Culture, Gender and Human Rights
Tarcila Rivera Zea possesses leadership in abundance. She is the coordinator
of a network of South American indigenous women and head of CHIRAPAQ
(Centro de Culturas Indígenas del Perú). Tarcila is vibrant, energetic and easily
recognized throughout the network of women’s organizations that she strives
to maintain and expand through the UNFPA-supported Enlace Continental de
Mujeres Indígenas de las Américas. Over the last 25 years, her efforts have
helped to influence local public policy and to promote gender equality and
reproductive rights. Her aim? To empower indigenous women to claim political
representation so that everyone can enjoy “life with dignity”.
Attention to culture, gender and human rights is key to achieving UNFPA’s mandate. Culturally sensitive programming means involving communities in completely different contexts to support and “own” human rights. Gender mainstreaming is a strategic response to the widespread denial of the human rights of women. And all human beings are entitled to equal rights and protection. In 2006, these concerns converged in two complex issues: gender-based violence and the alarming proportion of women living with HIV/AIDS.
Advancing Equality for Women and Girls
Gender equality advances development and reduces poverty—it is a human right integral to the achievement of all of the Millennium Development Goals. In 2006, UNFPA developed a comprehensive strategy to mainstream a gender perspective into all programming. During that same year:
- Building the capacity of governments, parliaments and NGOs to implement national gender strategies remained a priority. Ten countries contributed to a UNFPA study of the most effective examples of culturally sensitive programming aimed at reducing gender-based violence. In addition, UNFPA and the United Nations Development Fund for Women developed a training manual and resource pack on gender budgeting to build the capacity of national partners and civil society organizations. Both products were tested and distributed to UNFPA Country Offices and partners.
- Women represent nearly half of all migrants worldwide, and their numbers are rising steadily. In May 2006, UNFPA and the International Organization for Migration organized a two-day meeting on female migrants, which attracted a group of experts. Recommendations were discussed further at the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development at the General Assembly in September. Despite potential benefits, the Fund cautioned that, compared to men, women have fewer opportunities for legal migration, are more vulnerable to violence and exploitation and are less likely to have their health care needs met.
- UNFPA continued to advocate measures to protect women and girls from HIV/AIDS. The Fund’s commitment to gender equality was highlighted through partnerships with the UNAIDS-led Global Coalition on Women and AIDS and through a variety of new publications, as well as at major meetings in New York, Toronto and elsewhere. UNFPA continued to push for the linkage of HIV/AIDS and reproductive health programming— a more effective approach than current responses that fail to address the social, cultural and economic factors that put women at risk.
All People are Entitled to Equal Rights and Protection
It is important to work within communities to nurture and cultivate respect for human rights as a full part of their value system. UNFPA supports programmes that give women, men and young people the information, life skills and education they need to claim their rights. In 2006:
- UNFPA developed technical tools to equip its staff with knowledge and skills to implement and evaluate programmes with a human rights-based perspective. The Fund is collaborating with the Harvard School of Public Health to produce a training package on human rights-based programming. It also actively participated in mainstreaming population issues into Action 2, the United Nations Secretary-General’s initiative on human rights.
- UNFPA welcomed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the first major human rights treaty of the 21st century. Adopted by consensus by the United Nations General Assembly in December, this Convention enhances the Fund’s ongoing commitment to the inclusion of the sexual and reproductive health needs of persons with disabilities in development plans and policies.
- UNFPA projects have succeeded in incorporating gender equality and reproductive rights into the agendas of indigenous organizations and in local and national public policies. UNFPA enjoys a close relationship with the Enlace Continental de Mujeres Indígenas de las Américas, a network of more than 30 women’s organizations in Latin America that promote indigenous women’s rights, including reproductive rights and gender equality. The UNFPAsponsored United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues featured advances in intercultural strategies to reduce maternal death and illnesses.
