THE WOMEN'S WATCH
Vol.12 Nos. 3/4;
Vol. 13 No.1
September 1999
TWO STEPS BACK:
Customary Law and the Zimbabwe Constitution
More than fifteen
years ago, Zimbabwe became a beacon unto the world by passing
a law that eliminated women's minority status under its multiple
legal systems. The Legal Age of Majority Act (LAMA), adopted
in 1982 shortly after independence, provided that all Zimbabweans-female,
male, African, white-attain full adult status at the age of
eighteen, "for all purposes, including customary law."
A product of the independence revolution, LAMA was in itself
revolutionary in addressing the central issue of women's disadvantage
under African customary law: their total lack of capacity
to act as legally recognized adults, capable of owning property,
entering into contracts, and making legally enforceable decisions
without male consent. In reporting to the UN Committee on
the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in 1998, Zimbabwe
proudly cited LAMA and was in turn congratulated by the Committee
for having adopted it.
In 1999, the beacon
was extinguished when the Zimbabwe Supreme Court ruled that
the Legal Age of Majority Act does not in fact provide for
women to be treated as adults under customary law. Ruling
in an inheritance case, the Court overruled prior cases confirming
women's rights to inherit under customary law, and indicated
that cases allowing women to sue in their own right for seduction
damages, consent to marriage on their own, and inherit property,
were wrongly decided. The Court underscored the injustices
suffered by women under customary law, stating that the inequities
are justified by the patriarchal nature of the society and
the necessity of maintaining a patrilineal tradition. The
Court indicated unanimously that such injustice was not remedied
by LAMA and is protected by the Constitution.
The facts of the
case are fairly simple, but the Court's argument supporting
the decision is convoluted. Venia Magaya is the only child
of her father's first marriage. She has three half-brothers
from his second marriage. When the father died intestate,
Ms. Magaya claimed status as heir and was appointed by the
community court. Her half-brother objected on grounds that
not all the family had been notified of the proceedings. Ms.
Magaya's appointment was cancelled, and upon application her
half-brother was granted status as heir under customary law,
as the oldest claiming male child. He proceeded to evict Ms.
Magaya from her house. Upon Ms. Magaya's challenge, the Supreme
Court held that as to intestate succession, the custom of
male preference for heirship, even when there is senior female
offspring, must be applied. In so holding, the Court overruled
its prior holding in Chihowa vs. Mangwende (1987), in which
the Legal Age of Majority Act had been applied to eliminate
discrimination between male and female children as to intestate
succession.
Having dealt a
fatal blow to the specific cause of female inheritance rights,
the Court went on to attack a series of its own earlier decisions
that had applied LAMA to grant rights to females under customary
law. The discussion centered on allegedly overexpansive interpretation
of LAMA. The Court stated that Parliament did not intend the
law to eliminate male preference and grant women rights that
they had not had under customary law, but only to grant civil
legal status to women so they could enter into contracts and
bring lawsuits.
In a stunningly
circular argument, the Court stated that the discrimination
suffered by women under customary law is not a matter of perpetual
minority but is a result of the "nature of African society,
especially the patrilineal, matrilineal, or bilateral nature
of some of them. . . . allowing female children to inherit
. . . would disrupt the African customary laws of that society
(original decision, p. 11) . . . I am also of the view that
the finding in [cases applying LAMA to provide inheritance
and other rights to women] is tantamount to bestowing on women
rights they never had under customary law (p. 15)." That,
of course, is precisely the point. The Legal Age of Majority
Act does give women rights they did not have under customary
law. It gives them the right to be treated as adults and to
challenge men on an equal legal footing. What the Court really
says in this opinion is that women are adult persons for some
purposes in Zimbabwean society, regardless of custom, but
not for others, where male power over property and over women's
fate is threatened.
Since independence,
the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe has been notable as a truly
independent and professional institution in a region in which
such qualities have been rare at any level of government.
While not all of its decisions have been positive in human
rights terms, they have not appeared to be arbitrary. The
Magaya opinion, however, and the reaction of the Chief Justice
to criticism of the decision, are troublesome as an indication
of a regression toward support of authoritarian attitudes.
National and international
reaction to the Magaya decision was instantaneous and vocal.
Zimbabwean women's groups, including many lawyers, wrote to
the Chief Justice, questioning the reasoning of the case.
The Chief Justice responded defensively, threatening with
judicial discipline lawyers who dared to criticize the decision.
Discussion on international networks was intense. Two senior
members of the UN Committee on Discrimination Against Women,
Judge Silvia Cartwright of New Zealand, and Dr. Charlotte
Abaka, the senior African member and former Vice-Chair of
the Committee, wrote to the newly established Constitutional
Commission, urging elimination of the provisions of the Constitution
that were cited to allow this discrimination and addition
of provisions prohibiting discrimination in the name of custom.
As this newsletter
goes to press, the Constitutional Commission has begun its
work, preparing to report to the President on November 30.
One of its members is an expert on women's human rights and
customary law, with a deep understanding of the intersection
of rights, tradition, and cultural change. We hope the Commission
report reflects this understanding and moves the Constitutional
process toward final and complete prohibition of discrimination
against women, in law and in custom. Only then can Zimbabwe
truly claim to have lived up to its obligations under the
CEDAW Convention and reclaim its place as a country in which
revolution truly brought freedom to all its citizens.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Articles 1-5
A February 1999
Indian Supreme Court decision could have a long-term, if not
immediately dramatic, effect on women's family status. After
a bank refused allow her to open an account or to sell her
Indian government bonds for her son, on grounds that as a
mother she could not be the natural legal guardian of the
child, Gita Hariharan successfully challenged the law that
imputes sole guardianship of children to their father as long
as he is alive. While the Indian Constitution proclaims equality
of the sexes as a general principle, the preservation of Hindu,
Muslim, and Christian community laws with respect to family
matters places women in a distinctly second-class status within
the family. While it does not directly strike down Hindu family
law, the Hariharan opinion attacks the cultural assumptions
underlying its discriminatory provisions. Activists see some
hope in the growth of a small group of educated women who
will not accept second-class status and in the unusual speed
with which the Supreme Court decided the case.
