THE WOMEN'S WATCH
Volume 10, No. 2
September 1996
WORDS AND ACTIONS POST-BEIJING
One year post-Beijing, and throughout the world NGOs and
governments are marking the date with conferences and celebrations-in
a recent Global Faxnet, the International Women's Tribune
Center lists activities in nine countries and regions from
among the many we have heard about. In the US, on September
28, an elaborate 90-minute satellite broadcast of Administration
officials reporting on plans to implement the Platform for
Action served as the centerpiece for community-level workshops
and meetings all over the country.
All of us who were at Beijing know that implementation of
the Platform for Action will take more than one year, and
perhaps in some countries, more than one year of planning.
Translation of the Platform into national languages, dissemination
and development of programs to use it, can in themselves take
a year. In the US, the outline of the national plan of action
was not available until June 1996. Women's human rights NGOs
monitored development of the national plan and through strategic
action succeeded in shaping it to include reference to women's
human rights as a basic element, a point that had been lost
in the months since Beijing.
The US plan also includes a specific commitment to ratify
the Women's Convention. Upon Switzerland's ratification in
September 1996, the US became the only industrialized country
in the world that has not ratified. In August 1996 US NGOs
held a meeting in Washington to launch a new strategy for
ratification, targeted at development of constituencies that
can put community-based pressures on the process. Under the
US Constitution, a treaty can be ratified only by a two-thirds
vote of the Senate. With the Republican party controlling
the Senate, it is highly unlikely that the US will ratify
unless those senators hear from many constituents that the
Convention is important to them. The August meeting brought
together representatives of NGOs from all sectors-grass-roots
groups, women law students, professional organizations. All
agreed to return to their organizations with renewed commitment
and new information on the potential of the Convention in
the US and to develop new plans for moving ratification forward
in the US. As part of this effort, advocates need to know
how the Convention has been used in other countries. The IWRAW
project offered to provide basic information on uses of the
Convention around the world to advance women's status.
As a communications and resource center the IWRAW project
is continually asked to provide examples of how the Convention
has been used successfully, in any country, to promote women's
human rights. Particularly with respect to Beijing followup,
it is critically important for all of us to keep each other
informed about how much attention our governments are paying
to the Convention and how we are drawing their attention to
it as a commitment made at the Fourth World Conference.
Please send us accounts of your country's responses to Beijing
and especially your experiences in using the Convention to
reinforce the promises of Beijing. The IWRAW project will
publish this information in Women's Watch. A continuing account
of action and successes will help us all-long after the celebrations
and the conferences are over-to maintain the best of Beijing.
HUMAN RIGHTS - Convention Articles 1, 2, 5
Standard assumptions
as to who is benefited by emergency relief work were challenged
in a recent Oxfam UK gender workshop for overseas staff.
The discussion revealed that women's welfare generally would
be ignored or even negatively affected unless the following
assumptions are challenged: (1) that working with community
groups reaches the most vulnerable (such groups frequently
exclude or fail to reach the most vulnerable, including women
and elderly); (2) that consultation with management in partner
organizations is a gender sensitive process (not unless the
workers at lower or community levels, which is where the women
are, are consulted); (3) that programs to strengthen the community
automatically reach women (not without direct effort!!). Information:
Oxfam UK, 274 Banbury Road, Oxford7D2 UK. Tel: 44 1856 312
363; fax: 44 1856 312 600.
The South African
Truth and Reconciliation Commission has agreed to hold special
hearings on violations of women's human rights by members
of both the South African security forces and the liberation
forces during the period March 1960-December 1993. The
TRC accepted in full the recommendations of a recent workshop
on Gender and the Truth Commission, including holding at least
one hearing in each region focusing solely on women; encouraging
women to speak out; negotiating with witnesses whether they
wish to be heard by women-only panels; training commissioners
on gender-related issues; and holding preparatory workshops,
especially for rural women. Information: Washington Office
on Africa, e-mail: vlf@igc.apc.org
Human rights
groups are concerned about the fate of Afghan women inside
and outside Afghanistan upon the takeover by the fundamentalist
Taliban forces in late September. When the Taliban took
over Herat in September 1995, girls were excluded from school;
when Jalalabad fell in September 1996 they declared that women
and girls would not be able to attend school. Women have not
been allowed to work outside the home, and are required to
cover themselves head to foot. These restrictions are not
only basic human rights violations but as a practical matter
will keep women from caring for themselves and their families,
particularly if they are not attached to a male family member.
