Editor’s Note:
We include below some of the more substantial announcements and salutes honoring International Women’s Day. Additional statements are presented in the agency and NGO sections below.
International Women’s Day 2015 – Human Rights Council Working Group
International Women’s Day Statement by the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination Against Women in Law and in Practice
GENEVA, Thursday, 5 March 2015
Nothing short of full rights – protecting the hard-fought progress and allowing no space for retrogression
8 March marks a day of celebration not only for girls and women of the world, but also for the entire humanity, as it celebrates fundamental values of equality and historical achievements. It is a celebration of women’s courage in demanding, more than a hundred years ago, nothing short of equal rights – equal rights as workers and equal rights as citizens.
Each year the International Women’s Day presents an opportunity for the world to remember the long journey that women have travelled in the struggle for equality and to celebrate the remarkable progress made over the last one hundred years in all spheres of life – political, economic, social, and cultural. Today not only have women gained the right to vote in every corner of the world, they are becoming parliamentarians, heads of States and Governments. More women participate in the labour market and become business leaders, entrepreneurs and economic decision-makers. More women receive higher education and contribute to the cultural and scientific lives of their communities and their countries.
The last century also witnessed the development of an impressive body of international standards, including for the protection of the human rights of women, from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1966, and to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1979. Women’s right to equality has become legally guaranteed. The 1995 World Conference on Women saw a consolidation of these hard-fought progress and achievements, by agreeing on a most comprehensive plan to advance women’s right to equality – the Beijing Platform of Action. In 2010, the United Nations Human Rights Council decided to establish the Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination Against Women in Law and in Practice as part of its independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms.
Persistent discrimination and risk of retrogression
Despite these progress and achievements over long years of struggle, discrimination against women persists in both public and private spheres, in times of conflict as in times of peace, and in all regions of the world. No country in the world has yet achieved full substantive equality of women. The participation of women in political and public life remains much too low – averaging 20% of parliamentarians and 17% of heads of States or Governments. Women continue to be paid less for work of equal value and are severely underrepresented in top leadership in decision-making bodies in business, finance and trade, including in international institutions such as the IMF and the WTO as well as in cooperatives and trade unions.
We are seeing retrogressive signs, often in the name of culture, religion, and traditions, that threaten the hard-fought progress in achieving women’s equality. We have seen attempts to restrict women’s place in the domestic sphere. Attention and focus on family value and on protection of the family is important, but it is neither an equivalent nor a replacement of women’s equal rights and autonomy. Protection of the family must include protecting the human rights of individual members of the family, especially the right to equality between women and men as well as between girls and boys. The Working Group has expressed concerns about the silence in the Human Rights Council on the right of women to equality in the family when adopting a resolution in June 2014 on protection of the family and the panel discussion that followed. Recognition of women’s right to equality in the family constituted a significant departure from the prior social and religious status quo of the patriarchal family. The advancement of women and girls depends on the recognition in law and practice of their right to equality as members of communities and families.
Violence against women remains pervasive, estimated to affect one in three women globally. We continue to witness, in the name of perceived honour, beauty, purity and tradition, girls and women are subject to “honor” killings, child marriages, and female genital mutilation. Too many women are being deprived of their sexual and reproductive health and rights, fundamental human rights of women. Each year, some 50,000 women die as a result of unsafe abortions and some 5 million women suffer from disabilities due to lack of, or negligent reproductive health services, according to a recent study of the World Health Organisation. Completely avoidable maternal deaths are still very high in many countries. There are still countries that impose a total prohibition of abortion in all circumstances and imprison women accused of abortions for up to 30 years.
At the same time, the lack of access to proper sexual education and family planning information and services for adolescents and the practice of child marriages lead to teenager pregnancies and exclusion of girls from education and employment, hence limits their enjoyment of many other rights.
Pregnancy and child birth for girls is one of the most common causes of death in developing countries, with girls under 15 years of age facing five times the danger. Abortion for pregnant teenagers should be allowed as equality and health measures.
Seize the opportunity
For the 21st century to be “the century of women”, in the words of the UN Secretary General, it requires us, men and women of the world, to work systematically to make it a century in which the equal contribution of women is recognised, facilitated and properly rewarded and women are effectively protected from abuses and violence. The Working Group believes that quota systems and temporary special measures are essential to ensure proper representation of women in public, political, and economic decision-making and leadership. The expert Working Group has called for a social protection floor for care which would facilitate the participation of women equally with men in economic and social activities.
2015 is a year of opportunities for the international community. Twenty years after the historic world conference on women and 15 years of the Millennium Development Goals, time has come to review with a critical lens the unfulfilled commitments made to women and take corrective actions. The expert Working Group has welcome that women’s equal rights is both a stand-alone goal and is mainstreamed throughout all goals in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda.
