Women Human Rights - Coursework Example

Rights of Women 2009 Rights of Women Human rights in general and women’s rights in particular are a critical measure of well-being. Many believe thatthe issue of women’s rights is an issue of significance only in several developing countries where discriminatory religious or cultural traditions are overwhelmingly powerful, such as, for example, Muslim countries. Unfortunately, such belief is far from being truth. The following presentation will briefly identify the origins of discrimination against women, map the main milestones in the struggle for women’s right, and provide an overview of organizations/initiatives for women’s rights. Introduction The introductory part will provide a historic overview explaining the origins of discriminatory beliefs about women and a brief account of main milestones in the ongoing struggle for women’s rights as wells description of the key organizations/initiatives that promote women’s rights across the globe. Feminism as a Political Movement (Will) Second part of the presentation will be dedicated to analysis of one of the most celebrated and successful social movement that contributed greatly to protection of women’s rights in Europe and the United States. Gender Inequalities in Britain (Lisa) Gender Inequalities in the Developing World (Sally) After that Lisa and Sally are going to demonstrate how gender inequalities still persist these days. Also, an outline of gender inequalities in the UK and developing states will provide the group with perfect opportunity to see that women’s right is a genuine indicator of well-being. Afghanistan (Malwina) And finally, an overview of issues facing women in Afghanistan, which is arguably the most radical Islamist country these days, will help the group evaluate the actual progress made by women on the way toward gender equality and, on the other hand, understand how much time and effort is needed to overcome the remaining problems. Life free of violence and abuse is one of the basic human rights. However, millions of women across the globe are deprived of this right encountering domestic violence, rape, genital mutilation and other forms oppression and discrimination based solely on their gender. The statistical data collected and updated by the human rights organizations on yearly basis is terrifying. Daily, millions of women suffer from domestic violence, tens of thousand women are raped, mutilated, sold into slavery, and hundreds are killed either by their intimates or families (Amnesty International, 2001). And the most striking fact about the situation is that very little number of those involved in violations of women’s right is punished for that: violence against women has deep cultural roots. Throughout history women have been considered physically, morally, and intellectually inferior to men. Moreover, the latter usually called women a major source of temptation and evil while their role in reproduction has been diminished. Early Roman laws also treated women as children, forever inferior to men, unable to take care of themselves without men’s control. Early Christian perpetuated Greek and Roman views on the natural inferiority of women. Thus St. Jerome, a 4th-century Latin father of the Christian church, said “Woman is the gate of the devil, the path of wickedness, the sting of the serpent, in a word a perilous object” while Thomas Aquinas, the 13th-century Christian theologian, reduced the role of women to reproduction only claiming woman was “…created to be mans helpmeet, but her unique role is in conception . . . since for other purposes men would be better assisted by other men” (Frost et al, 1992; p.22). Only in the last century women in most countries won the right to vote and partially changed traditional views concerning their role in society. In the aftermath of the war the Parliament of passed the Representation of the People Act 1918 that granted voting rights to women over the age of 30 who were householders, the wives of householders, occupiers of property with an annual rent of £5, and graduates of British universities. And it took only a decade for the UK women to obtain the same right as men (Rover, 1967). In the United States, women also initiated an organized campaign for equal status with men with Elizabeth Cady Stanton being the leading theoretician of the women’s rights movement. Her famous book ‘Womans Bible’, published in 1895 – 1898, criticized what Stanton called the male bias of the Bible. Stanton reasonably claimed that the sources of gender inequality lied in the organized religion, which should be abolished otherwise women would fail to achieve real emancipation (Stanton, 1993). The suffrage movement was a genuine breakthrough that opened the door for further changes in the status of women. The content of major acts granting women legal protection and numerous discrimination cases that were brought to British and American courts within the following three decades reflected the wide range of ways in which women were discriminated by law. By the 1960s the foundation was created for a powerful upsurge of movement in support of women’s rights. However, it was not until the middle of 1970s that the first Sex Discrimination Act, an Equal Pay Act, and an Equal Opportunities Commission appeared in the United Kingdom. The example of the UK government was readily followed by other European states that passed a general agreement to finally eliminate discriminatory laws still in force in Europe. The National Organization for Women (NOW) was created in the United States in 1966 as a part of the Civil Rights Campaign to eliminate racial and gender inequalities. This highly influential organization contributed greatly to creation of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) that stated “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex” (NOW 1966). On the international level the UN Commission on the Status of Women was established in 1946 and launched a series of important initiatives to fight discrimination against women (United Nations 1966). Starting from 1975 the United Nations organization has also held a number of conferences on women’s rights. These conferences enabled the world community to intensively discuss a broad range of issues pertaining to gender discrimination and highlighted cross-cultural differences in interpretation and difficulties in adoption of equal rights principles. Two basic documents have been adopted by the UN since the end of World War II: In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted to promote gender equality; In 1979, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted (came in effect in 1981) (United Nations 1996). The continuous struggle against gender discrimination resulted in great improvements in the legal status of women though there is still huge amount of differences between status of women in Europe, Northern America, and Australia, and African, Latin