THE WOMEN'S WATCH
Vol. 13 No. 2
January 2000
BEIJING + 5 AS
A PLATFORM FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Five years ago,
the Fourth World Conference on Women marked a major human
rights accomplishment for women. It represented the convergence
of political and legal processes to underscore, on a global
scale, the centrality of human rights to the struggle for
equality. The Conference Declaration and Platform for Action
is built on a rights framework, invoking the substance and
the language of human rights in every section, and referring
specifically to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination against Women as well as to the other human
rights treaties.
The Platform for
Action must be brought into the new millennium as a reaffirmation
of the global commitment to women's human rights made at Beijing
in 1995. The Beijing + 5 review provides an opportunity to
recommit to implementation of the Platform with specific reference
to women's human rights as stated in the CEDAW Convention
and the other international human rights treaties. Conversely,
the CEDAW Convention provides a clear framework for pursuing
and monitoring implementation of the Platform for Action for
years to come.
World conferences
such as Beijing are political events that mark global recognition
of major issues and an attempt to find consensus among governments
about approaches to those issues. The preparations and the
conferences themselves are a major political process, engaging
governments in discussion with their constituencies and with
other governments to forge agreements on priorities and commitments.
Human rights enforcement is a more legally oriented process,
based on documents and obligations that have the force of
law. The Beijing Conference brought the two processes together,
engaging citizens and governments in a dialogue that was political
in nature but informed by the legal precepts of the human
rights enterprise. Platform implementation, therefore, should
be informed by human rights principles, and assessment of
human rights implementation should be made with reference
to the commitments made in the Platform. And as to both, accountability
must be the watchword.
The Beijing + 5
review to be held in June 2000 provides a critical opportunity
for reaffirmation of women's human rights as central to the
pursuit of equality. It also provides a challenge to governments,
NGOs, and the United Nations to develop more useful methods
for evaluating progress towards elimination of discrimination.
The time for prescriptions and descriptions has passed-accountability
under both the Platform and the CEDAW Convention is now a
matter of clearly defined obligations, concrete measurement
and pointed analysis of results.
The IWRAW project's
contribution to Beijing + 5 is a new analysis of these issues
and a rights-oriented comparison of the Platform and the CEDAW
Convention. This document, discussed at a public consultation
in January 2000, will be available by February 1 for use in
working the CSW preparatory process. Contact Linda McFarland
at IWRAW for information and copies.
WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS AT THE COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL
AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
The concluding
comments of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (CESCR) issued by the most recent session (15 November
to 3 December 1999) concentrated on women's human rights.
CESCR brought attention to the particularly severe situation
of women in Cameroon, where their unequal status is entrenched
both in the law, including the Civil and Commercial Codes,
and in prevalent customary practices, such as polygamy, forced
marriages, female genital mutilation, and the education bias
in favor of boys. Countries reviewed at this session also
included Bulgaria, Argentina, Armenia, Mexico, and Solomon
Islands (without a report). The recommendations to governments
focused on measures to combat violence against women, promote
women's health, and provide support for women's employment
and their participation in public life.
IWRAW has submitted
reports on women's human rights in selected countries to CESCR
for several years. For the last session, IWRAW prepared reports
on all reviewed countries, with the exception of the non-reporting
Solomon Islands. IWRAW Director Marsha Freeman and IWRAW Research
Director Kasia Polanska attended the session and made oral
presentations on Cameroon and Armenia during the informal
Committee meeting with NGOs, which was held at the opening
of the session. Genoveva Tisheva and Irina Mouleshkova of
the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation based in Sofia, observed
the meetings on IWRAW invitation, and they presented their
own shadow report to the CESCR members. The IWRAW reports
were in some cases the only source of independent information
and the only source on women's status.
The full text of
documents issued by CESCR and other human rights mechanisms
can be accessed through the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights' website at: <http://www.unhchr.ch>.
For information on NGO participation in the CESCR review process,
contact IWRAW.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Convention Articles 1-5
The first ever
conference on "The Exclusion of Women in the Arab World
from the Effective Protection and Benefit of International
Human Rights Law" was held in Beirut, Lebanon from 26-28
November 1999. The discussion centered on the question of
how and why the existing international human rights system,
and the women's human rights system in particular, are ineffective
in protecting human rights in the Arab world. The main goal
of the Conference was to give experts and activists involved
in the field of women's human rights in the region the opportunity
to reflect across regional contexts and different experiences.
The Conference was a culmination of a two-year project that
included preparation of country studies on Algeria, Egypt,
Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen, and on Palestinian
women living in the Occupied Territories and refugee women
in Lebanon. The conference, attended by IWRAW Research Director
Kasia Polanska, was organized by the Women's Center for Legal
Aid and Counseling (WCLAC) in East Jerusalem. For additional
information on the Conference, check the project website at
<http://www.nisaa.org>,or
contact WCLAC directly at the e-mail address <wclac@palnet.com>,
tel.: 00-972-02234-2793, or fax number: 00-972-02234-2172.
