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South Asia B +10 NGO Consultation June 19-20,
2004
Organized by
Beyond Beijing Committee & South Asia Women’s Watch
Lalitpur, Nepal
Alarmed that rampant globalization, neo-liberalism and unregulated privatization have contributed towards the intensification of poverty, social injustice, illiteracy, structural violence, resulting in extreme forms of discrimination and exploitation of women in the region;
Concerned that the adverse policies of the international financial institutions and the developed countries have devastating impact for the exercise of human rights of women and have jeopardized the quality of life and equitable employment opportunity for women,
Recalling the provisions enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action, the Outcome Document; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the SAARC Convention on Trafficking and other regional and international instruments relating to women’s rights;
Reiterating the fact that militarization of the region has escalated violence against women and children with grave risk of displacement, unsafe migration and exploitation thereby increasing extreme vulnerability of women;
Understanding that the women in the region have largely been disenfranchised from the mainstream political processes and marginalized from the power structures;
Realizing that sustainable human development incorporates substantive equality between women and men, respect for human, economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights, the elimination of poverty and the preservation of the environment is possible only through an equitable distribution of the world’s resources between south and north, poor and rich, women and men.
We the 160+ delegates from South Asian countries assembled in the South Asia Beijing+10 NGO Consultation held in Kathmandu, Nepal on June 19-20, 2004, from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, representing various women’s organizations, NGOs and civil society organized by South Asia Women’s Watch and hosted by Beyond Beijing Committee have unanimously adopted the following “Himalayan Declaration.”
Our Mission Statement
1. We, the representatives from South Asia are all bound together by a common identity which expresses itself both in our linkages and the struggles for the empowerment of women in our respective countries.
2. These links have strengthened us individually and have led to a growing regional solidarity. Today, in the context of the contemporary socio-political environment, we feel it is imperative to develop and further strengthen a South Asian perspective for women’s empowerment in the region.
3. As women our lives are subject to control through predominantly patriarchal structures and discriminatory laws and institutions, often justified on the basis of religion, customs and cultures which has led to increasing restrictions on our space and access to resources.
4. Increasing incidence of rape, dowry deaths, honor killings, acid attacks, women’s humiliation in public, and the violence perpetrated by castism and religious fundamentalism leave us vulnerable both in the private and public sphere.
We urge the countries of South Asia to
· Take comprehensive measures to address root causes of conflict situations, initiate and strengthen processes towards negotiated political settlements to internal and cross-border conflicts and ensure the participation of women at all levels in these efforts; reduce military budgets and channel those resources towards the expenditures related to the social sector. · The states must take effective measures to arrest the adverse impacts of globalization specially on women; the state must ensure the protection of workers, food security, and the protection of environment and livelihood of people; keep off privatization of the sectors that meet the basic needs of people like water, health care, education stop the corporatization of agriculture. · The state must not abdicate its social responsibility towards its people. · Create a code of conduct for corporate reasonability to comply with international human rights standards relating to women. · Take immediate measures to stop systematic and gross gender-based violence and violation of women’s human rights; repeal/amend all discriminatory laws and adopt gender just laws meeting the standard of international human rights laws and treaty obligation; · Adopt all national, bilateral and regional laws and treaties with the goal of combating the heinous crimes of trafficking, sexual exploitation and slavery of women. · The states should come up with a fix time frame and ensure minimum of 33 percent of reservation for women at all level in political and all levels of decision making. · Adopt special affirmative measures, as a principle of positive discrimination, for dalit, marginalized, single, aging, minority, indigenous, refugee and disabled women. · Withdraw all declarations and reservations from CEDAW and CRC and ratify the Optional Protocol of CEDAW, the Refugees Convention, the Statute of the International Criminal Court, the Second Optional Protocol to the Geneva Convention, and the UN Convention on the Protection of Rights of Migrant Workers and their Family and implement the provisions of above conventions and protocols. · All states must Strengthen National machineries and increase substantially the budgetary allocations for the empowerments of women in order to fulfill commitments made under PFA. · Consultative process with women’s organizations, NGOs and civil society needs to be strengthened by the governments of the regions .
We, the women of South Asia who comprise more than 50% of the regional population are strengthened by our firm commitment to continue our struggle to establish substantive equality in all spheres of life. We call upon all the governments of the region to fulfill the commitments made in Beijing, other international fora that fully implement BPFA, CEDAW and other international instruments, national action plans on women of the respective countries within the given time frame.
We urge upon the development partners and relevant UN agencies to prioritize South Asian Women’s concerns in their agenda and extend all necessary financial and technical assistance.
Since achievement of the goal of Equality, Development, and Peace is the international commitment of all the governments of the Region, we call for full implementation of the goal by the year 2015.
