SPECIAL MEASURES NEEDED TO PROTECT WOMEN FROM `STRUCTURALDISCRIMINATION' IN PERU, COMMITTEE ASSERTS, EXPERTS COMMENT ON COUNTRY'S EFFORTS TO COMPLY WITH CONVENTION

Committee on Elimination of
Discrimination against Women
Nineteenth Session
398th Meeting (PM)

WOM/1068
6 July 1998




While Peru's Constitution prohibited discrimination, the society's structural discrimination could not be eliminated without temporary special measures, the 23 experts on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women told representatives from Peru this afternoon.

They made these comments as they continued considering that country's third and fourth periodic reports on complying with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Peru's Government should think more theoretically about "special measures" and not hold them as constitutionally objectionable, experts said. Some programmes already in effect could be considered temporary measures. Literacy campaigns, for example, were temporary measures to
rectify structural discrimination without violating the Constitutional ban on discrimination in either direction.

Many areas of women's life needed to be addressed by temporary special measures, such as the high rate of illiteracy, they said. The low participation of women in decision-making was another, and it seemed no real effort was being made to remedy that. Although plans were in place to remove discrimination against women, they needed to be implemented. In a "macho" culture, that could not be done without special measures.

William Toro, the country's Vice-Minister for the Promotion of Women and Human Rights, said a programme instituted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Advancement increased employment opportunities for youth and women. Legislation had been altered to remove barriers to jobs, and jobs had been created for women in areas traditionally allocated to men, such as carpentry and mechanics.

There were cultural obstacles to achieving women's rights, but these were being addressed, he said. In Peru, "poverty had a woman's face", since most of the country's poor were women. Combating poverty was a Government priority. Other programmes under discussion were the issue of abortion in a Catholic country and the problem of high mortality because of illegal abortion.

The Committee hoped that the significant legal progress to date would be reflected in de facto improvement in the lives of Peru's women, its acting Chairperson, Miriam Estrada of Ecuador, said in concluding comments. Structural discrepancies seriously affected the most vulnerable sectors and
exacerbated problems of extreme poverty, including violence.

The Committee will meet again at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, 7 July, to begin its consideration of the combined third and fourth periodic reports of the Republic of Korea.

Committee Work Programme

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women met this afternoon to continue its consideration of the combined second and third periodic reports of Peru. (For background information on the report, as well as experts comments, see Press Release WOM/1067 of 6 July.)

Statements

WILLIAM TORO, Vice-Minister for the Promotion of Women and Human Rights of Peru, said he would sum up the answers to questions considered most important by his delegation. Besides the problem of domestic violence, there was, for Andean and indigenous people, the problem of displacement because of terrorist activity. Those people had become vulnerable to many conditions, including alcoholism, depression and extreme poverty. Sixty per cent of the returnees to their lands were women, and the Government's focus for assistance was on women heads of families. Programmes included creation and provision of both traditional and non-traditional employment opportunities, literacy drives and the establishment of a provisional registry for those who had lost identity papers making them ineligible for citizenship benefits. Psychosocial assistance included the setting up of school programmes for children who had been traumatized by the terrorism.

With regard to women at higher levels of political involvement, he said there were not many of them but they were well placed. The head of the Customs Department was a woman and, for the first time in the history of the country, a woman president was elected for Congress during 1995-1996.

Major innovations in the area of education included a programme by the Ministry of Labour and Social Advancement to increase employment opportunities for youth. That programme had benefited women, especially within the labour market in metropolitan Lima itself. Groups were formed to create jobs for women and legislation was altered to remove barriers to jobs for them. Some of those jobs were in areas traditionally allocated to men, such as carpentry and car mechanics. Job recruitment countrywide involved both public and private companies. Other forms of assistance for women in the employment sphere were training programmes and day care.

ELENA CONTERNO, General Manager, Human Development, Ministry for the Promotion of Women and Human Rights, Peru, turned to questions related to article 12, on health. The Ministry of Health had been carrying out a programme on family planning to the year 2000. The programme included a health component for young people and teenagers, and was part of a national women and development plan. As an indication of its success to date, a demographic survey on family health, conducted in 1996, had revealed virtually universal knowledge of some form of birth control. Awareness was greater in urban areas, and also correlated positively with higher levels
of education. Despite such widespread cognizance, however, only 64 per cent of married women used contraception, and the widespread use of traditional and less effective methods showed the need for more education.

