[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are it behooves you. This Reader covers three key aspects of women’s rights: violence against women and girls, access to water for them and adolescent pregnancies. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text]. Traducir/traduire los/les Readers; usar/utiliser deepl.com
Violence against women: The deep issues persist (Carolyn Williams, Angela Ravenroberts)
1. I think it is time we more forcefully express frustration and question why there is not enough outrage over the continuing misogyny and violence against women that is currently at astronomical levels both in situations of conflict and at domestic levels —not less from the social media and from the behavior of public figures.
2. In particular, why are the big philanthropic organizations and foundations not coming out with more actions –not just statements distancing themselves from the issue? It is also disgusting how little the media are reporting on this matter –including their inventing of misnomers such as ‘underage women’ and ‘non-consensual sex’ as there is no such thing in either case. The correct terms are ‘girls’ and ‘rape’. Everybody ought to call-a-spade-a-spade instead of inventing terms that downplay the crimes committed.
3. Simply put, leaders and policymakers are often numbed by facts and figures on these issues so that they respond more by engaging in survivor-led advocacy (when it is clearly too late). However, as has been the case with too many victims, those who do speak–out are often re-victimized and put through more failures of the system meant to facilitate access to courts or provide support. It is risky business speaking out against powerful abusers!
4. If anything is to change at the level of the general public, we must all raise outrage and/or compassion in more people’s consciousness and minds so as to create political pressure for policy shifts. Claim holders in advocacy movements must come together to raise awareness, change the narrative, protect survivors, support healing and prevent abuses in the future. Human rights activists have a key role to play in this process.
5. Revisiting the issue of violence against women and what is happening to what used to be called gender issues in the humanitarian sector is a must. The deep issues persist. (C. Williams, A. Ravenroberts)
Patriarchal attitudes remain deeply embedded in social structures (Ramesh Jaura, Anwarul K. Chowdhury)
6. The slogan ‘Rights, Justice, Action: For All Women and Girls’ reminds us that recognizing its deep meaning alone is not enough. Profound societal and individual actions are essential for real change along these lines. The issue is not just about fairness for women. When half the population is locked out, it is the whole process of development that stalls. Period!
7. Ponder: In its eighty years of existence, the United Nations has not yet elected a woman Secretary-General —eight decades, nine men, and not one woman. What an embarrassment –what a shame. How can an institution that speaks of equality at every podium continue to model inequality at its pinnacle? The credibility of the UN’s advocacy depends on its willingness to reflect those principles in its own leadership.
8. As relates to the peace and security agenda, acknowledging that sustainable peace requires women’s participation at every level of decision-making is key. Peace agreements are more durable when women participate in negotiations. (R. Jaura, A. K. Chowdhury)
Where water does not flow, equality does not Grow (Lyla Mehta, Alan Nicol)
9. The situation around WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) is still marked by deep inequalities with women and girls disproportionately affected. In households without piped water, women and girls are made to be responsible for about 70–80% of water collection trips worldwide, taking anything from 30 minutes to four hours daily. The situation is even more dire for sanitation with 3.4 billion people lacking access to safely managed sanitation. All this affects women’s and girl’s dignity, safety, security and the privacy and comfort needed for dignified menstrual health management. At the same time, there is poor progress on women’s economic participation. These patterns have remained remarkably persistent despite improvements in water and sanitation infrastructure.
Water as a weapon of war against women and girls?
—Daily violations of international humanitarian laws include the weaponization of water and sanitation infrastructures.
10. When water and sanitation infrastructure become fair game in war, existing gender inequalities around water and sanitation mean women and girls suffer most, compounding risks including sexual violence. Add to this the rollback of reproductive rights and the gross inequalities in labour power for women with its negative economic effects.
