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Gender and International Human Rights

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Gender and International Human Rights GENDERGENDER andand INTERNAINTERNATIONALTIONAL HUMANHUMAN RIGHTSRIGHTS LLAWAW Legal Assistance Centre 2005 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The original version of this document was prepared by Dianne Hubbard for use in a course on Gender & the Law for second-year students on the Faculty of Law at the University of Namibia. Information for updating the materials was provided by Legal Assistance Centre interns Steffie van Loken (sponsored by the Dutch government through their Judges’ Externship Programme) and Hilary Blain (sponsored by the Young Professionals International Internship Program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada, coordinated through the Canadian Bar Association). Funding for the publication was provided by UNICEF. ISBN 99916-63-06-1 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 1. WOMEN’S RIGHTS AS HUMAN RIGHTS ............................................................................. 1 2. PROVISIONS OF THE NAMIBIAN CONSTITUTION ON INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS ....................................................................................................................... 6 3. USING INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS IN NATIONAL COURTS .................................. 6 PART A: INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS .................................................... 8 1. BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................... 8 2. THE UNITED NATIONS ........................................................................................................ 9 excerpts from the UN Charter .............................................................................................. 14 3. UNITED NATIONS STRUCTURES AND WOMEN .............................................................. 17 4. UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS ............................................................. 21 full text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights .......................................................... 26 5. THE TWO INTERNATIONAL COVENANTS ........................................................................ 30 excerpts from International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), including Optional Protocol to ICCPR and General Comment on Equality of Rights between Men and Women (2000) .................................................................. 33, 40, 43 excerpts from International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) ............ 49 6. DECLARATION ON THE ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN ............................................................................................................................. 54 full text of Declaration.......................................................................................................... 55 7. CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN (CEDAW) ............................................................................................. 58 full text of CEDAW, including Optional Protocol ............................................................. 67, 76 full text of General Recommendations .................................................................................. 80 8. WORLD CONFERENCES ON WOMEN ............................................................................ 117 summary of Beijing Platform for Action ............................................................................... 127 summary of Beijing +5 Outcome Document ...................................................................... 139 iii PART B: REGIONAL COMMITMENTS .......................................................... 144 1. INTRODUCTION TO REGIONAL SYSTEMS..................................................................... 144 2. AFRICA ............................................................................................................................. 146 excerpts from African Charter for Human and People’s Rights ............................................. 156 full text of Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa .......................................................... 165 3. SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY (SADC) ....................................... 176 full text of SADC Declaration on Gender and Development ................................................ 184 PART C: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ....................................................... 186 1. INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS ................................................................................. 186 full text of UN General Assembly Declaration on Domestic Violence (1990) ........................ 193 full text of UN General Assembly Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993) ................................................................................................................... 195 excerpts from Beijing Platform for Action ............................................................................ 199 excerpts from Beijing +5 Outcome Document ................................................................... 205 2. REGIONAL COMMITMENTS ............................................................................................ 208 full text of SADC Addendum on the Prevention and Eradication of Violence against Women and Children ......................................................................................................... 210 3. NAMIBIA .......................................................................................................................... 212 4. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 213 CONCLUDING ISSUES ................................................................................. 214 1. OTHER GENDER SPECIFIC TREATIES .............................................................................. 214 2. WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET ...................................... 215 iv INTRODUCTION 1. WOMEN’S RIGHTS AS HUMAN RIGHTS “Women’s rights are human rights” has become an important rallying cry for women around the world in the I990s. It expresses both women’s determination to claim our full birthright as one half of humanity and our exasperation that such an obvious assertion has taken so long to gain international acceptance. As the recognition of women’s and. girl’s human rights has grown over the past decade, so too has the need for more works that explore and expound upon their meaning. *** The idea that women’s rights are human rights is at once both simple and complex. Its power lies in the fact that it is simultaneously ordinary and revolutionary. On the one hand, it makes common sense to declare that as human beings, women and girls have human rights. On the other hand, it is a radical reclamation of our humanity and right to equality which has transformative potential. The full incorporation of women’s and girls’ lives into human rights concepts and practice exposes the failure of countries worldwide to accord females the human dignity and respect they deserve simply as human beings. A human rights framework also provides tools to define, analyze, and articulate women’s experiences of violation and to demand redress in ways already recognized by the inter- national community. Finally it provides a common framework for bringing together women’s diverse experiences and developing a wide array of strategies for change. excerpt from Charlotte BunchBunch, Forward “Local Action/Global Change: Learning About the Human Rights of Women and Girls” Women’s rights initially received very little emphasis at the international level. One of the early bodies established in the young UN was the Commission on the Status of Women, which was set up in 1948. But the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights exhibited a fair degree of gender insensitivity by starting off its first article with the statement “All men are brothers.” Thanks to the efforts of the Commission on the Status of Women (and Eleanor Roosevelt) the draft was changed – first to apply to “all people” and finally to “all human beings”. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights – like its progeny, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rig0hts and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Political Rights Civil and Political Rights (both adopted in 1966) – explicitly forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, but there was little attention to the specific needs and concerns of women. It was 13 more years before the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) articulated women’s rights as human rights in detail, in 1979. This initial neglect of women’s rights is not surprising. When the UN Charter was adopted, only 35 of the initial 51 member states gave women political rights equal to those possessed by men, and men were the dominant political actors throughout the world. Women’s rights became prominent on the international agenda only with the rise of national women’s 1 movements in many countries during the 1970s. This led to the declaration of 1975 as International Women’s Year, which was such a success in throwing an international spotlight on women’s issues that it was followed by a UN Decade for Women which covered the next 10 years. This stimulated the convening of a series of world conferences on women – the first at Mexico City in 1975, followed
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