THE WOMEN'S WATCH
Volume 11, No. 2
September 1997
AFGHAN APARTHEID
When the Taliban took over Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1996,
the international community was stunned by the severity of
the limitations immediately visited on women and girls in
the name of Islam and by the ferocity with which the Taliban
leaders defended those limitations. The international press
has graphically reported every new restriction and every transaction
in which the leaderships digs in its heels in the face of
question or criticism. As we read these accounts we are struck
not only by the extremity of the Taliban's views and practices,
but also by the extreme difficulty of making an impact on
a "government" that has so isolated itself ideologically and
operationally from the rest of the world.
Women always are at the center of the debate on religion,
custom, and human rights-if not participating in it, then
as its named or unnamed subject. Afghanistan has provided
us with examples of gender apartheid that would seem downright
silly if they were not so vicious: prohibiting women from
wearing white socks or making noise with their shoes in public
on grounds that these acts are sexually provocative; arresting
two French male aid workers who found themselves in the same
compound as a group of women having a gathering in another
part of the compound; eliminating women's access to even minimal
health care by segregating them to a decrepit, unequipped,
poorly staffed hospital; insisting that all aid to benefit
women be channeled through male blood relatives.
The issues represented by these examples are not new. What
is new is the opportunity to bring the debate to a very large
stage and insist that a country that takes pride in its discriminatory
policies not be allowed to participate in the world's most
important international forum. Just as South Africa was deemed
a pariah state for its apartheid policies and denied access
to the UN and other fora, the Taliban must be reminded continuously
and forcefully that a country that makes vicious, mindlessly
enforced sex discrimination a central element of its domestic
policies cannot be allowed to occupy a space in any international
forum.
None of the methods classically used by human rights groups
would seem to be suited to the Afghanistan situation. Campaigns,
organized letter-writing, documenting and publicizing specific
human rights abuses, and lobbying human rights bodies to pass
resolutions and name special rapporteurs, depend for their
success on governments' sensitivity to international public
opinion. The Taliban do not care.
When the United Nations Secretary General in October 1996
threatened withdawal of UN programs in Afghanistan if the
discrimination against women continued, the Taliban insisted
that they were willing to pay that price in order to defend
their version of Islam. Never before had the UN or its agencies
stated so clearly a commitment to operate in a nondiscriminatory
manner with respect to women. The Taliban were not impressed.
What does seem to impress this leadership is its continuing
inability to obtain credentials and take the Afghanistan seat
in the UN General Assembly. Only three countries have recognized
the Taliban government. Access to the UN would give the Taliban
legitimacy and a forum for making their case. They may not
care what the world thinks of them, but they desperately want
the opportunity to tell the world what they think of it.
Our role and our responsibility in this situation is to
monitor our governments' policies with respect to Afghanistan
and maintain pressure to withhold recognition of the Taliban
government in any forum, formal or informal, as long as the
Taliban authorities continue to withhold recognition of women's
human rights. The Afghan Women's Network, a group based in
Pakistan that includes exiled Afghan women and is in close
touch with events inside the country, suggests that we also
insist that foreign embassies in Kabul not be reopened unless
the local authorities accept women's rights to emploment outside
the home, to education, and to personal security.
IWRAW will continue to monitor developments in Afghanistan
and at the UN. Information on the attitudes and policies of
individual governments and NGO advocacy with respect to the
recognition issue would be extremely useful for all of us.
This is one issue on which having information about action
in particular countries can make a real difference in others.
Send information directly to IWRAW and to the Afghan Women's
Network, e-mail pam@collet.sknpk.undp.org (Pamela Collet).
HUMAN RIGHTS AND DISCRIMINATION - Convention Articles 2,
3 and 5
In June 1997,
an Egyptian court overturned ban on female genital mutilation
(FGM) in all state and private clinics. The ban on FGM
was imposed last year by the Health Minster's decree. In striking
down the Health Minister's ban, Judge Abdul Aziz Hamade said
that his ruling did not deal with the practice of FGM but
focused on the legality of the ban. According to him, the
ban was a restriction on a doctor's right to perform surgery,
and the restriction overstepped the authority of a ministerial
decree. Islamic leaders, who have repeatedly used the courts
as a weapon, celebrated the court's ruling. International
and national human rights organizations and activists urged
the Egyptian government to support the ban.
The new US
immigration law will have a disproportionate impact on women.
