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26 March 2001
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Commission on Human Rights
57th session
26 March 2001
Statement by Dr. Nafis Sadik
Special Advisor, Under Secretary-General United Nations,
Special Debate on Tolerance and Respect
I would like to address the question of tolerance and respect from the perspective of gender.
Tolerance and respect are core values in any society, from the most traditional to the most modern. Such core values should apply equally to women and men. It is therefore hard to say why gender issues have to be raised today in an open and sometimes confrontational way: but the fact is that relations between men and women are unequal and inequitable in most if not all societies. Ethnic, and sectarian intolerance, religious extremisms which does not respect other beliefs have caused innumerable conflicts and wars and continue to play havoc with the lives of many. In all these situations women suffer disproportionately.
Gender inequity holds back many societies from securing the best possible outcomes for many men as well as most women. Neglect and discrimination cost many women their health and even their lives. For example:
· Pregnancy and childbirth are the single biggest cause of ill-health among women of reproductive age in developing countries. Over half a million women die each year, and many times that number suffer illness or injury;
· Two million girls between 5 and 15 are forced into the commercial sex trade each year;
· Trafficking for sexual purposes is the most rapidly expanding segment of organised crime. It affects an unknown but rapidly increasing number of women;
· The same number of girls and women are at risk of female genital mutilation each year;
· Young women in high-prevalence communities are five to six times more likely to be HIV -positive than men in the same age group;
· One woman in three may suffer violence during her lifetime, usually at the hands of a partner or spouse;
· Two-thirds of the world's illiterates are women and girls;
· Two-thirds of the world's poorest people are women and girls.
It is also true that in any situation where respect for human life and well-being are in question, women's situation is almost always worse than that of men. This applies in war and civil emergency, in voluntary migration for employment and in forced migration because of environmental hazard or natural disaster. It is harder to establish and maintain civil rights for women than for men: for example rights in marriage and divorce, property and inheritance, education and employment, voting and representation. These are problems in all countries and all groups of society. Some disabilities and gender inequities may be less pronounced in more prosperous communities, but economic well-being may only mask the reality. Even in the richest societies, women are much more likely to suffer hardship as a result of divorce; they earn less for the same work, and they are less likely than men to take their full part in legislation or in the highest ranks of the professions or business.
Economic development will not ensure tolerance and respect for women. Nor will modernization of traditional societies, unless modernisation and development are accompanied by explicit measures, to ensure that women are respected and tolerated as equals in society. What measures are needed to ensure full toleration and respect for women?
First let me say that all cultures have unique and positive values, which should have maximum scope for their expression. These values respect and nurture human life, and are found in some form in all cultures. Each society also has individual characteristics, which help to identify it and which have helped it to survive through the generations.
But no culture worth the name finds it acceptable to discriminate against or oppress women. Where such practices occur, it is the result of cultural perversion. A good example is female genital mutilation, which is still sometimes claimed to be culturally appropriate. But there is no justification whatever in culture or religion for female genital mutilation, and countries are increasingly legislating against it.
Vibrant, vigorous cultures are capable of positive adaptation. The world changes and cultures change with it. The need for adaptation presents itself in a sharp way when externals are rapidly changing -typical examples are urbanisation or environmental change. Temporary or permanent contact with other cultures is also increasingly common. It is in fact a test of the resilience of a culture that it can absorb the impact of such contact.
Change may alter some cultural practices and render others obsolete; but change will not affect the core values of any culture. What may happen is that over time some practices which were formerly tolerated become unacceptable: a good example is slavery, which has been a feature of many societies in the past but is now universally condemned. Similarly, the tight control over women's fertility, which was formerly practised for dynastic, or property reasons is unacceptable today. Violence including sexual violence like rape and incest (previously often led to ostracization of girls and women) is now on the public agenda as a crime. The personal rights of women take precedence over any perceived value, which assigns their rights to husbands, the family or the state.
