COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS CONCLUDES DAY OF GENERAL DISCUSSION

CESCR
28th session
13 May 2002
Afternoon



Stresses the Need to Implement Measures to Fight Discrimination against Women
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this afternoon concluded its day of general discussion on the equal rights of women and men to the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, stressing the need to implement further measures to fight discrimination against women.
A member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women said that the rights of women were a human rights issue and were an integrated and holistic part of all human rights; temporary special measures to fight discrimination were seen in the context of women's unequal treatment. Rights were not only looked at from the legislative prospective but also from other angles.
Another speaker said that domestic violence used to be considered a private affair and women were left alone without any official help. Part of the main work achieved by the United Nations, through various conferences, was to turn domestic violence into a public affair.
Following the discussion, the Committee was envisaging to draft a general comment on article 3 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which is the equal rights of women and men to the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights.
When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 14 May, it will meet in private to have a discussion with States parties. It is scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. in public to carry out a follow-up to the Committee's day of general discussion on the right to education and a follow-up to the World Education Forum held in Dakar in April 2000.

Discussion
Following the morning discussion on the issue of equality between men and women to the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, the two guest speakers, Savitri Goonesekere and Hanna Beate Schopp-Schilling, both members of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), continued to contribute to the discussion.
The guest speakers said that it was important to see the specific areas where women's rights were not fulfilled. A holistic planning should be made to eradicate discrimination against women. In addition, international jurisprudence should be integrated into courts, as done in India and Nepal, for example, in order to impact on domestic policies. When a law was enacted saying that women and men were equal, that might seem to be adequate, but if there was distortion in the applications of the provision, they should be corrected through the means of special measures.
Further, the speakers said that temporary special measures were designed to correct indirect discrimination that might occur in the process of the implementation of non-discriminatory rights. In day-to-day experience, one could observe that less and less direct discrimination was seen, leaving the place for indirect forms of discrimination. For instance a woman could be denied a job just because she was a woman, but instead of telling her that, they would tell her that the job had already been given to someone else.
If inequality was recognized as disadvantageous to women, measures had to be invented against the discrimination of women, the guest speakers said. More emphasis should be put on substantive equality. In addition, laws aimed at giving effect to the full enjoyment of women's rights and preventing discrimination against women might turn out to be discriminatory in the end. For that reason, laws should be revised to reconsider their effectiveness.
Another participant said that gender-sensitive budgetary allocation was important to advance the rights of women. Without neglecting national budgetary priorities, it was essential to allocate funds to areas where women's rights could be promoted. Without adequate budgetary allocation, the women might not fully enjoy their economic, social and cultural rights.
KRISTINA MORVAI (Hungary), speaking on "domestic violence as an equal rights issue", said that she wanted to talk about domestic violence and to establish a theoretical approach to that phenomenon. Domestic violence used to be considered a private affair and women were left alone without any official help. Part of the main work achieved by the United Nations, through various conferences, was to turn domestic violence into a public affair. In the second stage, domestic violence against women had become a human issue, with the 1993 Vienna Conference on Human Rights interpreting the traditional aspects of the human rights approach. In the traditional approach of human rights protection, only acts of state agents were considered and not those acts committed by private persons. As a result of twenty years of work, governments were now able to write legislative texts to protect women. With the adoption of the optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, States had become answerable before CEDAW.
With regard to the right to adequate housing, for example, women had to abandon their homes in order to protect their children from the danger they encountered as a result of domestic violence. The behaviour of men thus had caused the escape of women from their regular domiciles. They became homeless and lived without shelter with their children. It was the duty of the State to provide safe shelter to the victims. Why did husbands beat their wives? They were battered and punished for having their own opinions and for failing to obey the men's directives. In addition, attention should be paid to the health of the women due to the violence they endured, and to children's conditions, who were disturbed because of the violence.
LEILANI FARHA, of Women's Programme Manager (Canada), speaking on "what article 3 means in relation to the right to adequate housing", said that women's special conditions should be seen in conjunction with their access to economic, social and cultural rights. Women were undervalued in many aspects, including with respect to housing. In Canada, a blatant form of discrimination was taking place on a daily basis. A gender-neutral policy might also have a negative consequence with regard to a mortgage loan; a woman seeking a loan had to deposit a given amount of money in order to get the loan. Since women were poor, they could not afford to obtain the loan; their home ownership was farfetched. The material conditions of women should be considered with regards to access to housing. With regard to non-discrimination, women were not enjoying their rights because of discriminatory policies and gender-stereotypes, among other things. Women were only enjoying partially their non-discrimination rights. It was important that States should facilitate the housing ownership of women by lowering the down payment and by allowing them to have access to interest-free loans.