On April 1, 1997, the US Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) of 1996 went into effect. Under
the law, asylum applicants are required to submit their claims
within one year of arrival, and a system of "expedited removal"
is set up for those deemed ineligible to enter the US. The
strict time limit and lack of review will have a particular
impact on victims of gender-based violence, who usually need
significant time to heal before they can tell their stories
and hesitate to tell their stories for fear of being shunned
by family and community. The cumulative effects of the IIRAIRA
provisions may well be denial of protection to women and the
most brutalized immigrants.
VIOLENCE AGAINST
WOMEN - Convention Articles 3, 5, 6, 12, 15 and 16
An acid attack
is the kind of violence Bangladeshi women most dread.
Attackers are young men whose romantic advances are rejected,
or dowry-hungry husbands, according to Nasreen Huq, convenor
of a Dhaka-based feminist group that helps acid victims. The
Coordinating Council Human Rights Bangladesh (CCHRB) reported
89 acid attacks in 1996, and according to Huq, many more incidents
are not reported in the newspapers or brought to the notice
of the law. Though the death penalty was introduced for acid
attacks several years ago, implementation of the law has been
slow. Human rights workers say such cases are difficult to
prosecute because it is difficult to gather evidence and victims'
families are often threatened with retaliation.
The Supreme
Court of India has outlawed sexual harassment in the workplace.
In a ruling on a petition filed by women activists after a
social worker was gang-raped by her colleagues, the court
banned both direct and indirect "unwelcome physical, verbal
or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature", including physical
contacts, requests for sexual favors, suggestive remarks,
and showing of pornography. In the absence of legislation
prohibiting sexual harassment, the court outlined steps to
be taken to deal with it: appropriately advertise the definition
of sexual harassment, avoid retaliation for making claims,
and give victims the option to seek their own transfer or
that of the perpetrators. Complaints should be handed by a
committee headed by a woman, and half of the committee members
should be women as well. An employer is duty-bound to take
supportive and preventive action on behalf of female employees
even when sexual harassment comes from an outsider. However,
the court did not recommend punishment for offenders.
Sexual offense
charges will be brought against Rwandans who are facing trial
in a the UN Rwanda tribunal for alleged genocide and crimes
against humanity, prosecutor Louise Arbour said. Because
witnesses have remained silent, it is very difficult to determine
the scale of sexual violence committed during the 1994 massacres.
Arbour was cited after a seminar which was aimed at finding
the most effective way of prosecuting sexual violence in Rwanda
and former Yugoslavia at the international human rights courts.
The first monument
is erected in Japan for Korean women who were forced into
sexual slavery by the Japanese army in World War II. Funded
by public donations, the monument is covered with 5000 pieces
of porcelain baked by volunteers on Tokashiki Island where
it stands. Artist and fund-raiser Hamako Kitta hopes the monument
will help Japanese people remember history. She became involved
in the issue of sex slaves after she talked with a Korean
woman who was brought to work as a prostitute on Tokashiki
Island.
POLITICAL AND
PUBLIC LIFE - Convention Articles 7 and 8
Massumeh Ebtekar
has been named Iran's first female vice president. Ms.
Ebtekar will also serve as head of Iran's Environmental Protection
Organization, but the meaning of the appointment remains uncertain.
Newly elected President Mohammed Khatami benefited from the
votes of women and a younger generation that wanted to see
more openess in Iranian government and society. The appointment
reflects Khatami's debt to this sector of the electorate,
but the electorate has yet to see dramatic policy change.
The 36-year-old vice president received her education in the
US and earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry. She was formerly editor-in-chief
of Kayhan International, one of Iran's leading English newspapers.
She has headed several Iranian delegations to international
conferences, including the UN World Women's Conference in
Nairobi and Beijing.
France has
nearly doubled the number of women in Parliament. In the
June 1997 election, women won 62 seats, or 10.7 percent of
the 577-member National Assembly. The increase is partly attributable
to the Socialist Party policy of fielding women candidates
in 30 percent of all districts. In the previous parliament,
women had just 32 seats, amounting to 5.5 percent of the total,
the lowest proportion in the European Union. Socialist leader
Lionel Jospin was named prime minister and promised to have
more women in government, including the cabinet.
HEALTH AND REPRODUCTIVE
RIGHTS - Convention Articles 10, 12, 14 and 16
Discrimination
against people with AIDS puts a heavy burden on women in Tanzania.
