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Make the United Nations more effective in realizing women’s rights

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:18:50 +0000

“If we wash with a bucket of water and start from our feet, the water is wasted washing only our feet. But if we pour the water over our heads, we can wash our whole body.” Nepali human rights defender, explaining how a new strong international agency for women could benefit women locally. Saathi Roundtable, Nepal, 2007.

The United Nations is a galvanizing force in setting new international standards and commitments to protect and promote women’s human rights especially those at risk of violence, or facing poverty. But the UN’s capacity to support national implementation of these international agreements is woefully underfunded and inadequate. This has limited the potential for women around the world to fully enjoy their rights in practice.

The four small UN agencies exclusively dedicated to women’s issues lack the necessary status, funding and country presence to enable the wider UN system and national authorities to fully implement their obligations. Other, larger UN agencies, sometimes can make a difference, but advancing women’s human rights and gender equality is usually a small part of their mandate. And none of these agencies are adequately supporting the important work of women’s human rights defenders.

In September 2009, after years of persistent campaigning by women’s human rights advocates around the world, all 192 member states of the UN General Assembly finally adopted a resolution agreeing to the creation of a consolidated and stronger UN agency for women.

"The General Assembly has at last taken decisive action to create a new gender equality entity on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the Beijing women's conference in 2010. It is a great victory for women's rights as well as for the coalition of women's and other civil society organizations. Now we must ensure that it is a robust and transformational body, capable of advancing the realization of women’s rights on the ground, urgently and effectively."
Charlotte Bunch, Founding Director, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, USA.

In order to achieve this, the agreed new women’s agency urgently needs sustained political commitment from all governments and immediate, substantial funding to ensure its effective establishment and success.

Take action! Show your support for a new strong UN women’s agency!

Turning the tide against HIV in South Africa

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:25:09 +0000

Women are disproportionately affected and infected by the HIV epidemic in South Africa. According to official statistics, an estimated 5.2 million people are living with HIV. The rates of infection among women 15 to 34 years of age are two to four times higher than among men of the same age, and an average of nearly 30 percent of women attending antenatal clinics are HIV infected.

Women are also disproportionately affected by poverty, with more than two-fifths living on less than Rand 500 [USD 67] a month, a higher proportion than men, according to a 2008 population survey. While the government has expanded access to comprehensive HIV services, including the provision of anti-retroviral therapy for AIDS, these services are still largely provided through hospitals. For women living in poor rural communities, the transport costs to these often distant facilities are high relative to their income. Consequently they find it particularly difficult to reach them to begin or maintain their daily treatment under medical supervision.

Rural transportation systems are also frequently unreliable. P, who runs an organisation providing services to women living with HIV in several rural communities, expressed concern to Amnesty International. “If you are living in [a poor rural community] where there isn’t a bus [system], you have to get the one vehicle that moves from the area”, she said. “If you miss that vehicle, there’s nothing, there is no other vehicle [that day].”

Barriers and delays in access to appropriate treatment can severely undermine the health of a person at risk of or living with HIV.

South Africa has had a widely agreed strategy in place since 2007 to tackle the epidemic. In a parliamentary address in October 2009, President Jacob Zuma announced that World AIDS Day 2009 “should be the day on which we start to turn the tide in the battle against AIDS”. He noted that “we are not yet winning the battle” against HIV and AIDS and called on all levels of government to cooperate in implementing the strategy.

This renewed government commitment to combat HIV and AIDS, which is also a Millennium Development Goal, is a positive development. However the government’s reinvigorated efforts must include addressing the particular needs of women, including those living in poor, rural communities. Accessible, affordable and reliable transport is critical in improving access to health services and the government must give deeper recognition to this as a crucial element of the HIV and AIDS response.

Take action! Call on the Ministry of Transport to help increase access to health services for HIV, particularly for women, by improving the regularity and affordability of rural transport systems.

Image caption: A young woman and her aunt walk to the bus stop on their way to hospital in KwaZulu Natal province. Chris de Bode/PANOS.

Read the Memorandum Sent by Amnesty International to the South African Government, August 2009, (AFR 53.008.2009)

Protect Girls in Domestic Labour in Haiti

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:55:56 +0000

Children in domestic service live with a host family undertaking domestic chores in return for their board and lodging. They are frequently exploited, ill treated and denied their right to education, healthcare and food. Their situation has been described as a form of modern slavery by the UN.

Girls are also at grave risk of physical abuse and sexual violence, which is pervasive and widespread in Haiti. This particularly affects young girls as more than half of all those who report being raped are 18 or younger. Girls in domestic service are isolated from the rest of society with virtually no one concerned for their welfare and dependent on their host family, it is difficult for them to break free from abuse. Many end up on the streets where they are forced to sell their bodies for sex in order to survive.

Haiti lacks strong laws to protect the rights of children. Although it has signed up to international treaties, it has failed to integrate these into national law. Take action and call on the Haitian parliament to protect Haitian girl domestic workers.