The governor of
Osaka, Japan has resigned after an extended battle against
allegations of sexual misconduct. The resignation of Isamu
Yamada is a major victory for women, a high profile result
of a promising trend of more Japanese women reporting instances
of sexual harassment and assault. The victim's identity is
being kept confidential by the Japanese court system. The
resignation follows close on the heels of new rules on sex
discrimination and harassment introduced as a revision of
the Equal Employment Opportunity Law by Japan's Labor Ministry
in April.
Twenty-four Muslim
women were fined for disregarding a Malaysian state's dress
code, requiring them to wear headscarves. They were reportedly
warned several times before the fines were imposed. The dress
code was instituted by the fundamentalist Islamic PAS Party
after its rise to power in the Malaysian state of Kelantan
in 1995. No other Malaysian states require headscarves.
A Mexican lingerie
company has been ordered by the Federal Prosecutor for Consumer
Affairs to change its advertising after it used part of a
vulgar Mexican saying on a billboard. In response to the ad,
television executive Anna Fusoni Ponthier began a powerful
campaign against sexual violence in advertising. The campaign
has consisted of letter-writing, a petition, and an appearance
on a televised talk show. Though Vicky Form, the offending
advertiser, painted large black X's over the billboard slogans
in major Mexican cities, an advertising executive called the
X's a protest against an attack on free expression, claiming
that the slogans represent "folk expressions that are
an accumulation of popular wisdom."
To draw attention
to the US Senate's failure to consider CEDAW ratification,
a group of nine female US House of Representatives members
and several staffers led by Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey disrupted
a committee hearing held by Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Chair Jesse Helms. The women had attempted unsuccessfully
for three months to arrange a meeting with Helms to present
him with a letter calling for hearings on the CEDAW Convention.
The group stood at the back of the room holding enlarged copies
of the letter and over 100 signatures urging the hearings.
Helms requested that the Capitol Police escort the group out
after he told Woolsey, "Now you please be a lady. . .
.You are not going to be heard."
An Israeli Army
officer has been discharged from the military for religious
intolerance. A female soldier challenged Lt. Gamliel Peretz
when he began a class on the status of women in Judaism with
a traditional prayer in which men thank God they were not
made women. He responded to her challenge by claiming that
non orthodox Jews are not Jews and by further comparing Jewish
assimilation to Nazi crimes. Though Jonathan Rosenblum, a
spokesman for an Orthodox media resources center, condemned
the comparison, he claimed that Peretz's dismissal resembled
a witch hunt.
Despite extensive
lobbying in Zambia to allow women the same freedom of movement
and assembly as men, Justice Peter Chitendi has dismissed
the case of Elizabeth Mwanza. Ms. Mwanza and a female friend
were barred from entering the Lusaka Holiday Inn "unaccompanied"
in 1997. The Judge claimed that the case did not amount to
sex discrimination. This contradicts a ruling in 1992 against
the Intercontinental Hotel for preventing Sara Longwe from
entering the hotel under similar circumstances.
TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN
Convention Article 6
Sudanese authorities
have established a "Committee for the Eradication of
Abduction of Women and Children" in response to a UN
Commission on Human Rights report condemning slave raids.
The Commission suggested that the government investigate reports
of abductions and the cause of these abductions with the intent
of prosecuting perpetrators and arranging the safe return
of victims. The established Committee has been charged with
addressing each of the Commission's suggestions.
A couple faces
multiple charges, including charges of abuse, after keeping
a young Nigerian girl as a servant for nine years without
pay. The New York child abuse investigator and her husband
brought the girl with them when they came from Nigeria, falsely
claiming that she was their daughter. The couple had promised
the girl's parents that they would show her a better life
in the US, but instead cut all of her avenues of communication
and threatened harm to her and her family. Neighbors called
the police earlier this year when they heard the girl's screams.
A group of female
foreign ministers from around the world drafted a letter to
Secretary General Kofi Annan encouraging the UN General Assembly
to continue to address the grave state of trafficking in women
and children. In the letter, practices such as sexual exploitation,
domestic servitude and debt bondage were foregrounded as troubling
situations scarcely different from slavery. The foreign ministers
meeting was hosted by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
In November, a
law to protect children by punishing acts related to juvenile
prostitution and child pornography was enacted in Japan. The
law extends to overseas violations. While the penal code makes
punishment of overseas offenses difficult by requiring the
victim to officially complain to the Japanese authorities
within six months of the offense, the new law allows prosecution
without placing the full burden of proof on the victim. The
law also protects children by penalizing paid dating, which
often results from "telephone club" calls, and prohibits
the media from releasing specific information about victims.
