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Fourth World Conference on Women -
Platform for Action
This document has been adopted from the
United Nations website
- The Platform for Action is an agenda for women's empowerment. It aims at
accelerating the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies
for the Advancement of Women and at removing all the obstacles to women's
active participation in all spheres of public and private life through a
full and equal share in economic, social, cultural and political
decision-making. This means that the principle of shared power and
responsibility should be established between women and men at home, in the
workplace and in the wider national and international communities. Equality
between women and men is a matter of human rights and a condition for social
justice and is also a necessary and fundamental prerequisite for equality,
development and peace. A transformed partnership based on equality between
women and men is a condition for people-centred sustainable development. A
sustained and long-term commitment is essential, so that women and men can
work together for themselves, for their children and for society to meet the
challenges of the twenty-first century.
- The Platform for Action reaffirms the fundamental principle set forth in
the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by the World
Conference on Human Rights, that the human rights of women and of the girl
child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human
rights. As an agenda for action, the Platform seeks to promote and protect
the full enjoyment of all human rights and the fundamental freedoms of all
women throughout their life cycle.
- The Platform for Action emphasizes that women share common concerns that
can be addressed only by working together and in partnership with men
towards the common goal of gender equality around the world. It respects
and values the full diversity of women's situations and conditions and
recognizes that some women face particular barriers to their empowerment.
- The Platform for Action requires immediate and concerted action by all to
create a peaceful, just and humane world based on human rights and
fundamental freedoms, including the principle of equality for all people of
all ages and from all walks of life, and to this end, recognizes that broad-based and sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable
development is necessary to sustain social development and social justice.
- The success of the Platform for Action will require a strong commitment on
the part of Governments, international organizations and institutions at all
levels. It will also require adequate mobilization of resources at the
national and international levels as well as new and additional resources to
the developing countries from all available funding mechanisms, including
multilateral, bilateral and private sources for the advancement of women;
financial resources to strengthen the capacity of national, subregional,
regional and international institutions; a commitment to equal rights, equal
responsibilities and equal opportunities and to the equal participation of
women and men in all national, regional and international bodies and policy-making processes; and the establishment or strengthening of mechanisms at
all levels for accountability to the world's women.
- The Fourth World Conference on Women is taking place as the world stands
poised on the threshold of a new millennium.
- The Platform for Action upholds the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women and builds upon the Nairobi
Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, as well as
relevant resolutions adopted by the Economic and Social Council and the
General Assembly. The formulation of the Platform for Action is aimed at
establishing a basic group of priority actions that should be carried out
during the next five years.
- The Platform for Action recognizes the importance of the agreements
reached at the World Summit for Children, the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, the World Conference on Human Rights, the
International Conference on Population and Development and the World Summit
for Social Development, which set out specific approaches and commitments to
fostering sustainable development and international cooperation and to
strengthening the role of the United Nations to that end. Similarly, the
Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing
States, the International Conference on Nutrition, the International
Conference on Primary Health Care and the World Conference on Education for
All have addressed the various facets of development and human rights,
within their specific perspectives, paying significant attention to the role
of women and girls. In addition, the International Year for the World's
Indigenous People, the International Year of the Family, the United
Nations Year for Tolerance, the Geneva Declaration for Rural Women, and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women
have
also emphasized the issues of women's empowerment and equality.
- The objective of the Platform for Action, which is in full conformity with
the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and
international law, is the empowerment of all women. The full realization of
all human rights and fundamental freedoms of all women is essential for the
empowerment of women. While the significance of national and regional
particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds
must be borne in mind, it is the duty of States, regardless of their
political, economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human
rights and fundamental freedoms. The implementation of this Platform,
including through national laws and the formulation of strategies, policies,
programmes and development priorities, is the sovereign responsibility of
each State, in conformity with all human rights and fundamental freedoms,
and the significance of and full respect for various religious and ethical
values, cultural backgrounds and philosophical convictions of individuals
and their communities should contribute to the full enjoyment by women of
their human rights in order to achieve equality, development and peace.
- Since the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the
United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, held at
Nairobi in 1985, and the adoption of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies
for the Advancement of Women, the world has experienced profound political,
economic, social and cultural changes, which have had both positive and
negative effects on women. The World Conference on Human Rights recognized
that the human rights of women and the girl child are an inalienable,
integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. The full and equal
participation of women in political, civil, economic, social and cultural
life at the national, regional and international levels, and the eradication
of all forms of discrimination on the grounds of sex are priority objectives
of the international community. The World Conference on Human Rights
reaffirmed the solemn commitment of all States to fulfil their obligations
to promote universal respect for, and observance and protection of, all
human rights and fundamental freedoms for all in accordance with the Charter
of the United Nations, other instruments related to human rights and
international law. The universal nature of these rights and freedoms is
beyond question.
- The end of the cold war has resulted in international changes and
diminished competition between the super-Powers. The threat of a global
armed conflict has diminished, while international relations have improved
and prospects for peace among nations have increased. Although the threat of
global conflict has been reduced, wars of aggression, armed conflicts,
colonial or other forms of alien domination and foreign occupation, civil
wars, and terrorism continue to plague many parts of the world. Grave
violations of the human rights of women occur, particularly in times of
armed conflict, and include murder, torture, systematic rape, forced
pregnancy and forced abortion, in particular under policies of ethnic
cleansing.
- The maintenance of peace and security at the global, regional and local
levels, together with the prevention of policies of aggression and ethnic
cleansing and the resolution of armed conflict, is crucial for the
protection of the human rights of women and girl children, as well as for
the elimination of all forms of violence against them and of their use as a
weapon of war.
- Excessive military expenditures, including global military expenditures
and arms trade or trafficking, and investments for arms production and
acquisition have reduced the resources available for social development. As
a result of the debt burden and other economic difficulties, many developing
countries have undertaken structural adjustment policies. Moreover, there
are structural adjustment programmes that have been poorly designed and
implemented, with resulting detrimental effects on social development. The
number of people living in poverty has increased disproportionately in most
developing countries, particularly the heavily indebted countries, during
the past decade.
- In this context, the social dimension of development should be emphasized.
Accelerated economic growth, although necessary for social development, does
not by itself improve the quality of life of the population. In some cases,
conditions can arise which can aggravate social inequality and
marginalization. Hence, it is indispensable to search for new alternatives
that ensure that all members of society benefit from economic growth based
on a holistic approach to all aspects of development: growth, equality
between women and men, social justice, conservation and protection of the
environment, sustainability, solidarity, participation, peace and respect
for human rights.
- A world-wide movement towards democratization has opened up the political
process in many nations, but the popular participation of women in key
decision-making as full and equal partners with men, particularly in
politics, has not yet been achieved. South Africa's policy of
institutionalized racism - apartheid - has been dismantled and a peaceful
and democratic transfer of power has occurred. In Central and Eastern Europe
the transition to parliamentary democracy has been rapid and has given rise
to a variety of experiences, depending on the specific circumstances of each
country. While the transition has been mostly peaceful, in some countries
this process has been hindered by armed conflict that has resulted in grave
violations of human rights.
- Widespread economic recession, as well as political instability in some
regions, has been responsible for setting back development goals in many
countries. This has led to the expansion of unspeakable poverty. Of the more
than 1 billion people living in abject poverty, women are an overwhelming
majority. The rapid process of change and adjustment in all sectors has also
led to increased unemployment and underemployment, with particular impact on
women. In many cases, structural adjustment programmes have not been
designed to minimize their negative effects on vulnerable and disadvantaged
groups or on women, nor have they been designed to assure positive effects
on those groups by preventing their marginalization in economic and social
activities. The Final Act of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade
negotiations underscored the increasing interdependence of national
economies, as well as the importance of trade liberalization and access to
open, dynamic markets. There has also been heavy military spending in some
regions. Despite increases in official development assistance (ODA) by some
countries, ODA has recently declined overall.
- Absolute poverty and the feminization of poverty, unemployment, the
increasing fragility of the environment, continued violence against women
and the widespread exclusion of half of humanity from institutions of power
and governance underscore the need to continue the search for development,
peace and security and for ways of assuring people-centred sustainable
development. The participation and leadership of the half of humanity that
is female is essential to the success of that search. Therefore, only a new
era of international cooperation among Governments and peoples based on a
spirit of partnership, an equitable, international social and economic
environment, and a radical transformation of the relationship between women
and men to one of full and equal partnership will enable the world to meet
the challenges of the twenty-first century.
- Recent international economic developments have had in many cases a
disproportionate impact on women and children, the majority of whom live in
developing countries. For those States that have carried a large burden of
foreign debt, structural adjustment programmes and measures, though
beneficial in the long term, have led to a reduction in social expenditures,
thereby adversely affecting women, particularly in Africa and the least
developed countries. This is exacerbated when responsibilities for basic
social services have shifted from Governments to women.
- Economic recession in many developed and developing countries, as well as
ongoing restructuring in countries with economies in transition, have had a
disproportionately negative impact on women's employment. Women often have
no choice but to take employment that lacks long-term job security or
involves dangerous working conditions, to work in unprotected home-based
production or to be unemployed. Many women enter the labour market in
under-remunerated and undervalued jobs, seeking to improve their household
income; others decide to migrate for the same purpose. Without any reduction
in their other responsibilities, this has increased the total burden of work
for women.
- Macro and micro-economic policies and programmes, including structural
adjustment, have not always been designed to take account of their impact on
women and girl children, especially those living in poverty. Poverty has
increased in both absolute and relative terms, and the number of women
living in poverty has increased in most regions. There are many urban women
living in poverty; however, the plight of women living in rural and remote
areas deserves special attention given the stagnation of development in such
areas. In developing countries, even those in which national indicators have
shown improvement, the majority of rural women continue to live in
conditions of economic underdevelopment and social marginalization.