Women in US prisons
suffer a shameful level of rape, abuse and medical neglect,
according to a report released in March by Amnesty International.
The report, Not Part of My Sentence, notes that the soaring
female inmate population is subject to groping during searches,
shackling during childbirth, and voyeurism by male guards.
Minnesota, which is generally regarded as a progressive state,
does not prohibit by law sexual contact between male guards
and female prison inmates. The report cites twelve other states
in which such contact is not illegal as well as specific instances
of abuse in California, Arizona, and Chicago. Information:
Amnesty International USA, 322 Eighth Avenue, 1st Floor, New
York NY 10001 USA. Fax: 212 627-1451; e-mail <ltorpey@aiusa.org>.
Chile has amended
its criminal code to repeal the section criminalizing same-sex
sexual relations between consenting adults. The change represents
a victory after seven years of effort by the local gay and
lesbian community. According to the International Gay and
Lesbian Human Rights Commission, the repeal brings Chile into
line with a 1994 decision by the Human Rights Committee that
found Australia's prohibition of same-sex relations violated
the right to privacy and discriminated on the basis of sexual
orientation. Information: International Gay and Lesbian Human
Rights Commission, 1360 Mission Street, San Francisco CA 94103
USA; tel (415) 255-8680; fax (415) 255-8662; e-mail <iglhrc@iglhrc.org>.
Although Ghana
outlawed the practice in 1998, families continue to deliver
young girls into a slave-like life of servitude in animist
shrines as compensation for a crime committed by a male family
member or in thanks for a blessing-and the priests continue
to take them. Frequently abused by the priests, raped, prohibited
from attending school and from access to wages they earn by
petty trading or farming, the trokosi ("slaves of the
gods") girls are supposed to serve in the shrines for
five years but sometimes end up spending their lives there.
Activists concerned about women's human rights characterize
the practice as slavery; defenders insist that the girls are
priestesses and are treated like queens. Failure to enforce
the law prohibiting trokosi is attributed to the personal
beliefs of government officials who sometimes worship at the
shrines where the girls are kept. Information: Equality Now,
PO Box 20646, Columbus Circle Station, New York NY 10023 USA;
e-mail <info@equalitynow.org>.
The Lawyers Committee
for Human Rights has produced an analysis of the newly adopted
Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, including discussion
of each article and suggestions for implementation. The recommendations
focus on publicizing the Declaration and on monitoring and
publicizing violations. For a copy: Lawyers Committee for
Human Rights, 333 Seventh Avenue, 13th Floor, New York NY
10001 USA; tel (212) 845-5240; fax (22) 845-5299; e-mail <comm@lchr.org>.
TRAFFICKING IN
WOMEN
Article 6
The United Nations
Development Program has launched a program to combat trafficking
in women in Southeast Asia. Funded by a grant from the Turner
Foundation, the three-year program is designed to improve
cooperation between the governments in the region in addressing
the issue. Upon Cambodia's agreement to join the program,
the Cambodian Minister of Women's Affairs, Mu Sochua, admitted
that corrupt police and military are involved in the trade.
Aid workers indicate that abusers include an increasing number
of pedophiles, who have turned to Cambodia following a major
crackdown in Thailand.
The Thai government,
for its part, admitted in its report to the CEDAW Committee
that social attitudes are so deep-rooted in support of using
women in the sex trade that anti-trafficking laws are only
part of the answer. The government has launched programs to
change attitudes, but the battle is uphill. Thai men still
are ridiculed for being virgins, a visit to a prostitute is
considered a normal rite of passage, and men regularly patronize
commercial sex workers as a group leisure activity. Burmese
women are estimated to make up about ten percent of the 150,000
to 200,000 sex workers in Thailand, underscoring the need
for regional cooperation in dealing with trafficking.
And in Europe,
the Finnish government has called for greater cooperation
between governments, police and NGOs in the Baltic states
to stop the trafficking of women from that region into the
rest of Europe. While a recent relaxation of visa requirements
is unlikely to increase a trade that already operates outside
the law, the need for intergovernmental cooperation does increase
in the more open immigration environment. As elsewhere in
the world, many of the trafficked women are young girls from
small communities who are enticed into leaving home with promises
of jobs or husbands and are brutally exploited when they arrive
in the new country.
While governments
and activists in Asia and Europe have targeted trafficking
from and within those regions, Esmeralda Ruiz, General Secretary
for the Interinstitutional Committee against Trafficking of
Women and Children, estimates that 35,000 Colombian women
work as prostitutes around the world and a similar number
of children are used in the pornography industry. The lure
is the familiar one: advertising offering scholarships, jobs
as models or domestic service.
And now for some
good news: in a remarkable victory for women who have been
lured into prostitution, a US Federal court has awarded $1
million in restitution to 17 women who were smuggled into
Florida by Mexican traffickers for purposes of prostitution.
Cadena family members recruited the women, some merely adolescents,
with promises of jobs as nannies and housekeepers. Upon arriving
in the US they were forced to work in trailers in locations
throughout Florida and in two other states, "servicing"
men twelve hours per day, six days per week. The amount of
restitution was determined on the basis of the hours and working
conditions. While the Cadenas' lawyer insists that the family
has no money to collect, the women will attempt to obtain
a civil judgment in Mexico and find the assets there. Meanwhile,
most are working at legitimate jobs in Florida, but their
immigration status remains uncertain. The case has resulted
in formation of a Justice Department task force on exploitation
of illegal immigrants. Information: Human Trafficking Program,
Global Survival Network, PO Box 73214 Washington DC 20009
USA; tel (202) 387-0028; fax (202) 387-2590; e-mail <morhant@igc.org>.
