WUNRN
CEDAW
Committee Briefing on WIDOWHOOD DISCRIMINATION
Discrimination against widows of all ages is one of the most neglected of human rights and gender issues in developing, especially conflict-affected, countries today.
The numbers of widows and wives of the missing have increased dramatically due to armed conflicts, revolutions, sectarian violence, HIV and AIDS, and harmful traditional practices, such as child marriage to far older men. Uncounted millions of widows struggle to survive in extreme poverty, caused by discriminatory practices, making them and their daughters vulnerable to violence, including sexual violence, rape, slavery, forced prostitution and trafficking.
For example, there are thought to be between 3 and 5 million widows in Iraq; in Syria, with over 100,000 dead, there must be thousands of bereaved women; in Afghanistan, over 80,000 widows are begging on the streets of Kabul; and in Eastern Congo, over 50% of women are widowed.
The discrimination against and stigma of widowhood impacts severely on widows’ children, depriving them of adequate nutrition, schooling, and the other essentials of childhood Although many countries have laws purporting to guarantee equality, widows, especially rural illiterate widows, fail to access the justice system that should give them protection and rights to inheritance, land, and property.
This scandalously neglected issue should be approached by the international community and governments as central to other initiatives to reduce poverty and promote equality, development and peace.
WPD - Widows for Peace through Democracy - is urging the CEDAW Committee to use its power to develop a General Recommendation (GR) to State Parties that they urgently address the status of their widows, and use all available means to protect them from discrimination and abuse, such as “chasing-off” and property-grabbing” and from degrading and life-threatening traditional mourning and burial rites, and at the same time empower them to participate fully in their country’s development on an equal basis.
WPD’s partners have examples of best practice that could assist States towards this goal.
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The Briefing will take place over a cocktail reception at 6.00pm on Monday, July 15th in the private room in the UN Restaurant, in the Palais de Nations. WPD WELCOMES MEMBERS OF THE PRESS