- Women are key contributors to the economy and to combating poverty through
both remunerated and unremunerated work at home, in the community and in the
workplace. Growing numbers of women have achieved economic independence
through gainful employment.
- One fourth of all households world wide are headed by women and many other
households are dependent on female income even where men are present.
Female-maintained households are very often among the poorest because of
wage discrimination, occupational segregation patterns in the labour market
and other gender-based barriers. Family disintegration, population movements
between urban and rural areas within countries, international migration, war
and internal displacements are factors contributing to the rise of female-headed households.
- Recognizing that the achievement and maintenance of peace and security are
a precondition for economic and social progress, women are increasingly
establishing themselves as central actors in a variety of capacities in the
movement of humanity for peace. Their full participation in decision-making,
conflict prevention and resolution and all other peace initiatives is
essential to the realization of lasting peace.
- Religion, spirituality and belief play a central role in the lives of
millions of women and men, in the way they live and in the aspirations they
have for the future. The right to freedom of thought, conscience and
religion is inalienable and must be universally enjoyed. This right includes
the freedom to have or to adopt the religion or belief of their choice
either individually or in community with others, in public or in private,
and to manifest their religion or belief in worship, observance, practice
and teaching. In order to realize equality, development and peace, there is
a need to respect these rights and freedoms fully. Religion, thought,
conscience and belief may, and can, contribute to fulfilling women's and
men's moral, ethical and spiritual needs and to realizing their full
potential in society. However, it is acknowledged that any form of extremism
may have a negative impact on women and can lead to violence and
discrimination.
- The Fourth World Conference on Women should accelerate the process that
formally began in 1975, which was proclaimed International Women's Year by
the United Nations General Assembly. The Year was a turning-point in that it
put women's issues on the agenda. The United Nations Decade for Women
(1976-1985) was a world-wide effort to examine the status and rights of
women and to bring women into decision-making at all levels. In 1979, the
General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women, which entered into force in 1981 and set an
international standard for what was meant by equality between women and men.
In 1985, the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the
United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace adopted the
Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, to be
implemented by the year 2000. There has been important progress in achieving
equality between women and men. Many Governments have enacted legislation to
promote equality between women and men and have established national
machineries to ensure the mainstreaming of gender perspectives in all
spheres of society. International agencies have focused greater attention on
women's status and roles.
- The growing strength of the non-governmental sector, particularly women's
organizations and feminist groups, has become a driving force for change.
Non-governmental organizations have played an important advocacy role in
advancing legislation or mechanisms to ensure the promotion of women. They
have also become catalysts for new approaches to development. Many
Governments have increasingly recognized the important role that
non-governmental organizations play and the importance of working with them
for progress. Yet, in some countries, Governments continue to restrict the
ability of non-governmental organizations to operate freely. Women, through
non-governmental organizations, have participated in and strongly influenced
community, national, regional and global forums and international debates.
- Since 1975, knowledge of the status of women and men, respectively, has
increased and is contributing to further actions aimed at promoting equality
between women and men. In several countries, there have been important
changes in the relationships between women and men, especially where there
have been major advances in education for women and significant increases in
their participation in the paid labour force. The boundaries of the gender
division of labour between productive and reproductive roles are gradually
being crossed as women have started to enter formerly male-dominated areas
of work and men have started to accept greater responsibility for domestic
tasks, including child care. However, changes in women's roles have been
greater and much more rapid than changes in men's roles. In many countries,
the differences between women's and men's achievements and activities are
still not recognized as the consequences of socially constructed gender
roles rather than immutable biological differences.
- Moreover, 10 years after the Nairobi Conference, equality between women
and men has still not been achieved. On average, women represent a mere 10
per cent of all elected legislators world wide and in most national and
international administrative structures, both public and private, they
remain underrepresented. The United Nations is no exception. Fifty years
after its creation, the United Nations is continuing to deny itself the
benefits of women's leadership by their underrepresentation at
decision-making levels within the Secretariat and the specialized agencies.
- Women play a critical role in the family. The family is the basic unit of
society and as such should be strengthened. It is entitled to receive
comprehensive protection and support. In different cultural, political and
social systems, various forms of the family exist. The rights, capabilities
and responsibilities of family members must be respected. Women make a great
contribution to the welfare of the family and to the development of society,
which is still not recognized or considered in its full importance. The
social significance of maternity, motherhood and the role of parents in the
family and in the upbringing of children should be acknowledged. The
upbringing of children requires shared responsibility of parents, women and
men and society as a whole. Maternity, motherhood, parenting and the role of
women in procreation must not be a basis for discrimination nor restrict the
full participation of women in society. Recognition should also be given to
the important role often played by women in many countries in caring for
other members of their family.
- While the rate of growth of world population is on the decline, world
population is at an all-time high in absolute numbers, with current
increments approaching 86 million persons annually. Two other major
demographic trends have had profound repercussions on the dependency ratio
within families. In many developing countries, 45 to 50 per cent of the
population is less than 15 years old, while in industrialized nations both
the number and proportion of elderly people are increasing. According to
United Nations projections, 72 per cent of the population over 60 years of
age will be living in developing countries by the year 2025, and more than
half of that population will be women. Care of children, the sick and the
elderly is a responsibility that falls disproportionately on women, owing to
lack of equality and the unbalanced distribution of remunerated and
unremunerated work between women and men.
- Many women face particular barriers because of various diverse factors in
addition to their gender. Often these diverse factors isolate or marginalize
such women. They are, inter alia, denied their human rights, they lack
access or are denied access to education and vocational training,
employment, housing and economic self-sufficiency and they are excluded from
decision-making processes. Such women are often denied the opportunity to
contribute to their communities as part of the mainstream.
- The past decade has also witnessed a growing recognition of the distinct
interests and concerns of indigenous women, whose identity, cultural
traditions and forms of social organization enhance and strengthen the
communities in which they live. Indigenous women often face barriers both as
women and as members of indigenous communities.
- In the past 20 years, the world has seen an explosion in the field of
communications. With advances in computer technology and satellite and cable
television, global access to information continues to increase and expand,
creating new opportunities for the participation of women in communications
and the mass media and for the dissemination of information about women.
However, global communication networks have been used to spread stereotyped
and demeaning images of women for narrow commercial and consumerist
purposes. Until women participate equally in both the technical and
decision-making areas of communications and the mass media, including the
arts, they will continue to be misrepresented and awareness of the reality
of women's lives will continue to be lacking. The media have a great
potential to promote the advancement of women and the equality of women and
men by portraying women and men in a non-stereotypical, diverse and balanced
manner, and by respecting the dignity and worth of the human person.
- The continuing environmental degradation that affects all human lives has
often a more direct impact on women. Women's health and their livelihood are
threatened by pollution and toxic wastes, large-scale deforestation,
desertification, drought and depletion of the soil and of coastal and marine
resources, with a rising incidence of environmentally related health
problems and even death reported among women and girls. Those most affected
are rural and indigenous women, whose livelihood and daily subsistence
depends directly on sustainable ecosystems.
- Poverty and environmental degradation are closely interrelated. While
poverty results in certain kinds of environmental stress, the major cause of
the continued deterioration of the global environment is the unsustainable
patterns of consumption and production, particularly in industrialized
countries, which are a matter of grave concern and aggravate poverty and
imbalances.
- Global trends have brought profound changes in family survival strategies
and structures. Rural to urban migration has increased substantially in all
regions. The global urban population is projected to reach 47 per cent of
the total population by the year 2000. An estimated 125 million people are
migrants, refugees and displaced persons, half of whom live in developing
countries. These massive movements of people have profound consequences for
family structures and well-being and have unequal consequences for women and
men, including in many cases the sexual exploitation of women.
- According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, by the beginning
of 1995 the number of cumulative cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
(AIDS) was 4.5 million. An estimated 19.5 million men, women and children
have been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) since it was
first diagnosed and it is projected that another 20 million will be infected
by the end of the decade. Among new cases, women are twice as likely to be
infected as men. In the early stage of the AIDS pandemic, women were not
infected in large numbers; however, about 8 million women are now infected.
Young women and adolescents are particularly vulnerable. It is estimated
that by the year 2000 more than 13 million women will be infected and 4
million women will have died from AIDS-related conditions. In addition,
about 250 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases are estimated
to occur every year. The rate of transmission of sexually transmitted
diseases, including HIV/AIDS, is increasing at an alarming rate among women
and girls, especially in developing countries.
- Since 1975, significant knowledge and information have been generated
about the status of women and the conditions in which they live. Throughout
their entire life cycle, women's daily existence and long-term aspirations
are restricted by discriminatory attitudes, unjust social and economic
structures, and a lack of resources in most countries that prevent their
full and equal participation. In a number of countries, the practice of
prenatal sex selection, higher rates of mortality among very young girls and
lower rates of school enrolment for girls as compared with boys suggest that
son preference is curtailing the access of girl children to food, education
and health care and even life itself. Discrimination against women begins at
the earliest stages of life and must therefore be addressed from then
onwards.
- The girl child of today is the woman of tomorrow. The skills, ideas and
energy of the girl child are vital for full attainment of the goals of
equality, development and peace. For the girl child to develop her full
potential she needs to be nurtured in an enabling environment, where her
spiritual, intellectual and material needs for survival, protection and
development are met and her equal rights safeguarded. If women are to be
equal partners with men, in every aspect of life and development, now is the
time to recognize the human dignity and worth of the girl child and to
ensure the full enjoyment of her human rights and fundamental freedoms,
including the rights assured by the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
universal ratification of which is strongly urged. Yet there exists
world-wide evidence that discrimination and violence against girls begin at
the earliest stages of life and continue unabated throughout their lives.