To questions on article 14, problems faced by rural women, she said the Ministry of Agriculture had a project on land conservation, involving more than 4,000 rural organizations. Through the construction of filtering systems and programmes, rural women were better able to manage water
resources, land and vegetation. Since 1997, through a loan received from the World Bank, the Government had begun to implement productivity activities, which positively affected the rural population both directly and indirectly. Those projects would increase in 1998, as a loan from
Japan would add to the project's resources.

In 1997, 150,000 rural women had been involved in training courses, which would continue in 1998, she said. Those efforts were designed to ensure that women, who were the pillars of the family in rural areas, could improve their standards of living. A network for rural women had been
established in the Ministry of Agriculture to help them function as productive members of society. In addition, a project to encourage the transfer of technology to rural communities was being implemented, providing technical and financial assistance for rural women's groups. The
National Institute of Resources was encouraging the sustainable use and preservation of natural resources and the environment. A forestry development project and a reforestation project were currently under way and supported by a number of mothers' groups.

Through decentralized public bodies, the State had helped rural women individually and in groups, through food support and literacy action, she continued. Support was also provided for technical and artisan training, education, food, shoes, textiles, ceramics and agricultural training for
production. Those were aimed at improving the situation of rural women, as well as their families, and to better their opportunities.

Vice-Minister TORO stressed the commitment of President Alberto Fujimori to improving the situation of Peruvian women, and expressed his Ministry's willingness to work with the Committee for that goal.

Experts Comments

Since the introduction of the new Constitution in Peru, one expert said, the safeguards for equal rights were in place. The challenge was to implement the laws. The information received from the Peruvian representatives was frank. Women needed to be informed about the services
available to them. They had to know about the law and how to avail themselves of help. There had to be penalties for those who violated the law. To achieve that, it was necessary to strengthen education and coordination with non-governmental organizations.

The Government had to have an overall strategy to implement the Beijing Platform of Action, she said. Eradication of poverty was one of the measures called for in the Beijing Platform. The statistics, such as 44 per cent of women living in poverty and 18 per cent in extreme poverty,
were striking. Also, very long workdays for women with little remuneration meant that women in those conditions had no access to education or social programmes.

Another expert said changes to the Constitution were remarkable in the context of the country's continuing terrorist activity, the structural problem that discriminated against women and the difficult circumstances of economic restructuring. It was important to note that discrimination could
be either intentional or nonintentional. The latter was most difficult to identify and it related directly to the structural discrimination. Both prevented women from getting childcare or access to education.

Approaches to family planning and contraceptive methods needed to be looked at, she said. The lack of abortion rights was directly related to the high infant mortality rate. A number of Catholic countries had legalized abortion on the basis that it was a health right, and that
restricting abortion only made it more unsafe without eliminating it. The strength of trade unions in Peru had been weakened and collective bargaining had been replaced by individual bargaining. Because of their standing in society and their family responsibility, women were not in a
good position to bargain on their own behalf. It was good that Peru's economy was taking an upward swing, but it must not be only for the benefit of the already advantaged.

Education was the springboard to women's empowerment, another expert stressed. She noted the school drop-out patterns of girls from the urban poor, rural areas, and indigenous groups. If urgent action were not taken, those women would be doomed to perpetual poverty. Were programmes targeting "drop-out girls"? she asked.

Turning to health, she commended the fact that the 1993 Constitution included the right to health, including reproductive health care. However, the urban poor, and indigenous and rural persons faced the dual problem of early teenage pregnancy combined with high rates of maternal mortality.
Those patterns indicated inadequate access to pre-natal care. In particular, early pregnancy required specialized care. Were any programmes focused on those young women? she asked. A major cause of maternal mortality was septicaemia, indicating that incomplete abortion was not
being properly managed. Were programmes in place to promote safe motherhood? she asked.

Several experts commended Peru's legislative progress while expressing concern about the extent to which such progress really impacted women's rights. An expert commended Peru's forward-looking Constitution, which included provisions to ensure the independence of the judiciary. However, she said, the easy part of ensuring equality for women was the promulgation
of law; the difficult part was making sure such law translated into actual equality for women.

The judiciary had wide powers to interpret and apply general or customary law, it was noted. Yet, customary law often meant traditional rules which unfailingly discriminated against women. She asked whether women had free access to legal aid and easy access to the ombudsman for women, as well as whether there had been major action in cases brought to the courts or the ombudsman's office.

In comments on the trafficking of women, an expert said information on regulating prostitution had been provided, but the Committee had not been told how Peru was protecting women from exploitation. In Peru, there was regulated prostitution, clandestine prostitution, and exploitation of girls. She asked what was being done not to protect society from the effects of trafficking in women but rather to defend women's rights.