Many of the Afghan women in refugee camps in Pakistan (which
supports the Taliban) are widows or sole supporters of their
families, and some have spoken out concerning human rights
issues. They will have particular difficulty under the new
regime if forced to return to Afghanistan. Further information:
Afghan Women's Network, fax 92 51 279 252; email: pam@collet.sdnpk.undp.org
VIOLENCE AGAINST
WOMEN - Convention Articles 3, 5, 6, 12, 15 and 16
The damage
done to women by female genital mutilation and the pervasiveness
of the practice in certain parts of the world have been thoroughly
documented. Not a week goes by that the IWRAW mailbox
does not contain material on FGM. Now in addition to the accounts
and the statistics, some hopeful notes have been sounded.
On June 13,
1996, Fauziya Kassindja, a young woman from Togo who fled
her country when her aunt attempted to force her to undergo
FGM in preparation for an arranged marriage was granted asylum
by the US Board of Immigration Appeals. The decision (not
available when the case was described in the June Women's
Watch) noted that FGM constitutes persecution, and that a
woman who resists FGM has the requisite "well-founded fear
of persecution" on grounds of which asylum is granted. The
decision also noted that most African women can expect little
government protection from FGM, a point that is significant
in establishing an asylum claim.
According to the
New York Times (September 11, 1996), Kassindja's escape was
arranged by her mother, who gave her most of an inheritance
to leave the country. The mother then left the country, returning
when another daughter told her it was safe, and formally apologized
to the family patriarch, Fauziya's uncle. While the apology
ritual would seem to reconfirm the tradition that Kassindja
fled, the uncle told the Times that a family council had gathered
in late August, including relatives from several countries,
and the uncle had proposed that women be given a choice to
be "cut" or that the practice be abolished altogether so that
the girls would not run away. The gathering dissolved into
a shouting match, and the village chief intervened, insisting
that this is a matter for community decision. The chief declared
that a village meeting would be held in October to discuss
it. Meanwhile, Kassindja has become a student in the US and
plans to use money from a book contract to buy her mother
the large market stall she has always wanted.
Another challenge
to the FGM tradition, which did not make international headlines
but could be extremely effective, is described in the UNICEF
1996 annual report. In a village in Somalia-a country
in which FGM is almost universal-the practice has been replaced
by a ritual that does not damage the girls. This dramatic
shift in custom came about when a Somali nurse, herself a
devout Muslim, convinced the strictly fundamentalist local
religious authority that FGM is not required by the text of
the Quran. The word was spread from the mosque and through
the schools, health facilities and public meetings. The annual
report is available from UNICEF, 3 UN Plaza, New York NY 10017.
A US law that
gives physically abused women the right to sue their attackers
is now being tested in the courts. Christy Brzonkala,
a student at Virginia Polytechnic & State University,
sued the university for denial of her civil rights under the
1994 Violence Against Women Act, after the university reinstated
a football player that it had suspended on the basis of her
rape complaint. Brzonkala had brought the charges against
two players; the charge against one was dismissed when the
player produced an alibi. A Virginia trial court dismissed
the suit on constitutional grounds, and Brzonkala has appealed.
In a similar case brought in Connecticut, another federal
judge upheld the law's constitutionality. With additional
cases likely to generate additional conflicting decisions,
the law will ultimately be tested in the Supreme Court.
EDUCATION - Convention
Article 10
In an historic
Constitutional case, the US Supreme Court has ruled that the
Virginia Military Institute, a males-only military college
operated by the State of Virginia, must admit women to its
program. In a 7-1 decision (Justice Clarence Thomas did
not participate because his son attends VMI), the Court held
that the State of Virginia failed to establish that the discriminatory
admission policy served an "important government objective."