They often have less access to nutrition, physical and mental health care
and education and enjoy fewer rights, opportunities and benefits of
childhood and adolescence than do boys. They are often subjected to various
forms of sexual and economic exploitation, paedophilia, forced prostitution
and possibly the sale of their organs and tissues, violence and harmful
practices such as female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, incest,
female genital mutilation and early marriage, including child marriage.
- Half the world's population is under the age of 25 and most of the world's
youth - more than 85 per cent - live in developing countries. Policy makers
must recognize the implications of these demographic factors. Special
measures must be taken to ensure that young women have the life skills
necessary for active and effective participation in all levels of social,
cultural, political and economic leadership. It will be critical for the
international community to demonstrate a new commitment to the future - a
commitment to inspiring a new generation of women and men to work together
for a more just society. This new generation of leaders must accept and
promote a world in which every child is free from injustice, oppression and
inequality and free to develop her/his own potential. The principle of
equality of women and men must therefore be integral to the socialization
process.
- The advancement of women and the achievement of equality between women and
men are a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice and
should not be seen in isolation as a women's issue. They are the only way to
build a sustainable, just and developed society. Empowerment of women and
equality between women and men are prerequisites for achieving political,
social, economic, cultural and environmental security among all peoples.
- Most of the goals set out in the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for
the Advancement of Women have not been achieved. Barriers to women's
empowerment remain, despite the efforts of Governments, as well as
non-governmental organizations and women and men everywhere. Vast political,
economic and ecological crises persist in many parts of the world. Among
them are wars of aggression, armed conflicts, colonial or other forms of
alien domination or foreign occupation, civil wars and terrorism. These
situations, combined with systematic or de facto discrimination, violations
of and failure to protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms of all
women, and their civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights,
including the right to development and ingrained prejudicial attitudes
towards women and girls are but a few of the impediments encountered since
the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United
Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, in 1985.
- A review of progress since the Nairobi Conference highlights special
concerns - areas of particular urgency that stand out as priorities for
action. All actors should focus action and resources on the strategic
objectives relating to the critical areas of concern which are, necessarily,
interrelated, interdependent and of high priority. There is a need for these
actors to develop and implement mechanisms of accountability for all the
areas of concern.
- To this end, Governments, the international community and civil society,
including non-governmental organizations and the private sector, are called
upon to take strategic action in the following critical areas of concern:
- The persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women
- Inequalities and inadequacies in and unequal access to education and
training
- Inequalities and inadequacies in and unequal access to health care and
related services
- Violence against women
- The effects of armed or other kinds of conflict on women, including
those living under foreign occupation
- Inequality in economic structures and policies, in all forms of
productive activities and in access to resources
- Inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and
decision-making at all levels
- Insufficient mechanisms at all levels to promote the advancement of
women
- Lack of respect for and inadequate promotion and protection of the
human rights of women
- Stereotyping of women and inequality in women's access to and
participation in all communication systems, especially in the media
- Gender inequalities in the management of natural resources and in the
safeguarding of the environment
- Persistent discrimination against and violation of the rights of the
girl child
- In each critical area of concern, the problem is diagnosed and strategic
objectives are proposed with concrete actions to be taken by various actors
in order to achieve those objectives. The strategic objectives are derived
from the critical areas of concern and specific actions to be taken to
achieve them cut across the boundaries of equality, development and peace -
the goals of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of
Women - and reflect their interdependence. The objectives and actions are
interlinked, of high priority and mutually reinforcing. The Platform for
Action is intended to improve the situation of all women, without exception,
who often face similar barriers, while special attention should be given to
groups that are the most disadvantaged.
- The Platform for Action recognizes that women face barriers to full
equality and advancement because of such factors as their race, age,
language, ethnicity, culture, religion or disability, because they are
indigenous women or because of other status. Many women encounter specific
obstacles related to their family status, particularly as single parents;
and to their socio-economic status, including their living conditions in
rural, isolated or impoverished areas. Additional barriers also exist for
refugee women, other displaced women, including internally displaced women
as well as for immigrant women and migrant women, including women migrant
workers. Many women are also particularly affected by environmental
disasters, serious and infectious diseases and various forms of violence
against women.
-
More than 1 billion people in the world today, the great majority of whom are
women, live in unacceptable conditions of poverty, mostly in the developing
countries. Poverty has various causes, including structural ones. Poverty is a
complex, multidimensional problem, with origins in both the national and
international domains. The globalization of the world's economy and the
deepening interdependence among nations present challenges and opportunities for
sustained economic growth and development, as well as risks and uncertainties
for the future of the world economy. The uncertain global economic climate has
been accompanied by economic restructuring as well as, in a certain number of
countries, persistent, unmanageable levels of external debt and structural
adjustment programmes. In addition, all types of conflict, displacement of
people and environmental degradation have undermined the capacity of Governments
to meet the basic needs of their populations. Transformations in the world
economy are profoundly changing the parameters of social development in all
countries. One significant trend has been the increased poverty of women, the
extent of which varies from region to region. The gender disparities in economic
power-sharing are also an important contributing factor to the poverty of women.
Migration and consequent changes in family structures have placed additional
burdens on women, especially those who provide for several dependants.
Macroeconomic policies need rethinking and reformulation to address such trends.
These policies focus almost exclusively on the formal sector. They also tend to
impede the initiatives of women and fail to consider the differential impact on
women and men. The application of gender analysis to a wide range of policies
and programmes is therefore critical to poverty reduction strategies. In order
to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development, women and men must
participate fully and equally in the formulation of macroeconomic and social
policies and strategies for the eradication of poverty. The eradication of
poverty cannot be accomplished through anti-poverty programmes alone but will
require democratic participation and changes in economic structures in order to
ensure access for all women to resources, opportunities and public services.
Poverty has various manifestations, including lack of income and productive
resources sufficient to ensure a sustainable livelihood; hunger and
malnutrition; ill health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic
services; increasing morbidity and mortality from illness; homelessness and
inadequate housing; unsafe environments; and social discrimination and
exclusion. It is also characterized by lack of participation in decision-making
and in civil, social and cultural life. It occurs in all countries - as mass
poverty in many developing countries and as pockets of poverty amidst wealth in
developed countries. Poverty may be caused by an economic recession that results
in loss of livelihood or by disaster or conflict. There is also the poverty of
low-wage workers and the utter destitution of people who fall outside family
support systems, social institutions and safety nets.
- In the past decade the number of women living in poverty has increased
disproportionately to the number of men, particularly in the developing
countries. The feminization of poverty has also recently become a significant
problem in the countries with economies in transition as a short-term
consequence of the process of political, economic and social transformation. In
addition to economic factors, the rigidity of socially ascribed gender roles and
women's limited access to power, education, training and productive resources as
well as other emerging factors that may lead to insecurity for families are also
responsible. The failure to adequately mainstream a gender perspective in all
economic analysis and planning and to address the structural causes of poverty
is also a contributing factor.
- Women contribute to the economy and to combating poverty through both
remunerated and unremunerated work at home, in the community and in the
workplace. The empowerment of women is a critical factor in the eradication of
poverty.
- While poverty affects households as a whole, because of the gender division
of labour and responsibilities for household welfare, women bear a
disproportionate burden, attempting to manage household consumption and
production under conditions of increasing scarcity. Poverty is particularly
acute for women living in rural households.
- Women's poverty is directly related to the absence of economic opportunities
and autonomy, lack of access to economic resources, including credit, land
ownership and inheritance, lack of access to education and support services and
their minimal participation in the decision-making process. Poverty can also
force women into situations in which they are vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
- In too many countries, social welfare systems do not take sufficient account
of the specific conditions of women living in poverty, and there is a tendency
to scale back the services provided by such systems. The risk of falling into
poverty is greater for women than for men, particularly in old age, where social
security systems are based on the principle of continuous remunerated
employment. In some cases, women do not fulfil this requirement because of
interruptions in their work, due to the unbalanced distribution of remunerated
and unremunerated work. Moreover, older women also face greater obstacles to
labour-market re-entry.
- In many developed countries, where the level of general education and
professional training of women and men are similar and where systems of
protection against discrimination are available, in some sectors the economic
transformations of the past decade have strongly increased either the
unemployment of women or the precarious nature of their employment. The
proportion of women among the poor has consequently increased. In countries with
a high level of school enrolment of girls, those who leave the educational
system the earliest, without any qualification, are among the most vulnerable in
the labour market.
- In countries with economies in transition and in other countries undergoing
fundamental political, economic and social transformations, these
transformations have often led to a reduction in women's income or to women
being deprived of income.
- Particularly in developing countries, the productive capacity of women should
be increased through access to capital, resources, credit, land, technology,
information, technical assistance and training so as to raise their income and
improve nutrition, education, health care and status within the household. The
release of women's productive potential is pivotal to breaking the cycle of
poverty so that women can share fully in the benefits of development and in the
products of their own labour.
- Sustainable development and economic growth that is both sustained and
sustainable are possible only through improving the economic, social, political,
legal and cultural status of women. Equitable social development that recognizes
empowering the poor, particularly women, to utilize environmental resources
sustainably is a necessary foundation for sustainable development.
- The success of policies and measures aimed at supporting or strengthening the
promotion of gender equality and the improvement of the status of women should
be based on the integration of the gender perspective in general policies
relating to all spheres of society as well as the implementation of positive
measures with adequate institutional and financial support at all levels.
