of children are dependent on their impoverished widowed mothers for their survival. War widows have also been victims of rape and forced pregnancy. In Rwanda many were deliberately infected with the HIV virus.

The stigma of widowhood and its poverty impacts most disastrously and irrevocably on their children – withdrawn from education, in exploited child labour, begging on the streets, or sold into early marriage, to traffickers for prostitution,

Why is Financing of Gender Equality in Development relevant to Widowhood issues?

To effectively address Gender Equality the UN international agencies and governments must focus their attention on the status of widows whose numbers have so dramatically increased in many countries.

· Widows are the poorest of the poor in many developing countries, especially in South Asia and Africa.

· Widows do not know their rights under new laws on, for example, inheritance and land rights, and face barriers to accessing the justice system.

· The international community must support training and information on widows’ rights for judiciaries, lawyers, police and community leaders.

· Law reforms must include special provisions on the rights of widows.

· Coping strategies to survive poverty are life-threatening but also affect the whole of society.

· Daughters of widows are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, sale, forced prostitution and early child marriage. Poverty bans them from education and therefore future employment.

· Widows are not exclusively “victims” of discriminatory attitudes and practices, they are key players in development

· Policies should include financial and other support directed to widows’ organisations in developing countries so as to strengthen their capacity and effectiveness in documenting their experiences; filling the gaps in data collection; articulating their needs and promoting acknowledgement of their roles.

· Addressing issues of widowhood is essential for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): in particular, the goals of reducing poverty; gender equality; school enrolment; limiting the spread of the AIDS virus.

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