The world is failing to deliver on the promise of gender equality by Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, Volker Turk UN Office for Human Rights 10:29am 19th Jun, 2024   June 2024    Women and girls are enduring a gender backlash aimed at curtailing the equal enjoyment of their rights and action to realise substantive equality cannot be delayed, the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls said.    Despite some advancements, no country has achieved gender equality and women and girls continue to face discrimination in all spheres of their lives, frequently starting within their families and communities, the Group said in a report to the UN Human Rights Council.    “Retrogressive movements are jeopardising women’s and girls’ human rights, as well as the progress achieved in advancing gender equality in all regions of the world,” it said.    As a result, the world is witnessing an escalating backlash against sexual and reproductive health rights, ever-present misogynistic statements in the media and the rise of public anti-gender discourse, as well as attacks on women and girl human rights defenders.    The backlash has reached extreme proportions in certain countries, the report said. Afghanistan is a concerning example. The pattern of large-scale systematic violations of Afghan women’s and girls’ fundamental rights by the discriminatory and misogynistic edicts, policies and harsh enforcement methods of the Taliban, constitutes an institutionalised framework of apartheid based on gender, and merits an unequivocal response.    The status quo that fails to fulfil the human rights and fundamental freedoms of half of the world’s population is unacceptable, the Group said.    The Working Group called on States to work together to build substantive gender equality, as required under international human rights law. Other actors, such as those in the private sector, should support these efforts and respect and protect women’s and girls’ rights.    “Substantive equality requires not only ensuring de facto equality between women and men and girls and boys, but also committing to a conception of transformative equality, in other words, the transformation of elements of society, culture, politics and the economy that create barriers to equality.”    The Group applauded the transformative force of millions of women and girls worldwide and of their movements and allies that strive to advance women’s and girls’ rights, resist pushbacks and build just, inclusive, peaceful and sustainable societies for all. “They are an inspiration to everyone and the main reason for hope and optimism for the future.    June 2024    Overhaul discriminatory laws and practices enabling economic violence against women: UN Human Rights Council Interactive Dialogue with Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls.    Economic violence as a form of gender-based violence against women and girls, by Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:    "We owe the women’s rights movement some of the most extraordinary progress in human rights of our generation. And it is important to honour and celebrate this progress.    Yet the persistent scourge of gender-based violence in one of its insidious forms, shows that progress is both hard won, and fragile.    At its simplest, violence against women and girls is an egregious expression of power domination and patriarchy indeed. It is a blunt roadblock to gender equality and the ultimate benefits that this can bring everyone, including greater development and peace.    Gender-based violence persists because of pervasive cultures of toxic masculinity and misogyny. It is not specific to cultures, or regions, or religions. It is widespread, fuelled by centuries-old mindsets and practices that are still dangerously prevalent, almost everywhere.    Any form of gender-based violence is a form of overt control over women and girls. To perpetuate their subordination. To stereotype, degrade, coerce, and humiliate. To deny them freedom, and strip them of agency to make decisions.    Today, regardless of income or background, all women and girls live with the threat of gender-based violence. Almost one in three women have been subjected to some form of it at least once in their life, be that physical, sexual, psychological or economic.    One in three. If one in three men globally were subject to such devastating and pervasive harm, we would be convening an emergency summit.    Economic violence against women and girls is one of the forms of gender-based violence that even today too often goes unseen, and unregulated. But while it may not manifest in bruises and wounds, it can be just as harmful as physical violence, trapping women and girls in cycles of denigration and inequality.    Economic control. Economic sabotage. Economic exploitation. These are the three forms of economic violence playing out all around the world.    Restricting a woman’s access to money and assets. Tracking her spending. Ensuring she cannot open a bank account, or make financial decisions. Preventing her from seeking employment, or going to school. Taking her wages, or her pension. Accruing debt under her name.    In all its forms, economic violence is facilitated by archaic gender norms that consider men the financial decision makers. In all its forms, women are stifled, and blocked from living a life of autonomy.    