WOMEN IN PUBLIC LIFE
Articles 7, 8
Kuwaiti women will
have the right to vote and to hold public office if the new
Parliament ratifies a Cabinet edict issued in May. The edict
fulfills a long-standing promise of equality made by the Emir
after the Gulf War. While women were not allowed to vote in
the July 3 Parliamentary elections, enough liberal members
were elected to provide a majority-when their votes are added
to those of the members appointed by the Emir-in support of
making the edict into law. While Kuwaiti women have pressed
for rights since the 1960s, when the first elections for the
National Assembly took place, Islamist opposition has been
strong and remains so. The issue is afloat in ironies: Kuwaiti
women outnumber men as students and teachers, including at
university levels; many hold professional positions and top
jobs in business; the country is the only Gulf state to have
an elected parliament; and it ratified the CEDAW Convention
(with a reservation to Article 7). Elsewhere in the Gulf,
Qatari women went to the polls for the first time to vote
in the March 1999 elections. Six women ran for a local council,
in a country in which most women still wear the veil and do
not drive. And in the United Arab Emirates, a woman was appointed
undersecretary in the labor ministry, the highest rank to
which a female has ever been appointed in that country.
In India, a bill
reserving one-third of the seats in Parliament to women has
finally been introduced, after being blocked for several years
by male Members who argued that women belonged in the kitchen.
The bill is favored by a large coalition of NGOs. No date
has been set for debating it. Currently Parliament has 40
women, just over seven percent.
India currently
has the largest quota system in the world for women's local
political participation. A 1993 constitutional amendment requires
that women constitute one-third of all local council (panchayat)
seats in the country's 26 states and six Union Territories.
A portion of these seats are reserved for women from the "Scheduled
Castes," the official term for the lowest castes. Women
were traditionally excluded from village politics, historically
making up just four to five percent of village councils. The
new law has dramatically changed this picture, and now about
300,000 women are involved in local governance and twelve
village councils are all-female. While some women still defer
to their husband's opinions in exercising their duties or
even hand over their authority wholesale, many have taken
on decisionmaking responsibilities, challenging village priorities
and influencing local policies.
Mireya Elisa Moscoso,
the new president of Panama, promises to end corruption and
nepotism and pay attention to poverty and unemployment. But
her biggest challenge will be overseeing the transfer this
year of the Panama Canal from US to Panamanian control, while
ensuring its continued efficient operation and fair use of
its revenues. Moscoso came into politics as the widow of former
Panamanian president Arnulfo Arias, but she has built her
own career, becoming the chief opposition leader in 1994.
While sexism and her lack of advanced education have been
obstacles to success, she credits her late husband with teaching
her most of what she needs to know for a political career.
The secular government
of Turkey prohibited newly elected parliamentarian Merve Kavakci
from being sworn into office because she insists on wearing
a headscarf. As Kavakci entered the chamber of 2 May 1999,
several members of Parliament stood up, clapped in unison
and shouted "Out! Out!" A member of the religious-based
Virtue Party, Kavakci maintains that the headscarf symbolizes
her private commitment to Islam rather than a political statement.
However, according to Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, "No
one may interfere with the private life of individuals, but
this is not a private space. This is the supreme foundation
of the state. It is not a place in which to challenge the
state." The issue has been framed as one of freedom of
expression versus Turkey's constitutional commitment to a
secular state.
Three hundred female
candidates were elected to city councils in the February 1999
municipal elections in Iran. The new councilors include three
(out of fifteen) on the Teheran city council.
A record fourteen
women were elected to the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) in
May. Most of the women are from centrist parties, including
Hosniya Jabarra, the first Arab woman elected to the Knesset.
Despite this showing, however, the new Prime Minister, Ehud
Barak, has appointed only one woman to his cabinet.
"What a difference
a century makes," noted Washington state Representative
Mary Lou Dickerson as the sixty female members of the Washington
state legislature posed for a photo next to the picture of
the all-male nineteenth-century legislature. The state now
holds the record for proportion of female members in a US
legislative body: 41%. The national average for state legislatures
is 22%, while the US Congress includes 9% women in the Senate
and 12.9% in the House.
Not all the news
in this area is upbeat. In Nigeria, the Constitutional Rights
Project's analysis of the early 1999 elections determined
that female voter turnout was disturbingly low, with women
forming less than 20% of those who voted in some states. The
issue of voting by women in purdah remains a special problem.
EDUCATION
Article 10
In response to
a long-standing demand by conservatives the first university
in Pakistan exclusively for women opened in Rawalpindi in
December 1998. Financed by the province of Punjab, the university
is backed politically by Chief Minister Shabaz Sharif, brother
of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Students indicate
appreciation of the opportunity to pursue further education,
and freedom of movement and expression within the walls of
the university, that would otherwise be foreclosed to them
because of their families' restrictive attitudes. Many are
being exposed for the first time to ideas about freedoms and
rights of women in Islam that are never discussed in their
local communities. But according to Women Living Under Muslim
Laws, questions remain about the quality of the education
available in this facility. Universities in Pakistan generally
suffer from a scarcity of staff with high academic credentials,
and very few women have advanced degrees. WLUML asks where
this new university will find adequately qualified staff,
and how employable the graduates will be if the faculty is
not properly qualified.
In April 1999 the
Iranian education ministry banned female foreign language
instructors from classrooms attended by boys over the age
of ten. Male instructors also are not allowed to teach schoolgirls.
The language instruction issue is provocative particularly
at a time when the number of English language institutes is
growing, while the government is attempting to hold the line
on liberalization of social expression and prevention of perceived
Western influence. Reinforcing conservative mores, the Iranian
government is supporting a project to develop a locally produced
doll designed to promote girls' identification with behavior
favored by traditionalists-dressed in a chador.
EMPLOYMENT
Article 11
The Israeli Supreme
Court ruled in March 1999 that a general who had used his
rank to force a sexual encounter with a young female soldier
could not be promoted. The Army had investigated the incident,
reprimanded Brig. General Nir Galili and held up a promotion
for three years. The punishment was in keeping with the Army's
action-oriented policy of dealing with sexual harassment,
but the attempt to promote the general three years later suggested
a separate standard for high-ranking officers. Acting on the
woman's application for a restraining order, the Supreme Court
refused to accept the Chief of Staff's claim, supported by
the Minister of Defense, that Gen. Galili's promotion was
essential to the best possible national defense because he
was the best qualified to do the job. As the director of the
Israel Women's Network noted, "A professionally outstanding
soldier who has a low moral level is not an outstanding soldier."
