Roberto Bissio (*)
The U.N. Commission on the Status of Women concluded its annual meeting last week noting that "global commitments to achieve gender equality and women empowerment have not yet been implemented." These commitments were agreed in 1995 in a high-level international conference in Beijing, and reaffirmed at every summit since then. The Commission itself is one of the oldest agencies of the United Nations and in 2008 held its annual meeting number 52. As an agency of intergovernmental deliberation, the Commission is surprisingly effective compared with other similar commissions of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on social development or the environment for instance, if effectiveness is measured by the ability of national representatives in reaching consensus.
Independent organizations specializing in monitoring such as the international network Social Watch, have amply demonstrated the failure to implement resolutions on poverty eradication taken by the leaders in 1995 during the Social Summit held in Copenhagen and in 2000 at the Millennium Summit. However, it is very unusual for governments to adopt a self-condemnatory resolution as the one recently adopted by the Commission on Women.
It can be argued that it has become common practice for governments to be represented by women diplomats at the Committee on Women, though there is no binding rule for this to happen. Perhaps it would be easier for a deliberative body that is overwhelmingly composed by women to reach consensus. It is a difficult hypothesis to verify since there is no parliament in the world with such majority of women. Or maybe solidarity among women when it comes to criticizing what their male colleagues have done (or rather omitted doing, as manifested in the resolution) is more powerful than the traditional regional or ideological divisions that separate governments in the United Nations. It could be an appealing hypothesis, but it must be tempered with the observation that each of these representatives is subject to discipline as a governmental officer and that this line of command leads rapidly to a man superior, as there are very few cases in which the head of a UN national missions is a woman.
In any case, no voice in the United Nations is ever raised to say that women should not have equal rights as men. Last week, all the world's governments endorsed an agreement that says they have failed their previous commitments to enforce these rights, that are concerned about the "feminization of poverty" and convinced that it cannot be eradicated “without investing enough resources in gender equality and empowerment of women ", that " poorly designed and implemented structural adjustment programmes had negative consequences that persist ", that free trade agreements "have different impacts on men and women" mainly because women do not participate in the negotiations and that " lack of political commitment and budgetary resources" is a barrier to gender equality and an implicit violation of the human rights of half of the world's population.
The evidence that supports these claims is overwhelming. According to the Gender Equity Index (GEI) 2008 calculated each year by Social Watch to record the gap between men and women in the areas of education, economy and power, half of the world's women live in countries that have not made progress in the last five years. In a table where 100 represent equality, the global average is only at 61. The biggest breakthrough has occurred in education, where the global divide that separates women from equality is only 10%, but the fact that women have equal (and in many countries higher) education level does not assure them an equal payment as men nor a place at the decisions table. According to WEDO, the organization founded by the legendary Bella Abzug, one of the first women in parliament in the United States, "at present women legislators averaged only 17% of the total in parliaments, far below the target of over 30 % agreed in 1995. "
At the labour level, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reported last week that while the number of employed women in the last decade grew by nearly 200 millions, reaching 1.200 million women workers in the world in 2007, the number of unemployed women also grew and the female unemployment rate is 6.4 percent, well above the average of 5.7% male. Women are paid less for performing the same tasks and their jobs tend to be more casual and informal than those of men.
But what is really shocking is not the diagnosis, but the inaction. In the case of climate change, for example, enormous efforts and attention has been directed to the views of scientists on whether or not the phenomenon is real, because if it is scientifically proved the implication is that actions must be taken, as costly as they may be. Such was the case with the scientific proof of the link between smoking and cancer that has led to world campaigns and legislations against smoking.
However, even though there is established scientific evidence of a situation of discrimination against half the world’s population and although there is a consensus formally declared by all governments that this situation is also a problem and an obstacle to achieve economic development and poverty reduction, the result is ... nothing. The total budget for the United Nations agencies responsible for improving the situation of women is only 65 million dollars a year, while UNICEF, the agency that looks after children has an annual budget of two billion. And worse, UNIFEM, the UN agency specializing in women, has been without a head for months despite the existence of a strong candidate -Indian Economist and activist Dr. Gita Sen- backed by women's organizations and with the recommendation of the selection committee.
The challenge is no longer to prove the justice of the cause nor the search of consensus in discourse -that has already been resolved by women- but to put it in practice. Men have always claimed to be the ones leading the ‘action’, could it be that there not enough men in power ashamed by their lack of action?
(*) Third World Institute (ITeM) Executive Director and Coordinator of the Secretariat of Social Watch.
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