The law does not, however, penalize the possession of child
pornography.
Six men were fined
20,000 yuan and then executed in the Shanxi province in China
for trafficking in women. Seven others were fined and sentenced
to life imprisonment. The men were sentenced early in December
after being convicted of selling 52 women in 1997 and 1998
into marriage in rural China. The men abducted the women after
promising to help them find work. Approximately 10,000 people
attended the public trial.
WOMEN IN PUBLIC LIFE
Convention Articles 7, 8
Women suffered
a double defeat in November when Kuwait's all-male Parliament
rejected a decree issued by the Emir granting women full political
rights, then within a week, rejected an almost identical draft
law. Both the decree and the draft law offer women the right
to vote and run for political office. Many deputies considered
the decree, which was issued by the Emir after parliament
was dissolved in May, unconstitutional. Sunni Islamist MP
Ahmad al-Baqer referred to the Koran, in which he claims,
God says men are superior to women. Even liberals who support
the rights of women agreed to vote against the decree on the
grounds that it "lacked urgency" as long as the
similar draft law was guaranteed consideration. The vote against
the draft law on November 30 was 32 to 30 with two abstentions.
As it stands, Kuwait has only 113,000 voters-men 21 years
and older who have been Kuwaiti citizens for at least 20 years.
In September, the
first woman ambassador was named in Oman. Khadija bint Hassan
bin Salman al-Luweti was appointed by Sultan Qaboos as Omani
ambassador to the Netherlands. Luweti graduated from Baghdad
University in 1974 with a degree in English. The only other
Gulf state with a female ambassador is Kuwait.
In Malawi, the
number of women in Parliament has risen from 9 to 16 as a
result of their second multiparty elections. Sixty-two women
had been on electoral lists. Malawi is a member country of
the Declaration of the Development Community of East Africa,
which calls for a quota of at least 30 percent of public posts
for women by the year 2005. Currently, women make up 52 percent
of the population in Malawi and hold only five percent of
public posts.
A fund-raising
organization has been established in Japan to support female
Diet candidates. Women in New World, International Network
(WIN WIN) offers financial help to women who run for the Diet
and gubernatorial elections. Members of WIN WIN can show support
by donating to female candidates who appear on a list composed
by a recommendation committee.
EDUCATION
Convention Article 10
Iranian Education
Minister Hussein Mozafar has committed to changing the image
of women portrayed by textbooks. This announcement came shortly
after reformist President Mohammad Khatami called in August
for women to have a more active political role. At the same
time, he was careful to caution against denial of the biological
differences between men and women. Though Mozafar has committed
to change texts for older students in the near future, the
precise nature of the changes has not been specified.
EMPLOYMENT
Article 11
UNICEF reported
in September that the status of women and girls in much of
Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union continues its downward
spiral under free market governments. The worsening situation
for women is marked by increased unemployment and abuse, as
well as inadequate social services. More women are also facing
part-time work and excessively low wages. UNICEF also expressed
concern over women's reduced life expectancy in many of these
nations and the nine-fold increase in H.I.V. cases over the
past five years. Though the number of women entrepreneurs
and organizations fighting domestic violence are rising, the
average number of women lawmakers has declined by one-third
to about ten percent in the countries UNICEF studied.
The German Economic
Institute has found that a meager four percent of German working
women are employed in management-level positions. Italy, Sweden
and Denmark lag behind Germany on this issue.
HEALTH AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Convention Articles 12,14,16
Japan has approved
the use of the birth control pill after nine years of debate.
Though it will be available by prescription, education about
the pill may also be needed before it is widely accepted,
since many Japanese women have reported a reluctance to try
it. Fears surrounding the pill have included erosion of national
morals, side effects and environmental harm from the hormones
contained in the pill. The pill will not be covered by public
health insurance.
The United Nations
released a report shortly before World AIDS Day on December
1 revealing that more women than men suffer from the AIDS
virus in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to UN officials, this
is the first time the data have been available. African girls
from 15 to 19 are five to six times as likely as boys of the
same age to have the H.I.V. virus. Dr. Peter Piot, head of
the Joint United Nations Program on H.I.V./AIDS, calls on
health workers to develop strategies to change men's actions,
specifically in the area of sex education for boys. H.I.V.
has been spread in Africa primarily through heterosexual sex
and passes more easily from men to women than from women to
men.
A government study
finds a disproportionately high rate of depression among women
aged 17 to 22 in the holy city of Qom, Iran. Zahra Shojaei,
a women's affairs advisor to President Khatami, explains that
the high depression rate stems from social restrictions that
women there face, including a conservative dress code. Young
women in Tehran reportedly violate the dress and make-up codes
more regularly, expressing themselves through "self-claimed
freedoms."