The Court also concluded that establishment of a program for
women, the Virginia Women's Leadership Institute, housed at
a private college, did not provide a comparable education,
because it lacked the military discipline, course offerings,
range of sports facilities, alumni network, and prestige degree
offered by VMI. Early in the fall term VMI announced that
women entering the class would have to have their heads shaved,
just as the men do.
High schools
in South Korea are for the first time in history admitting
girls on an equal basis with boys. When Kim Juheen was
denied high school entrance despite holding an entrance exam
score that was higher than that of some boys who were admitted,
her mother protested, and the President intervened to insist
that girls be admitted on an equal basis with boys. Some negative
reaction is reported among girls who seem to prefer the status
of knowing that their entrance scores had to be higher than
that of the boys. The increased presence of girls and changes
in curriculum are expected to have a long-term effect on Korean
society, which has remained one of the world's most discriminatory.
Only 1.9% of Korean civil servants are women, and even the
best-educated women face enormous barriers to developing careers.
A regulation
requiring pregnant girls to leave college for a year was overturned
by a court in Botswana. The Molepole College of Education
had required that pregnant students inform the Dean and leave
school not more than three months after conception. The High
Court found that the regulation violated constitutional guarantees
of fundamental rights and protection against discrimination.
The court found that the real purpose of the regulation was
not to provide a maternity leave-which would have been voluntary-but
to punish unmarried students. This case is significant particularly
because the practice of forcing pregnant girls-but not the
fathers-to leave school is still widespread.
EMPLOYMENT - Convention
Article 11
The first major
case on sexual harassment in Korea is now on appeal to the
Korean Supreme Court. In 1994, a teaching assistant, Ms.
Woo, brought the case against a professor, Shin, in the Seoul
National University Department of Chemistry. After resisting
his attempts to touch her and suggestive invitations, the
teaching assistant was fired for "insincerity toward duty."
The trial court ordered the professor to pay Woo 30,000,000
Won (US$37,000). On appeal, the verdict was reversed, with
the court inventing the term "sexual bothering" to describe
the professor's actions. Support for Ms. Woo has been organized
by a "Citizen Solidarity Against Sexual Harassment" consisting
of the "Joint Committee for Countermeasures" based at the
University as well as other groups. Information: Korea Women's
Hot Line, 38-84 Jangchung-Dong, 1Ga, Jung-Ku, Seoul 100-391,
Korea. Tel. (02) 269-2962/4; Fax (02) 269-2966; e-mail: kwhl@chollian.dacom.co.
A new report
from Human Rights Watch Women's Rights Project concludes that
the highly discriminatory practice of screening women for
pregnancy as a condition of employment is prevalent throughout
Mexico's maquiladoras (export-processing zone factories).
According to No Guarantees: Sex Discrimination in Mexico's
Maquiladora Sector, the Mexican government has failed to protect
women whose employment is threatened when they become pregnant.
The government also, according to this report, fails to condemn
by law or practice the use of urine tests and invasive questioning
about contraception as part of the hiring process. Approximately
90% of the factories are owned by US-based corporations. Human
Rights Watch urges the Mexican government to take action to
live up to its obligations under the Women's Convention, ILO
treaties, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights. It also urges the US government to press Mexico to
meet nondiscrimination obligations under NAFTA, and US companies
to end the discriminatory practices. Report available from
Human Rights Watch, 485 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10017; Tel
(212) 972-8400; fax (212) 972-0905; e-mail hrwnyc@hrw.org.
Six female
officers recently were promoted to the rank of general in
the Thai military services. According to the Nation, a
Thai newspaper, the six serve in nursing or finance units
of the Army, Navy, Supreme Command Headquarters, and Defense
Permanent Secretary. However, an Army general in command of
the military academy has indicated that he does not favor
enrollment of female cadets. Unless orders to admit women
come from his superiors, the academy is unlikely to produce
more female candidates for general.