Under Israel's new sexual harassment law, such behavior could
well be subject to both criminal and civil penalties. The
comprehensive statute, drafted and passed in a cooperative
effort by the Government and experts from the Israel Women's
Network, prohibits sexual harassment in the government and
the military and other security forces as well as in private
enterprise. Information: Israel Women's Network, P.O. Box
53186, Jerusalem, 91531, Israel; fax (972-2) 671 8887; e-mail
<IWN@netvision.net.il>.
The British government
has launched a program to promote women in science, with the
long-term goal of achieving the same proportion of women in
academic appointments as are recruited to undergraduate programs.
Project Athena, as it is named, includes developing a register
of women in higher education and data collection, both aimed
at providing levers for change. Meanwhile, in contrast, women
in India have cornered the field of biotechnology. Nearly
70% of students applying for and entering higher studies in
the biological sciences are women. Many attribute this to
men's lack of interest in careers in biological sciences.
The government is supporting female scientists, with Department
of Biotechnology laboratories allowing time off for marriage
and child rearing without loss to their careers. The Department
is establishing a "Women's Biotechnology Park" in
Madras to support female biotechnology entrepreneurs and has
made large loans to help women establish biotechnology businesses.
A male state police
officer in the US has won the first sex discrimination case
brought under the US Federal Family and Medical Leave Act.
Maryland state trooper Kevin Knussman was refused extended
leave to care for his newborn daughter because he is male.
His supervisor refused his application made under the Federal
act and stated that because he is male he could not qualify
for leave as "primary caretaker" under the Maryland
parental leave law. Both state and federal laws allow for
employees to use accrued paid sick leave, vacation or personal
time as paid parental leave; the Federal law also allows for
up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a newborn or adopted
child or for a very ill family member. The case essentially
underscores the rights of fathers to be considered caretakers,
despite employers' opposition to men taking personal time
for their families.
The Working Women's
International Network, a Japanese group supporting the plaintiffs
in a major sex discrimination test case against the giant
Sumitomo Companies conglomerate, has mounted a campaign to
indicate global support for the plaintiffs. This lawsuit is
particularly important because of the scope of the challenge
and its linkage of the claims to the Japanese government's
obligations under the CEDAW Convention. WWIN indicates that
unlike many other countries, such petitions are appropriate
and can be effective in Japan. Detailed information about
the case is available on the WWIN Web site, <www.ne.jp/asahi/wwn/wwin/>,
or e-mail Shizuko Koedo, <shizuko@my.email.ne.jp>.
A copy of the petition can be obtained from IWRAW. Deadline
for returning them is October 31, 1999.
The largest discrimination
settlement ever made by the US Department of Labor will result
in $3.1 million in payments to 186 female Texaco (oil company)
employees. The Department's investigation concluded that women
in mid-level management positions were consistently underpaid
relative to their male counterparts for many years. The settlement
includes back pay and interest, as well as current salary
increases. Shortly after this settlement, President Clinton
announced an initiative to close the wage gap between women
and men. US Labor Secretary Alexis Herman crisply summed up
the issue: "I have yet to go to the grocery store to
buy a $1 loaf of bread and have the cashier look up and say,
'since you're a woman, it's 75 cents.'"
HEALTH AND REPRODUCTIVE
RIGHTS
Articles 10, 12, 14, 16
The South African
government has decided not to proceed with an AIDS treatment
program for pregnant HIV-positive women. Despite the proven
efficacy of anti-retroviral AZT treatment, which cuts the
fetal transmission rate in half, the Minister of Health has
stated that the treatment is not cost-efficient. Anita Kleinsmidt
of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies AIDS Law Project argues
that the state has a constitutional obligation to provide
treatment, under articles providing for equal enjoyment of
all rights and freedoms, the right to freedom and security
of the person, and the right to make decisions concerning
reproduction. As to all these rights, she states, the government
cannot claim that failure to treat is a reasonable restriction,
as care for a person (adult and/or infant) with a full-blown
case of AIDS is far more costly than a short course of treatment
with AZT. Information: CALS, University of Witwatersrand,
PB 3, Wits 2050 South Africa; e-mail <125je2wa@solon.law.wits.ac.za>.
While AIDS treatment
remains out of reach of most women in the global South because
of cost, more and more of them are gaining control of prevention
by using the female condom. UNAIDS and other organizations
have distributed seven million female condoms in Africa, Asia
and Latin America and are finding increasing acceptance among
men as well as women. Health workers have found remarkable
acceptance in African countries, and particularly South Africa,
where one provincial government has committed $700,000 to
purchase them. However, researchers in a program designed
to systematically introduce female condoms through selected
clinics (using condoms contributed by the European Union)
have found that, while women express interest in using the
female condom, injectables remain the favored method of birth
control. Since the cost is higher than that of male condoms,
a South African hospital is experimenting to determine how
often the female condom can safely be washed and re-used.
A long-standing
policy of discrimination against women by the US health insurance
industry is finally under attack by state legislatures-because
of Viagra. The male impotence drug is almost universally covered
by health insurance, while many insurers for years have refused
to pay for contraceptives. Legislators who have supported
insurance for contraceptives have been unable to force the
issue because of heavy industry resistance and opposition
on the basis of cost, but Viagra, when used regularly, is
more expensive than contraceptives-and unwanted pregnancies
are expensive indeed. At least six states have adopted legislation
requiring insurance coverage for contraceptives, many more
are considering it seriously, and a measure covering all Federal
employees has been passed in Congress.
An even more blatant
example of the double standard on reproductive and sexual
rights is the Japanese government's rapid approval of Viagra
while it continues its nine-year stall on approval of birth
control pills. The denial of Japanese women's access to oral
contraceptives has become a national disgrace; the pill has
been widely distributed to women throughout the world, and
medically accepted, for decades. The government's defense
of its policy is allegedly based on a fear for the pill's
safety (apparently the deaths of 130 Americans who took Viagra
since its introduction in spring 1998 was not deemed a safety
issue). Legislators as well as activists and physicians have
denounced the oral contraceptive delay as a ploy to support
the official government goal of raising the birth rate.