In Mexico, a toll-free
24-hour telephone hotline is now available offering information
about emergency contraceptive pills. In conjunction with the
hotline, the Population Council's Latin America and Caribbean
office has developed a media campaign to further disseminate
information. To reach the hotline from anywhere in Mexico,
dial "01-800-EN-3-DIAS."
South Africa has
adopted a program to encourage cervical cancer screening for
every woman over 30. Implementation is expected to be a slow
process, but the goal is to screen at least 70 percent of
the target-aged women in South Africa within ten years.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
General Recommendation No. 19
Rodi Alvarado Pena
had her asylum status taken away after it was granted by a
US immigration judge in 1996. The Board of Immigration Appeals
overturned the decision in her favor by a vote of 10-5. The
original judge had been convinced by the argument that the
Guatemalan government had failed to provide adequate protection
for Pena. The new ruling provides evidence that women fleeing
spousal abuse are not eligible for asylum in the US
The Combating of
Rape Bill recently introduced in Namibia promises to be one
of the most comprehensive pieces of rape legislation in the
world. By making the definition of rape broader and less dependent
upon the victim's lack of consent, it provides greater protection
from a range of sexual violations perpetrated by spouses,
relatives, acquaintances and strangers. The bill provides
for highly specific penalties and victim privacy. For further
information, contact Sister Namibia magazine at: P.O. Box
40092, Windhoek, Namibia, tel. 061-230618 or 230757; fax:
236371, e-mail: <sister@iafrica.com.na>.
Crackdowns on domestic
violence, including mandatory arrest laws, have produced unexpected
results in the United States. Some areas report that around
25 percent of domestic assault arrests are of women. Advocates
of battered women and many academics claim that the high number
of women arrested represents punished acts of self-defense.
Other academics and many law enforcement officials claim that
the arrests reveal a real increase in acts of violence perpetrated
by women. Despite this arrest rate, female victims of reported
violence outnumber male victims by more than five to one.
RESOURCES
Check this website
for special hotel rates for CSW, NGO Forum and Beijing +5:
<http://www.bestnychotelrates.com>.
Contact person: Valerie Zamberletti of Zamberletti & Associates.
Graduate Scholarship
in Women's Rights at the University of Toronto, Canada
The award is designed to lead toward either a Master of Laws
(LLM) or a Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) degree. The
scholarship permits law graduates of outstanding merit from
developing countries to complete advanced research and study
in law. Application Deadline: February 1 of each year. For
more information: Graduate Admissions Office, Faculty of Law,
University of Toronto, 78 Queens Park, Toronto, Ontario CANADA
M5S 2C5, Telephone: (416) 978-0213, Fax: (416) 978-2648.E-mail:
<law.graduate@utoronto.ca>.
Website: <http://www.law.utoronto.ca/grad>.
whrNET is a new
women's human rights website launched by an international
coalition of women's groups and is designed to strengthen
advocacy for women's human rights through efficient utilization
of information and communication technologies. The website
is found at: <www.whrNet.org>.
Women, Ink. advertises
and sells books and reference materials relevant to the Beijing
+5 review process. They now send out a monthly e-mail bulletin
with news about important books, conferences and websites.
To subscribe to Women, Ink's Booklink, send a message to <wink@womenink.org>
and type 'Subscribe Booklink' in the subject line. Include
your name, organization (if applicable) and country in the
body of the message. Print versions are available upon request.
Women, Ink., 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017,
USA, Tel: 212-687-8633. Fax: 212-661-2704. Website: <http://www.womenink.org
>.
Religious Fundamentalisms
and the Human Rights of Women, edited by Courtney W. Howland,
is a collection of essays providing insight both on the views
of women who consider religion hopelessly patriarchal and
reject it completely, as well as other feminists who fight
fundamentalism, while maintaining religious conviction. To
order, contact Meredith Howard (212) 982-3900, ext. 267 at
St. Martin's Press. E-mail: <meredithhoward@stmartins.com>.
Africa: Gender,
Globalization and Resistance, published by the Pan-African
NGO AAWORD, highlights the struggle for gender equity amidst
imperialist globalization. Yassine Fall, the editor, has collected
essays that address questions vital to African economic and
social viability in the 2000s, such as whether trade can become
a vehicle for gender equity in developing countries. The vivid
portrayal of the grim socio-economic status of African women
becomes the impetus for discussions of resistance and alternative
options for attaining gender equity. For more information,
send inquiries to Association of African Women for Research
and Development, Sicap Sacre Coeur I, Villa No. 8798, B.P.
15367, Dakar, Senegal. Phone: (221) 824-20-53. Fax: (221)
824-20-56. E-mail: <aaword@telecomplus.sn>.
The EU and Human
Rights, an Oxford UP volume edited by Philip Alston, is a
valuable resource with contributions by experts from every
EU country. The entries explore humans rights bodies and policies
across Europe with important chapters about gender equity,
racism and refugee and asylum policies.
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