A Congressional
commission has determined that the US Family and Medical Leave
Act, which provides for unpaid leave for employees' own medical
care and to care for children, parents, and spouses, has been
an unmitigated success. In the first 18 months of the
law's application, twenty-five percent of the employees who
took leave did so for the birth, adoption, or serious illness
of a child and ten percent for the serious illness of parents
or spouses (the remainder took medical leave for themselves).
Between 89% and 98% of businesses stated that the leave resulted
in little or no extra costs, and many reported major benefits
such as increased productivity and workers' willingness to
make extra efforts on the job. While these results would not
be news in most other countries, in the US they are remarkable
because the FMLA had been intensely opposed by conservative
legislators and business lobbyists claiming that it would
hurt business and reduce women's employment prospects. It
now remains to enlarge the scope of the law to cover employees
of small business (current law covers only employers of over
fifty workers) and to provide for some level of income replacement.
WOMEN AND PUBLIC
LIFE - Convention Articles 7&8
With United
Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's announcement
that he would run for a second term, despite his initial declaration
that he would be a one-term SG, member states have been taking
strong political positions on the election. Most parties
to the debate have ignored one of the most significant factors
in this election: the availability of at least six female
candidates who are well qualified to be Secretary General.
The Fourth World Conference on Women stated clearly that lack
of women at the highest UN decision-making levels would make
the goal of equality unachievable. Equality Now has circulated
a call for action urging women to contact their United Nations
missions indicating the importance of electing a qualified
woman to the post, and suggesting six candidates: Gro Harlem
Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway; Frene Ginwala, Speaker
of Parliament, South Africa; Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner
for Refugees; Navanethem Pillay, UN International Tribunal
on Rwanda; Mary Robinson, President of Ireland; and Leticia
Shahani, President of the Senate, Philippines. Any UN mission
can be contacted by writing to that country's Mission to the
United Nations, New York, NY. Further information: Equality
Now, P.O. Box 20646, Columbus Circle Station, New York 10023
USA
The only independent
member of the Zimbabwe Parliament, Margaret Dongo, is a former
guerrilla and protege of the late Sally Mugabwe, wife of Zimbabwe's
president. Having suffered the special hardships of women
in the liberation forces, Dongo was a prominent party member
and MP until she was thrown out of the party for openly criticizing
its policies. The party did not nominate her for reelection
to Parliament in 1995, so she ran as an independent, lost
the election, then won in a new election held after she proved
in court that the first election had been rigged. Today Dongo
speaks in Parliament and outside it, for all who oppose President
Mugabe but dare not voice dissent.
Women lost
ground in the Israeli elections held in June, reflecting the
overall conservative shift of the electorate. Only nine
women were elected to the Knesset (down from 12 in the prior
session); six of them are in opposition parties, further reducing
their influence. One of the candidates who failed to be elected
is Nadia Hilou (Labor Party), who had been expected to be
the first Arab woman elected to the Knesset. The Cabinet includes
only one woman out of 18 ministers, Likud star Limor Livnat,
Minister of Communications. An analysis of campaign communications
by two experts reveals that only 17% of the people who appeared
in campaign telecasts were women, and most of them were either
anonymous or celebrities, rather than identifiable as political
leaders. Most references to women's issues pertained only
to violence against women, and issues of peace and of state
and religion were never mentioned as concerning women. Information:
Israel Women's Network, POB 3171, Jerusalem 91031; tel (02)-439966;
fax (02) 435976; e-mail iwn@netvision.net.il.
Global Exchange
has launched a program to establish relationships between
women throughout the Western Hemisphere focusing on "healing
the conflict between the US and Cuba." This "Sister to
Sister" program proposes to organize delegations of women
to travel to Cuba and to invite Cuban women to the US, as
well as to establish cultural exchanges between women in the
two countries. Further information: Global Exchange, 2017
Mission Street #303, San Francisco CA 94110 USA. Tel. (415)
255-7296; Fax (415) 255-7498; e-mail: globalexch@igc.org.
