Rights:A World Tour of Gender Apartheid

[Anisa]

In Syria and Haiti, a husband can kill his wife for committing adultery and get off scot-free.
In Nigeria, men can beat their wives with impunity, so long as native law or custom permits it and they don't cause "grievous hurt". In Israel, women cannot divorce without their husband's consent, and in Guatemala and Lebanon, men can legally kidnap women, provided they marry them afterwards.

These are just a few laws from a 45-country sampling compiled by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Equality Now. Although many of these laws violate human rights treaties, including the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, legal reform has been slow.


Ten years ago in Beijing, China, world leaders met to discuss gender equality and sponsored a Platform of Action that aimed, among other things, to "revoke any remaining laws that discriminate on the basis of sex and remove gender bias in the administration of justice."

In 2000, these same governments agreed to complete reforms by 2005. However, only 14 of 45 countries highlighted in Equality Now's report, including Korea, Mexico and Morocco, have changed their laws.

Seeking to speed up progress, NGOs led by Equality Now pushed for a U.N. resolution on the matter during the 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) held here.

On Mar. 11, the final day of the two-week conference, a weak resolution was passed asking governments to "consider" the creation of a special rapporteur on laws that discriminate against women at the 50th CSW session next year. Only the U.S. opposed the resolution.

Jessica Neuwirth, founder and current president of Equality Now, which initially proposed the idea, says that a special rapporteur, an advisor to the U.N. Secretary General, would bring political visibility to the issue and hasten the dismantling of discriminatory laws.

"The special rapporteur mechanism would provide a vehicle for the CSW to interact meaningfully with member states of the U.N. on an ongoing basis regarding laws that discriminate against women, as well as play a more proactive role in carrying out its agenda to promote sex equality," Neuwirth said.

Neuwirth thinks reform is slow because the Beijing review processes are too general and its goals do not refer to specific countries. Also, CEDAW, the body meant to review and comment on the implementation process, is limited because it cannot convene meetings between governments.

Papers by Equality Now envision the special rapporteur as responsible for organising meetings, compiling information on discriminatory laws, publicly praising countries that make reforms, and for reporting findings and recommendations to the CSW on an annual basis. The rapporteur would also consult with CEDAW in the drafting of its reports.

Rwanda, which recently surpassed Sweden in having the world's highest percentage of elected female officials, sponsored the rapporteur resolution, along with the Philippines.

During negotiations, Rwanda successfully resisted U.S. pressure to amend language in the resolution that said the rapporteur would include the views of CEDAW and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in its reports.

The U.S. delegation's spokeswoman, Ambassador Ellen Sauerbrey, said the problem was not with the goals of the resolution, which it endorsed, but rather with the idea that CEDAW and OHCHR should be specifically mentioned as consultants. Sauerbrey also said that recommendations for the creation of a special rapporteur were beyond CSW's mandate.

The spokesman for the Rwandan delegation, Ambassador Stanislas Kamanzi, maintained that the CEDAW and the OHCHR are the "acknowledged authorities" on the issue of discriminatory laws and therefore, should be mentioned in the resolution.

Neuwirth says that the CSW's mandate not only gives it the ability to recommend the creation of a special rapporteur, but that it has already done so.

In 1968, CSW recommended the creation of a special rapporteur on the Status of Women and Family Planning, and a rapporteur was appointed resulting in five years of research and a report submitted to the Commission, she noted.

Neuwirth believes the real reason for U.S. opposition to the inclusion of CEDAW in the resolution may have less to do with "mandates" and more to do with the United States being the only industrialised country yet to ratify CEDAW.

It has been 25 years since President Jimmy Carter signed CEDAW, also known as the women's bill of rights, and sent it to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a vote.

Not until 1994, after 63 senators signed a letter to President Bill Clinton asking him to support ratification, did the Committee vote on CEDAW. It passed 13-5 in favour of ratification, but, according to Human Rights Watch, a group of conservative senators blocked a Senate floor vote.

In July 2002 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee once again voted in favour of ratifying CEDAW. However, the full Senate did not get to vote on it before the close of the 107th Congress. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will have to vote on CEDAW again before it can return to the full Senate for ratification.

Since the U.S. State Department itself has said that CEDAW is "abortion neutral," and since ratification of CEDAW alone would not allow the U.N. or any other body to enforce the treaty in the U.S., Human Rights Watch says that the U.S. should have nothing to fear by ratifying. Nevertheless, resistance continues here at the U.N.

The U.S. did appear on Equality Now's list of countries with laws that discriminate against women, but not for reproductive laws. The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act demands stiffer requirements for noncitizen mothers than noncitizen fathers in applying for their children's citizenship.

Whatever the U.S. stance, Equality Now's report makes it clear that legal reform on laws relating to women could significantly change women's lives, especially in the Middle East.


In Yemen, a wife must still legally obey her husband in regards to her movements outside the home and his sexual demands.

In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive, and in Kuwait, they cannot vote in parlaimentary elections. In Pakistan, only a confession or the testimony of four adult male eye-witnesses can prove a rape.

[_nadia_]

Can someone PLEASE remind these people what century we're living in??!!

[Anisa]

Honestly, what women still have to endure these days!!