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South Asia Beijing + 10
OVERVIEW
Since the Fourth Conference on Women, in Beijing, in 1995, some progress has been made related to the commitments of the BPFA on the part of governments in South Asia. National machineries have played a more visible role in most countries in the region. National Plans of Action have been drawn up and attempts have been made to prepare programmes and policies that focus on women. However, over the last 10 years, political will and BPFA implementation records remain unsatisfactory. The gaps and obstacles that the women’s movement encounters can be attributed to the nature of the impact of the onslaught of neo-liberal market forces, militaristic tendencies, internal conflicts and communal forces. There has been an increase in human trafficking and violence against women. There has been a backlash against women and the women’s movement from fundamentalist/extremist groups. The region has seen an increase in the feminisation of poverty and the emergence of female-headed households.
The number of women’s organisations working towards women’s empowerment has increased significantly over the last 10 years. The Women’s Movements in the respective countries have articulated their rights within the context of the BPFA. The South Asia Beijing +10 NGO Consultation brought together over 160 women from the region to share their achievements and challenges over the last 10 years, and to identify emerging issues and future actions. We have prioritized issues of concern as follows:
Peace
and Security
Peace and Security
Issues – Gaps and Obstacles:
- High military expenditures. - Existence of structural violence within society. - Proliferation of internal conflicts and on-going cross-border conflicts. - Absence of political will to address the root causes of conflicts. - Absence of women in decision-making and peace negotiations. - Non-adherence by both state and non-state actors to international human rights laws, including the Geneva Convention and the UN Security Council Resolution 1325. - Lack of an adequate mechanism to address the needs of internally displaced persons. - Increasing communal, caste, ethnic and sectoral violence. - Lack of women’s involvement and leadership in negotiations, reconciliation, reconstruction, resettlement and rehabilitation. - Inadequate support systems for victims of conflict-related violence.
Strategies:
- Decrease military budgets and channel this money to the social sector. - Create measures to ensure the recognition of the equal right to identity, irrespective of gender, class, caste and ethnicity, and in line with the rights enshrined in the Constitutions of the respective countries, and based on commitments made at the international level. - Commit to the resolution of internal and cross-border conflicts through negotiated political settlements. - Include women in peace negotiations at all levels. - Build the capacity of women to promote peace making initiatives. - Launch media campaigns and training programmes on existing international norms and conventions that relate to conflicts and peace building. - Lobby and advocate for the integration and implementation of human rights standards in resolving conflicts; promote a culture of peace, with social and gender justice, in the curricula of educational institutions, as well as in military and police academies. - Design specific policies and programmes to address the needs and concerns of internally displaced persons, including their rights to housing, livelihood and security. - Ensure comprehensive development strategies for the socio-political-economic uplift of groups that have been discriminated against and disadvantaged. - Activate and strengthen the SAARC NGO, Women for Peace. - Form a women’s pressure group at the local level.
Globalization and Poverty
Issues – Gaps and Obstacles:
- Intensification of poverty, joblessness, unequal distribution of resources, and gender-based discriminatory wages within South Asian countries. - Increasing violence against women. - Lack of access, control over resources and livelihood for women. - Absence of legal protection from patent laws in South Asia. - Enlargement of the informal sector of the workforce, weakening of labour laws and a corresponding weakening of the formal sector and casualization of labour. - Increasing power of Trans-National Companies and Multinational Companies. - Adverse effects of the dictates and conditionalities perpetuated by international financial institutions. - Erosion of food security. - Feminisation of migration in some areas, and increased male migration in other areas, has resulted in increases in the number of female-headed households. - Commodification of women, the sex trade and sex tourism. - Reduction of state expenditures on the social sector has led to social injustices. - Marginalisation of the most poor and disadvantaged communities/minorities. - Urban-centred development. - Environmental degradation, due to uncontrolled use of pesticides/insecticides. - Privatisation of water, health, education and electricity. - Corporatisation of agriculture and rural indebtedness. - Increased militarization.
Strategies:
- Make South Asian development condition on the protection of people-centred development over profit. - Women’s Watch should monitor government economic policies and programmes. - Government and civil society should protect marginalised community rights. - Convert third world debt payments into expenditures on women and children’s development. - Attempt to ensure transparency in governance and management. - Protect the rights of female workers both in and outside of Free Trade Zones. - Ensure women’s access to credit facilities without collateral. - Take steps to address environmental degradation and threats to water resources. - Stop the privatisation of water and the corporatisation of agriculture. - Ensure that governments fulfil their commitments to eradicate poverty and guarantee basic human rights. - Create comprehensive policies, programmes and legislation to protect the rights of both the workers in the informal sector and the urban poor.