Immediately
upon taking office in early June, the new coalition government
of India promised to review all laws to remove discrimination
against women. According to the New York Times (June 6,
1996), in appealing to women the new Prime Minister would
hope to maintain support among one of the groups that traditionally
supported the Congress party. India ratified the Women's Convention
in 1993 but has not undertaken a formal review of its laws
in light of Convention obligations.
A Women's Budget
Initiative has been formed in South Africa to produce a gender
analysis of every spending sector, indicating the questions
to be asked and the priorities to be considered in designing
a budget that will promote South Africa's transformation into
a truly egalitarian state. According to ANC Member of
Parliament Pregs Govender, the Initiative is designed to provide
NGOs, public servants, politicians and analysts with information
to support effective action for change. Govender indicated
that the analysis should include questions about delivery
of services, access to services, relationships between government
and private action to meet women's needs, burdens placed on
women by deciding that "communities" rather than government
will provide certain services, impact of policies specifically
on poor women and women working in traditionally women-dominated
sectors, and the importance of including gender as well as
race considerations in affirmative action policies. The Initiative
is a joint project of the Parliament's Joint Standing Committee
on Finance, Idasa's Budget Information Service, the Community
Agency for Social Enquiry, and the law, Race and Gender Research
Unit. Information: Women's Health Project, Centre for Health
Policy, PO Box 1038, Johannesburg 200. Tel. (011) 489-9917;
Fax (011) 489-9922.
HEALTH AND REPRODUCTIVE
RIGHTS - Convention Articles 10, 12, 14, 16
Habitat II,
the UN Conference on Human Settlements, held in Istanbul in
June 1996, has reconfirmed the international consensus in
support of affordable, accessible health care for all women.
The Conference Global Plan of Action refers specifically to
the language adopted at ICPD with respect to primary and reproductive
health care. It also reiterates the Beijing declaration, "While
the significance of national and regional particularities
and various historical, cultural, and religious backgrounds
must be borne in mind, it is the duty of all States to promote
and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms." According
to a number of sources, NGOs were instrumental in retaining
language in the Global Plan that supports the progress made
in the prior world conferences.
Three South
African provinces have undertaken a Reproductive Health Transformation
Project, putting into effect many of the recommendations of
the Fourth World Conference on Women and ICPD. The projects
are using a bottom-up approach to planning and establishing
health care systems that respond to user needs. Health care
workers are being asked to assess the functionality of their
clinics and to suggest changes. Service delivery is being
analyzed in light of women's needs. Service transformation
was planned at workshops held in June, and the next twelve
months are devoted to implementation. The projects are funded
in two provinces by the UN Population Fund and in the third
by the UK's Overseas Development Agency. Information: Women's
Health Project, PO Box 1038, Johannesburg 2000 SA. Tel (011)
489-9917; Fax (011) 489-9922.
The International
Planned Parenthood Federation has issued a Charter on Sexual
and Reproductive Rights, grounded in basic human rights documents
and the results of the World Conference on Human Rights, ICPD,
the Social Summit, and the Fourth World Conference on Women.
The Charter identifies twelve rights that are essential to
the implementation of human rights based family planning programs.
With the adoption of the Charter, IPPF emphasizes that sexual
and reproductive rights have basic human rights foundations
and provides member organizations and states with a set of
standards by which to measure the human rights impact of their
programs. For copies of the Charter and further information:
IPPF, Regent's College, Inner Circle, Park, London NW1 4NS.
A new UNICEF
publication, The Progress of Nations 1996, reports that approximately
585,000 women die each year in pregnancy and childbirth.
While these figures may not be shocking to experts familiar
with the status of women and their access to health services
throughout the world, the number is 20% higher than even the
experts had thought. Approximately 75,000 deaths are from
botched abortions. The study cites lack of trained personnel
to treat prenatal women as a primary factor in these largely
preventable deaths.
