Published in the book:
Chadwick Alger (edit.):The Future of the United Nations System:
Potential for the Twenty-first Century
United NationsUniversity Press, 1998
Hilkka Pietilä & Jeanne Vickers:
EQUALITY - DEVELOPMENT - PEACE
The UN System in the vanguard of advancement
of women, development and peace
Page
1. The early years of the United Nations 2
- Changing Perspectives
- “Herstory" in the UN
2.A legal instrument to prevent discrimination 6
againstwomen
3. A Forward-looking document from Nairobi 7
- Definition of the concepts
4.The UN leads the way 9 - Learning the gender-language - Human development—the ultimate aim
5.The issue of the '90s — violence against women 11 - Now a priority issue - Rape as a war crime - Violence among men?
6.Women's future with the United Nations 14
- Serious doubts
- Voice of women in the South
- Women on the alert
7.The UN System as spearhead of change 17
Notes
EQUALITY - DEVELOPMENT - PEACE
The UN System in the vanguard of advancement
of women, development and peace
What can women expect from such a manifestation of patriarchy as presented by the 184 member governments of the United Nations? Strangely enough, it is in fact the United Nations System which, in recent decades, has been in the vanguard of efforts to improve the status of women, well ahead of its member governments. It has spearheaded a process which still awaits implementation at the national level throughout the broad range of members of the UN family.
The Organization's 50th Anniversary in 1995 will coincide with the 20th anniversary of International Women's Year 1975 and the 10th anniversary of the World Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985. The Fourth World Conference on Women, which will take place in Beijing in September 1995, is thus one of the major events being organized to celebrate the UN's 50th birthday.
1.The early years of the United Nations
The principle of the equality of men and women is already recognized in the UN Charter, which states: "We, the peoples of the United Nations, determined . . . to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small . . . have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims." It also stipulates that one of the purposes of the United Nations is "to achieve international cooperation . . . in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion."
At the very first session of the UN General Assembly a Commission was appointed to draft a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, presided by one of the most outstanding women of the time, Eleanor Roosevelt. When adopted in 1948 the Declaration contained the words: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." The Declaration's Second Article is even more specific: "Everyoneis entitled to all rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind,such as race, colour, sex, language . . ."
Based on the principles of the Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, much work has been done to produce further, more binding, more concrete and precise provisions on the equality of the sexes. In the early years of the UN women's issues were mainly debated in bodies concerned with human rights, but already in 1946 a Commission on the Status of Women was established with a mandate to study and prepare recommendations on human rights issues of special concern to women. It's first task was to determine in which conditions and situations, worldwide, the most severe forms of discrimination against women occurred, with four areas forming the point of departure for its work:
-political rights and the possibility of exercising them;
-legal rights of women, both as individuals and as family members;
-access of girls and women to education and training, including vocational training;
-working life.
During the last 50 years recommendations and conventions have been prepared and adopted by the United Nations, Unesco and ILO in all these fields. Table 1 lists the most important of those relating directly to women.
A sad reflection on the crucial problems of women still prevailing during the latter half of the 20th century, these Conventions also serve to measure the achievements of the UN system with regard to the advancement of women. The first, the Convention for Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, dates already from the time of the League of Nations, to which the women's movement and a number of non-governmental organizations had submitted a proposal concerning prohibition of sexual slavery.
Given the situation today, it is also an example of an international effort, in the form of a Convention in force, which has failed to eliminate or even diminish the problem concerned. On the contrary, prostitution has become a big business, and 'traffic in persons' has become an ever more
Table 1. Selected Conventions of Concern to Women
Adopted In Force Ratifications as in 2004
1949 Convention for Suppression of Traffic in Persons 1951 78
and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of others
1951 Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers 1953 161 for Work of Equal Value (ILO No. 100)
1952 Convention on the Political Rights of Women 1954 118
1957 Convention on the Nationality of Married Women 1958 70
1958 Discrimination in Respect of Employment 1960 160
and Occupation (ILO No. 111)
1960 International Convention against Discrimination 1962 91
in Education (Unesco)
1962 Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum 1964 51
Age of Marriage, and Registration of Marriages
1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms 1981 184 (2006)
of Discrimination Against Women
1981 Convention concerning Equal Opportunities and 1982 36
Equal Treatment for Men and Women Workers:
Workers with Family Responsibilities (ILO No. 156)
(Note: This table has been revised in 2006.)
evident part of the flourishing and expanding industry of intercontinental tourism, extending even to under-age girls and boys.