In our time, universal human rights are broadly acknowledged by all member nations of the United Nations. They draw their binding force from their capacity to express the values essential to all cultures. This is the basis on which they have been accepted and on which they should become part of the ethical structure (and thus legal, administrative, community and family structures) of all cultures.
There is considerable and continuing debate in all countries about precise interpretations of human rights, and their relationship to national bodies of law and practice. This debate is healthy and should be encouraged. It is materially assisted by such instruments as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, to which the vast majority of countries have acceded. Countries' vigorous support of these conventions and wide use of their reporting mechanisms can only strengthen the movement towards tolerance and respect for women.
These international instruments allow countries and the international process to take positive action to redress old wrongs and correct new practices, which do not conform to human rights. No rights are more important than the right to education and the right to health, including reproductive health. It has taken some time for reproductive health to be accepted as a human right, and it has yet to be fully implemented in all countries, but it is fundamental to the equality and empowerment of women. The right to reproductive health includes not only safe motherhood and protection against unwanted pregnancy, protection against infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, but also the right to protection against gender-based violence and sexual abuse. Establishing and maintaining the right to reproductive health is the very essence of toleration and respect.
Reproductive health in extreme situations is especially hard to protect. That is why special efforts must be made to protect it. Women are not only more vulnerable in emergencies, they bear more responsibility. Great efforts are needed to ensure that toleration and respect extend even to these situations.
Women's right to education on an equal basis with men must be vigorously promoted. Successive international agreements on universal education have not yet made it a reality. Toleration and respect demand that the gender gap in education be closed.
Women's right to employment and to equality in employment is frequently ignored or abused. Women are in some cases prevented from entering the workplace. Conversely, economic hardship may force women into paid employment against their will. In other cases, women are denied the full benefits of their labour, and opportunities for promotion may be blocked to them. Laws exist in many countries against such practices, but they are hard to eradicate. All the more reason for vigorous action.
Women migrants are also vulnerable. Hostility to minority and migrant groups may be expressed in the form of discrimination against women. Women may also be prevented by practices in their own communities from entering fully into their new world. This is especially tragic where women find themselves with no protection from violence within their own community, or are prevented from taking advantage of changes in their parent societies. Minority groups cut off both from their host country and their home country are at a special disadvantage, and women are the most disadvantaged of all.
Innovative programmes are helping to bring such isolation to an end, but it is very common in many countries of immigration, especially those least prepared by history. Among these are several industrial countries, which draw immigrants for work, but find it hard to assimilate or accommodate their cultural differences. In these cases education and acclimatisation are needed for the host communities as much as the immigrant ones.
Women who are already disadvantaged are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse, violence and exploitation. The tragic effects can be seen in the sharp rise of trafficking for sexual purposes; in the prevalence of abusive relationships among communities already stressed by poverty and discrimination; and in the disproportionate incidence of HIV infection among young women in high-prevalence communities.
These are grave challenges to the core values of all societies, and we must respond to them with appropriate gravity. We must be prepared to examine all our assumptions and responses concerning gender relations, including sexual behaviour. This is especially important for our young people, who are on the leading edge of rapid change: at the same time they are at the most impressionable and vulnerable stage of their emotional lives.
Can we simply restate the old values in the old way? I think not. I am reminded of a debate on HIV/AIDS at the United Nations last year, in which a delegate from a Catholic country said "I may disagree with my daughter about sexual morality, but she should not have to die because we disagree." He meant that he might deplore her behaviour, but would not deny her the information and the means to protect herself from unwanted pregnancy or infection. I respect that man, both for his views on morality and for his willingness to re- examine his assumptions.
Tolerance and respect for both men and women is both an old and a new challenge. The United Nations process is essential in enabling countries to respond. We can see these challenge in a new light, thanks to many years of work culminating in the international conferences on human rights, population and social development of the 1990s. These conferences, including the Millennium Summit Declaration represent the latest stage in the long discussion about how we respond to change. They were an opportunity for civilised discourse among people of very different views. The success of the conferences showed that is possible for reasonable people to disagree but yet to come to consensus on action. Renewed commitment to implementation of the various conference agreements will help all countries move towards our common goal.