We know that economic violence most commonly occurs in the home, and often interconnects with physical or sexual violence. But it can also be enabled, even perpetrated by the State through discriminatory legal frameworks which restrict women’s access to credit, employment, social protection, or property and land rights.    The world is failing to deliver on the promise of gender equality. Failing to put in place the measures needed to ensure half of humanity enjoy their fundamental rights and freedoms.    The numbers paint a startling picture. Some 3.9 billion women worldwide face legal barriers affecting their economic participation. Women earn just 77 cents for every dollar paid to men. Ninety-two countries lack provisions mandating equal pay for work of equal value. The wealth gap between women and men globally stands at a staggering 100 trillion USD.    Women’s equality lies at the core of all human rights, of human dignity and of our collective future.    To put a stop to economic violence, and proactively to ensure economic equity, we need a complete overhaul of discriminatory laws and practices. Gender equality needs to be positively fostered through laws governing all areas of life – economic, public and political. And we need policy measures to ensure that these laws are actually applied in practice.    Policy measures that protect and empower women’s economic, social and cultural rights. Access to decent work, including equal pay for work of equal value. Quality education that promotes human rights, gender equality and respect. The full realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Equal property ownership. Equal access to and control over financial resources. Shared childcare responsibilities and adequate childcare options. And above all, choice and opportunity to define one’s own life.    Where economic violence occurs, we must make stronger efforts to ensure survivors can seek justice and remedy. We need better complaint mechanisms. Better economic and social support systems. Better and more widely available assistance. And, importantly, perpetrators must be brought to justice.    Violence against women and girls – in all its forms – is abhorrent and inexcusable. It prevents their full and equal participation in society, suffocating their potential, and stealing choice and opportunity. We must take tangible actions to put a stop to it.    Nada Al-Nashif, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said global inequality and poverty were growing. Around 4.8 billion people, more likely to be women, were poorer than they were pre-COVID19 pandemic. Currently, more than 10 per cent of women globally were trapped in a cycle of extreme poverty, and as many as 342 million women (8 per cent) would still be living in extreme poverty by 2030. Current economic, legal and policy frameworks hindered the achievement of gender equality.    The existence of gender discriminatory laws and practices had a severe impact on women’s and girls’ enjoyment of economic rights, including the right to work and the right to social protection. A study showed that in 102 countries, women’s rights to inherit their husband’s property were denied under customary, religious, or traditional laws and practices. Even when laws granted women equal economic rights as men, these were often not implemented.    Women and girls were still perceived as the primary caregivers, meaning globally on average, they spent 2.4 hours a day more on such work than men. The lack of the recognition and the unequal distribution of care and support work deprived women and girls of equal opportunities to education, work, and participation in public life.    Furthermore, unsustainable and unprecedented levels of global public debt, combined with conditionalities of foreign financial assistance, were constraining the fiscal space of States and leading to drastic cuts in public services and denials of economic, social and cultural rights. Women would likely disproportionately face the brunt of such cuts, as they were over-represented in the public services’ workforce.    It was time to re-evaluate the concepts of unlimited economic growth, based on deeply embedded gender and other inequalities within and across countries, unsustainable exploitation of the environment, and the disregard for States’ obligations to realise economic, social, and cultural rights. There needed to be an economic paradigm shift towards a human rights economy which dismantled structural barriers and prioritised investments in human rights.    Hyshyama Hamin, Campaign Manager of the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law, said no country worldwide had achieved full legal equality between women and men, according to the World Bank.    Inequality often started in the family. Women and girls globally were affected by discriminatory family laws and practices, which consequently had multiple intersecting impacts in all other areas of their lives. Inequality in family law limited women’s and girls’ right to education, employment, economic independence, and full participation in society.    It further increased their risk of facing gender-based violence and harmful traditional practices, such as child and forced marriage. The Global Campaign had noted from multiple contexts that unequal family laws and practices impacted the financial rights of women.    According to the World Bank, Women, Business and the Law 2024 report, of 190 economies, 76 countries restricted women's property rights; 19 countries had laws that allowed husbands to legally prevent their wives from working; 43 countries did not grant widows the same inheritance rights as widowers, and 41 countries prevented daughters from inheriting the same proportion of assets as sons. Women performed 2.5 times more unpaid care work than men, which was largely invisible and unaccounted for in national economies.    