A more encouraging example is the Convention on the Political Rights of Women. When the UN Charter was signed 50 years ago, political rights of women were in force in only 30 of the 52 signatory states. By 1993 104 countries had ratified this Convention, and in fact the countries where such rights do not exist are now rare.
Also pointedly evocative of the situation of women were the reasons which led to the adoption of the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age of Marriage and Registration of Marriages in 1962. At that time women in much of the world still had nothing to say in the choice of their marriage partners or the age at which their marriages took place; they were mere commodities in the hands of their parents and families, who had full power to decide upon their fate. Obligatory registration was a necessary means to ensure that the rights of the wife were officially recognized.
But perhaps the single most important step to improve the
situation of women in this century has been the recognition, as
a basic human right, of the right to family planning and access
to the information and practical means necessary to exercise
it. Mentioned for the first time in this form in the
Declaration of Teheran 1968, and included in the General
Assembly's 1969 Declaration on Social Progress and Development,
it was included as an obligatory provision in the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women,
adopted in 1979.
Changing Perspectives
In the past 50 years issues concerning and of interest to women have gone through a process of varying treatment by the UN and its specialized agencies. Although during the 1950s and 1960s women's issues were seen primarily within the context of human rights and thus not related to the big issues of development and peace, in the 1970s the perspective changed decisively. The key role of women, especially in the fields of population and food, became apparent, and in 1972 a decision was taken to declare 1975 International Women's Year.
Throughout the 1970s women's issues came to the fore in several of the world conferences convened by the UN to study and adopt specific plans of action for the solution of major problems of world development, and the UN agenda began specifically to address the concerns of the female half of humankind. Seen earlier as mere objects, for whose protection and rights recommendations were made and conventions enacted, in the 1970s the formula became "to integrate women into development". Characteristically, women were seen as resources and their contributions sought to enhance the development process and to make it more efficient. For this purpose it was necessary to improve the status, nutrition, health and education of women.
It was often claimed to be "a waste of human resources" if women were not fully integrated into development efforts. Their dignity and rights were not yet seen as a cause in its own right. The perennial nature of their contribution to the well-being of every country's population was still unrecognized within the development context.
But at last, in the International Development Strategy for the UN's Third Development Decade (the 1980s), a trend towards seeing women as equals, "as agents and beneficiaries in all sectors and at all levels of the development process", finally emerges, and the year 1985 became a turning point in the history of women's issues in the UN System.
For in that year the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achieve-ments of the UN Decade for Women took place in Nairobi, adopting unanimously the Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women Towards the Year 2000 (commonly known as the FLS). These specifically recognize women as "intellectuals, policy-makers, planners, and contributors and beneficiaries of development" and require implementation by both member governments and the UN System.
"Herstory" in the UN
The milestones in this process can be seen as follows :
-International Women's Year 1975;
-the World Conference of the IWY in Mexico City, 1975, and adoption of the Declaration and World Plan of Action for Implementation of the Objectives of International Women's Year;
-the United Nations Decade for Women (UNDW) 1976-1985; Equality, Development and Peace (proclaimed by the General Assembly in its Resolution 3520 (XXX), 1975);
-The World Conference of the UNDW in Copenhagen, 1980, and adoption of the Programme of Action for the Second Half of the UNDW;
-the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the UNDW: Equality, Development and Peace, in Nairobi in 1985, adoption of the Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women (FLS), for the period 1986-2000.
Another, partly parallel and equally important, process in the UN System was the preparation and adoption in 1979 of the most important international legal instrument for women, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
This Convention (1), and the FLS (2), thus constitute the main UN accords for the advancement of women. The UN System has committed itself to implement these accords by adopting the System-wide Medium-term Plan for Women and Developmentin 1990-1995 (3) as well as a corresponding plan for the years 1996-2001.(4)
2. A legal instrument to prevent discrimination against women
By far the most important of the UN conventions on women's rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women was adopted in 1979 without any dissenting vote and entered into force in 1981 following ratification by the required 20 countries. It is a concise and comprehensive conclusion to the long process which had taken place within the UN System during some 30 years to incorporate the principles of gender equality in the provisions of international law, covering all relevant provisions of previous, separate conventions and complementing them with regard to issues not yet covered.
The fact that a special Convention was needed on this subject is revealing. All the human rights conventions speak about universal human rights, meaning equal rights of men and women, but they are still not applied equally anywhere, thus requiring this particular Convention. It provides also for the establishment of a Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to monitor its implementation, i.e. implementation of human rights conventions from the point of view of women.