On a more positive
note, The Progress of Nations also includes a brief listing
of some of the educational initiatives in developing countries
that are designed to give girls better access to schooling
and, ultimately, raise the status of women so that their needs
are more likely to be met. In the 35,000 community schools
started by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, 70%
of the 982,000 students are girls. In rural southern Egypt,
local community schools are being built to cut down the travel
distance so girls can get to school; 70-80% of the 3000 children
enrolled to date are girls. In Nepal, approximately 70,000
girls who have dropped out of school have enrolled in nonformal
classes designed to help them reenter, and the government
is offering small subsidies to encourage families to keep
their girls in school. And in Mali and Burkina Faso, village
schools have been established with mandatory male-female enrollment
parity. The full report is available from UNICEF, 3 United
Nations Plaza, NY NY 10017 USA.
Women in Japan
have reacted fiercely to the passage of a revised abortion
law without any consultation with those affected-the women.
The revised law provides for abortion only under conditions
of endangerment to women's health for physical or economic
reasons and requires authorization by a physician or, in some
cases, spousal consent. Moreover, the criminal law still applies
to abortion, making for a confusing situation that limits
women's reproductive rights. In addition to having been passed
quickly and without national discussion, the revision addressed
neither the restrictiveness nor the confusion of Japanese
law. The Japanese government also has postponed approval of
low-dose contraceptive pills, despite indications in late
1995 that the pill would become available for distribution
in early 1996. Japan remains the only industrialized nation
in the world that does not allow use of the pill for contraception.
Information: Japanese Organization for Int'l Cooperation in
Family Planning, 1-1, Ichigaya Sadohara-cho, Shinjuku0ku,
Tokyo 162 Japan. Tel 81 3 3268 5875; fax 81 3 3235 7090.
RESOURCES
A guide for
a six-session workshop program designed to inspire creative
thinking about implementing the Platform for Action has been
published by the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.
The sixth session is on developing one's own action plan.
Gender Justice: Women's Rights Are Human Rights is available
for US$15 from: UUSC, 130 Prospect Street, Cambridge MA 01239-1845
USA.
The International
Women's Tribune Center's Postview '95 (No. 6, April 96) contains
a "scoreboard" for tracking commitments made by governments
at the Fourth World Conference. In an easy-to-read format
it includes the commitments made by each country, as well
as information and suggestions on NGO activity to hold governments
accountable. From: IWTC, 777 UN Plaza, New York NY 10017 USA.
Tel: (1-212) 687 8633; Fax (1-212) 661-2704; e-mail: iwtc@igc.apc.org.
Essential United
Nations human rights materials are now available on a World
Wide Web site. The site, the Minnesota Human Rights Library,
is updated regularly to include proceedings of the Human Rights
Commission, the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination
and Protection of Minorities, and the human rights treaty
bodies, including CEDAW. Address: http://hrlibrary.law.umn.edu
or http://heiwww.unige.ch/humanrts/.
WOMEN'S WATCH
subscriptions policy. Women's Watch is sent free to groups
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to: Hilary Charlesworth, Centre for International and Public
Law, ANU, Canberra ACT, Australia. In Canada, Susan Bazilli,
METRAC, 158 Spadina Road, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2T8. In Japan,
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College, 1196 Kamekubo, Ohi-machi, Iruma, Saitama 354 Japan.
WOMEN'S WATCH
is published by the IWRAW project, Humphrey Institute of Public
Affairs at the University of Minnesota, USA. Editors: Marsha
Freeman and Sharon Ladin. IWRAW is a global network of individuals
and organizations that monitors implementation of the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women, an international treaty ratified by 155 countries as
of September 1996.
The University
of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
The Humphrey Institute is hospitable to a diversity of opinions
and aspirations. The Institute does not itself take positions
on public policy issues. The contents of this report are the
responsibility of the editors. IWRAW is grateful to the Ford
Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
the Carnegie Corporation, Shaler Adams Foundation, SIDA and
numerous individuals for financial support. Contributions
to the project are welcomed and are tax deductible for US
citizens.