International Women’s Day Statement by the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination Against Women in Law and in Practice

GENEVA, Thursday, 5 March 2015 

Nothing short of full rights – protecting the hard-fought progress and allowing no space for retrogression

Celebration

8 March marks a day of celebration not only for girls and women of the world, but also for the entire humanity, as it celebrates fundamental values of equality and historical achievements. It is a celebration of women’s courage in demanding, more than a hundred years ago, nothing short of equal rights - equal rights as workers and equal rights as citizens.

Each year the International Women’s Day presents an opportunity for the world to remember the long journey that women have travelled in the struggle for equality and to celebrate the remarkable progress made over the last one hundred years in all spheres of life – political, economic, social, and cultural.  Today not only have women gained the right to vote in every corner of the world, they are becoming parliamentarians, heads of States and Governments. More women participate in the labour market and become business leaders, entrepreneurs and economic decision-makers. More women receive higher education and contribute to the cultural and scientific lives of their communities and their countries.

The last century also witnessed the development of an impressive body of international standards, including for the protection of the human rights of women, from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1966, and to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1979. Women’s right to equality has become legally guaranteed. The 1995 World Conference on Women saw a consolidation of these hard-fought progress and achievements, by agreeing on a most comprehensive plan to advance women’s right to equality - the Beijing Platform of Action. In 2010, the United Nations Human Rights Council decided to establish the Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination Against Women in Law and in Practice as part of its independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms.

Persistent discrimination and risk of retrogression

Despite these progress and achievements over long years of struggle, discrimination against women persists in both public and private spheres, in times of conflict as in times of peace, and in all regions of the world. No country in the world has yet achieved full substantive equality of women. The participation of women in political and public life remains much too low – averaging 20% of parliamentarians and 17% of heads of States or Governments. Women continue to be paid less for work of equal value and are severely underrepresented in top leadership in decision-making bodies in business, finance and trade, including in international institutions such as the IMF and the WTO as well as in cooperatives and trade unions.

We are seeing retrogressive signs, often in the name of culture, religion, and traditions, that threaten the hard-fought progress in achieving women’s equality. We have seen attempts to restrict women’s place in the domestic sphere. Attention and focus on family value and on protection of the family is important, but it is neither an equivalent nor a replacement of women’s equal rights and autonomy. Protection of the family must include protecting the human rights of individual members of the family, especially the right to equality between women and men as well as between girls and boys. The Working Group has expressed concerns about the silence in the Human Rights Council on the right of women to equality in the family when adopting a resolution in June 2014 on protection of the family and the panel discussion that followed. Recognition of women’s right to equality in the family constituted a significant departure from the prior social and religious status quo of the patriarchal family. The advancement of women and girls depends on the recognition in law and practice of their right to equality as members of communities and families.

Violence against women remains pervasive, estimated to affect one in three women globally. We continue to witness, in the name of perceived honour, beauty, purity and tradition, girls and women are subject to “honor” killings, child marriages, and female genital mutilation. Too many women are being deprived of their sexual and reproductive health and rights, fundamental human rights of women. Each year, some 50,000 women die as a result of unsafe abortions and some 5 million women suffer from disabilities due to lack of, or negligent reproductive health services, according to a recent study of the World Health Organisation. Completely avoidable maternal deaths are still very high in many countries. There are still countries that impose a total prohibition of abortion in all circumstances and imprison women accused of abortions for up to 30 years.

At the same time, the lack of access to proper sexual education and family planning information and services for adolescents and the practice of child marriages lead to teenager pregnancies and exclusion of girls from education and employment, hence limits their enjoyment of many other rights.

Pregnancy and child birth for girls is one of the most common causes of death in developing countries, with girls under 15 years of age facing five times the danger. Abortion for pregnant teenagers should be allowed as equality and health measures.

Seize the opportunity

For the 21st century to be “the century of women”, in the words of the UN Secretary General, it requires us, men and women of the world, to work systematically to make it a century in which the equal contribution of women is recognised, facilitated and properly rewarded and women are effectively protected from abuses and violence. The Working Group believes that quota systems and temporary special measures are essential to ensure proper representation of women in public, political, and economic decision-making and leadership. The expert Working Group has called for a social protection floor for care which would facilitate the participation of women equally with men in economic and social activities.

2015 is a year of opportunities for the international community. Twenty years after the historic world conference on women and 15 years of the Millennium Development Goals, time has come to review with a critical lens the unfulfilled commitments made to women and take corrective actions. The expert Working Group has welcome that women’s equal rights is both a stand-alone goal and is mainstreamed throughout all goals in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda.

Recalling the legal nature of women’s right to equality, it is therefore essential to apply the existing human rights obligations of Member States to interpret and understand the goals, targets, and indicators of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, making sure that there is both awareness of and accountability for elimination of discrimination against women and empowerment of women within this framework. This is incumbent on Member States which have a duty to respect women’s human rights and to exercise due diligence to ensure that there be no violation of such rights whether by the State, its agents or private corporations and individuals. Equality in law and practice, which enables women to participate fully in economic and social life, is also crucial factor for sustainable development to succeed.

It has been a century since women were out on the street demanding equal rights. Women are asking for immediate actions. There is no acceptable justification to wait for 2030 to achieve the target of eliminating discriminatory legislation. It is a long overdue political commitment which must be fulfilled without delay. There is no acceptable justification to deny the human rights of girls and women by allowing practices to continue which are harmful and dangerous to their physical and mental health. Furthermore, the costs in health, education and economic development of these practices is a clear barrier to sustainable development.

Just like the century old foot binding, which caused excruciating pain and irreversible harm to girls, practices such as child marriages, female genital mutilation, and “honor” killings have no place in the 21st century.

Press release by the Working Group: "A century of progress in women’s equality under threat in the name of culture, religion and traditions"

Background

The Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination Against Women in Law and in Practice

In 2010 the United Nations Human Rights Council decided to establish a special procedure mandate, in the form of an expert working group, to focus on the issue of discrimination against women and the empowerment of women worldwide. This represents an important step undertaken by the international community, as it establishes an independent mechanism to engage with a wide range of actors, governmental and non-govenmental, to bring about changes in law and in practice. The expert Working Group has at its disposal several tools in discharging the mandate. It communicates with Governments, bringing to their attention situations of concern, including issues such as constitution building and drafting of anti-discrimination legislation, violence against women, reproductive health and discriminatory state practices. The expert group conducts country visits at the invitation of Governments and reviews challenges and good practices and makes recommendations. It also undertakes research and analysis on issues of relevance for women’s equality. This has been reflected in its annual thematic reports to the Human Rights Council focusing on eliminating discrimination against women in political and public life (2013), in economic and social life (2014), and upcoming reports on family and culture (2015), health and safety (2016), and a compendium of good practices (2017).

For more information on the Working Group and access to its reports and papers, please access its webpage: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WGWomen.