With the fall of
communism and introduction of the market economy in Russia,
most health care services have declined seriously-but abortion,
maternal mortality and infant mortality have fallen significantly.
The explanation: after the change in regime, public discussion
of birth control, which had been limited by the Communists,
became common, and contraceptives began to appear in pharmacies.
In 1993 the Health Ministry began a family planning program,
including opening clinics around the country and retraining
medical personnel. Western pharmaceutical companies moved
in to supply a growing market. With fewer pregnancies, fewer
abortions were performed, and they had accounted for one-third
of maternal deaths. Still, the abortion rate is higher than
in any European country except Romania, a combined legacy
of Communist-era attitudes and fear of the pill. Currently,
health officials and pharmaceutical companies are concerned
that Russia's recent economic collapse has placed contraceptives
out of the reach of many women, and some of the companies
have cut the price of the pills.
In Calcutta, India,
women in prostitution are beginning to take a proactive role
in protecting themselves from AIDS. More than half the prostitutes
in the Sonogachi red-light district have organized to challenge
pimps and madams to require customers to use condoms. According
to a report in the New York Times, condom use in Sonogachi
has soared to 90 percent, and the rate of HIV infection is
5 percent (as opposed to Bombay, where over 50 percent of
prostitutes are HIV positive). The movement has taken on the
tone of a labor organization, as the women have formed a financial
collective to avoid moneylenders, surrounded police stations
to force attention to criminal assaults of prostitutes, and
worked together to rescue young women who have been kidnapped
and forced into prostitution. The condom project has been
expanded into other red-light districts in Calcutta and is
now being established in Bombay, which has the highest HIV
rate in the country and will present more obstacles to organizing,
as the sex trade there is controlled by gangsters and the
city lacks Calcutta's tradition of collective labor organizing.
However, experts assert that the attempt is crucial, as Bombay
is the front line for holding down the HIV infection rate
in India.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
General Recommendation No. 19
A political marketing
move by the state-owned General Insurance Company (of India)
has underscored the government's insensitivity to violence
against women. In March 1999 the company proudly announced
that it was offering "rape insurance," covering
injuries arising from rape. Female activists responded immediately
to the move, noting that in providing for rape injuries in
the future, the scheme recognized rape as inevitable rather
than as a violation of rights that must be stopped. The initiative
was touted by then Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee as part of
his Hindu nationalist-led coalition's program to develop greater
legal protections for women.
The Chinese government
has announced that it is establishing a research center to
investigate the cases of Chinese comfort women in World War
II. The Chinese Center of Comfort Women Issue Studies will
be housed at Shanghai University. Professor Su Zhilian of
Shanghai University has discovered eighty comfort women sites
in Shanghai alone.
A national debate
on attitudes towards rape and towards sexual assault in general
was generated in Italy when the government released a Supreme
Court of Appeals decision in February overturning a rape conviction,
stating that "jeans cannot be removed easily and certainly
it is impossible to pull them off if the victim is fighting
against her attacker with all her force." The ruling
indicated that, despite a change in the law three years ago
that finally criminalized rape, judges' attitudes have yet
to match the attitude of the law. The judge who wrote the
ruling professed to be shocked by the response, claiming that
the issue was only one of adequacy of the evidence, but the
tenor of the entire ruling was in fact highly inflammatory
as to presumed proper behavior.
A Malian woman
was convicted by a French court and sentenced to eight years
in prison for performing genital mutilation in on forty-eight
girls between the ages of one month and ten years. While the
French government has prosecuted a number of women since 1991
for violation of the 1984 law against "mutilating"
a minor, this case involved the largest number of girls and
resulted in the longest sentence yet. It also was the first
case resulting from the complaint of a victim. Twenty-seven
parents of the girls were convicted as accomplices; they received
suspended sentences of three to five years.
Burkina Faso is
one of only six countries in Africa that bans FGM by law.
The government has taken the issue seriously enough to work
on educating chiefs, some of whom have told their communities
that they are not excising the girls in their families. After
years of effort the issue is no longer tabu and incremental
progress is being made, with the percentage of females subjected
to FGM decreasing from 70% to 66%.
In the last year
the women's news networks carried a record number of items
indicating increases in domestic violence. This is not really
news, but the increase in reporting is. Governments finally
are paying attention to the issue, and both governments and
NGOs are documenting correlation with other social conditions.
In Ireland, the National Network of Women's Refuges reported
that the nation's fifteen shelters had seen a population increase
of 35% over 1997. In Chile, a law providing for prosecution
of abusers has resulted in increased reporting, although the
record now indicates that two out of every three women between
twenty-two and twenty-five years of age have suffered from
violence. In Nicaragua, NGOs have reported that the frequency
of domestic and sexual violence increased after hurricane
Mitch, reflecting stresses resulting from losses of homes
and jobs. According to a poll by the Tokyo government, 33%
of the 1,553 women responding said they had been physically
abused, and 56% of the women report emotional abuse. In the
Philippines, according to Dr. Carmencita Banatin of the Office
for Hospital facilities Standards and Regulation (OHFSR),
the most common causes of hospitalization were rape and domestic
violence. Of the total number of patients given treatment,
about 50 percent of the sexual abuse cases were committed
by mostly educated or professional men. In Korea, increases
in domestic abuse correlated with a low point in last year's
economic crisis.
Where women's virginity
is valued above their lives, violence against them is excused
as an exercise in maintaining social order. Recent reports
indicate that in too many places, women are treated as sex
objects in the worst way-in the name of "honor"
based entirely on their voluntary or involuntary sexual conduct.
Frequently they pay with their lives for imprudence, victimization,
independence, or merely for being the subject of rumor.
