WUNRN
WIDOWHOOD
IN THE CONTEXT OF
Statement
by Widows for Peace through Democracy, June, 2014
WIDOWHOOD
ISSUES
REQUIRE
A SPECIFIC FOCUS
WIDOWS, especially in developing countries, are
the very poorest and most vulnerable of women, and suffer from significant
discrimination and abuse due to oppressive interpretations of religion and
tradition across a range of regions and cultures. Yet
widows and widowhood are nowhere mentioned in the
The CSW review of the BPFA in 2015 offers a new
opportunity to remedy this grave omission, since every one of the 12 action
areas in the Plan of Action have critical relevance to the status of widows, of
all ages and in every country.
Now, more than ever before, there is an urgent
need for governments to address the complex and challenging issues of widowhood
since armed conflicts, sectarian violence, revolutions, natural disasters,
harmful traditional practices (such as child marriage) and HIV/AIDS have hugely increased the
numbers of widows. The majority of whom, of all ages, live in extreme poverty
and fear. Yet they are mostly uncounted, and their voices unheard.
Widows are a category of women who merit
special attention and differentiated programs and policies because they are
recipients of specific negative treatments and bear particular disadvantages
which must be remedied if we are to see the elimination of discrimination and
violence to women, reduce their poverty, and ensure their full participation as
equal citizens in peaceful and prospering societies.
In
addition, the current financial crisis has worsened the situation of widows and
their dependents in both developed and
developing countries, and in the latter there are few that have a social
security system, that is effective. In
all countries, the ageing population is increasing, and the majority of the
elderly are women and mostly widows.
It is essential that Member States now
identify, count, and analyse the living conditions, needs, roles and hopes of
widows in their jurisdictions, in keeping with the principles of the BPFA, the CEDAW, and UN SCR 1325
and its successive resolutions.,
Strategies to achieve the MDGs (Millennium
Development Goals) post 2015 must cover the status of widows and their
children, since widowhood is a root cause of poverty across the generations.
Widows
are differentially and negatively treated in every one of the 12 action areas.
Paragraph 68 (a) should require that data be disaggregated to include “marital
status”, along with gender and age. Statistical indicators should assess the
rights and conditions of widows, including but not limited to, statistics
on land, property, credit, training, employment, social security, healthcare,
violent incidents, refugees, migrants, participation in negotiations, etc. New data should be collected to investigate
the status of widows in relevant areas in which data is currently uncollected.
A summary
of the issues specific to widows are listed under each of the 12 action areas
below.
Twelve
Action Areas - The Special Factors for Widows
1. Women and Poverty.
A. Widows experience a unique lack
of rights to inheritance, land and
property ownership, leading to abject poverty:
·
Widows in many
traditional communities are stripped of their belongings and evicted from their
homes by the husband’s male relatives upon his death.
·
Even in developed
countries, the dependence of elderly widows on state pensions often indicates
they live in relative poverty.
·
In developing
countries, there are few social security safety nets for widows at all. If a
pension scheme does exist, it is usually of little monetary value, and easy for
male relatives to exploit.
·
Eligibility
requirements for benefits often mean that only a minority of widows receive
these benefits, due to issues of bureaucracy, corruption, illiteracy, mobility and access for widows.
B. The poverty of widows extends and
expands to the lives and futures
of their children:
·
Widows often withdraw
their children from school, requiring their labour for the family to survive.
·
Many widows are forced
to marry off, or even to sell their girl
children as they cannot afford to keep them. These child brides are destined
for early widowhood.
·
A disproportionate
number of the children begging on the streets of developing countries are the
children of widows.
2. Education and Training.
Married when young, many widows are illiterate and untrained, and yet
they are
the sole supporters of their families.
·
The children of widows
are often withdrawn from school for their labour, with daughters most likely to
be withdrawn since their educational needs are so often undervalued.
·
The daughters of widows
are also likely to be withdrawn from school to enter forced early child
marriage with an older man, yielding another cycle of impoverished young
widowhood when that man dies.
3. Women and Health.
Research has shown the morbidity and mortality of widows is sharply
higher
than of married women of a similar age. Contributing factors are:
·
Traditional widowhood
rites which are often injurious and demeaning
·
Poverty, lack of
shelter or adequate nutrition, and exploitative labour
·
Sexual exploitation and
forced remarriage, both of which have implications relating to the spread of
HIV/AIDS
·
Poor access to medical
care, coupled with social shame, the stigma of AIDS, cost and distance as added
deterrents.
·
Minimal access to
reproductive facilities or the ability to exercise their rights over their own
fertility
·
In all countries many
widows, especially the elderly, suffer from depression due to isolation,
poverty, and neglect.
