-It is in General Comment 28 that we find the more precise guidance of what equal rights of men and of women really mean.
-States that are party to the Convention to End all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) undertake the solemn obligation to scrutinize their national laws accordingly and to inform the population (and its women) about it; unfortunately too many sates are slow or lenient in doing so. (Shula Koenig)
Human rights (HR) provide the critical guidance in identifying the underlying and structural causes of development problems that typically relate to persistent patterns of disempowerment, discrimination, exclusion and multiple HR violations. These deeper causes explain why women and other groups are left behind in the development process and why development policies must address broader HR issues rather than simply deliver a set of technical interventions that aim at improving only certain aspects of women’s problems.
I would say that a number of ‘iron laws’ apply to the disadvantaged HR situation of women. I here propose ten of them to the reader:
1. In their negotiations, women-as-claim-holders need to get rid of any vestige of resentment –an understandable attitude of women who historically have had no or insufficient power when facing those who have an excess of it; even if, for the first time, they have a chance to fight for their gender interests, resentment is not the mood in which HR work is carried out.
2. Women’s participation in politics can no longer be seen as a favor granted them by institutions still largely dominated by overwhelmingly male elites.
3. There is no way women can exercise their rights if they do not know what these are. If this is the result of an intentional stance, one has to be clear: Imposed ignorance (or ignorance tolerated) is a human rights violation!*
*: Be reminded that HR seek gender justice and gender equality, as well as the eradication of misery, of hunger and of ignorance (the three last ones disproportionately affecting women).
4. It is by gaining a HR insight –and acknowledging it– that women can tackle their social grievances and thus become controlling agents of their own destinies. Put another way, women need to express their grievances –and taking HR-related measures is the best way to successfully resolve them.
5. When violations against the human rights of women occur, we must distinguish between its symptoms (such as violence against them and/or their poverty) and its causes (such as patriarchy and the lack of a viable economic infrastructure and opportunities available to them). Only by analyzing and acting upon these causes, can the world bring about ultimate economic and social justice for all. (S. Koenig)
6. The lack of a capacity to demand remedy (in the HR sense) entrenches the weakness of women’s groups.
7. Dignity for women does not and will not come from them receiving a handout (e.g., food or contraceptives); it comes and will come from them providing and fending for themselves. (George Kent)
8. If we take the humanitarian assistance given to displaced and/or battered women as an example, the latter treats their lives as ‘bare’ life, not as lives with their own voice and painful narrative. If women are to be addressed as dignified human beings, they must have a say to present their grievances and to decide how they ought to be treated. In short, to live in dignity, women must have the opportunity to have their voices heard and have institutionalized recourse mechanisms. (J. Edkins)
9. Stereotyped concepts of the roles of men and women come from all our school textbooks already. Equal treatment for women means that all exclusionary barriers must be removed, i.e., in good part by the elimination of the said stereotypes.
10. Women and girls are disproportionately represented in the groups we consider marginalized in society; the latter comprise: those individuals living in extreme poverty, disadvantaged adolescents and youth, women survivors of violence and abuse, out of school youth, women living with HIV, women engaged in sex work, minorities and indigenous people, women living with disabilities, refugees and internally displaced persons, women living under occupation, and the aging population.
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
cschuftan@phmovement.org