Strategic objective A.1.
Review, adopt and maintain macroeconomic policies and development strategies
that address the needs and efforts of women in poverty
Actions to be taken
- By Governments:
- Review and modify, with the full and equal participation of women,
macroeconomic and social policies with a view to achieving the
objectives of the Platform for Action;
- Analyse, from a gender perspective, policies and programmes -
including those related to macroeconomic stability, structural
adjustment, external debt problems, taxation, investments, employment,
markets and all relevant sectors of the economy - with respect to their
impact on poverty, on inequality and particularly on women; assess their
impact on family well-being and conditions and adjust them, as
appropriate, to promote more equitable distribution of productive
assets, wealth, opportunities, income and services;
- Pursue and implement sound and stable macroeconomic and sectoral
policies that are designed and monitored with the full and equal
participation of women, encourage broad-based sustained economic growth,
address the structural causes of poverty and are geared towards
eradicating poverty and reducing gender-based inequality within the
overall framework of achieving people-centred sustainable development;
- Restructure and target the allocation of public expenditures to
promote women's economic opportunities and equal access to productive
resources and to address the basic social, educational and health needs
of women, particularly those living in poverty;
- Develop agricultural and fishing sectors, where and as necessary, in
order to ensure, as appropriate, household and national food security
and food self-sufficiency, by allocating the necessary financial,
technical and human resources;
- Develop policies and programmes to promote equitable distribution of
food within the household;
- Provide adequate safety nets and strengthen State-based and
community-based support systems, as an integral part of social policy,
in order to enable women living in poverty to withstand adverse economic
environments and preserve their livelihood, assets and revenues in times
of crisis;
- Generate economic policies that have a positive impact on the
employment and income of women workers in both the formal and informal
sectors and adopt specific measures to address women's unemployment, in
particular their long-term unemployment;
- Formulate and implement, when necessary, specific economic, social,
agricultural and related policies in support of female-headed
households;
- Develop and implement anti-poverty programmes, including employment
schemes, that improve access to food for women living in poverty,
including through the use of appropriate pricing and distribution
mechanisms;
- Ensure the full realization of the human rights of all women migrants,
including women migrant workers, and their protection against violence
and exploitation; introduce measures for the empowerment of documented
women migrants, including women migrant workers; facilitate the
productive employment of documented migrant women through greater
recognition of their skills, foreign education and credentials, and
facilitate their full integration into the labour force;
- Introduce measures to integrate or reintegrate women living in poverty
and socially marginalized women into productive employment and the
economic mainstream; ensure that internally displaced women have full
access to economic opportunities and that the qualifications and skills
of immigrant and refugee women are recognized;
- Enable women to obtain affordable housing and access to land by, among
other things, removing all obstacles to access, with special emphasis on
meeting the needs of women, especially those living in poverty and
female heads of household;
- Formulate and implement policies and programmes that enhance the
access of women agricultural and fisheries producers (including
subsistence farmers and producers, especially in rural areas) to
financial, technical, extension and marketing services; provide access
to and control of land, appropriate infrastructure and technology in
order to increase women's incomes and promote household food security,
especially in rural areas and, where appropriate, encourage the
development of producer-owned, market-based cooperatives;
- Create social security systems wherever they do not exist, or review
them with a view to placing individual women and men on an equal
footing, at every stage of their lives;
- Ensure access to free or low-cost legal services, including legal
literacy, especially designed to reach women living in poverty;
- Take particular measures to promote and strengthen policies and
programmes for indigenous women with their full participation and
respect for their cultural diversity, so that they have opportunities
and the possibility of choice in the development process in order to
eradicate the poverty that affects them.
- By multilateral financial and development institutions, including the
World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and regional development
institutions, and through bilateral development cooperation:
- In accordance with the commitments made at the World Summit for Social
Development, seek to mobilize new and additional financial resources
that are both adequate and predictable and mobilized in a way that
maximizes the availability of such resources and uses all available
funding sources and mechanisms with a view to contributing towards the
goal of poverty eradication and targeting women living in poverty;
- Strengthen analytical capacity in order to more systematically
strengthen gender perspectives and integrate them into the design and
implementation of lending programmes, including structural adjustment
and economic recovery programmes;
- Find effective development-oriented and durable solutions to external
debt problems in order to help them to finance programmes and projects
targeted at development, including the advancement of women, inter alia,
through the immediate implementation of the terms of debt forgiveness
agreed upon in the Paris Club in December 1994, which encompassed debt
reduction, including cancellation or other debt relief measures and
develop techniques of debt conversion applied to social development
programmes and projects in conformity with the priorities of the
Platform for Action;
- Invite the international financial institutions to examine innovative
approaches to assisting low-income countries with a high proportion of
multilateral debt, with a view to alleviating their debt burden;
- Ensure that structural adjustment programmes are designed to minimize
their negative effects on vulnerable and disadvantaged groups and
communities and to assure their positive effects on such groups and
communities by preventing their marginalization in economic and social
activities and devising measures to ensure that they gain access to and
control over economic resources and economic and social activities; take
actions to reduce inequality and economic disparity;
- Review the impact of structural adjustment programmes on social
development by means of gender-sensitive social impact assessments and
other relevant methods, in order to develop policies to reduce their
negative effects and improve their positive impact, ensuring that women
do not bear a disproportionate burden of transition costs; complement
adjustment lending with enhanced, targeted social development lending;
- Create an enabling environment that allows women to build and maintain
sustainable livelihoods.
- By national and international non-governmental organizations and women's
groups:
- Mobilize all parties involved in the development process, including
academic institutions, non-governmental organizations and grass-roots
and women's groups, to improve the effectiveness of anti-poverty
programmes directed towards the poorest and most disadvantaged groups of
women, such as rural and indigenous women, female heads of household,
young women and older women, refugees and migrant women and women with
disabilities, recognizing that social development is primarily the
responsibility of Governments;
- Engage in lobbying and establish monitoring mechanisms, as
appropriate, and other relevant activities to ensure implementation of
the recommendations on poverty eradication outlined in the Platform for
Action and aimed at ensuring accountability and transparency from the
State and private sectors;
- Include in their activities women with diverse needs and recognize
that youth organizations are increasingly becoming effective partners in
development programmes;
- In cooperation with the government and private sectors, participate in
the development of a comprehensive national strategy for improving
health, education and social services so that girls and women of all
ages living in poverty have full access to such services; seek funding
to secure access to services with a gender perspective and to extend
those services in order to reach the rural and remote areas that are not
covered by government institutions;
- In cooperation with Governments, employers, other social partners and
relevant parties, contribute to the development of education and
training and retraining policies to ensure that women can acquire a wide
range of skills to meet new demands;
- Mobilize to protect women's right to full and equal access to economic
resources, including the right to inheritance and to ownership of land
and other property, credit, natural resources and appropriate
technologies.
Strategic objective A.2.
Revise laws and administrative practices to ensure women's equal rights and
access to economic resources
Actions to be taken
- By Governments:
- Ensure access to free or low-cost legal services, including legal
literacy, especially designed to reach women living in poverty;
- Undertake legislative and administrative reforms to give women full
and equal access to economic resources, including the right to
inheritance and to ownership of land and other property, credit, natural
resources and appropriate technologies;
- Consider ratification of Convention No. 169 of the International
Labour Organization (ILO) as part of their efforts to promote and
protect the rights of indigenous people.
Strategic objective A.3.
Provide women with access to savings and credit mechanisms and institutions
Actions to be taken
- By Governments:
- Enhance the access of disadvantaged women, including women
entrepreneurs, in rural, remote and urban areas to financial services
through strengthening links between the formal banks and intermediary
lending organizations, including legislative support, training for women
and institutional strengthening for intermediary institutions with a
view to mobilizing capital for those institutions and increasing the
availability of credit;
- Encourage links between financial institutions and non-governmental
organizations and support innovative lending practices, including those
that integrate credit with women's services and training and provide
credit facilities to rural women.
- By commercial banks, specialized financial institutions and the private
sector in examining their policies:
- Use credit and savings methodologies that are effective in reaching
women in poverty and innovative in reducing transaction costs and
redefining risk;
- Open special windows for lending to women, including young women, who
lack access to traditional sources of collateral;
- Simplify banking practices, for example by reducing the minimum
deposit and other requirements for opening bank accounts;
- Ensure the participation and joint ownership, where possible, of women
clients in the decision-making of institutions providing credit and
financial services.
- By multilateral and bilateral development cooperation organizations:
- Support, through the provision of capital and/or resources, financial
institutions that serve low-income, small-scale and micro-scale women
entrepreneurs and producers, in both the formal and informal sectors.
- By Governments and multilateral financial institutions, as appropriate:
- Support institutions that meet performance standards in reaching large
numbers of low-income women and men through capitalization, refinancing
and institutional development support in forms that foster
self-sufficiency.
- By international organizations:
- Increase funding for programmes and projects designed to promote
sustainable and productive entrepreneurial activities for income-generation among disadvantaged women and women living in poverty.
Strategic objective A.4.
Develop gender-based methodologies and conduct research to address the
feminization of poverty
Actions to be taken
- By Governments, intergovernmental organizations, academic and research
institutions and the private sector:
- Develop conceptual and practical methodologies for incorporating
gender perspectives into all aspects of economic policy-making,
including structural adjustment planning and programmes;
- Apply these methodologies in conducting gender-impact analyses of all
policies and programmes, including structural adjustment programmes, and
disseminate the research findings.