The positive impacts of equal family laws and practices on women’s economic rights were far-reaching. Accelerated progress toward gender equality could result in huge economic gains for a country.    To accelerate progress, the international community needed to prioritise and promote egalitarian family laws and practices; and all States needed to ensure their family laws and practices were aligned with article 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. All actors needed to support family law reform as a priority.    Emanuela Pozzan, Senior Gender Specialist at the International Labour Organization, said care needed to be part of a just transition. The recently concluded International Labour Conference in Geneva adopted a resolution which focused on decent work and the care economy, and affirmed that care work was fundamental to human, social, economic and environmental well-being, as well as to sustainable development. This care work, paid and unpaid, was essential to all other work.    For the first time, the international community shared a common understanding of the care economy and acknowledged that a well-functioning and robust care economy was critical for building resilience to crises, and for achieving gender equality and inclusion while addressing other inequalities.    The current social organization of care placed a disproportionate share of unpaid care work on women, which hindered women’s economic inclusion and effective labour market participation, widening gender gaps in the world of work, and leaving many without adequate access to social protection.    The distribution of unpaid care work was highly feminised. Women performed 76.2 per cent of the total amount of unpaid care work: 16 billion hours per day – 3.2 times more than men. While such care could be rewarding, its excessive intensity and arduousness could undermine the economic opportunities, well-being, and enjoyment of rights for unpaid care providers.    Over 600 million women remained outside the labour force because of family responsibilities. Over 380 million care workers, two thirds of whom were women, made up the global paid care workforce, where they were less well paid and less protected.    Recent years had brought a worldwide improvement in maternity protection policies, leave and care services, thanks to social dialogue. However, the existing challenges and gaps in care leave policies and services could not be ignored. The resolution was clear: action needed to be taken. Investing in the care economy was an added value for all countries, societies and people.    Savitri Bisnath, Senior Director of Global Policy, the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School, said that the role of the economy was in part to facilitate human flourishing. The material realities of women and girls were linked to many sectors and policies: from health care, education, employment, sovereign debt burdens, taxation, and climate change.    Economic policies could help ensure that the root causes of, and structural barriers to, poverty and inequalities experienced by women and girls were intentionally addressed and redressed for equitable and inclusive economies and societies.    There was consensus that the current economic model was failing to deliver economic prosperity for all. For example, it was common knowledge that women were often paid less than men for the same work and that within countries women were also discriminated against based on race, age and geographic location.    The United Nations Secretary-General had pointed to the many challenges facing the world community, including geopolitical and economic fragmentation with growing inequalities mostly affecting women and girls, the cost-of-living crisis, and the poorest countries on debt row facing insolvency and default, all of which led down the path of deepening instability.    There was an urgent need for reform of the global debt architecture. The ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want could only be achieved if conditions were created whereby everyone could enjoy their economic, social and cultural rights, as well as their civil and political rights.    Economic policies needed to be aligned with human rights and environmental justice goals. An economy grounded in human rights principles and standards would facilitate transparency and accountability, as well as space for social dialogue, scrutiny and participation. It was essential for increasing trust, cohesion and inclusion within societies.    http://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/meeting-summary/2024/06/le-conseil-des-droits-de-lhomme-se-penche-sur-le-probleme-de-la http://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/meeting-summary/2024/06/le-conseil-des-droits-de-lhomme-entend-une-mise-en-garde-contre http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/06/high-commissioner-economic-violence-against-women-gender-based http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/06/1151616 http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5651-escalating-backlash-against-gender-equality-and-urgency http://www.ohchr.org/en/topic/gender-equality-and-womens-rights http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/wg-women-and-girls Visit the related web page
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