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Human Rights of Women in Central and Eastern Europe

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Human Rights of Women in Central and Eastern Europe HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE JULIE MERTUS' I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 370 II. THE LEGACY OF FORMAL EQUALITY ........................................................... 371 III. HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN TRANSITION ECONOMIES .......................... 376 A. The Dismantlingof the Welfare State ......................................................... 377 B. Increased Unemployment and Non-employment ........................................... 379 C. DecliningLevels ofIncome and Increases in Poverty.................................... 381 D. Overt GenderDiscrimination and ContinuedJob Segregation...................... 382 E. Surge of TraditionalAttitudes Toward Gender Roles ................................... 385 IV. EXAMINING THE STATUS OF WOMEN TODAY ............................................. 387 V. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE ....................................................................................... 395 1. Julie Mertus is a visiting Professor at Emory University School of Law, where she also serves as a fellow in Law and Religion. This was written while she was a fellow in the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School and an Affiliate with the Harvard Center for International Affairs. Formerly Counsel to Helsinki Watch, a Fulbright Fellow in Romania, a MacArthur Foundation and Soros Foundation grantee in the former Yugoslavia, and a Mellon Foundation researcher in the former Czechoslovakia, she has been traveling in and writing about Central and Eastern Europe for over 15 years. This artide, also a chapter in an upcoming book, was completed with the help of many individual women and women's organizations, with special thanks to: Sevdie Ahmeti and Vjosa Dobruna, Center for the Protection of Women and Children (Prigtina, Kosovo); Aida Bagic (Zagreb, Croatia); Lilja Farkas (NaNe!), Viola Zentai (MONA, Foundation of Women of Hungary) and Antonia Burrows (Budapest, Hungary); Vera Dakova (Sofia, Bulgaria); Delina Fico, Women's Center (Tirana, Albania); Louise Grogan, (Amsterdam); Laura Grunberg, ANA Society for Feminist Analysis (Bucharest, Romania);JanaJuranova (Bratislava, Slovakia); Be active Be emancipated ("B.a.B.e.") Women's Human Rights Groups (Zagreb, Croatia); Elena Kotchkina, Moscow Center for Gender Studies (Moscow, Russia); Kathleen Imholz (Tirana, Albania); Monika Macovei (Bucharest, Romania); Zorica Mrsevic, Women's Studies (Belgrade, Serbia); Urszula Nowakowska, Women's Rights Center (Warsaw, Poland); Kate Shaw, ProFem (Prague, Czech Republic); Suzette Schultz (Berlin, Germany); Olena Suslova (Kiev, Ukraine); Genoveva Tisheva (Sofia, Bulgaria); Tefta Zaka, Women's Bar Association (Tirana, Albania). Special appreciation is due tojelica Todosijevic, Robin Phillips and Ann Snitow. Comments should be sent [email protected]. 370 JOURNAL OF GENDER & THE LAW [Vol. 6:369 A. ConstitutionalProvisions Prohibiting Discrimination ................................. 395 B. PrimaryAreas of Concern.......................................................................... 398 1. Discriminationin Employment and Unemployment ................................ 398 2. Violence Against Women ..................................................................... 410 a. Family Violence ................................................................................. 410 b. Rape and Trafficking in Women ........................................................ 422 3. Women's PoliticalParticipation ........................................................... 429 C. Other Areas of Concern ............................................................................. 439 1. Abortion and Women's Health............................................................. 439 2. Sexual H arassment............................................................................ 459 3. M aternity Leave And Childcare........................................................... 464 4. Family Law (with particularreference to divorce) ................................... 471 5. Lesbians And Single Women ............................................................... 480 I. INTRODUCTION Recent changes in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) 2 have jeopardized women's human rights, rather than enhanced them. Most studies of women's human rights in Central and Eastern Europe treat the region as a generic entity, as if the history and culture of the enormous region could be blended into a single phenomenon-the so-called 'countries in transition'. Yet, the nature and degree of the problems faced by women vary significantly from country to country and, within each country, from social group to social group. The elderly and disabled, single mothers and girls, refugee and migrant women, and women from minority ethnic, religious, national or linguistic groups face the greatest obstacles to full participation in society and realization of human rights. Women living in countries recovering from or in the throes of armed conflict, as well as women in countries facing acute economic crises, have their own sets of issues and, thus, their own strategies for promoting their status as women. International and regional governmental and non-governmental organizations interject their own varied agendas into the region. Women advocates for human rights in CEE shape their particular responses to foreign interventions in accordance with their own historical survival tactics and existing opportunities for progress. To underscore both continuity and difference, this article offers a country-by-country comparative analysis of the region, drawing extensively from reports by lawyers, scholars and activists (not mutually exclusive groups) in the region. Core information, including the selection of topics, is drawn from the results of a ten- 2. Central and Eastern Europe (GEE) refers to all of Europe other than the area identified as 'Western'; thus, many parts of the Newly Independent States fall into GEE. Spring 1998] HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN 371 country survey' administered by the author in August 1996 which is located at Part V. In Part II, the article presents the status of women under prior socialist regimes. Part III provides an analysis of the impact of recent economic, political and social changes in CEE on women's human rights. Next, Part IV discusses the current status of women in CEE. Finally, Part V is a country-by-country analysis that presents factual information concerning the law and reality in the three areas that women in the region identified as most pressing: (1) economic conditions and discrimination in employment; (2) domestic violence, rape and other forms of violence against women (including trafficking in women and forced prostitution); and (3) women's low rate of participation in political life. In addition, other issues are identified as areas of concern: abortion and women's health, sexual harassment, maternity leave and childcare, family law (with particular reference to divorce), and discrimination against lesbians and single women.4 By providing such detailed information, this article seeks to serve as a resource for women, both in the region and elsewhere, who seek to understand the complex nature of change in CEE and its impact on women. II. THE LEGACY OF FORMAL EQUALITY Under the socialist systems of Central and Eastern Europe, women gained equality on formal grounds in areas such as integration into the labor market, access to education, and formal inclusion into governmental structures. If discrimination is defined narrowly as 'different treatment' (treating women and men differently), 3. The survey will be referred to generally as "Author's survey." The author chose countries according to availability of information and with a desire to present regional diversity. In each country, relevant laws were collected and at least three people with knowledge about both law and practice were asked about the state of the formal law and the status of women with regard to each of the topics examined below. In addition, they were encouraged to provide information as to actions taken by women's groups. Where the information provided was incomplete, the country was not included in the final report for that question. The information was supported by published sources. For the subjective parts of the survey, cross-sections of at least 100 women were surveyed in the region. Although this sample is not scientific, the results were checked against and supported by other published and unpublished sources. Due to space constraints, the entries for Germany were abbreviated. Countries included in whole or in part are: Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany (primarily concerning the former East Germany), Poland, Romania, Serbia (Yugoslavia), Slovakia, and Ukraine. In addition, the geographic region of Kosovo is included separately from Serbia, as the issues regarding women's human rights in Kosovo differ significantly from Serbia and the status of Kosovo has yet to be resolved. 4. Additional issues identified as sources of concern for women include: discrimination against older women, discrimination against women from particular ethno-national/racia groups, use of culture or religion to oppress women, lack of opportunities for village and rural women, drug and alcohol abuse, lack of opportunities for girls, environmental degradation, and negative stereotypes of women in the media. 372 JOURNAL OF GENDER & THE LAW
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