American and some Asian countries. However, many problems relating to women’ rights violations still persist even in the developed countries. For example, female mutilation remains a huge problem pertaining to women’s rights. This ritual is practiced in at least 28 countries located on African continent, namely in its northern part, although the prevalence rates across these countries range from 5% to 99%. According to the most recent estimation, at least 100 million females are circumcised (Platt, 2000). Muslims, Animists, one Jewish sect, and followers of indigenous African religions – representatives of all these groups practice female circumcision, though many experts believe that neither of these religious traditions actually demands it (Althaus, 1997). The ritual is practiced despite the well-proven fact that FGM causes serious reproductive problems and sometimes lethal consequences suggests that prohibiting the practice or at least trying to reduce its incidence must be the only solution. UN and WHO led campaigns against genital mutilation have some success, but this success is far from being overwhelming. Domestic violence is another problem of colossal proportions. An estimated 20 to 30 percent of females and 7.5 percent of males in the United States have suffered from physical and/or sexual abuse by an intimate partner at some point in their adult lives (NIJCDCP 1998). During the last decade, abuse by intimate partners accounted for approximately 22 percent of the violence experienced by females and three percent of the violent crime sustained by males (U.S. Department of Justice 2000). This problem is also recognized and a number of international organizations and initiatives take actions to protect women’s right in this field too: The United Nations currently leads several major regional campaigns, coordinated by UNIFEM, to reduce violence against women. These campaigns involve a variety of UN agencies that work in partnership with local national government, regional NGOs, media, and community groups (UNIFEM 2008). WHO coordinates a comprehensive ongoing research on domestic violence; the main goal of this research is to identify the most effective methodologies to correctly assess and measure violence against women and its consequences in different cultural environments (the study is simultaneously carried out in six regions of the world) (WHO 1999). The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) also takes serious efforts cooperating with a variety of partners to reduce domestic violence in many regions of the world. The most known examples of these efforts are assistance in designing of Bolivia’s National Plan for the Prevention of and Eradication of Violence Against Women (1994); the adoption of Law 1674 against Family or Domestic Violence (1995); cooperation with the National Jordanian Television to design and implement an educational media campaign about the danger and consequences of violence against women; participation in the development of an active movement to fight domestic violence against women in Afghanistan and other regions in South Asia (UNICEF 2008). UNFPA conducts a study of scale to assess the prevalence of domestic violence in several areas and helps establish special health centers for victims of domestic violence in regions where violence against women is a common practice. In doing so it closely cooperates with national governments, NGOs and local communities offering assistance in running programs to eliminate the problem (UNICEF 2000). The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) works in cooperation with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to launch a balanced, multi-level program to reduce domestic violence against women in Latin America where such practice is a cultural norm (WHO 1996). And finally, the Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women, established in 1996 by a UN General Assembly resolution, has actively participated in development and implementation of innovative strategies across the globe that aim to reduce all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence (UNIFEM 2008). Despite much time, effort and dedication spent by the abovementioned and many other organizations to promote gender equality and protect women’s rights across the globe, the situation remains highly controversial. On the one hand, the progress made by advocates of women’s rights over the last 150 years is really impressive with huge improvements in legal and social status and employment opportunities. On the other hand, the incidence of women’s right violations observed in the world these days is also disturbing despite these improvements, and progress made recently toward elimination of these violations leaves much to be desired. However, the slow progress is better than none and the fact that annually increasing number of organizations continue their hard work promoting women’s rights across the globe is inspiring. References Amnesty International 2001, Broken Bodies, Shattered Minds: Torture and Ill Treatment of Women, Amnesty International, London Althaus, F. A. 1997, “Female Circumcision: Rite of Passage or Violation of Rights?” International Family Planning Perspectives, 23(3): pp. 1-10 Frost, E., & Cullen-DuPont, K. 1992, Womens Suffrage in America: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File The National Organization for Women (NOW) 1966, The National Organization for Womens 1966 Statement of Purpose. Retrieved on March 30, 2009 from the National Organization for Women (NOW) official web site at http://www.now.org/history/purpos66.html Platt, J. (2000) “Female circumcision: religious practice vs human rights violation”, The Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion Platt 3(1) [available online at http://www.camlaw.rutgers.edu/publications/law-religion/platt.pdf ] Rover, C., Women’s Suffrage and Party Politics in Britain, University of Toronto Press, 1967. Stanton, E. C., The Womans Bible, Northeastern University Press; Boston, 1993 United Nations, Dept. of Public Information, 1996 The United Nations and the advancement of women, 1945-1996. Volume 6. United Nations Blue Book Series, New York United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) 2000, “Domestic Violence Against Women and Girls”, Innocenti Digest No.6, pp.1-29. United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), information retrieved March 30, 2009 from official website at http://www.unifem.org/ United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), information retrieved March 30, 2009 from official website at http://www.unicef.org/ U.S. Department of Justice 2000, Intimate Partner Violence, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. WHO 1996, Violence against Women: WHO Consultation, Geneva: WHO, pp. 26- 27. WHO 1999, WHO Multi-country study of women’s health and domestic violence: Core protocol, WHO/EIP/GPE/99.3 Geneva: WHO. Read More

