Women's rights are on the decline

Françoise Gaspard's term as Vice-President of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women recently ended. She recalls the controversy that pitted the French against the Canadians in the matter of translating the term “human rights of women” into French. Because historically human rights were translated in French as “the rights of men”, the term could not be changed. UN interpreters translate the new term literally as “women's rights of men”. This speaks volumes about the ideological debate and the manner in which women's rights were taken into consideration at the time.

To cite another example: in 1945, when the United Nations Charter was adopted and the question of human rights and the establishment of a Commission on Human Rights - which would be presided over by Eleanor Roosevelt - was raised, women's organizations dating back to the Society of Nations called for a commission to deal with women's rights. That promoted a very heated debate since at the outset Eleanor Roosevelt was against the idea, considering that human rights encompassed women's rights. At the first United Nations meeting held in London in 1946 - the New York building hadn't been constructed yet – Mrs. Roosevelt finally accepted that a commission on the status of women should be established.

Ms. Gaspard points out that this intergovernmental commission, which deals exclusively with women's rights, currently comprises 45 States and was behind the first world conference on women held in Mexico City in 1975. It was through that Commission that the UN General Assembly adopted a number of conventions, notably on the political rights of women, since at its inception in 1945, half of the Member States of the United Nations had not granted women full citizenship rights. The second convention adopted dealt with nationality and provided that women who had married a foreigner could retain their nationality and pass it on to their children. The third convention dealt with questions related to marriage and most notably, to consent. In Mexico City, the governments requested the Commission to merge all these conventions into a single one that would cover the full range of women's rights and thereby eliminate all the forms of discrimination from which they suffered in law and in practice. That was how the CEDAW came into being and was adopted in 1979.

Françoise Gaspard admits that “although some progress - slow progress - has been made in terms of the law and although some States have ratified the Convention with reservations about certain articles, particularly Article 16 on family relations; in actual fact things evolve at a much slower pace and are even likely to regress. Although some States come before the Committee to explain their reservations about articles that provide for granting women the same rights as men, the reality of the situation is often different”.

With regard to the role of parliamentarians, Ms. Gaspard insists that elected representatives “should familiarize themselves with the Convention since it is parliaments that ratify the Convention, country reports and the Committee's findings”, adding nevertheless that “in the history of CEDAW, I am not aware of the existence of any communication sent to any State indicating that it has complied with the obligations of the Convention and that women are the de jure and de facto equals of men. Indeed, there have been setbacks just about everywhere “.

The situation in European countries has been a cause for concern. “After being the pioneers of setting up a mechanism to monitor women's rights within government and the administration, this service has been eliminated in virtually all the countries we have examined”. To give a concrete example, each ministry is told that one of its mandates is to promote gender equality, but these very ministries are ill-equipped to do that. And if there is no longer any mechanism to foster gender-sensitive policies, there will inevitably be some decline, not so much in terms of the law, but in terms of practice”.

« Le type de politique mené dans la région Pacifique n'est pas propice aux femmes »

In September 2008 the IPU co-organized a meeting to examine measures to promote women's access to the parliaments of the Pacific Island States, a region of the world with the lowest representation of women - less than 3 per cent on average. The Subregional Workshop on Special Measures for Women targeted parliamentarians and officials in the Melanesian region. The meeting discussed the challenges that women face being elected to Pacific parliaments, and identified how special measures could best be implemented within existing electoral arrangements.1 The workshop took place in Papua New Guinea on 24 and 25 September. Dame Carol Kidu, Minister for Community Development and the only woman member of parliament in the country, explains the challenges for women in politics in the Pacific and highlights the value of the meeting.

Q: As one of the very few women members of parliament in the Pacific Islands, how would you describe the main challenges that women face with regard to being elected?
C.K.: I think it is all too clear that there are significant cultural barriers, which are compounded by financial and logistical barriers. There is a style of politics that has developed in the Pacific region that is simply not favourable to women because the barriers have become enormous. So it is absolutely imperative that we look at special measures, although there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about themas temporary policy measures. Some of the men say that if reserved seats are implemented for women, that the rest of the seats belong to them. This is a real “catch 22” situation. But I am confident that women will perform very well and produce results that translate into them being elected in open seats. Change must start somewhere, as we have seen in Rwanda, which has more than 50 per cent of women in parliament, and where change has been incredible. One of the lessons learned, of course, is that political commitment at the top is fundamental, so I hope that we will see political commitment translate into real change in Papua New Guinea too.

Q: What has been the importance of this meeting?
C.K.: The Pacific region has the lowest female representation in parliament in the world. It is very important to address the issues of special measures and to assess how we can enhance women's participation in politics. It is significant that it has been done at a subregional level, because the Pacific region is very diverse and the Melanesian area has specific cultural backgrounds that need consideration. The other important aspect is bringing together women, and men, for networking and sharing of different country experiences. The information provided is very important and we need to learn from other countries that have made progress so that we can develop our own strategies.