WUNRN
Harmful Traditional Practices Against Women and Girls
Law vs Practice: Rhetoric vs Reality
Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda
General Secretary, World YWCA & President, NGO CSW-Geneva
20th Session of the Human Rights Council,
Geneva 27 June, 2012
On behalf of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women
in Geneva (NGO CSW – Geneva), and of my a own organization the World YWCA, I am honored to join this very important
panel today during this 20th session of the Human Rights Council, as we
continue to engage in advocacy actions and awareness. Last year the NGO
Committee on the Status of Women in Geneva adopted five priority themes as
strategic directions for the next three years. Grounding all our work is
women's human rights, empowerment and dignity.
We are meeting in this Human Rights Council at a time when there is a
significant focus on gender equality and women's rights. This ranged from the
two days debates on gender equality, which carried the focus on the study
undertaken on violence against women and disability, the debate on women human
rights defenders, the report of the special rapportuer on violence against
women on gender motivated killings, the panel on violence against women and remedies,
the first report of the working group on discrimination against women in law
and in practice, as well as the current negotiations underway for the Council's
resolution on violence against women and remedies. The issues of harmful
traditional practices are permeating the debates and the discourse. We are
therefore not short of the discourse, but how to turn this into the reality of
billions of women and girls across the world? We have the normative
instruments, like CEDAW, we have the mechanisms, like the UPR, we have the
rhetoric, and yet women continue to experience the violations.
Many women's organizations, including the World YWCA and the Inter Africa
Committee have continued to work at the nexus of culture, faith and rights to
advance the status and empowerment of women. We also know that the majority of
the key issues relating to harmful traditional practices are intricately linked
with women's reproductive health and rights, violence against women and
personal empowerment. Yet, this is the most controversial issue that confronts
us today in the women's human rights discourse, as we saw at the 56th session
of the UN Commission on the Status of Women and the recently concluded
negotiations during the Rio + 20 conference.
These are some of the proposed recommendations that we have in order to turn
this rhetoric into reality:
In my every day work at the world YWCA, I continue valuing the strategic
and diverse partnerships with UN
agencies organizations such as UNFPA, OHCHR, with private foundations such as
the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Oak Foundation, HorYzon, and with
ecumenical partners such as ICCO, EED, National German Committee of the World Day of Prayer, as well as governments
such as Australia, Norway and Canada in supporting our effort to build a
critical mass of young women as advocates and champions of gender equality and
human rights. This enables us to adopt an intergenerational approach which
promotes women’s own voices, agency and leadership in seeking accountability to
women and girls. The YWCAs also provide a safe space for women and girls to
access services, information and support.
In conclusion, it is clear that we need to continue promoting a strategic,
significant global social movement. This is essential to continue pushing for an end to harmful
traditional practices resulting in abandoning female genital mutilation and the
commodification of women's bodies; ending child marriage; and achieving secure
sexual, reproductive, social and economic rights for women. How will this shape
up if we have the 5th women's world conference?