INGRID WESTENFORP (Netherlands), speaking on "access to and enjoyment of the right to housing for women", said that domestic violence was a cause for homelessness. In the case of widowhood, a woman could lose her status within the family, and might become homeless. There were other specific aspects that made women homeless, the fact of poorness and lack of equality between the couple. In many cases, single-woman households might lead to homelessness due to the lack of support from a man. In addition, laws should not be based on strict equality of both sex, but creative laws should be designed to deal with specific issues of discrimination. Besides the laws, policy measures should be taken against stereotype discrimination against women.
A representative of ILO said that her organization had submitted a paper on the working conditions of women and on the issue of equal pay for equal value of work.
An Expert said that the ILO's input was helpful to the work of the Committee and hoped that the Organization would continue to provide input in the future.
Responding to some of the issues raised during the discussion, one of the guest speakers said that CEDAW put emphasis on family in its discussion of country reports. With regard to policy formulation, it should not be the exclusive job of lawyers. The process of law-making now involved the members of civil society. If there was change in inheritance law, for example, one had to anticipate a loophole if the views of women were not involved. With regard to domestic violence, some countries had enacted criminal provisions making wife battering a crime. Domestic violence was now a public and no more a private affair. However, the victims of domestic violence should report it to the police so that public prosecution could take place. It was important to emphasize that domestic violence had now become a public affair.
Ms. Schopp-Schilling of CEDAW said that domestic violence was discrimination against women and a denigration of their human rights. The power position of men throughout the ages had conceived violence as a means of love in some societies. However, that situation was a distorted love affair. In some countries, laws which had seemed favourable to the rights of women had turned out to be against the interests of women.
A Committee Expert said that the future general comment should embrace the issue of substantive equality on the same line with the one already adopted by CEDAW.
ANA IRMA RIVERA-LASSEN, of the Latin American and the Caribbean Committee for the Defence of Women Rights (CLADEM), said that her Committee had called attention to the necessity of review texts, treaties and other instruments from a gender prospective. It also used an ethnic and racial perspective with special emphasis on economic, social and cultural rights, full citizenship, sexual reproductive rights and the right to live free of violence. Women were the poorest among the poor people, that fact was repeated in studies and documents everywhere. In the regions of the Committee, governments decided their macroeconomic policies without taking in account the effects on women, their needs, rights or life conditions. Access to economic and programme policy designs were not facilitated to women. There were no adequate accountability mechanisms on trade and commerce that might affect women's citizenship. Privatization and commercial liberalization had produced new forms of poverty. States' budgets were shrinking basic social services affecting women.
MARIA HERMINIA GRATEROL, IWEAW-Asia Pacific (Malaysia), said that gender identity was overlapping dimensions; women's experiences were shaped by multiple identities that were drawn on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, economics, position and age, among other things. Since each level of a woman's multiple identity was valued unequally, the interplay of various levels of subordination and disadvantage often amounted to obstacles to the understanding and claiming of rights by women from discriminated groups. It was important to explore the ways that women's multiple identities determined how they viewed, asserted, demanded and realized their rights.
MILOON KOTHARI, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the right to adequate housing, said that in his work he had attempted to present a framework of the existing segregation to the right to housing and he had provided guidelines to States to avoid such situations. He said the issue of globalization had to be dealt with concerning the impact of privatization and the means to protect the achievements already gained. The process of globalization should not affect the population and particularly women. There was also a need to emphasize that laws intended for national security purposes, following the 11 September events, should not be detrimental to the human rights of people, and such issues should be indicated in any important decisions of the Committee, such as the general comment. Peoples should be mobilized to defend their rights that might be affected by the process of globalization.
A Committee Expert said that in some societies women continued to elect men and not women. No women were being elected in official positions. In Jordan, for example, women did not elect women to parliament. The attitude of women towards trusting women should be changed.
Another Expert added that women accepted discrimination and they continued to suffer subordination. Women in indigenous communities and rural areas, for instance, affirmed their acceptance of discrimination. Many women did not trust women, and accepted that they were treated inferior to men. That was a daunting problem that still existed which needed a grass-root campaign against such attitudes.
A Representative of the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations Office Geneva said that the framework of the general comment would be useful to States in their implementation of the provisions of the Covenant. The Convention's article 4 (1) should be embodied into the Committee's general comment. The sharing of experience with CEDAW was also beneficial since that Committee had a long experience.
A representative from a non-governmental organization said that women should enjoy the indivisibility of economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights. Women should also enjoy the right to development as active participants. The idea of inferiority of women, which was referred to by an Expert, was not invented by women themselves but it was brought on by men.
In conclusion, Ms. Goonesekere said that the rights of women were a human rights issue and were an integrated and holistic part of human rights. The temporary special measures were seen in the context of women's unequal treatment. CEDAW had specifically described discrimination against women defining it as direct and indirect, private and public. It was not only an array of legislation which was aimed at promoting women's rights but it was also the policies that were taken into consideration. Rights were not only looked at from the legislative prospective but also from other angles. In addition, CEDAW considered that culture, which might be prejudicial to women, could be metamorphosed by some groups and subjected to change.


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