Activists in Pakistan
have begun a campaign against "honor killings,"
in which family members murder women they deem to have disgraced
their families. Disgrace can be brought by seeking divorce,
reporting rape, or attempting to marry a man of their choice
rather than one chosen by the family. One would-be divorcee,
Samia Imran, was killed outside the office of her lawyer,
while talking with her mother. Police and Imran's lawyers
say her parents were behind the murder. Women protested outside
parliament; Imran's lawyer, human rights activist Asma Jihangir,
says that she will build a monument for the victims of honor
killings in Lahore.
Honor killings
are not limited to Pakistan. Throughout much of the Middle
East, women may be killed by their families if they have sexual
relations with a man outside of marriage, and sometimes upon
mere suspicion. Particularly in less-educated or nonurban
communities, even rumors of unchastity can bring ostracism
upon a family, rendering all the other daughters unmarriageable
and excluding all family members from community life. Islamic
experts point out that the Qu'ran does not suggest or condone
a family's taking it upon themselves to "purge"
perceived dishonor, requiring a finding of guilt by an Islamic
court based on multiple confessions or testimony of four male
witnesses. Indeed, while many families invoke Islamic law
as justification for murder, the custom appears to be culturally
based. In Jordan, where a number of girls are living in prison
to protect them from family retribution, the late King Hussein
and Queen Noor began a public discussion of honor killings
that King Abdullah's government has promised to continue,
although Parliamentary leadership insists that the killings
are justifiable. The entire issue was aired at a conference
held in Jordan in June 1999. Asma Kader, a Jordanian lawyer
who is at the forefront of the battle against honor killing,
suggests that given the social imperatives, the only solution
may be for the women to leave the country as "social
refugees."
And in Turkey,
Women for Women's Human Rights has undertaken a campaign to
change the law to appropriately punish honor killings. Honor
killings are more prevalent in the less developed east and
southeast parts of the country, but with labor migration the
phenomenon has spread to the major cities and to Turkish immigrant
populations in Germany and France. The pattern of honor killing
is the same as in other countries where it occurs: a girl
or young woman is killed by her male relatives for behaving
in a manner deemed to bring "dishonor" to the family-which
may include minor disobedience or being seen in the wrong
public place. Frequently they assign a very young male to
commit the murder, because the punishment is mitigated by
law on grounds of his age. WWHR is campaigning to change the
Turkish law that protects the young men and to allow women's
organizations to become parties to the case. WWHR seeks information
on laws and strategies from other groups involved in this
issue. Contact: Ipek Ilkkaracan, WWHR, Istanbul, tel (90 216)
357 2142; fax (90 216) 385 1262; e-mail <wrp-ist@fenestra.comlink.de>.
Recent news reports
also have focused on rape victims' additional suffering in
the name of "honor" in Morocco and in Kosovo. In
Kosovo, the issue has serious implications for investigation
of war crimes, as women cannot state that they were raped
for fear of being totally rejected by husband, family, and
community. Victimized twice over, first by the Serb soldiers
and paramilitary who assaulted them and then by families who
refuse to accept them, Kosovar Albanian women have been willing
to describe situations in which others were raped but have
been unwilling to provide crucial first-person testimony for
human rights groups seeking to determine the patterns of rape
as a war crime. In Morocco, mothers of children born out of
wedlock, whether as a result of rape, seduction, or of consensual
relations, are outcast; their children cannot be registered
by name, and their families throw them out, sometimes threatening
to kill them.
Correction: In
the December 1998 Women's Watch, the Chilean Ministry of Women
was credited with launching a "Zero Tolerance of Sexual
Violence" campaign to change legislation and public opinion
about sex crimes. The institution promoting the campaign is
not the Ministry of Women; it is the Institute of Women.
FAMILY LAW
Article 16
Women in West Africa
are engaged in an eight-country campaign to promote awareness
of the grossly discriminatory and unfair African customary
inheritance practices that deny women rights to property owned
by husbands or family members. The campaign, an effort to
focus national, regional, and international attention on the
issue, includes a Day of Action (July 29, 1999) featuring
marches on prominent national institutions, and presentation
of draft model legislation on women's inheritance rights.
The campaign also includes writing letters to the UN Special
Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and the Organization
for African Unity Special Rapporteur on Women's Rights. The
campaign was undertaken with the collaboration of the International
Human Rights Law Group. Contact: IHRLG, e-mail <africa@hrlawgroup.org>
or WRAP@hrlawgroup.org.
At the request
of her father, a powerful politician, Pakistani police early
this year arrested a woman who was attempting to leave the
country with her husband, whom she had married without her
father's consent. Humera Butt married a naturalized American
citizen despite her father's insistence on having a marriage
to a cousin performed, to which she did not consent. The police
acknowledged the arrest only after Ms. Butt's attorney, Hina
Jilani, brought a petition to have the couple appear in court.
The court released Ms. Butt but required her to reappear in
court several days later.
A proposal for
a civil marriage law in Lebanon has been endorsed by President
Elias Hrawi, but is opposed by religious leaders since it
would divert power from the area over which they exercise
total jurisdiction. Personal status law in Lebanon is governed
by religious tribunals in which women are consistently treated
as unequal to men. The civil marriage bill must be passed
on to Parliament by Prime Minister Hariri, who refuses to
do it. Even if introduced, women's group fears that if would
be struck down by the representatives of religious sects.
Under a proposed
law in Egypt, a woman will be able to obtain a divorce, even
over the husband's objections, in exchange for a sum of money
or piece of real estate to be given to her husband, with the
value being fixed by a judge, avoiding the lengthy legal proceedings
now required if she requests the divorce. Feminist lawyer
Ghada Nabil welcomed the draft law, but she pointed out that
only a minority of women could benefit: "most women in
that position possess nothing." Morover, the law does
not change the essential inequality of a system in which men
still can obtain a divorce by repudiation, while women must
go to court and prove grounds or, under the new law, pay him
off.
A new South African
child maintenance law is designed to help women deal with
the administrative system as well as to make maintenance orders
more readily collectible. The new law provides for additional
maintenance investigators and uniform standards for maintenance
officers. Most importantly procedurally, it allows for an
order to be issued if the father is notified and fails to
appear at hearing. The law also provides for maintenance to
be paid out of wages, directly to the custodial parent, and
for attachment of property to cover maintenance claims. According
to an account by the Gender Research Project, Center for Applied
Legal Studies (University of Witwatersrand), while the law
cannot in itself solve the serious administrative problems-delay
and poorly trained maintenance officers-that place major obstacles
in the way of maintenance collections, it is a good first
attempt to make the system more workable.