·
In conflict-afflicted
countries where sexual violence predominates, widows are often the first
targets of rape and sexual slavery, being without male protection, They
therefore suffer from multiple stigma, as widows, as rape victims and because
they are infected with the AIDS virus.
4. Violence Against Women.
Customary and religious laws in various countries may legitimise
physical, sexual
and psychological violence against widows. This violence is in effect
condoned by
States when they fail to address it.
·
Widespread and
systematic violence suffered by widows due to their status as widows must be
identified as such and Widows included in Paragraphs 113 &116.
·
Governments must ensure
that widows are protected from violence, including within countries which are
CEDAW members, despite that State's customary and religious laws.
·
Governments,
international organisations and NGOs must close the information gap by studying
the causes and consequences of violence against widows and take appropriate
measures to eradicate it.
·
In many countries
widows are coerced into mourning and burial rites which are degrading and
harmful. Often widows are demonised as
witches, and are targets for physical and psychological violence, even murder.
5. Women in Armed Conflict.
Widows are particularly vulnerable to human rights violations in
situations of
armed conflict, ethnic cleansing, military occupation and the
lawlessness that
is common in post-conflict countries.
·
Widows predominate
amongst IDPs and refugees, and are generally the last to be rehabilitated and
re-integrated into society when peace agreements come to fruition, since they
have nowhere to go and no land rights..
·
Long after conflicts
have ceased, widows continue to bear the brunt of the social, economic and
upheaval endemic in such societies.
·
Wives of the missing
are equally adversely affected, and are further unable to rebuild their lives
due to ambiguities as to their legal status.
·
Indicators for the
implementation of UNSCR 1325 must include gathering data on the effect of
widowhood in conflict-afflicted countries, and also ensuring the representation
of widows in the peace-building process.
6. Women and the Economy.
Customary traditions make it hard for widows to achieve economic independence
and parity. Contributing
factors include:
·
Lack of access to land,
finance and credit
·
Limitations on widows’
mobility
·
Lack of remuneration
for the work widows do as sole carers for their dependents
·
Governments must devise
economic policies that enable widows to contribute to the economy and fulfil
their family obligations at the same time.
7. Women in Power and Decision
Making.
Widows, due to their social isolation and low status, are often excluded
from both
the politics and positions of power.
·
Before all policy
decisions are made, an analysis of the potential policy's impact on widows of
all ages must be conducted.
·
Widows must be assisted
to take a meaningful role in decision-making at all levels, particularly with
regard to policies relating to the achievement of the MDGs; the Beijing
Platform for Action; and the implementation of all human rights and UN
conventions.
·
The international
community and Governments must support widows to organise their own
associations and represent their own interests.
·
Governments must ensure
that widows are included in all peace negotiation processes.
8. Institutional Mechanisms for
the Advancement of Women.
The lack of information regarding widows in nearly every
almost impossible for effective programs and policies to be developed
that will
achieve the international community's goals for women's progress.
·
Ministries for women
established in member States must be granted sufficient resources to conduct
research into the situation and numbers of widows and to collaborate with
widows' associations.
9. Human Rights of Women.
Widowhood must be incorporated into all policies and programmes for
women
and their human rights in the context of the CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for
Action and other human rights
conventions. Governments must:
·
Deal with Reservations
by CEDAW signatories via law
·
Educate all citizens
about human rights norms, and particularly ensure that widows are made aware of
their rights
·
Implement human rights
norms
·
Particularly ensure
that widows know their rights in situations of armed conflict
10. Women and the Media.
The media can play an important role in advancing the rights of widows
·
Alter social attitudes
towards widows by refraining from presenting widows in negative or sensational
ways and highlighting widows' contributions to society
·
Alert widows to their
rights
11. Women in the Environment.
In cases of migration and displacement due to environmental factors, it
is most
likely to be widows and their dependents who are left behind.
In addition, widows have essential roles to
play in ensuring sustainable and ecologically sound development as they may be
more open to new models and new methodologies as they build their lives
anew.
12. The Girl Child.
Daughters of widows are likely to suffer from numerous and multiple
disadvantages that disproportionately affect them as compared with all
girls,
these disadvantages being in contravention of
the principles enshrined in the
Convention on the Rights of
the Child:
·
Increased likelihood of
more severe poverty as a result of their mother’s low socio-economic and sole
head of household status
·
Increased likelihood of
withdrawal from school
·
Increased likelihood of
early marriage, entrapment by traffickers, and prostitution.
·
Governments must
collect data and information on the outcomes specific to children whose mothers
are widowed and child widows
·
Governments must
abolish laws and customs that are injurious to the girl child and
disproportionately to widows' daughters (such as child marriage and forced
remarriage).
Margaret Owen, Director, WPD, Widows for Peace through Democracy
Email: director.wpd@googlemail.com