Violence Against Women
Issues – Gaps and Obstacles:
- Overarching patriarchal ideology. - Increased incidents of gender-based violence against women, honour killings, dowry deaths and acid attacks. - Lack of legal provisions to protect the specific rights of women, eg. lack of domestic violence legislation in the region. - Existence of discriminatory laws. - Existence of culture of violence. - Lack of accountability and corruption prevalent among law enforcement authorities. - Proliferation of human trafficking and the sex trade. - Increased access to small arms. - Non-implementation of CEDAW and other human rights instruments. - Lack of citizenship rights for women. - Inadequate mechanisms to implement marriage and birth right registration. - Increased fundamentalism and extremism.
Strategies:
- Implement gender sensitisation at all levels, including among key stakeholders, such as police persons, judges, law enforcement agencies, planners, etc. - Implement strong protective laws and enforce stiff penalties for perpetrators of violence against women. - Government and other bodies should provide legal protection, shelters, hotlines for female victims of violence. - Set up and strengthen women’s cells in all police stations. - Enforce legal protection provisions, irrespective of caste, ethnicity or minority status. - Provide trauma counselling and care to victims through a rights-based approach. - Initiate bilateral and regional dialogue between the supply and demand sides of countries affected by the trafficking of women. - Implement mass awareness campaigns against discriminatory social values and norms. - Provide accessible, effective and efficient legal aid to victims of violence, and establish in-camera trial procedures for cases of violence against women. - Maintain empirical, statistical records on incidents of violence against women. - Recognize honour killings as murders and implemented laws in accordance with this recognition. - Create a code of ethics for the media to use when reporting cases of violence against women. - Involve men and young persons in the movement to eliminate violence against women. - Lobby jointly, as South Asian women, at the international level, with regard to the rights of refugee and trafficked women. - Publicize the need to complete marriage and birth registrations. - Repeal/amend laws to ensure women’s right to pass on citizenship to their children.
Power and Decision Making
Issues – Gaps and Obstacles:
- Lack of women’s representation in decision-making bodies at all levels. - Lack of commitment by political parties to mainstream women within their own decision-making bodies. - Prevalence of patriarchal value system, which discourages men from acknowledging women’s capability in mainstream politics. - Corruption, lack of resources and culture of violence discourage women in political participation. - Concerted, public, character assassinations and intimidation of female candidates and politicians also discourage women from political participation. - Socio-political and religious factors deprive women of their right to vote and contest elections at all levels. - Prevalence of restricted space for professional women at the decision-making level. - Lack of commitment to implement international conventions relating to women’s empowerment. - Lack of effective affirmative action to facilitate women’s entry into the political arena, eg. lack of an effective quota/reservation system
Strategies:
- All political parties should ensure a 33% reservation for women representatives in all party committees (Local/National). - All parties must declare in their manifestos that women will be nominated; the parties must also ensure implementation. - Create regulations that make it mandatory for political parties to fulfill a requirement of 33% women candidates at the decision-making level in order to register with the election commission. - Women’s groups should initiate dialogue with female MPs and consultations with political parties, with the goal of facilitating collaboration and cooperation of women at all levels. - Launch media campaigns to sensitize journalists to women’s rights issues. - Encourage women to build the capacity of women’s organizations through training. - Sensitize and mobilise female voters to vote for female candidates. - Network women’s rights groups at the national level with human rights groups and government bodies. - Initiate regular networking of women parliamentarians through the SAARC platform. - Encourage the corporate sector to ensure a minimum of 33% women at the decision-making level. - Work towards adequate representation of women at the decision-making level in key ministries, such as Information, Finance, Home/Internal Affairs and Defense. - Encourage the appointment of at least 33% women to decision-making positions. - Governments must ensure at least a 33% representation of women in high level delegation/negotiation teams in order to produce valid and enforceable decisions. - Assemble a cadre of trainers who are capable of increasing women’s capacity. - Ensure budgetary allocations for women’s empowerment and representation at all decision-making levels in the public sector. - Encourage election commissions to support the formation of a fund to facilitate women’s participation in mainstream politics. - Set up a fund for female candidates, irrespective of political affiliation, to contest elections at all levels.
Institutional Mechanisms
Issues – Gaps and Obstacles:
- State power structures remain patriarchal. - Supremacy of the male hierarchy and the prevalence of strong patriarchal norms. - National machineries are unable to fulfill their mandates. - Lack of adequate representation of women in law making bodies. - Lack of gender-sensitized personnel in the bureaucracy. - SAARC lacks strength as a regional body. - Inadequate knowledge of state commitments to international treaties and agreements, such as CEDAW, ICCPR, CRC, ICPD, ILO, and BPFA. - Lack of indicators and monitoring tools to assess the implementation of national laws and policies and international treaties and agreements relating to women. - The SAARC Technical Committee on Women is a non-functional body. - Lack of legal mechanisms at the national level to ensure the protection of women’s rights. - Dwindling support for programmes on women’s rights.