Recalling the legal nature of women’s right to equality, it is therefore essential to apply the existing human rights obligations of Member States to interpret and understand the goals, targets, and indicators of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, making sure that there is both awareness of and accountability for elimination of discrimination against women and empowerment of women within this framework. This is incumbent on Member States which have a duty to respect women’s human rights and to exercise due diligence to ensure that there be no violation of such rights whether by the State, its agents or private corporations and individuals. Equality in law and practice, which enables women to participate fully in economic and social life, is also crucial factor for sustainable development to succeed.
It has been a century since women were out on the street demanding equal rights. Women are asking for immediate actions. There is no acceptable justification to wait for 2030 to achieve the target of eliminating discriminatory legislation. It is a long overdue political commitment which must be fulfilled without delay. There is no acceptable justification to deny the human rights of girls and women by allowing practices to continue which are harmful and dangerous to their physical and mental health. Furthermore, the costs in health, education and economic development of these practices is a clear barrier to sustainable development.
Just like the century old foot binding, which caused excruciating pain and irreversible harm to girls, practices such as child marriages, female genital mutilation, and “honor” killings have no place in the 21st century.
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International Women’s Day 2015 – UN Women
Summary Report: The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action turns 20
UN Women
March 2015 :: 60 pages
View online/download: http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2015/sg%20report_synthesis-en_web.pdf
The present report is a synthesis of the Secretary-General’s report (E/CN.6/2015/3) on the 20-year review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly. The report provides a review of national-level implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, including current challenges that affect the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women, as well as opportunities for strengthening gender equality and the empowerment of women in the post-2015 development agenda through the integration of a gender perspective, as mandated in the Economic and Social Council resolution 2013/18.
The first section of the report provides an overview of 20 years of implementation of the Platform for Action. The following sections highlight the trends and priorities in the implementation of the 12 critical areas of concern, concluding with an overview of remaining challenges and actions needed to accelerate implementation. The synthesis report concludes with an analysis of the lessons learned and priorities for accelerating the implementation of the Platform for Action and the realization of gender equality, the empowerment of women and the human rights of women and girls in the post-2015 context.
UN Women – Press conference: “Collective failure of leadership on progress for women”
As authoritative global review finds pace of advancement unacceptably slow, UN Women Executive Director calls on leaders to Step It Up, launching initiative to record concrete new commitments
06 March 2015
New York—Progress for women in the past 20 years has been unacceptably slow, with areas of stagnation and regression. This is the conclusion of an authoritative global review of progress on gender equality, to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, which UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will present to Members States on Monday.
The survey covers an unprecedented 167 countries, drawing on rich inputs from governments and civil society. Prepared for the 59th Commission on the Status of Women, it shows that despite some progress, world leaders have not done nearly enough to act on commitments made in the visionary Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
“The Secretary-General’s report makes this very clear: The disappointing gap between the norms and implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action points to a collective failure of leadership on progress for women,” says Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. “The leaders entrusted with the power to realize the promises made in Beijing have failed women and girls.”
Given the findings of the report, UN Women today launched a new initiative “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality” to galvanize government pledges for action, as part of UN Women’s wider Beijing+20 campaign. A dedicated web platform www.unwomen.org/stepitup will draw global attention to all new commitments made by countries around the world.
“Today, we are calling on governments, everywhere in the world, to Step It Up,” says Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka. “By 2030 at the latest, we want to live in a world where at least half of all parliamentarians, university students, CEOs, civil society leaders and any other category, are women. Real progress requires 50-50.”…
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International Women’s Day 2015 –UNICEF
International Women’s Day: 10 quick facts on girls
NEW YORK, 7 March 2015 – To mark International Women’s Day and the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on women’s empowerment, UNICEF presents a statistical snapshot of progress and trends for girls and women.
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International Women’s Day 2015 – International Labour Organization
Women and the Future of Work: Beijing + 20 and Beyond
ILO Briefing note | 06 March 2015 :: 4 pages
Pdf: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/documents/briefingnote/wcms_348087.pdf
Despite significant progress since the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, women continue to experience widespread discrimination and inequality in the workplace. Twenty years later, and as we approach the ILO’s centenary in 2019, the ILO has launched the Women at Work initiative alongside the Future of Work initiative, to place a spotlight on gender and drill down into some of the most crucial areas. The future of work means more women at work, and this future must deliver on gender equality.