- By national and international statistical organizations:
- Collect gender and age-disaggregated data on poverty and all aspects
of economic activity and develop qualitative and quantitative
statistical indicators to facilitate the assessment of economic
performance from a gender perspective;
- Devise suitable statistical means to recognize and make visible the
- Education is a human right and an essential tool for achieving the goals
of equality, development and peace. Non-discriminatory education benefits
both girls and boys and thus ultimately contributes to more equal
relationships between women and men. Equality of access to and attainment of
educational qualifications is necessary if more women are to become agents
of change. Literacy of women is an important key to improving health,
nutrition and education in the family and to empowering women to participate
in decision-making in society. Investing in formal and non-formal education
and training for girls and women, with its exceptionally high social and
economic return, has proved to be one of the best means of achieving
sustainable development and economic growth that is both sustained and
sustainable.
- On a regional level, girls and boys have achieved equal access to primary
education, except in some parts of Africa, in particular sub-Saharan Africa,
and Central Asia, where access to education facilities is still inadequate.
Progress has been made in secondary education, where equal access of girls
and boys has been achieved in some countries. Enrolment of girls and women
in tertiary education has increased considerably. In many countries, private
schools have also played an important complementary role in improving access
to education at all levels. Yet, more than five years after the World
Conference on Education for All (Jomtien, Thailand, 1990) adopted the World
Declaration on Education for All and the Framework for Action to Meet Basic
Learning Needs, approximately 100 million children, including at least 60
million girls, are without access to primary schooling and more than two
thirds of the world's 960 million illiterate adults are women. The high rate
of illiteracy prevailing in most developing countries, in particular in
sub-Saharan Africa and some Arab States, remains a severe impediment to the
advancement of women and to development.
- Discrimination in girls' access to education persists in many areas, owing
to customary attitudes, early marriages and pregnancies, inadequate and
gender-biased teaching and educational materials, sexual harassment and lack
of adequate and physically and otherwise accessible schooling facilities.
Girls undertake heavy domestic work at a very early age. Girls and young
women are expected to manage both educational and domestic responsibilities,
often resulting in poor scholastic performance and early drop-out from the
educational system. This has long-lasting consequences for all aspects of
women's lives.
- Creation of an educational and social environment, in which women and men,
girls and boys, are treated equally and encouraged to achieve their full
potential, respecting their freedom of thought, conscience, religion and
belief, and where educational resources promote non-stereotyped images of
women and men, would be effective in the elimination of the causes of
discrimination against women and inequalities between women and men.
- Women should be enabled to benefit from an ongoing acquisition of
knowledge and skills beyond those acquired during youth. This concept of
lifelong learning includes knowledge and skills gained in formal education
and training, as well as learning that occurs in informal ways, including
volunteer activity, unremunerated work and traditional knowledge.
- Curricula and teaching materials remain gender-biased to a large degree,
and are rarely sensitive to the specific needs of girls and women. This
reinforces traditional female and male roles that deny women opportunities
for full and equal partnership in society. Lack of gender awareness by
educators at all levels strengthens existing inequities between males and
females by reinforcing discriminatory tendencies and undermining girls'
self-esteem. The lack of sexual and reproductive health education has a
profound impact on women and men.
- Science curricula in particular are gender-biased. Science textbooks do
not relate to women's and girls' daily experience and fail to give
recognition to women scientists. Girls are often deprived of basic education
in mathematics and science and technical training, which provide knowledge
they could apply to improve their daily lives and enhance their employment
opportunities. Advanced study in science and technology prepares women to
take an active role in the technological and industrial development of their
countries, thus necessitating a diverse approach to vocational and technical
training. Technology is rapidly changing the world and has also affected the
developing countries. It is essential that women not only benefit from
technology, but also participate in the process from the design to the
application, monitoring and evaluation stages.
- Access for and retention of girls and women at all levels of education,
including the higher level, and all academic areas is one of the factors of
their continued progress in professional activities. Nevertheless, it can be
noted that girls are still concentrated in a limited number of fields of
study.
- The mass media are a powerful means of education. As an educational tool
the mass media can be an instrument for educators and governmental and
non-governmental institutions for the advancement of women and for
development. Computerized education and information systems are increasingly
becoming an important element in learning and the dissemination of
knowledge. Television especially has the greatest impact on young people
and, as such, has the ability to shape values, attitudes and perceptions of
women and girls in both positive and negative ways. It is therefore
essential that educators teach critical judgement and analytical skills.
- Resources allocated to education, particularly for girls and women, are in
many countries insufficient and in some cases have been further diminished,
including in the context of adjustment policies and programmes. Such
insufficient resource allocations have a long-term adverse effect on human
development, particularly on the development of women.
- In addressing unequal access to and inadequate educational opportunities,
Governments and other actors should promote an active and visible policy of
mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes, so
that, before decisions are taken, an analysis is made of the effects on
women and men, respectively.
Strategic objective B.1.
Ensure equal access to education
Actions to be taken
- By Governments:
- Advance the goal of equal access to education by taking measures to
eliminate discrimination in education at all levels on the basis of
gender, race, language, religion, national origin, age or disability, or
any other form of discrimination and, as appropriate, consider
establishing procedures to address grievances;
- By the year 2000, provide universal access to basic education and
ensure completion of primary education by at least 80 per cent of
primary school-age children; close the gender gap in primary and
secondary school education by the year 2005; provide universal primary
education in all countries before the year 2015;
- Eliminate gender disparities in access to all areas of tertiary
education by ensuring that women have equal access to career
development, training, scholarships and fellowships, and by adopting
positive action when appropriate;
- Create a gender-sensitive educational system in order to ensure equal
educational and training opportunities and full and equal participation
of women in educational administration and policy- and decision-making;
- Provide - in collaboration with parents, non-governmental
organizations, including youth organizations, communities and the
private sector - young women with academic and technical training,
career planning, leadership and social skills and work experience to
prepare them to participate fully in society;
- Increase enrolment and retention rates of girls by allocating
appropriate budgetary resources; by enlisting the support of parents and
the community, as well as through campaigns, flexible school schedules,
incentives, scholarships and other means to minimize the costs of girls'
education to their families and to facilitate parents' ability to choose
education for the girl child; and by ensuring that the rights of women
and girls to freedom of conscience and religion are respected in
educational institutions through repealing any discriminatory laws or
legislation based on religion, race or culture;
- Promote an educational setting that eliminates all barriers that
impeded the schooling of pregnant adolescents and young mothers,
including, as appropriate, affordable and physically accessible
child-care facilities and parental education to encourage those who are
responsible for the care of their children and siblings during their
school years, to return to or continue with and complete schooling;
- Improve the quality of education and equal opportunities for women and
men in terms of access in order to ensure that women of all ages can
acquire the knowledge, capacities, aptitudes, skills and ethical values
needed to develop and to participate fully under equal conditions in the
process of social, economic and political development;
- Make available non-discriminatory and gender-sensitive professional
school counselling and career education programmes to encourage girls to
pursue academic and technical curricula in order to widen their future
career opportunities;
- Encourage ratification of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights where they have not already done so.
Strategic objective B.2.
Eradicate illiteracy among women
Actions to be taken
- By Governments, national, regional and international bodies, bilateral and
multilateral donors and non-governmental organizations:
- Reduce the female illiteracy rate to at least half its 1990 level,
with emphasis on rural women, migrant, refugee and internally displaced
women and women with disabilities;
- provide universal access to, and seek to ensure gender equality in the
completion of, primary education for girls by the year 2000;
- Eliminate the gender gap in basic and functional literacy, as
recommended in the World Declaration on Education for All (Jomtien);
- Narrow the disparities between developed and developing countries;
- Encourage adult and family engagement in learning to promote total
literacy for all people;
- Promote, together with literacy, life skills and scientific and
technological knowledge and work towards an expansion of the definition
of literacy, taking into account current targets and benchmarks.
Strategic objective B.3.
Improve women's access to vocational training, science and technology, and
continuing education
Actions to be taken
- By Governments, in cooperation with employers, workers and trade unions,
international and non-governmental organizations, including women's and
youth organizations, and educational institutions:
- Develop and implement education, training and retraining policies for
women, especially young women and women re-entering the labour market,
to provide skills to meet the needs of a changing socio-economic
context for improving their employment opportunities;
- Provide recognition to non-formal educational opportunities for girls
and women in the educational system;
- Provide information to women and girls on the availability and
benefits of vocational training, training programmes in science and
technology and programmes of continuing education;
- Design educational and training programmes for women who are
unemployed in order to provide them with new knowledge and skills that
will enhance and broaden their employment opportunities, including
self-employment, and development of their entrepreneurial skills;
- Diversify vocational and technical training and improve access for and
retention of girls and women in education and vocational training in
such fields as science, mathematics, engineering, environmental sciences
and technology, information technology and high technology, as well as
management training;
- Promote women's central role in food and agricultural research,
extension and education programmes;
- Encourage the adaptation of curricula and teaching materials,
encourage a supportive training environment and take positive measures
to promote training for the full range of occupational choices of
non-traditional careers for women and men, including the development of
multidisciplinary courses for science and mathematics teachers to
sensitize them to the relevance of science and technology to women's
lives;
- Develop curricula and teaching materials and formulate and take
positive measures to ensure women better access to and participation in
technical and scientific areas, especially areas where they are not
represented or are underrepresented;
- Develop policies and programmes to encourage women to participate in
all apprenticeship programmes;
- Increase training in technical, managerial, agricultural extension and
marketing areas for women in agriculture, fisheries, industry and
business, arts and crafts, to increase income-generating opportunities,
women's participation in economic decision-making, in particular through
women's organizations at the grass-roots level, and their contribution
to production, marketing, business, and science and technology;
- Ensure access to quality education and training at all appropriate
levels for adult women with little or no education, for women with
disabilities and for documented migrant, refugee and displaced women to
improve their work opportunities.
