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Opening Remarks Louise Arbour High Commissioner for Human Rights: "Reflecting on Beijing + 10: Future Challenges for Women’s Human Rights"
06 April 2005
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6 April 2005
Thank you Mehr, and thank you for agreeing to chair this panel. I’m sorry that I can’t stay for the whole event, but I can assure you of my firm commitment to the challenges we face in promoting and protecting women’s human rights.
Distinguished panelists, ladies and gentlemen,
The declaration adopted by the Commission on the Status of Women on March 4th emphasizes the critical importance of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Beijing +5 outcome document for the United Nations, Member States and civil society. Its adoption was a critical demonstration of States’ commitment to guaranteeing women’s human rights and eliminating discrimination against women. We need to ensure States are held accountable for following up on that renewed commitment. We need to redouble our efforts to ensure that women’s entitlement to equal enjoyment of all human rights, a universally accepted and legally binding standard, is translated into reality for all women everywhere.
Two weeks ago, the Secretary General released a major report on proposed reform of the United Nations, potentially the most important change process for our organization since its establishment 60 years ago. In that report, he challenges us to define freedom in larger terms, and emphasizes that the three inter-related pillars of security, development and human rights are all equally central to the threats, challenges and opportunities we face in this new Millennium. The Secretary General underlines that “we will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy security without development and we will not enjoy either without respect for human rights.” Improving implementation of women’s human rights is a fundamental component of our future action in those three areas.
Security is often seen as the only real and overriding concern of the international community. We know the devastating impact that armed conflict has on women, and we know that violence represents the greatest human rights challenge faced by women. In today’s conflicts, rape is used as a weapon of war and sexual slavery and exploitation are considered a natural part of conflict. Over the last decade, stronger standards have been set for the protection of women under international criminal law, in the Statute of the International Criminal Court and the jurisprudence of the International tribunals established to address the international crimes perpetrated during the conflicts in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. And yet we are a long way from eradicating the near-total impunity enjoyed by most perpetrators for their crimes. As I told the Security Council last October, our crucial challenge is to provide justice for women, as for all victims of human rights abuses. Darfur provides a daily, though sadly not the only, reminder of the enormity of the challenge and of our responsibility. A secure world must also guarantee women’s security and protection from violence.
While women do not constitute the majority of combatants, they are certainly the majority of the civilian victims, of the internally displaced and the refugees, and of those trying – often alone and in impossible circumstances – to care for children and the elderly. Yet, despite the implications of armed conflict and security measures on women’s human rights, women are rarely involved (much less equally involved) in efforts to prevent conflict or build peace and reconstruct their communities. When the Security Council adopted its landmark resolution 1325 in October 2000, it acknowledged the importance of including women in decision-making. Five years later, that resolution is not sufficiently known, much less effectively implemented.
Development is the second pillar identified in the Secretary-General’s call for reform. We must ensure that development efforts address discrimination. Activities that do not promote and protect women’s rights, including their economic, social and cultural rights, cannot contribute to genuinely sustainable development. The Millennium Declaration, and the Millennium Development Goals, emphasize that the promotion of gender equality is critical for progress in development. Women’s groups, as well as development practitioners, have concluded that the MDGs must be pursued in full compliance with internationally accepted human rights standards if they are to be achieved. In spite of years of concerted international and national efforts, there are still disparities between girls and boys with regard to access to primary education. The gap only increases when we look at secondary or further education. Improved fulfillment of women’s right to education is now recognized as the single most effective development strategy.
I noted in my intervention at the panel held during the Commission on the Status of Women on March 3rd that the HIV/AIDS pandemic provides a glaring illustration of pervasive violations of women’s human rights, and that it cannot be addressed and reversed without major progress in eliminating discrimination against women. Beyond HIV/AIDS or education, none of the MDGs can be achieved without effectively tackling that discrimination.
Women’s economic empowerment is crucial to the protection of women’s human rights, including rights to education, to work, to health, to housing, as well as sexual and reproductive rights. Increasing women’s economic decision-making empowers women in all aspects of their lives—in the family, in the community, and at national and international levels. Yet, the absence of women in economic decision-making is flagrant.
We still see many governments, even some that have adopted laws guaranteeing women’s equal rights to property or inheritance, doing nothing to address traditional, social or religious laws, customs and practices, that continue to deny women equality.
Women’s human rights are thus crucial to the achievement of security and development. We will not achieve freedom from fear and freedom from want without justice for women. And we will definitely not be able to ensure a life with dignity for all without equality for women.
By promoting women’s rights, we push the entire human rights agenda forward, and we count on the continued activism of the women’s movement to help us move “from an era of legislation to an era of implementation”, in the words of the Secretary-General. In the priorities I have defined for my mandate and my Office, I have already indicated that – though important efforts are still under way to set and clarify standards for specific human rights issues – it is now time to step up our commitment and focus our attention on implementation.
Since the Beijing Conference, we have seen increased ratification of the CEDAW Convention, withdrawal of reservations, adoption and amendment of large volumes of relevant legislation at national level. There are still standards to be adopted and reservations to be withdrawn, as there are too many laws that discriminate against women – and they must be changed – but our greatest achievement remains that of standards setings; our greatest short-coming that of implementation.
The reaffirmation of commitment to the Beijing Platform for Action and the Beijing +5 outcome documents was an important signal for the future of women’s human rights. Placed in the context of the UN reform, it is clear that women’s human rights must occupy a central position in our collective efforts to build a more secure world, based on respect for human rights and the achievement of sustainable development for all.
