WUNRN
PARLIAMENTARIANS ASK G8 TO FOCUS ON
WOMEN
Paris, May 18, 2011 (IPS) - Ahead of this month’s G8 summit
in France, parliamentarians from 35 countries have issued a strong call for
leaders of the world’s major economies to focus on the role of women and girls
in development.
"We wish to draw the world’s attention to two aspects
of human rights that are the most neglected – the situation facing girls and
adolescent women and the challenges posed by global population dynamics at
present," said a resolution issued at the end of the Global Parliamentarians’
Summit held at France’s National Assembly on Monday and Tuesday.
France’s minister for Cooperation, Henri de Raincourt, told
IPS that discussions of the issues affecting women and girls would form a
"real part" of the G8 meeting.
"France insists on this," he said. "The role
of girls and women are absolutely central to development. France is militating
in favour of the rights of women and young girls."
The parliamentarians’ resolution said that 600 million girls
and young women in the developing world "are in a vulnerable situation,
facing injustices and inequities that constitute a major obstacle to social and
human development, both at a personal and a societal level."
In a report this week by anti-poverty group ONE, France,
Italy and Germany were censured for failing to meet targets set for them at the
31st G8 summit held in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005. France made good on 44
percent of its promised increases, compared with 86 percent from the United
Kingdom.
Given this background, some delegates at the Global
Parliamentarians’ Summit told IPS that they were not sure if any concrete
action would emerge from their appeal. But they said that if nothing was done,
the world would face greater instability as lack of investment in girls affects
peace, progress and population growth.
"Women and girls are the backbone of our societies, but
we’re failing to support their full potential," said Raymonde Folco, a
former member of Canada’s parliament and organiser of the previous summit in
Ottawa last year.
"The time is right for action now," she told IPS.
"If people in power adopt certain concerns, the people working on the
ground will have something to look forward to. We need to elect leaders who are
feminist, people who are ready to do the work."
The parliamentarians, from European Union member countries
as well as from Africa, Asia and other regions, said they wanted governments to
take into account the fact that "equality between men and women is still
far from being achieved" and that "women and men live in realities
that are very different."
As a consequence of this, public development assistance
expenses should be analysed and adapted to benefit those that most need it, the
resolution said. Development aid should be used to stop the "feminisation
of HIV AIDS" for instance, and its spread among young girls.
Danielle Bousquet, vice-president of the European
Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development (EPF), which co-organised the
summit, said that the call to action would be sent to all G8 parliamentarians.
"It’s estimated that women receive less than two cents
in every development dollar," she told IPS. "We want that to
change."
Governments need to address the issue of the millions of
girls out of school, and the problems of child marriages and unwanted
pregnancies, delegates said at the summit titled ‘Girls and Population: the
forgotten drivers of development’.
"We … are convinced that the violations of the human
rights suffered by girls and adolescent women are severely impeding global
development," the parliamentarians stated. "It is their right to
become actors in a world that is progressing: their future is our challenge,
and their well-being is our priority."
The French government currently holds the presidency of the
G8. When the group’s heads of state meet in Deauville, northern France, on May
26-27, the parliamentarians’ resolution will be just one of the many issues on
the table.
Funding to the world’s poorest countries will also be part
of the debate, especially as the G8 has been criticised for delivering only 61
percent of the increased development aid that member states pledged in 2005 to
give to sub-Saharan Africa by 2010.
Assiata Bocoum, a 15-year-old girl from Mali’s National
Parliament of Children, sent a poignant appeal to G8/G20 leaders on behalf of
young people. She called on governments to make the United Nations goal of
education for all a reality and to take steps to protect girls from forced
marriages.
"Child marriages are a big problem," she said.
"That’s one of the main issues affecting teenage girls in poor
countries."
Sexual abuse, unwanted pregnancies and early childbirth are
other issues that parliamentarians and development experts would like to see
addressed at the G8 summit.
"Girls having children at an early age is not good for
them, and it’s catastrophic for the world," said Judith Bruce, a senior
analyst with the Population Council, an international non-governmental
organisation.
She said that if current trends in certain sub-Saharan countries
continue, between 30 and 70 percent of young women in these developing
countries will be single mothers.
A key message from the Global Parliamentarians’ Summit was
that focusing on girls and women was also a way to manage population growth.
The number of people in the world will reach 7 billion this year, and the U.N.
predicts a global population of 9 billion by 2050, which will put a severe
strain on resources.
"We’ve been talking about family planning in my country
since 1969, but now the issue is crucial," said Maria-Goretti Agaleoue
Adoua, a delegate to the summit, and one of the 17 women in Burkina Faso’s
parliament of 111 members.
"It’s good to have children but we need to have
children that we can feed, educate and keep in good health," she told IPS.
"We have to invest in ourselves and get partners interested in the subject
to help us as well."