AFRICAN WOMEN BEAR BRUNT OF GLOBAL CRISES, WARN DELEGATES AT UN CONFERENCE

AFRICAN WOMEN BEAR BRUNT OF GLOBAL CRISES, WARN DELEGATES AT UN CONFERENCE
New York, Mar 4 2009 6:00PM

The global economic, food and climate change crises have hit African women the hardest, a delegation of African and United Nations female officials attending a conference on gender equality cautioned today.

"When we look at the GDPs of all African countries, they are between five and seven per cent [in the recent past] … but this present crisis is going to erode all those gains that have been made," Isatou Njie Saidy, Vice-President of Gambia, told journalists at UN Headquarters in New York.

She pointed to the reduction in remittances to developing countries, the drop-off in the tourism sector in Africa and a fall in direct foreign investment into the continent as clear examples of how the global economic crisis affects women in Africa.

"As a result of inequalities women will feel the pinch more than men," said Ms. Saidy.

Women, who make up the majority of small-scale farmers in Africa, are disproportionately affected by the recent hikes in food prices, increased cost of fertilizer and other agricultural inputs, and limited access to fertile land and farming machinery.

Ms. Saidy said that with regards to climate change, "Africa is being punished for something it has not done. We are told that the emission rate for Africa is just 2 per cent of what is emitted in the entire world, but we are paying the price for it.

"Therefore, those who emit should definitely do something to help Africa," she said, adding that climate change is affecting agriculture and that women are the ones suffering the increase in natural disasters most of the time.

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) will hold a regional ministerial review in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in October to determine how much remains to be achieved to attain equality and the empowerment of women in Africa in the 15 years since the UN's Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

Delegates attending the 1995 'Beijing + 15' conference prepared a Platform for Action that aimed at achieving greater equality and opportunity for women worldwide.

"We have fought so hard for women's empowerment, but now we are seeing that that the global economic, food and climate change crises are threatening to compromise our hard-fought gains," said Thokozile Ruzvidzo, who heads the ECA African Centre for Gender and Social Development.

She underscored that the Beijing +15 review is a fundamental prerequisite for progress for African women in the development of their continent.

"We need to focus on how higher food prices and how climate are impacting the lives of women. We need solutions for these challenges and we need them quickly," she stressed in a press release.

In addition to Gambia's Vice-President, more than 15 African Ministers attended the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW) in New York today. Participants at the two-week session of Commission, which opened on Monday, are discussing the progress toward ensuring the respect for women's rights across the world.
________________

BETTER USE OF THE LAW CAN END VIOLENCE, DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN – MIGIRO

BETTER USE OF THE LAW CAN END VIOLENCE, DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN – MIGIRO
New York, Mar 4 2009 5:00PM
Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro urged effective use of national legal systems to eliminate discrimination, promote gender equality and stop violence against women, at the 53rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) today.

"A legal framework that ensures the promotion and protection of women's rights is crucial," Ms. Migiro told a joint panel of the CSW and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

Over the past two decades, she said, many States have adopted or improved legislation to prevent and respond to violence against women, to guarantee equality between women and men and to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender, she said.

In addition, discriminatory provisions in civil, family and personal status laws are being repealed, she said.

However, the official said, there are important gaps, with States throughout the world still failing to live up to their international obligations and commitments. "Too many perpetrators are not held accountable. Impunity persists," she said.

The Secretary-General's Study from 2006 found that many States have yet to adopt legislation that criminalizes all forms of violence against women or on human trafficking.

In too many places, Ms. Migiro said, marital rape is still not a prosecutable offence, noting that perpetrators of rape who marry their victims can have their sentence reduced or mitigated in those jurisdictions.

In some places, she added, they may also invoke a defence of "honour" to justify acts of violence against women, and definitions of rape still tend to be based on the use of force rather than the absence of consent.

Those situations must be changed, Ms. Migiro said, adding that countries must also enforce their laws and allocate resources to combat the problem, making sure that personnel and officials working in the field have the skills, capacity and sensitivity to apply the spirit and letter of the law.

"Above all," she stressed, "we can never allow violence against women to be dismissed as a private matter. Just the opposite; we must harness the power of the State to punish and prevent all forms of violence against women."

The CSW's two-week session, following up on the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the 23rd special session of the General Assembly, runs until 13 March.
________________