19 September 2013

Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I thank the Ambassadors of the AU and OIC for organizing this important event. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the African Union together represent more than 70 countries and close to two billion people. Thus, as you seek to widen women’s participation in social, cultural, economic and political affairs in your countries, two billion people will benefit.

I remember vividly how women’s rights activists from OIC and AU Member States 20 years ago helped promote the slogan, “Women’s rights are human rights”, and to make that a clarion call of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.

20 years on, we are still fighting to make this slogan a reality for all women in the world. Women’s participation is a central principle of human rights. Participation is integrally and inseparably linked to other fundamental principles such as empowerment and accountability. And equal participation runs like a red thread through the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), whose preamble states that ‘the full and complete development of a country, the welfare of the world and the cause of peace require the maximum participation of women on equal terms with men in all fields’.

Participation relies on environments that value and promote women’s voices. Where these conditions exist, peace and social welfare can flourish. When women are empowered to participate and claim their rights, they can demand accountability for those who deny them these rights, and in this way will also serve the cause of justice.

Excellencies,

Let me first touch on women’s involvement in politics and governance. While some countries are setting a very positive example in working towards equal representation of men and women in legislatures, others are not.

Women’s participation in government remains woefully low, not only in OIC and AU member states, but all over the world. Structural, social and cultural impediments prevent women from rising up the political ladder, and we must address these impediments head-on.

In building political systems that are fully representative of women as well as men, we need to ensure that the women assuming political power are not just token figures but properly representative of the broader women’s rights agenda. We also need to understand that decisions and actions of men count here as much as those of women. Ensuring women’s representation in public life also requires the commitment of men, of male decision-makers, to equality and non-discrimination.

The CEDAW committee suggests temporary special measures such as quota systems to increase the number of women representatives in government. Many States have put this in place. However, quotas alone are not enough. The Convention requires States also to undertake further supporting measures, such as financially assisting, mentoring and training women candidates for political or administrative office, as well as women who are already in public positions.

As you discuss the issue of participation today, I very much encourage you to embrace a wide understanding of participation. Women’s participation in public life is not just about holding a position in Parliament or a Ministry. It is about women publicly claiming, advocating and defending their human rights in all places, whether human rights organizations, on the job or trade unions, on the public square and in the privacy of their homes and families. A woman’s right to realize all her human rights and engage in civic activism if she so chooses is as legitimate as a man’s, and States have an obligation to ensure a woman can do these things without fear of intimidation, slander, moral pressure or physical attack.

Women must also have the ability to participate in the economic sphere. There are too many women trapped in the informal economy and in the most precarious jobs. Women still shoulder most of the unpaid work in the home. Too often, these factors prevent women from participating in public life, including in schooling and higher education.

And despite multiple resolutions of the Security Council on women, peace and security, we have not done enough to ensure women’s participation in peace talks, conflict resolution, and in disarmament negotiations and in efforts to develop and administer transitional justice. As a result, societies are rebuilt without adequate attention to issues that are of immediate importance to half the world’s population.

We cannot avoid facing up to the fact that many countries permit the persistence of social customs that do not value or encourage women’s contributions in critical areas. All too often, such norms perpetuate women’s disempowerment within the family as well as in the community and wider public life. Lack of education and specific training to engage in political or social affairs or obtain better work opportunities are typical indicators of continued gender discrimination.

Hateful but all-too-widespread violence against women continues in public spaces, in workplaces and at home. It is first and foremost the role of States to take the lead in combating destructive gender stereotypes and cultural norms that do nothing but fuel ongoing discrimination and violence against women.

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

In recent years we have even seen efforts to undo the tentative recent advances in women’s rights around the world. The CEDAW Committee has identified as an area of particular concern the dismaying lack of women’s political participation in countries in transition, noting that this exclusion is occurring ‘despite women’s active role during the transition processes’. In certain countries, some national commentators are even trying to discredit the Convention itself.

The Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice has also noted that global progress has been excruciatingly slow, highlighting the need to eliminate the structural and social underpinnings of gender discrimination in political and public life.

Despite such discouraging examples, there are positive developments. I am glad to see that the newly created OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission has identified the rights of women as one of its priority areas of work, building on the OIC Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women and the establishment of the OIC Women’s Development Organisation in 2010. The OIC Independent Permanent Commission for Human Rights has started well with a significant number of women commissioners and its first Chair, a woman, Mrs. Siti Ruhaini Dzuhayatin. I welcome her presence today.

I applaud these positive steps and hope that the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission as well as the OIC Secretariat - and of course the Member States who bear the primary responsibility in this respect - will spare no effort in transforming the potential of these new institutions into real and tangible results.

In this regard, I need to underline how important it will be for the OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission to build upon the work done by CEDAW and the relevant Special Procedures. Furthermore, I strongly encourage Members States to provide this Commission and the OIC Secretariat with sufficient human and financial resources and facilitate civil society input to the Commission sessions by, for instance, organising NGO consultations and forums either before or alongside each Commission session, and devote special attention to ensuring women’s equal participation in this process.

I am heartened to see that a number of professional NGOs have done good work on women's rights in Muslim countries, both in terms of concrete women’s empowerment programmes and also in research and publishing. An important contribution to this trend is the recently "unbanning" of the book edited by the Sisters in Islam organization on Muslim women and the challenge of Islamic extremism.

I welcome the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, which is a protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, also known as the Maputo Protocol. This is one of the most comprehensive regional human rights treaties anywhere on discrimination against women. This treaty specifically enshrines the right of women to participate in social, cultural, economic and political life, among many other rights.

It is regrettable that only 28 countries of the African continent have ratified it. 18 countries have signed but not ratified it, and eight countries have neither signed nor ratified. So I would urge the African Union to do its part in undertaking concrete measures to achieve universal ratification of this important instrument across the continent, and make dedicated efforts to ensure its full implementation.

I also wish to stress how very important it is for African and OIC countries to ratify the relevant international human rights instruments - including the CEDAW and its Optional Protocol; to withdraw existing reservations to CEDAW when relevant; and to honour their reporting obligations under these treaties. Similarly, I call upon Member States of both organizations to accept visit requests by the relevant Special Procedures mandate-holders.

Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

We need to recognize that ensuring gender equality and eliminating discrimination is not just a “women’s issue”. It is something about which we all, men and women together, should be deeply concerned. This meeting today is a very important opportunity to discuss the issues, and to identify future opportunities for enhanced cooperation.

I wish you a successful event.

Thank you.