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The motherhood pay gap: A review of the issues, theory and international evidence
ILO Working paper | 06 March 2015 :: 82 pages
Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 57
Damian Grimshaw and Jill Rubery, University of Manchester
Evidence that mothers suffer a wage penalty over and above the penalty for being a woman raises concerns not only for gender equality but also for the capacity of societies to manage a sustainable balance between their economic aims of active female participation in paid work and the social aims of providing a fair distribution of income to support the reproduction and rearing of children. These concerns underpin ILO Conventions designed to combat inequality in women’s position in paid employment, especially associated with motherhood status.
Excerpt from Executive Summary
What is the motherhood pay gap?
The motherhood pay gap measures the pay gap between mothers and non-mothers, the latter defined in most econometric studies as women without dependent children. It also measures the pay gap between mothers and fathers. This is different from the gender pay gap, which measures the pay gap between all women and all men in the workforce.
While there is a considerable international literature on the motherhood gap, differences both in methodologies and in how mothers, non-mothers and fathers are defined using available data create difficulties in comparing estimates. Moreover, in many countries, the data are often unsuitable for analysis, typically because the questions posed in surveys make it difficult to establish the identity of a child’s mother or father (particularly in developing countries where the nuclear family is less common).
Nevertheless, many studies draw on international harmonized pay and employment data which provide a useful basis for cross-country comparison, and others provide informative trend analyses for single countries.
Trends in the motherhood pay gap
From the available data it appears that the unadjusted motherhood gap tends to be larger in developing countries than in developed countries. Globally, the motherhood gap increases as the number of children a woman has increases; in many European countries, for example, having one child has only a small negative effect, but women with two and especially three children experience a significant wage penalty. In developing countries, evidence suggests the gender of the child may matter as daughters may be more likely than sons to help with household and caring tasks, thereby reducing the motherhood gap.
Whether the wage penalty associated with motherhood is a one-off event or accumulates over time also varies from one country to the next. For example, mothers who have a strong job attachment are found to experience a wage decrease immediately on return to employment but soon catch up with non-mothers. In contrast, mothers taking longer leave periods experience a longer-lasting wage penalty. In short, while the existence of a motherhood gap seems universal, the magnitude and duration of the effect motherhood has on wages varies from country to country…
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“The future of work must also deal with the future of women at work”
Statement by Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General, on the occasion of International Women’s Day,8 March 2015 [Full text]
Two decades ago the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing adopted a visionary and far-reaching Declaration and Platform for Action on gender equality and women’s empowerment. What progress there has been since then must be tempered by the reality that it is far less than what we had hoped to see by now.
In the areas of national gender equality policies, and legislation against discrimination based on sex, much has been accomplished. Nevertheless, progress on the ground remains elusive.
Globally, only about half the world’s women are in the labour force, compared to nearly 80 per cent of men – a figure basically unchanged in 20 years. A large gender pay gap hasn’t narrowed much, with women still earning on average 23 per cent less than men. And new evidence is emerging that mothers suffer a wage penalty, often over and above the gender pay gap.
The percentage of women in top management and in positions of political leadership has improved. But women head up only 5 per cent of Fortune 500 companies, and only one out of 12 governments worldwide. The percentage of women who work as self-employed or unpaid family members has declined. But women remain over-represented in low-wage employment.
We cannot accept that at current rates of change, it may take more than 70 years for women to achieve equal pay status with men. Nor can we accept that one out of every three women today will suffer some form of physical and/or sexual violence that cripples their ability to work.
On this International Women’s Day, it’s time to ask the hard questions. This anniversary should spur us to act, to rethink and to innovate.
What needs to be done?
– Support maternity protection and work-family policies: despite some progress, globally more than 800 million women workers, or 41 per cent, still don’t have adequate maternity protection, and take-up rates among men of parental leave are low. Could we not design maternity protection and work-family policies that are more inclusive, and supportive of gender equality?
– Address the issue of care work: The services and facilities that recognize, value and support such work, either paid or unpaid, are generally lacking. Could we not promote a new ethos of “care for work, and work for care” expressed in policies dealing with issues such as maternity, paternity, childcare and elder care needs?
– Support women’s entry into the labour force: many women wish to enter the labour market. Could we not give more attention to active labour market policies and create a supportive workplace culture that breaks down occupational segregation, values equitably the jobs dominated by women, and supports quality jobs for women and men?
– Act early to close the gender gap: the gap begins in childhood and compounds through the life course. Quality education, training and skills development for girls and boys, women and men, needs to be ensured, together with effective strategies for youth employment.
– Equality for women at work benefits everyone. We need to show men why they need to be part of the conversation, and part of the solution. Including men in gender equality strategies will be necessary to accelerate change – gender equality is about all women and men, and benefits individuals, families, workplaces and societies.
Promoting decent jobs for women is imperative, now and for the next generation. The future of work must also deal with the future of women at work. It is a matter of rights and what is right for women and for sustainable development.