As in many other African countries, women have a high infection
rate and face particular human rights abuses. One cause of
this infection rate is that Tanzanian men have traditionally
been encouraged to engage in extramarital and promiscuous
sex, exponentially spreading the virus. Human rights abuses
of those with HIV/AIDS are common in the form of inadequate
medical treatment, discrimination in property inheritance,
and mandatory HIV testing and disclosure of HIV status to
employers. Employment discrimination in both private and government
sectors is common. Without employment, a patient has neither
income to pay for medical treatment nor access to medical
insurance. Poverty and low social status give women no control
over the sexual behaviors of their male partners nor the option
to leave infected partners. Women patients are even more vulnerable
in the case of rape because the Evidence Act requires female
rape victims disclose their HIV status if they file a charge
against the perpetrators.
EMPLOYMENT - Convention
Article 11
Equal pay for
equal work is the No.1 goal of working women in the US, according
to a national survey by the American Federation of Labor and
Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). This poll
found that 94 percent of women think equal pay is very important
to them and over one-third believe they do not get it. The
depth of the concern surprised the AFL-CIO Working Women's
Department, which had expected that child care would come
up as the primary concern.
Japanese women
find their newly won right to work night shifts a bittersweet
victory. In a purported attempt to guarantee women equality
in the workplace, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law of
1987 was amended in 1997 to allow women work night shifts.
However, some working women are afraid the reform will enable
business to force them to overwork and experience the same
drudgery that men do. Women are concerned that refusal to
work night shifts and overtime, now that employers are allowed
to request these hours, will reflect poorly in their job assessment.
Meanwhile, some women workers look at the opportunity to work
night shifts more positively because men who have worked at
night are paid much more. Women's organizations worry that
companies will switch full-time women employees to part-time
status and force them to accept night shifts at reduced pay.
They criticize the reform as a political favor to big business
which are eager to further strengthen their competitiveness
on the Asian markets.
Major lenders
announced initiatives at the Microcredit Summit held February
2-4 in Washington, DC. The World Bank already had set
up a Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest with a $200
million microfinance fund in 1995. The UN Development Program
hoped to work with donor nations to expand its "MicroStart"
program. The Inter-American Development Bank would invest
$400 million in microfinance over five years. USAID allocated
$120 million each year for microcredit in 1996 and 1997. And
Hillary Rodham Clinton, the honorary co-chair, said the President's
current budget would include $1 billion to be spent over five
year on community development banking in the US. Forty commercial
bankers and lenders attended the Summit and many said they
would greatly expand their micro-loan services.
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
LAW - Convention Articles 10, 12, 14 and 16
A married daughter's
right to inherit is upheld by the Bombay High Court. Allowing
an appeal filed by Ms. Usharani Narayan Haldankar against
a trial court order, the judges held that the married daughter
has a right to inherit her father's property even if she has
severed her status from her parents' joint Hindu family. The
lower court had held that the woman had no right to inherit
her father's property since there was a status of severance
upon her marriage. According to the High Court decision, under
the Hindu Succession Act, residence in the matrimonial home
does not prohibit a daughter's claim to inherit her father's
property.
The Japanese
Ministry of Education disapproves textbooks that advocate
alternative family values. In Japan, all textbooks for
elementary, junior high and high schools must be screened
and approved by the Ministry of Education every four years.
This year, four home economics textbooks did not pass the
screening. All four were found "inappropriate" because they
emphasize diversity in family structure and values, individual
growth, ecological concerns and human rights issues. The "inappropriate"
descriptions include a paragraph saying: "Home economics education
in the past was intended only for girls who studied how a
family should be. Today's students have come to appreciate
life as human individuals." Ecological concerns were picked
up for exceeding the scope of home economics. Advocates for
coeducation in home economics are lodging a protest with the
Ministry.
CEDAW SEVENTEENTH
SESSION
The July 1997
CEDAW session marks the first time that the Committee met
for a second annual session, following the General Assembly's
approval of the CEDAW Committee request to meet in two three-week
sessions each year.
The seventeenth
session saw a further development of the CEDAW's relationship
with NGOs. Committee members met with NGO representatives
in two informal meetings during lunch breaks and invited them
to provide information pertaining to countries under review.
Representatives of Armenian, Argentine, Australian, Israeli,
and Palestinian NGOs took advantage of this opportunity to
indicate areas of concern that were not reflected in official
governments' reports. Similar meetings will be organized during
the upcoming session in January 1998.