Throughout history women have been considered physically, morally, and intellectually inferior to men. Moreover, the latter usually called women a major source of temptation and evil while their role in reproduction has been diminished. Early Roman laws also treated women as children, forever inferior to men, unable to take care of themselves without men’s control. Early Christian perpetuated Greek and Roman views on the natural inferiority of women. Thus St. Jerome, a 4th-century Latin father of the Christian church, said “Woman is the gate of the devil, the path of wickedness, the sting of the serpent, in a word a perilous object” while Thomas Aquinas, the 13th-century Christian theologian, reduced the role of women to reproduction only claiming woman was “…created to be mans helpmeet, but her unique role is in conception . . .

since for other purposes men would be better assisted by other men” (Frost et al, 1992; p.22). Only in the last century women in most countries won the right to vote and partially changed traditional views concerning their role in society. In the aftermath of the war the Parliament of passed the Representation of the People Act 1918 that granted voting rights to women over the age of 30 who were householders, the wives of householders, occupiers of property with an annual rent of £5, and graduates of British universities.

And it took only a decade for the UK women to obtain the same right as men (Rover, 1967). In the United States, women also initiated an organized campaign for equal status with men with Elizabeth Cady Stanton being the leading theoretician of the women’s rights movement. Her famous book ‘Womans Bible’, published in 1895 – 1898, criticized what Stanton called the male bias of the Bible. Stanton reasonably claimed that the sources of gender inequality lied in the organized religion, which should be abolished otherwise women would fail to achieve real emancipation (Stanton, 1993).

The suffrage movement was a genuine breakthrough that opened the door for further changes in the status of women. The content of major acts granting women legal protection and numerous discrimination cases that were brought to British and American courts within the following three decades reflected the wide range of ways in which women were discriminated by law. By the 1960s the foundation was created for a powerful upsurge of movement in support of women’s rights. However, it was not until the middle of 1970s that the first Sex Discrimination Act, an Equal Pay Act, and an Equal Opportunities Commission appeared in the United Kingdom.

The example of the UK government was readily followed by other European states that passed a general agreement to finally eliminate discriminatory laws still in force in Europe. The National Organization for Women (NOW) was created in the United States in 1966 as a part of the Civil Rights Campaign to eliminate racial and gender inequalities. This highly influential organization contributed greatly to creation of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) that stated “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex” (NOW 1966).

On the international level the UN Commission on the Status of Women was established in 1946 and launched a series of important initiatives to fight discrimination against women (United Nations 1966). Starting from 1975 the United Nations organization has also held a number of conferences on women’s rights. These conferences enabled the world community to intensively discuss a broad range of issues pertaining to gender discrimination and highlighted cross-cultural differences in interpretation and difficulties in adoption of equal rights principles.

Two basic documents have been adopted by the UN since the end of World War II: In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted to promote gender equality; In 1979, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted (came in effect in 1981) (United Nations 1996).

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