Let us ensure for women and men alike a life free from fear, free from want, and lived in dignity. We face no greater challenge, and we need the involvement of all in that effort!
Thank you Mehr, and thank you for agreeing to chair this panel. I’m sorry that I can’t stay for the whole event, but I can assure you of my firm commitment to the challenges we face in promoting and protecting women’s human rights.
Distinguished panelists, ladies and gentlemen,
The declaration adopted by the Commission on the Status of Women on March 4th emphasizes the critical importance of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Beijing +5 outcome document for the United Nations, Member States and civil society. Its adoption was a critical demonstration of States’ commitment to guaranteeing women’s human rights and eliminating discrimination against women. We need to ensure States are held accountable for following up on that renewed commitment. We need to redouble our efforts to ensure that women’s entitlement to equal enjoyment of all human rights, a universally accepted and legally binding standard, is translated into reality for all women everywhere.
Two weeks ago, the Secretary General released a major report on proposed reform of the United Nations, potentially the most important change process for our organization since its establishment 60 years ago. In that report, he challenges us to define freedom in larger terms, and emphasizes that the three inter-related pillars of security, development and human rights are all equally central to the threats, challenges and opportunities we face in this new Millennium. The Secretary General underlines that “we will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy security without development and we will not enjoy either without respect for human rights.” Improving implementation of women’s human rights is a fundamental component of our future action in those three areas.
Security is often seen as the only real and overriding concern of the international community. We know the devastating impact that armed conflict has on women, and we know that violence represents the greatest human rights challenge faced by women. In today’s conflicts, rape is used as a weapon of war and sexual slavery and exploitation are considered a natural part of conflict. Over the last decade, stronger standards have been set for the protection of women under international criminal law, in the Statute of the International Criminal Court and the jurisprudence of the International tribunals established to address the international crimes perpetrated during the conflicts in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. And yet we are a long way from eradicating the near-total impunity enjoyed by most perpetrators for their crimes. As I told the Security Council last October, our crucial challenge is to provide justice for women, as for all victims of human rights abuses. Darfur provides a daily, though sadly not the only, reminder of the enormity of the challenge and of our responsibility. A secure world must also guarantee women’s security and protection from violence.
While women do not constitute the majority of combatants, they are certainly the majority of the civilian victims, of the internally displaced and the refugees, and of those trying – often alone and in impossible circumstances – to care for children and the elderly. Yet, despite the implications of armed conflict and security measures on women’s human rights, women are rarely involved (much less equally involved) in efforts to prevent conflict or build peace and reconstruct their communities. When the Security Council adopted its landmark resolution 1325 in October 2000, it acknowledged the importance of including women in decision-making. Five years later, that resolution is not sufficiently known, much less effectively implemented.
Development is the second pillar identified in the Secretary-General’s call for reform. We must ensure that development efforts address discrimination. Activities that do not promote and protect women’s rights, including their economic, social and cultural rights, cannot contribute to genuinely sustainable development. The Millennium Declaration, and the Millennium Development Goals, emphasize that the promotion of gender equality is critical for progress in development. Women’s groups, as well as development practitioners, have concluded that the MDGs must be pursued in full compliance with internationally accepted human rights standards if they are to be achieved. In spite of years of concerted international and national efforts, there are still disparities between girls and boys with regard to access to primary education. The gap only increases when we look at secondary or further education. Improved fulfillment of women’s right to education is now recognized as the single most effective development strategy.
I noted in my intervention at the panel held during the Commission on the Status of Women on March 3rd that the HIV/AIDS pandemic provides a glaring illustration of pervasive violations of women’s human rights, and that it cannot be addressed and reversed without major progress in eliminating discrimination against women. Beyond HIV/AIDS or education, none of the MDGs can be achieved without effectively tackling that discrimination.
Women’s economic empowerment is crucial to the protection of women’s human rights, including rights to education, to work, to health, to housing, as well as sexual and reproductive rights. Increasing women’s economic decision-making empowers women in all aspects of their lives—in the family, in the community, and at national and international levels. Yet, the absence of women in economic decision-making is flagrant.
We still see many governments, even some that have adopted laws guaranteeing women’s equal rights to property or inheritance, doing nothing to address traditional, social or religious laws, customs and practices, that continue to deny women equality.
Women’s human rights are thus crucial to the achievement of security and development. We will not achieve freedom from fear and freedom from want without justice for women. And we will definitely not be able to ensure a life with dignity for all without equality for women.
By promoting women’s rights, we push the entire human rights agenda forward, and we count on the continued activism of the women’s movement to help us move “from an era of legislation to an era of implementation”, in the words of the Secretary-General. In the priorities I have defined for my mandate and my Office, I have already indicated that – though important efforts are still under way to set and clarify standards for specific human rights issues – it is now time to step up our commitment and focus our attention on implementation.
Since the Beijing Conference, we have seen increased ratification of the CEDAW Convention, withdrawal of reservations, adoption and amendment of large volumes of relevant legislation at national level. There are still standards to be adopted and reservations to be withdrawn, as there are too many laws that discriminate against women – and they must be changed – but our greatest achievement remains that of standards setings; our greatest short-coming that of implementation.
The reaffirmation of commitment to the Beijing Platform for Action and the Beijing +5 outcome documents was an important signal for the future of women’s human rights. Placed in the context of the UN reform, it is clear that women’s human rights must occupy a central position in our collective efforts to build a more secure world, based on respect for human rights and the achievement of sustainable development for all.
Let us ensure for women and men alike a life free from fear, free from want, and lived in dignity. We face no greater challenge, and we need the involvement of all in that effort!