The Committee
reviewed reports of Namibia, Armenia, Luxembourg, Israel,
Italy, Argentina, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, and Bangladesh
and adopted draft concluding comments and recommendations
at the end of the session. The concluding comments and recommendations
are the most important communication from the Committee to
the States Parties. The unedited version of the document is
sent directly to States Parties as soon as possible after
the close of a session. The edited concluding comments will
be included in the official report of the session which will
most likely be available from the UN sometime after December
1997.
Neither the Committee
nor the UN Division for the Advancement of Women can facilitate
circulation of the concluding comments beyond the government.
Unless a government takes the initiative to publicize CEDAW's
comments, it is up to national level NGOs to obtain this document
and to make sure it is distributed. For this reason, IWRAW
sends the unedited concluding comments after a session to
all the NGOs on its database from the reviewed countries.
IWRAW will also furnish copies of this document upon request.
Optional Protocol.
CEDAW has been monitoring the progress of the drafting of
the Optional Protocol to the CEDAW Convention that will provide
a procedure for individual complaints to be brought before
the Committee. The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
convened an Open-ended Working Group in March 1997 to work
on the draft. Ms. Silvia Cartwright participated in the meetings
as the CEDAW resource person. The Working Group completed
the first reading of the draft, agreed to the text of some
articles and incorporated several revisions into the document.
The Working Group will convene again at the 42d CSW session
(March 2 - 13 1998). For a detailed account of the status
of the draft, see the June 1997 issue of Women's Watch.
Reports to
be considered by CEDAW in 1998 and 1999. The following
countries have been scheduled for review in the next three
sessions:
Eighteenth Session
19 January - 6 February 1998. Initial Reports: Azerbaijan,
Belize, Croatia, Zimbabwe, Czech Republic (reserve list);
Second Periodic Reports: Bulgaria, Dominican Republic, Equatorial
Guinea, Indonesia; Third Periodic Reports: Mexico
Nineteenth Session
July 1998. Initial Reports: Czech Republic; Second Periodic
Reports: Germany, Greece (reserve list); Panama, United Republic
of Tanzania; Third Periodic Reports: China, Belarus, Kenya,
United Kingdom; Fourth Periodic Report: Peru
Twentieth Session
January 1999. Second Periodic Reports: Greece, Nigeria, Thailand;
Third Periodic Reports: Austria, Egypt, Finland, Spain, Sweden
(reserve list).
Please note
that the schedules frequently change and States Parties often
ask for postponements. For the eighteenth session, if
any scheduled countries decline or do not reply by the end
of October 1997, the country on the reserve list will be asked
to present its report in January 1998. For this reason, it
is advisable for interested NGOs to begin preparing alternative
reports as soon as possible, even if their countries are currently
on the reserve list.
IWRAW strongly
urges women's groups in the above countries either to produce
a national "shadow" report or to submit information through
IWRAW, or both. Reports sent by a coalition of organizations
tend to be more persuasive than one submitted to the CEDAW
Committee by a single group.
IWRAW submits
independent reports to all of the CEDAW members, as well as
to the country rapporteurs, at least one month prior to each
session. These reports include information from individuals
and groups as well as summaries, whenever possible, of national
NGO reports. Please contact IWRAW with any questions concerning
the reporting and review process, or with contributions of
information for the CEDAW Committee. IWRAW will begin in January
1998 to prepare reports on countries scheduled to be reviewed
at the July 1998 session. The deadline to submit information
to be included in the IWRAW to CEDAW Country Reports is May
1, 1998.
Country Rapporteurs.
The country rapporteurs are responsible for briefing the Committee
in a closed session prior to the first meeting when a country
is discussed and for preparing the concluding comments on
that country. The rapporteur is responsible for providing
the Committee with additional information, not merely summarizing
government report.
New States
Parties to the Convention. As of September 1997, 161 countries
have ratified the CEDAW Convention. The newest States Parties
are Andorra, Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon, Mozambique, Switzerland,
and Turkmenistan.
Women, Children
and Human Rights: Challenges and Opportunities in the CEDAW
Convention and the Convention on the Rights of the Child
An IWRAW Consultation,
Saturday January 24, 1997
Le Parker Meridien Hotel, New York
There will be a charge for this program. Information: Valerie
Zamberletti, IWRAW.