CEDAW UPDATE: 1999-2000
Calendar 1999 has
seen major accomplishments relating to the CEDAW Committee
and the Convention. The Optional Protocol was adopted by CSW,
and the new general recommendation on health was finished.
The Division for the Advancement of Women began a series of
events marking the 20th anniversary of the CEDAW Convention,
which will continue over the next three years. Committee discussions
have highlighted special concern over States parties' continued
citing of traditional, religious and cultural beliefs as an
excuse for the failure to implement women's human rights.
Reproductive rights for women and girls have come under threat
in a number of countries, accompanied by discrimination against
adolescent mothers in education and employment.
Twentieth and Twenty-first
CEDAW sessions
The CEDAW Committee reviewed Algeria, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein,
Greece, Thailand, China and Colombia at the twentieth session
which was held from 19 January to 5 February 1999, and the
reports of Chile, Belize, Georgia, Ireland, Nepal, Spain,
and the United Kingdom at the twenty-first session held 7-25
June 1999.
NGO Involvement
Representatives of nongovernmental organizations attended
both sessions in considerable numbers. During meetings with
CEDAW experts, the NGOs had an opportunity to voice their
concerns and provide additional information on issues that
were absent from official government reports. In January,
in a new procedural development, the meeting of NGOs with
the CEDAW Committee took place during the regular session
time. This ensured a greater attendance of CEDAW experts and
provided for official UN interpretation, allowing many of
the NGO representatives to present information in their primary
language rather than having to use English. In addition to
international human rights groups, NGO activists from Algeria,
Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, China and Colombia presented in the
January session, and June participants came from Chile, Georgia,
Ireland, Nepal and the United Kingdom.
Concluding Comments
At the end of the sessions, the Committee adopted draft concluding
comments and recommendations on specific measures to improve
the status of women. The concluding comments and recommendations
are the most important communication from the Committee to
the States Parties, and the governments are obligated in subsequent
reports to the Committee to report on progress in the areas
indicated in the comments. The concluding comments are available
at the Division for the Advancement of Women Web site. However,
neither the Committee nor DAW can facilitate circulation of
the concluding comments beyond the government and the Web
site. 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. IWRAW sends
the unedited concluding comments to all the NGOs on its database
from the reviewed countries. IWRAW will also be happy to furnish
copies of this document upon request.
Procedural Changes
The pre-sessional working group for the twenty-first session
(June 1999) met at the conclusion of the twentieth session
(January 1999). This is a permanent departure from the past
practice of holding the pre-sessional at the beginning of
each session. The pre-sessional meetings are designed to discuss
official government reports and formulate questions to the
government delegations that present second or subsequent reports
to CEDAW. This change was introduced to allow additional time
to the governments to prepare responses to the experts' questions.
New General Recommendation
At the January 1999 session, the Committee adopted General
Recommendation No. 24 on Article 12 of the CEDAW Convention,
relating to health. The new General Recommendation affirms
the importance of States parties' compliance with Art. 12
to health and well-being of women.
20th Anniversary
Celebrations
A day-long celebration of the 20th anniversary of CEDAW's
adoption by General Assembly, which took place on the first
day of the twenty-first CEDAW session, launched the three-year
series of commemorative events related to the adoption, signing
and the entry into force of the Convention.
Optional Protocol
Adopted
The Commission on the Status of Women adopted the Optional
Protocol (OP) to CEDAW on 12 March 1999, at the Commission's
forty-third session. The OP introduces two separate procedures:
a communications procedure that allows individuals or groups
of women to submit claims of rights violations to the CEDAW
Committee, and an inquiry procedure which allows the Committee
to initiate inquiries into situations of serious or systematic
violations of women's human rights. Complaints can be brought
to the CEDAW Committee after the victims have exhausted all
other means of redress available in their countries. The State
has to be party to the OP and it is necessary to secure the
consent of individual victims before bringing a complaint
before the CEDAW Committee. Some activists have pointed out
that the requirement of obtaining consent from the victim
can make it difficult or impossible to intervene on behalf
of women who have been detained or disappeared. Despite these
drawbacks, however, the OP adds an important enforcement mechanism
to the CEDAW Convention. The OP will be submitted to the General
Assembly for Adoption in late 1999. It will enter into force
as soon as at least ten States parties to CEDAW ratify or
accede to it.
New CEDAW Committee Members:
Eight new members and four re-elected experts began to serve
four-year terms beginning January 1999. The newly elected
experts are: Feng Cui of China; Naela Gabr of Egypt; Savitri
Wimalawathie Ellepola Goonesekere of Sri Lanka; Rosalyn Hazelle
of Saint Kitts and Nevis; Rosario G. Manalo of the Philippines;
Mavivi Lilian Yvette Myakayaka-Manzini of South Africa; Zelmira
M.E. Regazzoli of Argentina; and Chikako Taya of Japan. The
re-elected members are: Charlotte Abaka of Ghana; Emna Aouij
of Tunisia; Ivanka Corti of Italy; and Carmel Shalev of Israel.
The 11 members
who will continue to serve on the Committee until 31 December
2000 are: Ayse Feride Acar of Turkey; Carlota Bustelo Garcia
del Real of Spain; Silvia Cartwright of New Zealand; Yolanda
Ferrer Gomez of Cuba; Aida Gonzalez of Mexico; Salma Khan
of Bangladesh; Yung-Chung Kim of Republic of Korea; Ahoua
Ouedraogo of Burkina Faso; Anne Lise Ryel of Norway; Hanna
Beate Schoepp-Schilling of Germany; and Kongit Sinegiorgis
of Ethiopia.