CEDAW, composed of 23 elected experts nominated by the states parties to the Convention, meets once a year to consider progress made in implementation of the Convention and to review the periodic reports of governments. Each government must submit its initial report within one year after entry into force of the Convention in the country concerned, then at least once every four years. CEDAW even has the power to subject governments, one by one, to public scrutiny, and can also request additional or specific reporting whenever this appears necessary.
This Convention gained ratifications more rapidly than any other international convention before it, with ratification by about 100 countries within the 10 years up to 1990. Its impact has been significant, even in a country like Finland where, together with the FLS, it speeded up the adoption of a general Equality Act and prompted the establishment of an Office of Equality Ombudsman in 1986. Ratification of the Convention also required reforms in legislation concerning family relations, in particular provisions concerning family name, marriage, guardianship and citizenship of a married woman. Finland and other Nordic countries do not ratify international conventions before rectification of national legislation to become compatible with the convention concerned.
3. A forward-looking document from Nairobi
The final document of the UN World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women : Equality—Development—Peace, the Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the Year 2000 (the FLS), was adopted unanimously in Nairobi in 1985.
An essential part of UN preparations for the Conference was the compilation of the first World Survey on the Role of Women in Development (5), the first review and appraisal of global development — not only in developing countries — ever undertaken from women's perspective, which gave baseline data on the situation of women worldwide upon which the FLS could be based.
The main purpose of the Conference, however, was to develop strategies for the next 15 years which would realize objectives which had not been achieved during the Decade as envisaged by declarations and plans of actions adopted in earlier World Conferences of the UNDW, the UN's International Development Strategy for the 1980s and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and which would be based upon the review and appraisal of progress achieved and obstacles encountered during the Decade.
In principle the FLS document aims to express women's views on world affairs. And since all human affairs are women's affairs, the FLS covers everything human — issues of peace and war, development, human rights, natural resources and environment, culture, participation in politics and economy, relations between men and women, family and children, and much more. It is an ambitious document of almost 100 pages of cramped UN language, in some 400 paragraphs, of which more than half of the operative paragraphs deal with development.
The document is surprisingly rich in new and fresh points of view never before expressed in an intergovernmental resolution. It is nevertheless disappointing in that it lacks many points which might have been expected to appear in the text, while at the same time containing many ritualistic UN phrases which might better have been omitted.
Definition of the concepts
While making an interesting normative contribution to the discussion on advancement of women and development, the FLS also gives hundreds of operative recommendations. The document begins by defining the basic concepts, equality, development and peace, in a way which is relevant to the development discussion in general, not only in relation to women. The following formulations are taken directly from the text of the FLS:
-Equality is both a goal and a means whereby individuals are accorded equal treatment under the law and equal opportunities to enjoy their rights and to develop their potential talents and skills so that they can participate in national political, economic, social and cultural development, both as beneficiaries and as active agents.
For women in particular, equality means the realization of rights that have been denied as a result of cultural, institutional, behavioural and attitudinal discrimination (paragraph 11).
-Development means total development, including development in the political, economic, social, cultural and other dimensions of human life as well as the development of the economic and other material resources and the physical, moral, intellectual and cultural growth of human beings.
Development also requires a moral dimension to ensure that it is just and responsive to the needs and rights of the individual and that science and technology are applied within a social and economic framework that ensures environmental safety for all life forms on our planet (paragraph 12).
-Peace includes not only the absence of war, violence and hostilities at the national and international levels, but also the enjoyment of economic and social justice, equality and the entire range of human rights and fundamental freedoms within society.
Peace cannot be realized under conditions of economic and sexual inequality, denial of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms, deliberate exploitation of large sectors of the population, unequal development of countries, and exploitative economic relations.
Without peace and stability there can be no development. Peace and development are interrelated and mutually reinforcing.
The FLS also define woman in a new way compared with all previous UN documents. "The attainment of the goals and objectives of the (UN) Decade (for Women) requires a sharing of this responsibility by men and women and by society as a whole, and requires that women play a central role as intellectuals, policy-makers, decision-makers, planners and contributors and beneficiaries of development" (paragraph 15).
It is in the Nairobi FLS that the new definitions of the basic concepts equality—development—peace demonstrate 'forward-looking thinking'. The definition of peace is clearly based on the concept of structural violence as developed originally by peace researchers in the 1960s. Paragraph 13 on peace is even more comprehensive than cited above; it is perhaps the most inclusive definition of peace so far adopted in intergovernmental documents, bringing in the dimension of gender equality as a basic element in peace.