WUNRN
UN Human Rights Council Advisory
Committee
Documentation of the 6th Session: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/advisorycommittee/session6/documentation.htm
DIRECT LINK TO FULL 22-PAGE REPORT:
D. Discrimination Against Women
33. The
intersection between women's rights and the right to food provides a rich
overview of a number of interrelated dimensions of discrimination against
women related to access to land, poverty and markets, which are inextricably
linked to access to education, employment, health care and political
participation. On a global scale, women cultivate more than 50% of all food
grown. Women nonetheless account for 70% of the world's hungry and are
disproportionately affected by malnutrition, poverty and food insecurity.
Governments are not living up to their international commitments to protect
women from discrimination, as the gap between de jure equality and de facto
discrimination
continues to persist and resist change.
1. Rural Women, Access to Land,
Production and Markets
34. Womenj's
access to control and ownership of land or property are crucial
for the purpose of strengthening their security and livelihood. It is important
to understand the multiple factors - laws, inheritance, marital status and
agrarian reform policies - that impede women's access to land and the way
these affect women by virtue of their gender at the level of individual,
community and nation. FAO estimates that de facto female-headed
households
form around 25% of total rural households, signalling the
multiplicity of women from single parents, widows, wives of migrant
workers to women migrant workers. Despite representing the majority
of the agricultural workforce and production, women are estimated to have
access to/control 5% of land globally.
35. The
right to control, access and manage land is tied to a woman's right to
exercise financial independence, earn a livelihood, and subsequently provide
a livelihood for herself and her household. Agrarian reform policies which are
"gender blind" continue to exclude women from entitlements to land.
States
undergoing agrarian reform or land redistribution schemes must uphold the
equal right of women to land, regardless of marital status.
2. Women and Access to Education,
Employment and Health Care
38.
Women's role in the economy has often been underestimated and their work
in agriculture has long been invisible. While policymakers have targeted
population, health and nutrition programmes to women in their reproductive
roles, they have neglected women as productive agents.
39. Rural women
have the world's lowest levels of schooling and the highest rates
of
illiteracy in all developing regions; twice as many women suffer
from
malnutrition as men, and girls are twice as likely to die from malnutrition as
boys..............