Reports Scheduled for Review in 2000
Twenty-Second Session 17 January-4 February 2000: India, Jordan,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Burkina Faso, Luxembourg,
Germany, Belarus. Reserve List: Maldives, Lithuania
Twenty-Third Session
12-30 June 2000: Moldova, Lithuania, Maldives, Austria, Netherlands,
Romania, Cuba, Iraq. Reserve List: Jamaica, Mongolia
IWRAW urges women's
human rights groups in the above countries either to produce
a national NGO shadow report or to submit information through
IWRAW, preferably both. If you decide to produce a report
on your own, you should be aware that the CEDAW experts prefer
to have the reports one month prior to the session, as they
do not have adequate time to read all the informatl submissions
during the review sessions.
IWRAW submits independent
reports to all of the CEDAW members at least one month prior
to each session. These reports include information from individuals
and groups as well as summaries, when possible, of national
NGO reports. Please contact IWRAW if you have any questions
concerning the reporting and review process, or if you wish
to contribute information to the CEDAW Committee.
MEETINGS, EVENTS AND RESOURCES
IWRAW Consultation:
The CEDAW Convention and the Beijing Platform for Action:
Reaffirming the Promise of the Rights Framework. In June 2000
the UN will hold a five-year review of accomplishments and
implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The year
2000 also marks the twentieth anniversary of the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women. With 163 ratifications, the CEDAW Convention represents
a near-universal endorsement of the principles of women's
human rights-priniciples that were, through the efforts of
the NGO community as well as many governments and United Nations
actors, engaged as the framework for the language and commitments
of the Platform for Action.
In recognition
of twenty years of growth and accomplishment in applying the
Convention, the International Women's Rights Action Watch
will hold a public consultation in January 2000 on the use
of the CEDAW Convention to foster implementation of and accountability
for the commitments made in the Platform for Action. The CEDAW
Convention, as well as other human rights treaties, represent
the greatest hope for concrete action to maintain momentum
for Platform implementation.
The Consultation
will explore the original incorporation of the rights framework
into the Platform for Action, the role of the CEDAW Convention
and Committee in promoting Platform implementation and accountability,
and the potential of the CEDAW Optional Protocol to reinforce
rights. It is designed to underscore the importance of basing
the Beijing + 5 review on rights as central to Platform implementation.
The program will include sessions on the regional preparations
as well as strategizing for effective presence at CSW in March
and at Beijing + 5.
Dates: January
22-23, 2000, New York. Information: Valerie Zamberletti, Tel.
(612) 929-8709; fax (612) 929-8737; e-mail <vzamberletti@hhh.umn.edu>.
Beijing + 5 Review,
June 5-9, 2000, New York. Preparatory meeting of the UN Commission
on the Status of Women, New York, February 28-March 17, 2000.
Information on NGO and UN activity: WomenWatch Web site, <www.un.org/womenwatch/daw>;
e-mail <daw@un.org>.
For NGO information, International Women's Tribune Center,
e-mail <iwtc@igc.apc.org>.
A series of NGO Web sites have been established to facilitate
information flow; information available from IWTC.
For information
on hotel rooms in NY for February CSW and June Beijing + 5
contact:
Valerie Zamberletti, Zamberletti and Associates, Tel. (612)
929-8709, Fax. (612) 929-8737,
e-mail: <vzamberletti@hhh.umn.edu>.
Rights of Women:
A Guide to the Most Important United Nations Treaties on Women's
Human Rights, is now available from the International Women's
Tribune Center. An invaluable guide to context, content, and
the framework for working with human rights instruments to
advance women's status. Available from IWTC, 777 UN Plaza,
New York NY 10017. E-mail <iwtc@igc.apc.org>,
Web site <www.womenink.org>,
fax (212) 661 2704. This publication is complemented by the
May 1999 issue of The Tribune, IWTC's quarterly publication,
focusing on strategies and resources for using international
human rights treaties.
The Development
Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development has issued a sourcebook on gender equality
in development assistance programs. The book has been available
in English for some time and recently became available in
Spanish. DAC Guidelines and Sourcebook on Gender Equality
is available on the Internet at www.mae.es/igualidadcad.
In the run-up to
the Beijing + 5 review to be held in June 2000, Equality Now
has launched a campaign to hold governments accountable for
making changes in their laws according to commitments made
at Beijing. A new publication, the Beijing + 5 Report, highlights
discriminatory laws in 45 countries, with contact information
for the relevant government agencies. The Beijing + 5 Report
is available in English and will shortly be available in Spanish
and French. From: Equality Now, 250 West 57th Street, New
York NY 10107, fax (212) 586-1611, e-mail <info@equalitynow.org>.
In the context
of the five-year review, a look at the process leading up
to the 1995 conference is instructional. An analysis of the
pre-Beijing process in the Latin America/Caribbean region
has been issued in Spanish and English by UNICEF, UNIFEM,
and ediciones flora tristán. Edited by Virginia Vargas
Valente, the regional coordinator for the NGO Forum/Beijing,
Roads to Beijing includes accounts of the events and, most
importantly, the issues and conflicts that characterized the
preparatory process in the region. Available in Spanish and
English: contact Center of Peruvian Women "Flora Tristán,"
fax (51 1) 433 9500; e-mail <postmast@flora.org.pe>.
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 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, Catharine
Cram and numerous other individuals and foundations for financial
support. Contributions to the project are welcome and are
tax deductible for US taxpayers.
IWRAW
Humphrey Institute
University of Minnesota
301-19th Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55455 USA
*
NOTE: The scheduling of the presessional working group will
be changed for future sessions. The Committee will hold the
presessional working group for each session immediately after
the close of the prior session (example: the presessional
working group for the January 2000 session will be held immediately
after the close of the June 1999 session.) In transition,
the presessional working group for the June 1999 session will
be held as a special working group during the January 1999
session. NGOs that wish to submit information to be used by
the presessional working group to prepare questions for June
1999 country reviews therefore must have their information
ready by January 1999. This schedule change affects only those
countries that are presenting second and subsequent reports.
NGOs should note also that although information submitted
after the working group meets will not be reflected in the
questions sent to the government six months prior to the Committee
session in which it will be reviewed, Committee experts will
still be interested in having NGO information during the country
review in the full Committee session. back