Non-Discrimination II Women

Cecilia M. Bailliet

Kälin & Künzli

• 1) The Prohibition of discrimination on the basis of ‘sex’ protects women and men against adverse distinctions and thus constitutes a symmetrical prohibition as it gives both sexes entitlements to equal treatment and to equality of opportunity

• ICCPR Art. 26, ECHR Art. 14 & ECHR P7 Art. 5

ICCPR Art. 26

• All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law. In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Kälin & Künzli

• 2) The prohibition of discrimination against women affords protection only to the persons of the female sex and therefore operates asymmetrically. This prohibition limits entitlements to equal treatment and equality of opportunity to women and furthermore gives women, at least in principle, the right to de facto equality in the sense of equality of result.

• CEDAW

CEDAW, Art. 1

• For the purposes of the present Convention, the term "discrimination against women" shall mean any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.

CEDAW, Art. 2• States Parties condemn discrimination against women in all its forms, agree to pursue by all appropriate means and

without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women and, to this end, undertake: • (a) To embody the principle of the equality of men and women in their national constitutions or other appropriate

legislation if not yet incorporated therein and to ensure, through law and other appropriate means, the practical realization of this principle;

• (b) To adopt appropriate legislative and other measures, including sanctions where appropriate, prohibiting all discrimination against women;

• (c) To establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis with men and to ensure through competent national tribunals and other public institutions the effective protection of women against any act of discrimination;

• (d) To refrain from engaging in any act or practice of discrimination against women and to ensure that public authorities and institutions shall act in conformity with this obligation;

• (e) To take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women by any person, organization or enterprise;

• (f) To take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women;

• (g) To repeal all national penal provisions which constitute discrimination against women.

CEDAW Art. 6

• States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women.

CEDAW Art. 14• 1. States Parties shall take into account the particular problems faced by rural women and the

significant roles which rural women play in the economic survival of their families, including their work in the non-monetized sectors of the economy, and shall take all appropriate measures to ensure the application of the provisions of the present Convention to women in rural areas.

• 2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, that they participate in and benefit from rural development and, in particular, shall ensure to such women the right:

• (a) To participate in the elaboration and implementation of development planning at all levels; • (b) To have access to adequate health care facilities, including information, counselling and services

in family planning; • (c) To benefit directly from social security programmes; • (d) To obtain all types of training and education, formal and non-formal, including that relating to

functional literacy, as well as, inter alia, the benefit of all community and extension services, in order to increase their technical proficiency;

• (e) To organize self-help groups and co-operatives in order to obtain equal access to economic opportunities through employment or self employment;

• (f) To participate in all community activities; • (g) To have access to agricultural credit and loans, marketing facilities, appropriate technology and

equal treatment in land and agrarian reform as well as in land resettlement schemes; • (h) To enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relation to housing, sanitation, electricity and

water supply, transport and communications.

Kälin & Künzli

• 3. The aforementioned types of prohibition, which oblige states to refrain from taking measures that discriminate against women, are frequently insufficient to protect women against gender-specific violations of their rights. To achieve that aim, special norms protecting women are required to oblige states to adopt affirmative measures.

• Trafficking Convention & Protocol• ILO Conventions, women and employment• IHL/ICL- rape, sexual violence• UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against

Women

UN Security Council Resolution 1325 Gender Balance

• 1. Urges Member States to ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict;

• 2. Encourages the Secretary-General to implement his strategic plan of action (A/49/587) calling for an increase in the participation of women at decisionmaking levels in conflict resolution and peace processes;

• 3. Urges the Secretary-General to appoint more women as special representatives and envoys to pursue good offices on his behalf, and in this regard calls on Member States to provide candidates to the Secretary-General, for inclusion in a regularly updated centralized roster;

• 4. Further urges the Secretary-General to seek to expand the role and contribution of women in United Nations field-based operations, and especially among military observers, civilian police, human rights and humanitarian personnel;

• 5. Expresses its willingness to incorporate a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations, and urges the Secretary-General to ensure that, where appropriate, field operations include a gender component;

• 6. Requests the Secretary-General to provide to Member States training guidelines and materials on the protection, rights and the particular needs of women, as well as on the importance of involving women in all peacekeeping and peacebuilding measures,