See contact information
on back page, or E-mail: vzamberletti@hhh.umn.edu
RESOURCES
The Sixth Women's
Global Leadership Institute will be held June 14-27, 1998
around the theme "Building a Culture of Human Rights." Contact:
Institute Coordinator, Center for Women's Global Leadership,
Douglass College, Rutgers University, 27 Clifton Avenue, New
Brunswick, NJ 08903, USA. Tel: (1-732) 932-8782; Fax: (1-732)
932-1180. Email: cwgl@igc.apc.org (subject: WGLI'98).
The UN and
Refugee's Human Rights: a Manual on How UN Human Rights Mechanisms
Can Protect the Rights of Refugees is available from Amnesty
International and International Service for Human Rights.
Contact: Amnesty International, 1 Easton Street, London WC1X
8DJ, UK, or International Service for Human Rights, 1 rue
de Varembé, P.O. Box 16, 1211 Geneva 20 ch, Switzerland.
The Women for
Women's Human Rights is an autonomous action-research
project aiming to document and disseminate information on
women's human rights in Turkey. Some of its publications are
available in English, including Women's Movements in Turkey:
A Brief Overview; The Legal Status of Women in Turkey; Domestic
Violence and Family Life: Experiences of Turkish Immigrant
Women in Germany. Contact the project at Plajyolu Sok. 12/9
Camlidag Apt. Suadiye 81070 Istanbul, Turkey. Tel: 90-216-357-21-42;
Fax/Tel: 90-216-385-12-62. Email: WRP-IST@Fenestra.comlink.de,
KIHP@info-ist.comlink.de.
The International
Lesbian Information Service (ILIS) is an international
network dedicated to fostering lesbian organizing. Its newsletter
contains news from Poland, India, Australia and elsewhere
around the world. Contact: ILIS, c/o COC, Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal
68-70, 1012 SE Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Tel: +31 (0)20
623 1192. Fax: +31 (0)20 626 7795.
The European
Public Affairs Directory 1997 features contact information
for 7500 decision makers in EU institutions, corporations,
diplomatic corps, trade and special interest groups, law firms,
consultancies and the media. Available from Landmarks Square
Marie-Louise 49, B-1000 Brussels. Fax: (32-2) 280-6056. (Source:
CREW Reports, v.17, n.3/4, 1997)
Arab Women
Speak Out: An Empowering Self-Portrayal is a documentary,
training and advocacy project designed to promote women's
empowerment and engagement in social development throughout
the Neat East Region. The Project features a documentary video
profiling women from several Arab countries who have become
agents of social change within their countries, together with
a discussion guide, training module and case publication.
Contact: Dr. Carol Underwood or Bushra Jabre or Lawren Goodsmith,
Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs,
111 market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Tel:
(410) 659-6300; Fax: (410) 659-6266. OR Faiza Ben Hadid, Center
of Arab Women for Training and Research, 44, Rue de Pologne
- 1005 El Omrane, Tunis, Tunisia. Tel: 571-945 or (216-1)
571-867. Fax: (216-1) 574-627.
Equal Opportunities
for Women and men in the European Union 1996 is the first
report covering Community policies on equal opportunities
as a whole. Copies of the report, available in the 11 Community
official languages, can be obtained from ANIMA, technical
assistance office of the Medium-Term Community Program for
Equal Opportunities (61 rue de spa in 1000 Brussels. Tel:
32-2-230-90-31; Fax: 32-2-230-75-11).
WOMEN'S WATCH
subscriptions policy. Women's Watch is sent free to groups
and individuals in developing countries and on an exchange
basis with libraries and documentation centers. Subscriptions
are US$25 per year payable in US dollars only or an international
money order. Subscriptions are renewable as of January 1 of
each year. Checks in US dollars on a US bank should be made
payable to: IWRAW, Humphrey Institute. Other subscription
points: In Great Britain and continental Europe, send subscriptions
in pounds or Eurodollars to: Marianne Haslegrave, Commonwealth
Medical Assn., BMA House, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JP,
UK. In Australia: Hilary Charlesworth, Department of International
and Public Law, ANU, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia. In Canada,
Susan Bazilli, METRAC, 158 Spadina Road, Toronto, Ontario
M5R 2T8. In Japan, Japanese Ass'n of International Women's
Rights, Bunkyo Women's 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. Editor: Marsha
Freeman. This issue was written with the help of Kasia Polanska,
Research Fellow, and Liu Dongxiao, IWRAW Cram-Dalton Fellow.
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 161 countries.
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 other individuals and foundations for financial support.
Contributions to the project are welcome and are tax deductible
for US taxpayers.