Mercy Global Concern - 2006

MGC Briefing paper Number 2 – April 2006

Participation of Women in Development
The vast majority of the world's women remain absent from all levels of government, experts said during the meeting. Although remarkable gains have been made since the Commission was established 60 years ago to advocate women's issues, "the world community still has far to go on actual representation of women at the highest levels of national and international leadership", U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette Women today comprise an average of 16.4 percent of legislators in the upper and lower houses of parliaments. Europe's Nordic countries have consistently held the lead, with an average of 40 percent women legislators as of October 2005. On the latest list of 187 countries ranked by the national percentage of women in their lower or single house of parliament, Canada came in at number 44 with 20.8 percent women, Britain was 50th, the United States was 69th, France was 85th and Italy was 89th. Rwanda tops the list with 48.8 percent women in parliament; Iraq ranks number 16 and Burundi number 19. Many countries in Latin America also made significant progress during 2005.

The Commission identified among the obstacles to greater advancement of women and their participation in decision-making the following: the feminization of poverty; a lack of equal access to health, education, training and employment; armed conflict; and lack of security. It called upon governments to change this situation by ensuring women’s right to vote; reviewing existing legislation; establishing concrete goals, targets and benchmarks; and taking innovative steps to build a critical mass of women leaders, executives and managers. The outcome document also suggested alternative approaches and changes in institutional structures and practices; greater involvement of marginalized women and measures to counter the barriers that they face; incorporation of gender perspectives in development policies and programmes; promotion of international cooperation; creation of education and employment opportunities; access to microcredit; elimination of gender gaps in health and wages; and networking and mentoring among women leaders and girls.

Equal Participation of Women and men in Decision-making processes on all levels The concluding text of the Commission stressed that investment in the development of women and girls has a multiplier effect, in particular on productivity, efficiency and sustained economic growth, in all sectors of the economy, especially in key areas, such as agriculture, industry and services. Among the main challenges to the creation of an enabling environment, the Commission listed insufficient coherence and coordination between development and gender equality policies and strategies; insufficient time-bound targets; multiple forms of discriminatory practices; persistent stereotypes; unequal access to benefits, opportunities and training; insufficient national mechanisms; armed conflicts; and insufficient political will and resources.

The priority theme for the Commission in 2007 will be “The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl-child.”

UN REFORM: APPROVAL HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

The UN General Assembly adopted by an overwhelming vote, with only four countries voting against the proposal (USA, Israel, Marshall Islands and Palau), on the 15th March 2006 to replace the former Commission on Human Rights with a more streamlined and potentially more effective Human Rights Council. Although the Commission was the responsible for the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)* and has done much to build up a ‘culture of human rights,’ in recent years it has become very politicized. The new Council will have 47 members who will need to obtain 96 votes of the 191-member General Assembly by a secret ballot. The General Assembly, by a vote of two-thirds of its members, could suspend the rights of membership of a Council member who commits gross and systemic violations of human rights. Unlike the Commission, the Council will meet throughout the year. All governments will be required to submit to the Council for a periodic review of their record on human rights.

Major NGOs working in the area of human rights saw the establishment of the Human Rights Council as an historic achievement and hailed its strong support among the member-States. Although the US did not vote for the measure, its ambassador assured the General Assembly, “The United States will work cooperatively with other Member States to make the Council as strong and effective as it can be. We will be supportive of efforts to strengthen the Council and look forward to a serious review of the Council's structure and work. We remain committed to support the UN's historic mission to promote and protect the basic human rights of all the world's citizens.”