Strategies:
- Strengthen SAARC to play a stronger and more effective role in the region. - Allocate adequate resources for regular and effective SAARC meetings. - Reactivate the SAARC Technical Commission on Women. - Ensure NGO and civil society participation within the SAARC system. - Enable easy access to SAARC countries by citizens of this region. - Ensure SAARC accountability to the citizens of the region. - Encourage closer interaction between women parliamentarian and women’s groups. - Work to achieve wider dissemination of international treaties and obligations among SAARC member countries, by way of the media, advocacy programmes, and information, education and communication materials (IEC). - Develop, share and utilize effective indicators and monitoring tools, to chart the implementation of national laws and policies and international treaties and obligations, among SAARC governments, women’s organizations and civil society. - SAARC governments must ensure adequate resources for the effective function of national machineries for women and human rights commissions. - Formulate and effectively implement legislation relating to women’s rights throughout SAARC countries, e.g. legislation against domestic violence. - Remove all reservations relating to CEDAW and amend national laws to ensure effective implementation. - Ratify the Optional Protocol to CEDAW without any reservations. - Ensure the effective and active participation of the UN and other development partners at the regional level in support of activities related to the protection of women’s human rights. - Guarantee funding to South Asia Women’s Watch, which has been the focal organization for promoting the Beijing Platform for Action in South Asia. Cross Cutting Issues
The Girl Child
There has been an alarming increase in the trafficking of girl children in the region and this has led to large numbers of young girls being sold into prostitution. The practice of child marriage, although illegal, is still rampant in the region. This practice dramatically affects girls’ lives, robs them of their childhoods, and adversely impacts their individual development. Reports on internal conflicts indicate that girl children are often forcibly recruited to be combatants. Further, decreased educational expenditures have resulted in increased drop-out rates among young girls.
Differently-Abled Women
There is little recognition, both at the governmental and civil society level, of the rights and needs of differently-abled women in the region. There are few facilities and opportunities available, either in the field of employment or in the area of access to social welfare benefits. Those differently-abled women who have been successful in their lives, continue to face social stigma from their communities. Differently-abled women are often vulnerable to sexual aggression and violence.
Emerging Issues
Women and Ageing
Demographic trends indicate a clear increase in the life expectancy of women and a gradual lowering of birth rates in South Asia. This trend has resulted in a significant increase in the proportion of elderly women in SAARC countries. When combined with changing traditional family structures, this trend has resulted in the increased vulnerability of elderly, who benefit from few, if any, state support systems, such as healthcare and social security. Female-Headed Households
Protracted internal conflicts and cross-border conflicts have resulted in a sharp increase in the number of female-headed households in the region. For example, in Sri Lanka, approximately 21% of households were deemed to be female-headed in the mid-1990s. This number is expected to have risen over the last decade. On the other hand, many women migrate to other parts of the region or to other countries in West Asia, and are emerging as heads-of-households through access to higher incomes than their partners. However, South Asian governments have not yet formulated effective policies or programmes to address the specific needs and concerns of female-headed households. Many female heads-of-households are denied housing and social sector benefits in non-recognition of their rights. In India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh increased external migration of males has resulted in many women becoming de facto heads-of-households in a patriarchal society which does not recognize their right to ownership of land, access to credit or basic human needs.
Disadvantaged and Marginalized Minorities
South Asia has an unusually high number of ethnic, cultural and linguistic groups. While this contributes to the rich diversity of the region, it is also the source of structural violence which has been and continues to be inflicted upon those groups that exist outside of the mainstream. Amongst these, dalits make up the most disadvantaged and subjugated group; they require special attention and remedial measures in all spheres in order to achieve their equitable growth, empowerment and development. Similarly, indigenous peoples have experienced cultural assimilation that has threatened their group identities and individual enjoyment of their culture. While indigenous knowledge is both valuable and useful to those who bear it and to the population and large, it has been both disrespected and threatened. Further, indigenous land rights have been exploited to an alarming degree and they have been side-lined throughout the development process. The above-detailed issues have resulted in the large-scale marginalization of indigenous peoples.
Conclusion
In the 10 years since the Beijing Conference there have been numerous achievements, including an increasing number of women’s organizations working towards women’s empowerment, the establishment of women’s rights as human rights, the amendment of significant numbers of discriminatory laws and the creation of some institutional mechanisms to achieve gender-mainstreaming. However, despite the above-cited advances, the patriarchal system of governance and norms remains in tact and this has severely hampered women’s efforts to ensure their own rights, livelihoods, political empowerment, and overall development and advancement. It is therefore unsurprising that major issues and areas of critical concern have changed little since Beijing. While all of the major human and women’s rights conventions and treaties have been ratified, yet the implementation of these instruments has been miserable. The political and social commitments to ensure women’s abilities to exercise their de facto rights have failed. Even after 10 years, achievement of the goal of women’s rights and empowerment seems distant.
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