UN SC Resolution 1325 Gender Mainstreaming

• 8. Calls on all actors involved, when negotiating and implementing peace• agreements, to adopt a gender perspective, including, inter alia:• (a) The special needs of women and girls during repatriation and• resettlement and for rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict

reconstruction;• (b) Measures that support local women’s peace initiatives and indigenous• processes for conflict resolution, and that involve women in all of the• implementation mechanisms of the peace agreements;• (c) Measures that ensure the protection of and respect for human rights

of• women and girls, particularly as they relate to the constitution, the

electoral system, the police and the judiciary;

UN Security Council Resolution 1889

• Urges Member States, international and regional organisations to take further measures to improve women’s participation during all stages of peace processes, particularly in conflict resolution, post-conflict planning and peacebuilding, including by enhancing their engagement in political and economic decision-making at early stages of recovery processes, through inter alia promoting women’s leadership and capacity to engage in aid management and planning, supporting women’s organizations, and countering negative societal attitudes about women’s capacity to participate equally;

UN Security Council Resolution 1889

• Calls upon the Secretary-General to develop a strategy, including through appropriate training, to increase the number of women appointed to pursue good offices on his behalf, particularly as Special Representatives and Special Envoys, and to take measures to increase women’s participation in United Nations political, peacebuilding and peacekeeping missions;

UN Security Council Resolution 1889

• Encourages Member States in post-conflict situations, in consultation with civil society, including women’s organizations, to specify in detail women and girls’ needs and priorities and design concrete strategies, in accordance with their legal systems, to address those needs and priorities, which cover inter alia support for greater physical security and better socio-economic conditions, through

• education, income generating activities, access to basic services, in particular health services, including sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights and mental health, gender-responsive law enforcement and access to justice, as well as enhancing capacity to engage in public decision-making at all levels;

Chinkin & Charlesworth

• Women in peacebuilding• Equality and Culture• Economic and Social Rights• Violence against Women- gender based

violence by State, society, and peacekeepers• Economic Security• Participation

UN Security Council Resolution 1889• Calls upon all those involved in the planning for disarmament,

demobilization and reintegration to take into account particular needs of women and girls associated with armed forces and armed groups and their children, and provide for their full access to these programmes;

• 14. Encourages the Peacebuilding Commission and Peacebuilding Support Office to continue to ensure systematic attention to and mobilisation of resources for advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment as an integral part of post conflict peacebuilding, and to encourage the full participation of women in this process;

• 15. Request the Secretary-General, in his agenda for action to improve the

• United Nations’ peacebuilding efforts, to take account of the need to improve the participation of women in political and economic decision-making from the earliest stages of the peacebuilding process

African Protocol on Women’s Rights, Art. 10

• 1. Women have the right to a peaceful existence and the right to participate in the promotion and maintenance of peace.

• 2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure the increased participation of women:

• a) in programmes of education for peace and a culture of peace;• b) in the structures and processes for conflict prevention, management and resolution at

local, national, regional, continental and international levels;• c) in the local, national, regional, continental and international decision making structures to

ensure• physical, psychological, social and legal protection of asylum seekers, refugees, returnees and

displaced persons,• in particular women;• d) in all levels of the structures established for the management of camps and settlements for

asylum seekers, refugees, returnees and displaced persons, in particular, women;• e) in all aspects of planning, formulation and implementation of post-conflict reconstruction

and rehabilitation.• 3. States Parties shall take the necessary measures to reduce military expenditure significantly

in favour of spending on social development in general, and the promotion of women in particular.

UNIFEM• A review of a sample of 21 major peace processes since 1992 shows

that women represent a strikingly low number of participants:• • Only 2.4% of signatories to this sample of peace agreements were

women;• • No women have been appointed Chief or Lead peace mediators in

UN-sponsored peace talks, but in some talks sponsored by the AU or other institutions women have joined a team of mediators. A recent positive case is the role of Graça Machel as one of the three mediators for the Kenya crisis in 2008.

• • Women’s participation in negotiating delegations averaged 5.9% of the 10 cases for which such information was available;

• • Priority gender-specific provisions in peace accords are women’s physical security and human rights guarantees.

PBS Video

• http://video.pbs.org/video/1157137218/

• Pray the Devil Back to Hell

Questions

• Is peace «feminine»? Is war «masculine»• What do women bring to the peace table?• Why have women been under-represented in

the peace making process in most historical settings?

• What is the rationale for UN Resolution 1325?