An expert said there was serious discrimination against women in the health field, especially in the poorest urban areas where women had no education. Reproductive health, employment, nutrition and human rights were just a number of areas where more basic action was needed. It was a matter of enabling women to get informed, competent help.

Another matter of concern was the high level of illiteracy among women. The fact that 72 per cent of the illiterates in the country were women indicated that women really were at a disadvantage. While illiteracy campaigns were mentioned in the report, there appeared to be no overall
programme. Another point not covered in the report was the question of how to counter poverty. President Fujimori had indicated his desire to be involved in microcredit programmes, but what action was being taken in that area?

Another expert said it seemed that not much had been done specifically to remove discrimination against women. However, the report indicated that plans were in place, needing only to be implemented. That involved special measures. The rate of illiteracy was very high and the plan was to reduce it to 4 per cent by the year 2000.

Terrorist activity had stopped economic growth and exacerbated violence in the country, an expert said. It had uprooted thousands and created all the attendant problems. But, even under the circumstances, there were serious causes of concern. One was the low participation of women in
decision-making and it seemed no real effort was being made in that area.

Furthermore, she said, the vote had been given to everyone, but the motivation of the Government was suspect. Giving the vote to women who were illiterate and could not make their own decisions was a questionable good. In a "macho" culture, as so many of the cultures around Peru were, it was questionable whether women had been given the vote in order to make
them more equal, or to make them more the tools of men.

The history of the country had created a great gap between urban and rural people and between indigenous people and those in big cities. No big efforts had been made to narrow the gap. Employment was an issue of major concern and it was one reason for the violence of the society. In labour, it was important to have strong laws but it was also important to have an institution that enumerated the rights of women to work. Finally, she said more and more women were emigrating to foreign countries. Those women lived in alien countries under extreme circumstances, and worked hard to support their families.

Closing Comments

Mr. TORO said the Government was extremely concerned with the question of how to combat poverty. It was said that "poverty in Peru had a woman's face", since the majority of the country's poor were women. Within the context of the national policy to combat poverty, all ministries and various autonomous institutions were working to provide universal health
services, education and justice.

Peru had been going through serious problems, and a number of social scourges had existed for years, he said. Terrorism had plunged the country into the depths of poverty. Also, earlier governments had managed the country in a non-transparent manner. The current Government was trying to improve transparency. Much needed to be done to address the problem of
poverty and help women.

The Committee's comments had reflected concerns about literacy, he noted. The Government was committed to reducing illiteracy rates, and had allocated resources for that objective. Last year, the Ministry of Education had led the national illiteracy programme with 16,000 workers.
This year, his Ministry was in charge of the programme, with 32,000 workers, 95 per cent of
whom were women. There were cultural obstacles to achieving women's rights, but those were being addressed.

Domestic violence was a real problem in "macho" countries, he said. However, the Government was enlisting a broad range of social actors in discussions on the matter. The problem of abortion was also currently being discussed widely. Peru was a Catholic country, but it was aware of the problem of high mortality rates due to abortion. Efforts were being made to improve budgetary allocations for reducing maternal mortality.

MIRIAM ESTRADA, of Ecuador, Committee Acting Chairperson, said a number of socio-economic phenomena were impeding women's advancement, despite governmental efforts to protect women's rights. The Committee hoped that the significant legal progress to date would be reflected in de facto improvement in the lives of Peru's women.

The establishment of the Ministry for the Promotion of Women, and the national plan on women and development, were evidence that the Government intended to comply with the provisions of the Convention, which had been constitutionally adopted as part of national law. In addition to governmental efforts, NGOs had been involved in programmes for the advancement of Peru's women.

However, structural discrepancies seriously affected the most vulnerable sectors and women in particular, she said. The problems of extreme poverty, the high levels of physical, psychological and sexual violence --particularly in rural areas -- and the plight of young women in emergency
zones were serious problems. Other concerns were the high maternal mortality rate, and reports on sterilization being performed without provision of sufficient information or appropriate consent being obtained.

Also, the Committee was disturbed by problems having to do with migration, displacement, terrorism and drug trafficking. Each of those had particular effect on women in rural areas and emergency zones.

It was clear that Peru had the will to continue its programmes and projects, she said. She hoped that pacification and peace would be achieved. Peace would ensure that meagre resources could be allocated to social development, poverty eradication, the elimination of violence and
the full enjoyment of human rights.