* *** *
57th session
26 March 2001
Statement by Dr. Nafis Sadik
Special Advisor, Under Secretary-General United Nations,
Special Debate on Tolerance and Respect
I would like to address the question of tolerance and respect from the perspective of gender.
Tolerance and respect are core values in any society, from the most traditional to the most modern. Such core values should apply equally to women and men. It is therefore hard to say why gender issues have to be raised today in an open and sometimes confrontational way: but the fact is that relations between men and women are unequal and inequitable in most if not all societies. Ethnic, and sectarian intolerance, religious extremisms which does not respect other beliefs have caused innumerable conflicts and wars and continue to play havoc with the lives of many. In all these situations women suffer disproportionately.
Gender inequity holds back many societies from securing the best possible outcomes for many men as well as most women. Neglect and discrimination cost many women their health and even their lives. For example:
· Pregnancy and childbirth are the single biggest cause of ill-health among women of reproductive age in developing countries. Over half a million women die each year, and many times that number suffer illness or injury;
· Two million girls between 5 and 15 are forced into the commercial sex trade each year;
· Trafficking for sexual purposes is the most rapidly expanding segment of organised crime. It affects an unknown but rapidly increasing number of women;
· The same number of girls and women are at risk of female genital mutilation each year;
· Young women in high-prevalence communities are five to six times more likely to be HIV -positive than men in the same age group;
· One woman in three may suffer violence during her lifetime, usually at the hands of a partner or spouse;
· Two-thirds of the world's illiterates are women and girls;
· Two-thirds of the world's poorest people are women and girls.
It is also true that in any situation where respect for human life and well-being are in question, women's situation is almost always worse than that of men. This applies in war and civil emergency, in voluntary migration for employment and in forced migration because of environmental hazard or natural disaster. It is harder to establish and maintain civil rights for women than for men: for example rights in marriage and divorce, property and inheritance, education and employment, voting and representation. These are problems in all countries and all groups of society. Some disabilities and gender inequities may be less pronounced in more prosperous communities, but economic well-being may only mask the reality. Even in the richest societies, women are much more likely to suffer hardship as a result of divorce; they earn less for the same work, and they are less likely than men to take their full part in legislation or in the highest ranks of the professions or business.
Economic development will not ensure tolerance and respect for women. Nor will modernization of traditional societies, unless modernisation and development are accompanied by explicit measures, to ensure that women are respected and tolerated as equals in society. What measures are needed to ensure full toleration and respect for women?
First let me say that all cultures have unique and positive values, which should have maximum scope for their expression. These values respect and nurture human life, and are found in some form in all cultures. Each society also has individual characteristics, which help to identify it and which have helped it to survive through the generations.
But no culture worth the name finds it acceptable to discriminate against or oppress women. Where such practices occur, it is the result of cultural perversion. A good example is female genital mutilation, which is still sometimes claimed to be culturally appropriate. But there is no justification whatever in culture or religion for female genital mutilation, and countries are increasingly legislating against it.
Vibrant, vigorous cultures are capable of positive adaptation. The world changes and cultures change with it. The need for adaptation presents itself in a sharp way when externals are rapidly changing -typical examples are urbanisation or environmental change. Temporary or permanent contact with other cultures is also increasingly common. It is in fact a test of the resilience of a culture that it can absorb the impact of such contact.
Change may alter some cultural practices and render others obsolete; but change will not affect the core values of any culture. What may happen is that over time some practices which were formerly tolerated become unacceptable: a good example is slavery, which has been a feature of many societies in the past but is now universally condemned. Similarly, the tight control over women's fertility, which was formerly practised for dynastic, or property reasons is unacceptable today. Violence including sexual violence like rape and incest (previously often led to ostracization of girls and women) is now on the public agenda as a crime. The personal rights of women take precedence over any perceived value, which assigns their rights to husbands, the family or the state.
In our time, universal human rights are broadly acknowledged by all member nations of the United Nations. They draw their binding force from their capacity to express the values essential to all cultures. This is the basis on which they have been accepted and on which they should become part of the ethical structure (and thus legal, administrative, community and family structures) of all cultures.
