World Bulletin
From Talk to Action: Goals for Women’s RightsBy Sue Gloor
Oct. 21 -- Many upcoming and recent milestones reflect concerted efforts by the international community to ensure gender equality and the empowerment of women, but the goals of fully protecting and promoting women’s rights are far from realized.
 | Polly Truscott, deputy representative for Amnesty International at the UN, emphasized the importance of national and global accountability in providing women’s human rights at a Council of Organizations discussion on Oct. 8.
Credit: Veronica Haglund |
These events include the 40th anniversary of the UN Population Fund, which addresses issues like reproductive health, gender equality and the rights of women; the 10th anniversary in October 2010 of the first Security Council resolution on women’s role in peace and security; and the 2010 General Assembly summit on the Millennium Development Goals, which will refocus international attention on the role of women in improving the world.
UNA-USA’s Council of Organizations concentrated on this issue at a discussion on “Defending Women’s Human Rights Through the United Nations” at the UN Church Center on Oct. 8. The event featured Pollyanna Truscott, the deputy representative for Amnesty International at the United Nations.
Truscott summarized the UN’s actions in the last decade, focusing specifically on the enactment of four Security Council resolutions. Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security and adopted in October 2000 is a landmark document that civil society played a large role in drafting. It promotes women’s participation in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and women representatives in peacekeeping programs. The 10th anniversary of 1325 next year coincides with the General Assembly summit to review Millennium Development Goal progress.
Three later Security Council resolutions on the same subject have been adopted in the last 10 years. Resolution 1820 in 2008 recognized that sexual violence can be a threat to the maintenance of international safety; Resolutions 1888 (in 2009) called for the appointment of a special representative; and 1889 (2009) focused on the rights and needs of women in post-conflict situations. All three further the goals of Resolution 1325 and have strengthened the UN system’s response to crises and problems but have not resulted so far in much positive change at the national level.
Indeed, Truscott said that resolutions alone will not solve women’s issues; instead, the task of fully protecting and promoting women’s rights falls to governments, who must carry out the resolutions’ components. Truscott also described the frustration of women’s rights defenders over the negligible decrease in sexual violence and the small improvements in “women at the peacekeeping table,” she said, even though the resolutions enumerate such reforms.
Along with the need for governments to do more to carry out international commitments and resolutions that seek to protect and promote women’s human rights, Truscott noted flaws in the global community’s response to meeting the Millennium Development Goals, which do not incorporate a human rights approach.
For instance, MDG 3, on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and MDG 5, on maternal health, both deal specifically with women’s issues. Though the goals have generated a big financial outpouring from the international community, such contributions do not entirely resolve poverty, Truscott said.
MDG 5, she said, “is likely to fail” before the 2015 deadline “because the root causes of maternal mortality are not addressed.”
The causes of maternal mortality, she said, include lack of access to medical care during childbirth; language barriers among indigenous women in understanding national health care provisions; the denial of women’s rights to information about national health care policy; and control over their access to health by male members of their families in some countries.
“There is no international attempt to address these causes, so at the MDG review summit in 2010 I hope they ask the question, Why isn’t the human rights impact being considered?” Truscott said.
A major effort to reach the goals could require mandating national reports on progress, with a breakdown addressing disparities within the country in order to tackle them, Truscott said. Such requirements — national reporting and disaggregated reporting — would ensure some accountability for advancing the rights of women who are mired in poverty.
Society can also play a role. Truscott cited membership in organizations that support the UN Gender Equality Architecture Reform campaign as a valuable contribution. Begun in 2005, this nongovernmental organization campaign, known as Gear, has been advocating for consolidating and strengthening four existing UN women’s entities that not only lack high visibility but are also underfinanced. In fact, Gear’s lobbying has paid off: the 63rd General Assembly agreed by consensus at its close in September to establishing a single agency for women at the UN, unifying the existing bodies and to be led by an under secretary-general.
“The advancement of women’s human rights is lost in the bargaining that goes on” at the UN, Truscott said. A women-specific UN department with an appointed under secretary-general should increase efficiency in realizing women’s rights.
“There is a political will,” Truscott said, “it’s just not being followed up.”
Sue Gloor is an intern with UNA’s publications department and a student in the Bard College Globalization and International Affairs program.
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