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Spectators attending a UNFPA-supported film festival focusing on the problem of genderbased violence. The November 2006 festival, held in Dakar, Senegal, featured 84 films from 18 African countries. |
Taking a Culturally Sensitive Approach to Promote Human Rights
UNFPA works from within diverse cultures to achieve goals relating to the well-being of communities and the rights of all individuals. In 2006:
- Partnerships with faith-based organizations helped UNFPA reach some of the most vulnerable and marginalized communities in the world. A global mapping survey undertaken in 2006 identified 55 partnerships with Catholic, Evangelic, Muslim and Hindu groups. Objective evidence about the benefits of reproductive health information and services encouraged religious leaders to partner with UNFPA.
- With support from UNFPA, a campaign alerting religious leaders and the public to the dangers of early marriage was launched in Badakhshan, a remote province of Afghanistan with the highest maternal death rate in the world. In Colombia, a development and peace project run by Jesuit priests led to a UNFPAsupported project that uses community consultations to make the link between human rights, violence against women and reproductive health. Imams in Mauritania called on government officials and police to protect rape victims, not punish them, after UNFPA supported an awareness campaign, established a centre for survivors and helped the Government to collect data on sexual violence. Buddhist monks in Cambodia continued to participate in UNFPA-supported training on issues related to the ICPD and promoting HIV prevention among adolescents and youth.
- To end female genital mutilation/cutting, UNFPA offered local communities in Uganda and Kenya safe alternative rituals, helped the cutters to find other sources of income and supported the efforts of women’s groups and parliamentarians to promote legislation to protect women and girls. In Kenya, UNFPA continued to support a safe house for girls attempting to escape female genital mutilation/cutting.
- As part of a wider initiative to prevent HIV infection, particularly among adolescent girls, the United Nations Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, with support from UNFPA, developed a guide to global policy action. Globally, vulnerable and marginalized rural girls and women continue to bear the health risks and social and economic costs of early and forced marriage, non-consensual sex and early pregnancies. The issue is even more urgent because child brides are more vulnerable to HIV infection.
- In April 2006, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan accepted the first Seville Node Between Cultures Award in Spain and immediately pledged its monetary prize to a UNFPA-led joint initiative that helps Congolese women traumatized by sexual violence.
GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE: AN END TO IMPUNITY
“In all countries of the world, violence against women persists as a pervasive scourge, endangering women’s lives and violating their rights. Such violence also impoverishes families and communities, drains government resources and restricts economic development.”—2006 report of the United Nations Secretary-General.Gender-based violence attracted high-level attention in 2006. In October, the United Nations released a landmark study recommending that the world commit more resources to prevent and eliminate violence against women. At least 102 of the 192 Member States have no specific legal sanctions against domestic violence, and marital rape is not a prosecutable offence in 53 countries. To follow up, UNFPA and the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women co-chaired the United Nations Task Force on Violence against Women.
National action plans to prevent and address violence against women and girls were the focus of joint efforts with sister agencies in the United Nations and United Nations country teams. In 2006, UNFPA built the capacity of national counterparts in Algeria to report cases of gender-based violence; worked with Morocco’s health and justice systems to implement their national strategy to combat violence against women; assisted a legal reform commission in Guatemala; and joined partners from the grass-roots level to the highest levels of government to raise awareness of domestic violence in Romania.
UNFPA joined rights organizations worldwide for the annual 16 Days of Activism to End Violence against Women. UNFPA and Senegal hosted an African film festival, which included journalist training on gender-based violence, to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Training workshops for NGOs helped build capacity to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. UNFPA also continued to support United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), the first legislation ever passed to specifically address the impact of war on women and to call for increased female involvement in conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
Countries in every region have worked with UNFPA to reach men with information, education and services that relate to family planning, maternal health, HIV prevention and gender-based violence. In 2006, men challenged destructive concepts of masculinity in Zimbabwe through Padare—A Men’s Forum on Gender, which reaches men and boys in schools, pubs, sports clubs and churches, and encourages male parliamentarians to generate gender-sensitive legislation. With UNFPA assistance, the Association for Female Lawyers in Liberia successfully mobilized fathers to support new legislation increasing penalties for gender-based violence and rape. Men in Turkey responded to a UNFPAsupported campaign in which sports heroes announced that violence against women is a crime that reveals weakness, not strength. And in China, the Ministry of Railways partnered with UNFPA to reach men between the ages of 25 and 40 with HIV prevention messages through flyers and messages broadcast over video screens on commuter trains.