There is considerable and continuing debate in all countries about precise interpretations of human rights, and their relationship to national bodies of law and practice. This debate is healthy and should be encouraged. It is materially assisted by such instruments as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, to which the vast majority of countries have acceded. Countries' vigorous support of these conventions and wide use of their reporting mechanisms can only strengthen the movement towards tolerance and respect for women.
These international instruments allow countries and the international process to take positive action to redress old wrongs and correct new practices, which do not conform to human rights. No rights are more important than the right to education and the right to health, including reproductive health. It has taken some time for reproductive health to be accepted as a human right, and it has yet to be fully implemented in all countries, but it is fundamental to the equality and empowerment of women. The right to reproductive health includes not only safe motherhood and protection against unwanted pregnancy, protection against infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, but also the right to protection against gender-based violence and sexual abuse. Establishing and maintaining the right to reproductive health is the very essence of toleration and respect.
Reproductive health in extreme situations is especially hard to protect. That is why special efforts must be made to protect it. Women are not only more vulnerable in emergencies, they bear more responsibility. Great efforts are needed to ensure that toleration and respect extend even to these situations.
Women's right to education on an equal basis with men must be vigorously promoted. Successive international agreements on universal education have not yet made it a reality. Toleration and respect demand that the gender gap in education be closed.
Women's right to employment and to equality in employment is frequently ignored or abused. Women are in some cases prevented from entering the workplace. Conversely, economic hardship may force women into paid employment against their will. In other cases, women are denied the full benefits of their labour, and opportunities for promotion may be blocked to them. Laws exist in many countries against such practices, but they are hard to eradicate. All the more reason for vigorous action.
Women migrants are also vulnerable. Hostility to minority and migrant groups may be expressed in the form of discrimination against women. Women may also be prevented by practices in their own communities from entering fully into their new world. This is especially tragic where women find themselves with no protection from violence within their own community, or are prevented from taking advantage of changes in their parent societies. Minority groups cut off both from their host country and their home country are at a special disadvantage, and women are the most disadvantaged of all.
Innovative programmes are helping to bring such isolation to an end, but it is very common in many countries of immigration, especially those least prepared by history. Among these are several industrial countries, which draw immigrants for work, but find it hard to assimilate or accommodate their cultural differences. In these cases education and acclimatisation are needed for the host communities as much as the immigrant ones.
Women who are already disadvantaged are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse, violence and exploitation. The tragic effects can be seen in the sharp rise of trafficking for sexual purposes; in the prevalence of abusive relationships among communities already stressed by poverty and discrimination; and in the disproportionate incidence of HIV infection among young women in high-prevalence communities.
These are grave challenges to the core values of all societies, and we must respond to them with appropriate gravity. We must be prepared to examine all our assumptions and responses concerning gender relations, including sexual behaviour. This is especially important for our young people, who are on the leading edge of rapid change: at the same time they are at the most impressionable and vulnerable stage of their emotional lives.
Can we simply restate the old values in the old way? I think not. I am reminded of a debate on HIV/AIDS at the United Nations last year, in which a delegate from a Catholic country said "I may disagree with my daughter about sexual morality, but she should not have to die because we disagree." He meant that he might deplore her behaviour, but would not deny her the information and the means to protect herself from unwanted pregnancy or infection. I respect that man, both for his views on morality and for his willingness to re- examine his assumptions.
Tolerance and respect for both men and women is both an old and a new challenge. The United Nations process is essential in enabling countries to respond. We can see these challenge in a new light, thanks to many years of work culminating in the international conferences on human rights, population and social development of the 1990s. These conferences, including the Millennium Summit Declaration represent the latest stage in the long discussion about how we respond to change. They were an opportunity for civilised discourse among people of very different views. The success of the conferences showed that is possible for reasonable people to disagree but yet to come to consensus on action. Renewed commitment to implementation of the various conference agreements will help all countries move towards our common goal.
* *** *