WUNRN
Widows for Peace through Democracy
1 January, 2011
Dear Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women,
Ms. Michelle Bachelet,
We congratulate you on your appointment as Under-Secretary General
for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Executive Director of UN
Women, and wish you every success in this all-important new position. In
particular, we warmly welcome your promise that: “UN-Women will
significantly boost UN efforts to expand opportunities for women and girls and
tackle discrimination around the globe.”
Widows for Peace is the founder of the international advocacy
coalition of widows' organizations in conflict-affected countries, with primary
focus on
With your appointment, we have new hopes that your mandate will
encompass this most neglected of human rights and gender issues:
Widowhood. The discrimination and abuse
widows experience is extreme, widespread, but mostly ignored. The stigma
against widows is so great that widows often do not mobilize as “widows” but as
“single women” or “strong women alone” (South Asia), and as “women living with
AIDS” or “grandmothers” (
We applaud UN-Women for the first mention of Widowhood on a UN
system website. However, we urge you not to falsely associate widows almost
exclusively with the elderly. While we
welcome enthusiastically The CEDAW‘s General Recommendation regarding the
status of Older Women in the context of the Women’s Convention (we signed the
letter from HelpAge International to you), we would plead with you and your
colleagues to also have regard for the fact that widows are of all ages, from the very young child
widows, the pre-teens and young mothers, through the AIDS widows and widows of
conflicts to the old and old-old grandmothers – all of whom struggle to survive
and support their families whilst mostly deprived of their fundamental rights.
Discrimination against widows in inheritance, land ownership, credit, and freedom to marry, and protection from forced marriage, “chasing-off,” property-grabbing, rape, forced prostitution, and trafficking vulnerability continue in many countries despite domestic laws which, on paper, ratify The CEDAW and agree the Beijing Platform for Action, UN SCR 1325 and other human rights conventions, declarations and resolutions.
There seems to be little awareness among Governments, or, to date,
within UN entities, of the depth and breadth of widow discrimination and abuse,
or of how key widows and their children are in development, peace building, and
reduction of the poverty that is so often the cause of conflicts. In 2001, I
authored the only UN report on the global status of Widowhood for DAW's Women
2000 Series, identifying the major issues and the urgent need for data on
widows, yet little follow-up on issues or data has occurred despite dramatic
increases in widows’ numbers.
Worst of all, the lack of data exacerbates the invisibility and
neglect of the problem, although we can give UN-Women best practice case
studies of data collected and widows mobilising to be heard (for instance, our
member Women for Human Rights-Single Women's Group, Nepal).
Ms. Rachel Mayanja of OSAGI referred to the need to address the
status of widows in several speeches, both at the CSW and at the recent
While the complex issues of Widowhood cut across all 12 action
areas of the Beijing Platform for Action, all eight Millennium Development
Goals, and many of The CEDAW articles, and are relevant to the implementation
of UN SCR 1325 and its successive Resolutions on gender issues in conflict
scenarios, unfortunately, there has been little action at the UN to date. In 2007, we provided Ms. Mayanja, at her
request, with a detailed methodology and budget to undertake a study of
Widowhood in 11 countries, which remains unfunded. She and the DSG also receive
Recommendations from each successive CSW Side Event meeting on Widowhood.
We would welcome your comments, and, hopefully, your support for
our requests: that the UN Secretary-General appoint a Special Rapporteur on the
status of widows around the globe; that the S-G commission a report on
Widowhood in conflict (along the lines of the Graca Machel report on children
in conflict); and that UN-Women sponsor regional conferences on Widowhood in
South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by an international conference.
Might we - with attending member organizations (from
Sincerely,
Margaret Owen, OBE, Director, Widows for Peace, Founding Member of
GAPS-UK
Lauren Gibbs, Director, GLObal
Action on Widowhood
cc:
Ms. Asha-Rose Mirigo, Deputy Secretary-General; Ms. Rachel Mayanja,
Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Gender Issues & Advancement of
Women; Ms. Valerie Amos, Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs; Sir
Mark Lyall Grant, Permanent Representative, UK Mission
Attached:
Recommendations of WPD CSW 54 Side Event, 2010 WPD Dossier for The CEDAW on
Widowhood