Strategic objective B.4.
Develop non-discriminatory education and training
Actions to be taken
- By Governments, educational authorities and other educational and academic
institutions:
- Elaborate recommendations and develop curricula, textbooks and
teaching aids free of gender-based stereotypes for all levels of
education, including teacher training, in association with all concerned
- publishers, teachers, public authorities and parents' associations;
- Develop training programmes and materials for teachers and educators
that raise awareness about the status, role and contribution of women
and men in the family, as defined in paragraph 29 above, and society; in
this context, promote equality, cooperation, mutual respect and shared
responsibilities between girls and boys from pre-school level onward
and develop, in particular, educational modules to ensure that boys have
the skills necessary to take care of their own domestic needs and to
share responsibility for their household and for the care of dependants;
- Develop training programmes and materials for teachers and educators
that raise awareness of their own role in the educational process, with
a view to providing them with effective strategies for gender-sensitive
teaching;
- Take actions to ensure that female teachers and professors have the
same opportunities as and equal status with male teachers and
professors, in view of the importance of having female teachers at all
levels and in order to attract girls to school and retain them in
school;
- Introduce and promote training in peaceful conflict resolution;
- Take positive measures to increase the proportion of women gaining
access to educational policy- and decision-making, particularly women
teachers at all levels of education and in academic disciplines that are
traditionally male-dominated, such as the scientific and technological
fields;
- Support and develop gender studies and research at all levels of
education, especially at the postgraduate level of academic
institutions, and apply them in the development of curricula, including
university curricula, textbooks and teaching aids, and in teacher
training;
- Develop leadership training and opportunities for all women to
encourage them to take leadership roles both as students and as adults
in civil society;
- Develop appropriate education and information programmes with due
respect for multilingualism, particularly in conjunction with the mass
media, that make the public, particularly parents, aware of the
importance of non-discriminatory education for children and the equal
sharing of family responsibilities by girls and boys;
- Develop human rights education programmes that incorporate the gender
dimension at all levels of education, in particular by encouraging
higher education institutions, especially in their graduate and
postgraduate juridical, social and political science curricula, to
include the study of the human rights of women as they appear in United
Nations conventions;
- Remove legal, regulatory and social barriers, where appropriate, to
sexual and reproductive health education within formal education
programmes regarding women's health issues;
- Encourage, with the guidance and support of their parents and in
cooperation with educational staff and institutions, the elaboration of
educational programmes for girls and boys and the creation of integrated
services in order to raise awareness of their responsibilities and to
help them to assume those responsibilities, taking into account the
importance of such education and services to personal development and
self-esteem, as well as the urgent need to avoid unwanted pregnancy, the
spread of sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, and such
phenomena as sexual violence and abuse;
- Provide accessible recreational and sports facilities and establish
and strengthen gender-sensitive programmes for girls and women of all
ages in education and community institutions and support the advancement
of women in all areas of athletics and physical activity, including
coaching, training and administration, and as participants at the
national, regional and international levels;
- Recognize and support the right of indigenous women and girls to
education and promote a multicultural approach to education that is
responsive to the needs, aspirations and cultures of indigenous women,
including by developing appropriate education programmes, curricula and
teaching aids, to the extent possible in the languages of indigenous
people, and by providing for the participation of indigenous women in
these processes;
- Acknowledge and respect the artistic, spiritual and cultural
activities of indigenous women;
- Ensure that gender equality and cultural, religious and other
diversity are respected in educational institutions;
- Promote education, training and relevant information programmes for
rural and farming women through the use of affordable and appropriate
technologies and the mass media - for example, radio programmes,
cassettes and mobile units;
- Provide non-formal education, especially for rural women, in order to
realize their potential with regard to health, micro-enterprise,
agriculture and legal rights;
- Remove all barriers to access to formal education for pregnant
adolescents and young mothers, and support the provision of child care
and other support services where necessary.
Strategic objective B.5.
Allocate sufficient resources for and monitor the implementation of educational
reforms
Actions to be taken
- By Governments:
- Provide the required budgetary resources to the educational sector,
with reallocation within the educational sector to ensure increased
funds for basic education, as appropriate;
- Establish a mechanism at appropriate levels to monitor the
implementation of educational reforms and measures in relevant
ministries, and establish technical assistance programmes, as
appropriate, to address issues raised by the monitoring efforts.
- By Governments and, as appropriate, private and public institutions,
foundations, research institutes and non-governmental organizations:
- When necessary, mobilize additional funds from private and public
institutions, foundations, research institutes and non-governmental
organizations to enable girls and women, as well as boys and men on an
equal basis, to complete their education, with particular emphasis on
under-served populations;
- Provide funding for special programmes, such as programmes in
mathematics, science and computer technology, to advance opportunities
for all girls and women.
- By multilateral development institutions, including the World Bank,
regional development banks, bilateral donors and foundations:
- Consider increasing funding for the education and training needs of
girls and women as a priority in development assistance programmes;
- Consider working with recipient Governments to ensure that funding for
women's education is maintained or increased in structural adjustment
and economic recovery programmes, including lending and stabilization
programmes.
- By international and intergovernmental organizations, especially the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, at the
global level:
- Contribute to the evaluation of progress achieved, using educational
indicators generated by national, regional and international bodies, and
urge Governments, in implementing measures, to eliminate differences
between women and men and boys and girls with regard to opportunities in
education and training and the levels achieved in all fields,
particularly in primary and literacy programmes;
- Provide technical assistance upon request to developing countries to
strengthen the capacity to monitor progress in closing the gap between
women and men in education, training and research, and in levels of
achievement in all fields, particularly basic education and the
elimination of illiteracy;
- Conduct an international campaign promoting the right of women and
girls to education;
- Allocate a substantial percentage of their resources to basic
education for women and girls.
Strategic objective B.6.
Promote life-long education and training for girls and women
Actions to be taken
- By Governments, educational institutions and communities:
- Ensure the availability of a broad range of educational and training
programmes that lead to ongoing acquisition by women and girls of the
knowledge and skills required for living in, contributing to and
benefiting from their communities and nations;
- Provide support for child care and other services to enable mothers to
continue their schooling;
- Create flexible education, training and retraining programmes for
life-long learning that facilitate transitions between women's
activities at all stages of their lives.
- Women have the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standardof
physical and mental health. The enjoyment of this right is vital to their
life and well-being and their ability to participate in all areas of public
and private life. Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social
well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Women's
health involves their emotional, social and physical well-being and is
determined by the social, political and economic context of their lives, as
well as by biology. However, health and well-being elude the majority of
women. A major barrier for women to the achievement of the highest
attainable standard of health is inequality, both between men and women and
among women in different geographical regions, social classes and indigenous
and ethnic groups. In national and international forums, women have
emphasized that to attain optimal health throughout the life cycle,
equality, including the sharing of family responsibilities, development and
peace are necessary conditions.
- Women have different and unequal access to and use of basic health
resources, including primary health services for the prevention and
treatment of childhood diseases, malnutrition, anaemia, diarrhoeal diseases,
communicable diseases, malaria and other tropical diseases and tuberculosis,
among others. Women also have different and unequal opportunities for the
protection, promotion and maintenance of their health. In many developing
countries, the lack of emergency obstetric services is also of particular
concern. Health policies and programmes often perpetuate gender stereotypes
and fail to consider socio-economic disparities and other differences among
women and may not fully take account of the lack of autonomy of women
regarding their health. Women's health is also affected by gender bias in
the health system and by the provision of inadequate and inappropriate
medical services to women.
- In many countries, especially developing countries, in particular the
least developed countries, a decrease in public health spending and, in some
cases, structural adjustment, contribute to the deterioration of public
health systems. In addition, privatization of health-care systems without
appropriate guarantees of universal access to affordable health care further
reduces health-care availability. This situation not only directly affects
the health of girls and women, but also places disproportionate
responsibilities on women, whose multiple roles, including their roles
within the family and the community, are often not acknowledged; hence they
do not receive the necessary social, psychological and economic support.
- Women's right to the enjoyment of the highest standard of health must be
secured throughout the whole life cycle in equality with men. Women are
affected by many of the same health conditions as men, but women experience
them differently. The prevalence among women of poverty and economic
dependence, their experience of violence, negative attitudes towards women
and girls, racial and other forms of discrimination, the limited power many
women have over their sexual and reproductive lives and lack of influence in
decision-making are social realities which have an adverse impact on their
health. Lack of food and inequitable distribution of food for girls and
women in the household, inadequate access to safe water, sanitation
facilities and fuel supplies, particularly in rural and poor urban areas,
and deficient housing conditions, all overburden women and their families
and have a negative effect on their health. Good health is essential to
leading a productive and fulfilling life, and the right of all women to
control all aspects of their health, in particular their own fertility, is
basic to their empowerment.