11. Let us be clear: We are accepting obsolete norms, including the gendered division of labor, for example, in water collection, rather than confronting this more forcefully across the world. In the midst of this, the rollback on funding for WASH continues. Ultimately, a waning collective effort to support gender equality in WASH provisions opens the door to long-term decline in gender rights and economic development. Just when greater focus is needed on WASH projects, to ensure we are not backsliding on gender rights, external funding is being cut.
12. Bottom line here: Persistent inequalities, the gender backlash, illegal and forever wars and aid cuts that lack any moral compass have diluted global collective action on gender inequality. The least policy makers ought to do would be to achieve and maintain leadership that realizes human rights (HR) for all in WASH provision, a substantial rationale for which has to be a big-ticket focus on the social and economic empowerment of women and girls. Any other direction will be disastrous, enabling patriarchy and misogyny to grow even deeper roots in global society.* (L. Mehta, A. Nicol)
*: But beware: policy makers alone will not get the changes done without an upswell of women’s organizations demanding these changes be made!
The adolescent pregnancy crisis (Sulakshi Ram)
13. The failure to effectively implement policy on this is a form of structural violence and a violation of HR. Policies to address this problem exist, but the political will to make them work does not exist. For example, school reentry policies are designed to allow pregnant girls to continue their education after birth, but in practice, stigma and lack of support mean many never return to school. Education thus becomes conditional on avoiding pregnancy. The barriers to accessing education constitute a violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
14. Moreover, inadequate funding for youth reproductive health services prevents adolescent girls from accessing contraception, comprehensive sex education, and non–judgmental healthcare. The CRC guarantees adolescent girls the right to the highest standard of health attainable. Providing only minimal funding to counties/districts with crisis-level adolescent pregnancy rates represents a deliberate deprioritization of the problem.
15. As regards bodily autonomy and reproductive rights, when girls lack information about services and support to make decisions about their bodies, that also represents a state failure.
16. The gap between policy and practice becomes a tool of structural violence. Depriving girls of adequate access to reproductive health services and comprehensive sexuality education keeps them economically and socially dependent. Forcing girls who become pregnant as adolescents out of school also limits their future opportunities, perpetuates cycles of poverty, and preserves the economic inequalities inherent to traditional gender hierarchies.
17. Bottom line here: Adolescent girls, especially those belonging to marginalized groups, pay the price for the state’s calculated inaction. Across the countries rendered poor, governments adopt HR frameworks, progressive policies, and international standards often to secure donor funding, but then systematically refuse to allocate resources for implementation –in short, signaling compliance with conventions like CEDAW and the CRC while avoiding the political and financial costs of actual change and lacking any international accountability.
18. Ending adolescent pregnancy requires: a) allocating adequate funding to counties/districts with the highest need; b) ensuring reproductive health services that are youth-friendly, accessible, nonjudgmental, and adequately staffed; c) providing comprehensive, evidence-based sexuality education; d) challenging the stigma that prevents pregnant girls from returning to school; and e) addressing the poverty that drives adolescents into transactional sex.** (S. Ram)
**: The same is true for children: The failure to enforce international HR law is fundamentally political. UN member states, particularly those in the Security Council, G7 and G20, are supposed to serve as the principal upholders of the international legal order. Yet their responses to violations against children remain inconsistent, largely passive, and too often shaped by geopolitical interests. While states condemn abuses in some contexts, silence or ambiguity prevails in others. The selective application of norms and discrepancies in accountability weaken the law. Volker Türk (UN high commissioner of HR) recently cut to the heart of the matter in stark terms: “Whatever differences countries have, we can all agree they will not be solved by killing school children.” The world can be safer for children –but only if those with the power to enforce the rules choose to do so. (Manish Thakre)
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City:
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com
#: Political will and commitment do not come from the sky. Both have to permeate from society. So, ponder: Provided a given political will leads to carrying out political obligations by the state, there still is a problem: Too often, this political will is exerted top-down when what is needed is bottom-up planning, implementation and accountability with claim holders’ inputs! (Abhay Shukla)
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