- Discrimination against girls, often resulting from son preference, in
access to nutrition and health-care services endangers their current and
future health and well-being. Conditions that force girls into early
marriage, pregnancy and child-bearing and subject them to harmful practices,
such as female genital mutilation, pose grave health risks. Adolescent girls
need, but too often do not have, access to necessary health and nutrition
services as they mature. Counselling and access to sexual and reproductive
health information and services for adolescents are still inadequate or
lacking completely, and a young woman's right to privacy, confidentiality,
respect and informed consent is often not considered. Adolescent girls are
both biologically and psychosocially more vulnerable than boys to sexual
abuse, violence and prostitution, and to the consequences of unprotected and
premature sexual relations. The trend towards early sexual experience,
combined with a lack of information and services, increases the risk of
unwanted and too early pregnancy, HIV infection and other sexually
transmitted diseases, as well as unsafe abortions. Early child-bearing
continues to be an impediment to improvements in the educational, economic
and social status of women in all parts of the world. Overall, for young
women early marriage and early motherhood can severely curtail educational
and employment opportunities and are likely to have a long-term, adverse
impact on the quality of their lives and the lives of their children. Young
men are often not educated to respect women's self-determination and to
share responsibility with women in matters of sexuality and reproduction.
- Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social
well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all
matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and
processes. Reproductive health therefore implies that people are able to
have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to
reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so.
Implicit in this last condition are the right of men and women to be
informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable
methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods of
their choice for regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and
the right of access to appropriate health-care services that will enable
women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with
the best chance of having a healthy infant. In line with the above
definition of reproductive health, reproductive health care is defined as
the constellation of methods, techniques and services that contribute to
reproductive health and well-being by preventing and solving reproductive
health problems. It also includes sexual health, the purpose of which is the
enhancement of life and personal relations, and not merely counselling and
care related to reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases.
- Bearing in mind the above definition, reproductive rights embrace certain
human rights that are already recognized in national laws, international
human rights documents and other consensus documents. These rights rest on
the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide
freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and
to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the
highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. It also includes their
right to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination,
coercion and violence, as expressed in human rights documents. In the
exercise of this right, they should take into account the needs of their
living and future children and their responsibilities towards the community.
The promotion of the responsible exercise of these rights for all people
should be the fundamental basis for government- and community-supported
policies and programmes in the area of reproductive health, including family
planning. As part of their commitment, full attention should be given to the
promotion of mutually respectful and equitable gender relations and
particularly to meeting the educational and service needs of adolescents to
enable them to deal in a positive and responsible way with their sexuality.
Reproductive health eludes many of the world's people because of such
factors as: inadequate levels of knowledge about human sexuality and
inappropriate or poor-quality reproductive health information and services;
the prevalence of high-risk sexual behaviour; discriminatory social
practices; negative attitudes towards women and girls; and the limited power
many women and girls have over their sexual and reproductive lives.
Adolescents are particularly vulnerable because of their lack of information
and access to relevant services in most countries. Older women and men have
distinct reproductive and sexual health issues which are often inadequately
addressed.
- The human rights of women include their right to have control over and
decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality,
including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination
and violence. Equal relationships between women and men in matters of sexual
relations and reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the
person, require mutual respect, consent and shared responsibility for sexual
behaviour and its consequences.
- Further, women are subject to particular health risks due to inadequate
responsiveness and lack of services to meet health needs related to
sexuality and reproduction. Complications related to pregnancy and
childbirth are among the leading causes of mortality and morbidity of women
of reproductive age in many parts of the developing world. Similar problems
exist to a certain degree in some countries with economies in transition.
Unsafe abortions threaten the lives of a large number of women, representing
a grave public health problem as it is primarily the poorest and youngest
who take the highest risk. Most of these deaths, health problems and
injuries are preventable through improved access to adequate health-care
services, including safe and effective family planning methods and emergency
obstetric care, recognizing the right of women and men to be informed and to
have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family
planning of their choice, as well as other methods of their choice for
regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and the right of
access to appropriate health-care services that will enable women to go
safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best
chance of having a healthy infant. These problems and means should be
addressed on the basis of the report of the International Conference on
Population and Development, with particular reference to relevant paragraphs
of the Programme of Action of the Conference. In most countries, the neglect
of women's reproductive rights severely limits their opportunities in public
and private life, including opportunities for education and economic and
political empowerment. The ability of women to control their own fertility
forms an important basis for the enjoyment of other rights. Shared
responsibility between women and men in matters related to sexual and
reproductive behaviour is also essential to improving women's health.
- HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, the transmission of
which is sometimes a consequence of sexual violence, are having a
devastating effect on women's health, particularly the health of adolescent
girls and young women. They often do not have the power to insist on safe
and responsible sex practices and have little access to information and
services for prevention and treatment. Women, who represent half of all
adults newly infected with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases,
have emphasized that social vulnerability and the unequal power
relationships between women and men are obstacles to safe sex, in their
efforts to control the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. The
consequences of HIV/AIDS reach beyond women's health to their role as
mothers and caregivers and their contribution to the economic support of
their families. The social, developmental and health consequences of
HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases need to be seen from a
gender perspective.
- Sexual and gender-based violence, including physical and psychological
abuse, trafficking in women and girls, and other forms of abuse and sexual
exploitation place girls and women at high risk of physical and mental
trauma, disease and unwanted pregnancy. Such situations often deter women
from using health and other services.
- Mental disorders related to marginalization, powerlessness and poverty,
along with overwork and stress and the growing incidence of domestic
violence as well as substance abuse, are among other health issues of
growing concern to women. Women throughout the world, especially young
women, are increasing their use of tobacco with serious effects on their
health and that of their children. Occupational health issues are also
growing in importance, as a large number of women work in low-paid jobs in
either the formal or the informal labour market under tedious and unhealthy
conditions, and the number is rising. Cancers of the breast and cervix and
other cancers of the reproductive system, as well as infertility affect
growing numbers of women and may be preventable, or curable, if detected
early.
- With the increase in life expectancy and the growing number of older
women, their health concerns require particular attention. The long-term
health prospects of women are influenced by changes at menopause, which, in
combination with life-long conditions and other factors, such as poor
nutrition and lack of physical activity, may increase the risk of
cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. Other diseases of ageing and the
interrelationships of ageing and disability among women also need particular
attention.
- Women, like men, particularly in rural areas and poor urban areas, are
increasingly exposed to environmental health hazards owing to environmental
catastrophes and degradation. Women have a different susceptibility to
various environmental hazards, contaminants and substances and they suffer
different consequences from exposure to them.
- The quality of women's health care is often deficient in various ways,
depending on local circumstances. Women are frequently not treated with
respect, nor are they guaranteed privacy and confidentiality, nor do they
always receive full information about the options and services available.
Furthermore, in some countries, over-medicating of women's life events is
common, leading to unnecessary surgical intervention and inappropriate
medication.
- Statistical data on health are often not systematically collected,
disaggregated and analysed by age, sex and socio-economic status and by
established demographic criteria used to serve the interests and solve the
problems of subgroups, with particular emphasis on the vulnerable and
marginalized and other relevant variables. Recent and reliable data on the
mortality and morbidity of women and conditions and diseases particularly
affecting women are not available in many countries. Relatively little is
known about how social and economic factors affect the health of girls and
women of all ages, about the provision of health services to girls and women
and the patterns of their use of such services, and about the value of
disease prevention and health promotion programmes for women. Subjects of
importance to women's health have not been adequately researched and women's
health research often lacks funding. Medical research, on heart disease, for
example, and epidemiological studies in many countries are often based
solely on men; they are not gender specific. Clinical trials involving women
to establish basic information about dosage, side-effects and effectiveness
of drugs, including contraceptives, are noticeably absent and do not always
conform to ethical standards for research and testing. Many drug therapy
protocols and other medical treatments and interventions administered to
women are based on research on men without any investigation and adjustment
for gender differences.
- In addressing inequalities in health status and unequal access to and
inadequate health-care services between women and men, Governments and other
actors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender
perspective in all policies and programmes, so that, before decisions are
taken, an analysis is made of the effects for women and men, respectively.
Strategic objective C.1.
Increase women's access throughout the life cycle to appropriate, affordable and
quality health care, information and related services
Actions to be taken
- By Governments, in collaboration with non-governmental organizations and
employers' and workers' organizations and with the support of international
institutions:
- Support and implement the commitments made in the Programme of Action
of the International Conference on Population and Development, as
established in the report of that Conference and the Copenhagen
Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action of the World
Summit for Social Development and the obligations of States
parties under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women and other relevant international
agreements, to meet the health needs of girls and women of all ages;
- Reaffirm the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable
standards of physical and mental health, protect and promote the
attainment of this right for women and girls and incorporate it in
national legislation, for example; review existing legislation,
including health legislation, as well as policies, where necessary, to
reflect a commitment to women's health and to ensure that they meet the
changing roles and responsibilities of women wherever they reside;
- Design and implement, in cooperation with women and community-based
organizations, gender-sensitive health programmes, including
decentralized health services, that address the needs of women
throughout their lives and take into account their multiple roles and
responsibilities, the demands on their time, the special needs of rural
women and women with disabilities and the diversity of women's needs
arising from age and socio-economic and cultural differences, among
others; include women, especially local and indigenous women, in the
identification and planning of health-care priorities and programmes;
remove all barriers to women's health services and provide a broad range
of health-care services;
- Allow women access to social security systems in equality with men
throughout the whole life cycle;
- Provide more accessible, available and affordable primary health-care
services of high quality, including sexual and reproductive health care,
which includes family planning information and services, and giving
particular attention to maternal and emergency obstetric care, as agreed
to in the Programme of Action of the International Conference on
Population and Development;
- Redesign health information, services and training for health workers
so that they are gender-sensitive and reflect the user's perspectives
with regard to interpersonal and communications skills and the user's
right to privacy and confidentiality; these services, information and
training should be based on a holistic approach;
- Ensure that all health services and workers conform to human rights
and to ethical, professional and gender-sensitive standards in the
delivery of women's health services aimed at ensuring responsible,
voluntary and informed consent; encourage the development,
implementation and dissemination of codes of ethics guided by existing
international codes of medical ethics as well as ethical principles that
govern other health professionals;
- Take all appropriate measures to eliminate harmful, medically
unnecessary or coercive medical interventions, as well as inappropriate
medication and over-medication of women, and ensure that all women are
fully informed of their options, including likely benefits and potential
side-effects, by properly trained personnel;
- Strengthen and reorient health services, particularly primary health
care, in order to ensure universal access to quality health services for
women and girls; reduce ill health and maternal morbidity and achieve
world wide the agreed-upon goal of reducing maternal mortality by at
least 50 per cent of the 1990 levels by the year 2000 and a further one
half by the year 2015; ensure that the necessary services are available
at each level of the health system and make reproductive health care
accessible, through the primary health-care system, to all individuals
of appropriate ages as soon as possible and no later than the year 2015;
- Recognize and deal with the health impact of unsafe abortion as a
major public health concern, as agreed in paragraph 8.25 of the
Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and
Development; [14]
- In the light of paragraph 8.25 of the Programme of Action of the
International Conference on Population and Development, which states:
"In no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family
planning. All Governments and relevant intergovernmental and
non-governmental organizations are urged to strengthen their commitment
to women's health, to deal with the health impact of unsafe
abortion as a major public health concern and to reduce the
recourse to abortion through expanded and improved family-planning
services. Prevention of unwanted pregnancies must always be given the
highest priority and every attempt should be made to eliminate the need
for abortion. Women who have unwanted pregnancies should have ready
access to reliable information and compassionate counselling. Any
measures or changes related to abortion within the health system can
only be determined at the national or local level according to the
national legislative process. In circumstances where abortion is not
against the law, such abortion should be safe. In all cases, women
should have access to quality services for the management of
complications arising from abortion. Post-abortion counselling,
education and family-planning services should be offered promptly, which
will also help to avoid repeat abortions", consider reviewing laws
containing punitive measures against women who have undergone illegal
abortions;
- Give particular attention to the needs of girls, especially the
promotion of healthy behaviour, including physical activities; take
specific measures for closing the gender gaps in morbidity and mortality
where girls are disadvantaged, while achieving internationally approved
goals for the reduction of infant and child mortality - specifically, by
the year 2000, the reduction of mortality rates of infants and children
under five years of age by one third of the 1990 level, or 50 to 70 per
1,000 live births, whichever is less; by the year 2015 an infant
mortality rate below 35 per 1,000 live births and an under-five
mortality rate below 45 per 1,000;
- Ensure that girls have continuing access to necessary health and
nutrition information and services as they mature, to facilitate a
healthful transition from childhood to adulthood;
- Develop information, programmes and services to assist women to
understand and adapt to changes associated with ageing and to address
and treat the health needs of older women, paying particular attention
to those who are physically or psychologically dependent;
- Ensure that girls and women of all ages with any form of disability
receive supportive services;
- Formulate special policies, design programmes and enact the
legislation necessary to alleviate and eliminate environmental and
occupational health hazards associated with work in the home, in the
workplace and elsewhere with attention to pregnant and lactating women;
- Integrate mental health services into primary health-care systems or
other appropriate levels, develop supportive programmes and train
primary health workers to recognize and care for girls and women of all
ages who have experienced any form of violence especially domestic
violence, sexual abuse or other abuse resulting from armed and non-armed
conflict;
- Promote public information on the benefits of breast-feeding; examine
ways and means of implementing fully the WHO/UNICEF International Code
of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, and enable mothers to
breast-feed their infants by providing legal, economic, practical and
emotional support;
- Establish mechanisms to support and involve non-governmental
organizations, particularly women's organizations, professional groups
and other bodies working to improve the health of girls and women, in
government policy-making, programme design, as appropriate, and
implementation within the health sector and related sectors at all
levels;
- Support non-governmental organizations working on women's health and
help develop networks aimed at improving coordination and collaboration
between all sectors that affect health;
- Rationalize drug procurement and ensure a reliable, continuous supply
of high-quality pharmaceutical, contraceptive and other supplies and
equipment, using the WHO Model List of Essential Drugs as a guide, and
ensure the safety of drugs and devices through national regulatory drug
approval processes;
- Provide improved access to appropriate treatment and rehabilitation
services for women substance abusers and their families;
- Promote and ensure household and national food security, as
appropriate, and implement programmes aimed at improving the nutritional
status of all girls and women by implementing the commitments made in
the Plan of Action on Nutrition of the International Conference on
Nutrition, including a reduction world wide of severe and moderate
malnutrition among children under the age of five by one half of 1990
levels by the year 2000, giving special attention to the gender gap in
nutrition, and a reduction in iron deficiency anaemia in girls and women
by one third of the 1990 levels by the year 2000;
- Ensure the availability of and universal access to safe drinking water
and sanitation and put in place effective public distribution systems as
soon as possible;
- Ensure full and equal access to health-care infrastructure and
services for indigenous women.
Strategic objective C.2.
Strengthen preventive programmes that promote women's health
Actions to be taken
- By Governments, in cooperation with non-governmental organizations, the
mass media, the private sector and relevant international organizations,
including United Nations bodies, as appropriate:
- Give priority to both formal and informal educational programmes that
support and enable women to develop self-esteem, acquire knowledge, make
decisions on and take responsibility for their own health, achieve
mutual respect in matters concerning sexuality and fertility and educate
men regarding the importance of women's health and well-being, placing
special focus on programmes for both men and women that emphasize the
elimination of harmful attitudes and practices, including female genital
mutilation, son preference (which results in female infanticide and
prenatal sex selection), early marriage, including child marriage,
violence against women, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, which at
times is conducive to infection with HIV/AIDS and other sexually
transmitted diseases, drug abuse, discrimination against girls and women
in food allocation and other harmful attitudes and practices related to
the life, health and well-being of women, and recognizing that some of
these practices can be violations of human rights and ethical medical
principles;
- Pursue social, human development, education and employment policies to
eliminate poverty among women in order to reduce their susceptibility to
ill health and to improve their health;
- Encourage men to share equally in child care and household work and to
provide their share of financial support for their families, even if
they do not live with them;
- Reinforce laws, reform institutions and promote norms and practices
that eliminate discrimination against women and encourage both women and
men to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive behaviour;
ensure full respect for the integrity of the person, take action to
ensure the conditions necessary for women to exercise their reproductive
rights and eliminate coercive laws and practices;
- Prepare and disseminate accessible information, through public health
campaigns, the media, reliable counselling and the education system,
designed to ensure that women and men, particularly young people, can
acquire knowledge about their health, especially information on
sexuality and reproduction, taking into account the rights of the child
to access to information, privacy, confidentiality, respect and informed
consent, as well as the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents
and legal guardians to provide, in a manner consistent with the evolving
capacities of the child, appropriate direction and guidance in the
exercise by the child of the rights recognized in the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, and in conformity with the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; ensure that in
all actions concerning children, the best interests of the child are a
primary consideration;
- Create and support programmes in the educational system, in the
workplace and in the community to make opportunities to participate in
sport, physical activity and recreation available to girls and women of
all ages on the same basis as they are made available to men and boys;
- Recognize the specific needs of adolescents and implement specific
appropriate programmes, such as education and information on sexual and
reproductive health issues and on sexually transmitted diseases,
including HIV/AIDS, taking into account the rights of the child and the
responsibilities, rights and duties of parents as stated in paragraph
107 (e) above;
- Develop policies that reduce the disproportionate and increasing
burden on women who have multiple roles within the family and the
community by providing them with adequate support and programmes from
health and social services;
- Adopt regulations to ensure that the working conditions, including
remuneration and promotion of women at all levels of the health system,
are non-discriminatory and meet fair and professional standards to
enable them to work effectively;
- Ensure that health and nutritional information and training form an
integral part of all adult literacy programmes and school curricula from
the primary level;
- Develop and undertake media campaigns and information and educational
programmes that inform women and girls of the health and related risks
of substance abuse and addiction and pursue strategies and programmes
that discourage substance abuse and addiction and promote rehabilitation
and recovery;
- Devise and implement comprehensive and coherent programmes for the
prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis, a condition that
predominantly affects women;
- Establish and/or strengthen programmes and services, including media
campaigns, that address the prevention, early detection and treatment of
breast, cervical and other cancers of the reproductive system;
- Reduce environmental hazards that pose a growing threat to health,
especially in poor regions and communities; apply a precautionary
approach, as agreed to in the Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development, adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, and include reporting on women's health risks related
to the environment in monitoring the implementation of Agenda 21;
- Create awareness among women, health professionals, policy makers and
the general public about the serious but preventable health hazards
stemming from tobacco consumption and the need for regulatory and
education measures to reduce smoking as important health promotion and
disease prevention activities;
- Ensure that medical school curricula and other health-care training
include gender-sensitive, comprehensive and mandatory courses on women's
health;
- Adopt specific preventive measures to protect women, youth and
children from any abuse - sexual abuse, exploitation, trafficking and
violence, for example - including the formulation and enforcement of
laws, and provide legal protection and medical and other assistance.
Strategic objective C.3.
Undertake gender-sensitive initiatives that address sexually transmitted
diseases, HIV/AIDS, and sexual and reproductive health issues
Actions to be taken
- By Governments, international bodies including relevant United Nations
organizations, bilateral and multilateral donors and non-governmental
organizations:
- Ensure the involvement of women, especially those infected with
HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases or affected by the
HIV/AIDS pandemic, in all decision-making relating to the development,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes on
HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted disease
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