While women have made strides forward in areas like job market participation over the last two decades, in 2009 only 14 women in the world held the position of head of state or government, and of the 500 largest corporations, just 13 had a female CEO.
Those are just a few of the revelations in "The World's Women 2010: Trends and Statistics", a compilation of the latest data on the status of women in countries around the globe, released Wednesday in conjunction with the first ever World Statistics Day.
The report illustrates the direct contribution of hard data to social progress, painting a complex picture of the successes and shortcomings on the path to gender equality through statistics and analysis.
"This report is released today, on the occasion of the first ever World Statistics Day, as it demonstrates how official statistics provide policy-makers with useful and impartial data," said Paul Cheung, director of the U.N. Statistics Division (UNSD), which has produced the report every five years since 1995.
The report focuses on eight key areas: population and families, health, education, work, power and decision- making, violence against women, environment, and poverty.
There are approximately 57 million more men than women in the world, with some countries, especially in Europe, experiencing an obvious "lack" of men while others have fewer women, for example, China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
In the majority of countries, there is little difference in the proportion of underweight girls and boys, suggesting that there is no difference in nutritional status between the sexes.
However, the gender digital divide is widespread. In general, it is more pronounced among less developed countries with low Internet penetration, although it is also evident in several developed countries with high Internet penetration, education statistics show.
Concerning work issues, women aged 25 to 54 now have higher labour force participation rates in most regions as compared to 1990, but on average women are still rarely employed in jobs with status, power and authority or in traditionally male blue-collar occupations.
The report's chapter on poverty reveals that married women are often left out of decision-making on how their own earnings are spent. Limited access to financial resources increases women's economic dependency on men, making them more vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks.
Contributing to women's poverty is the denial of inheritance and land ownership rights based on traditional cultural norms and practices.
The report's chapter on violence against women shows that female genital mutilation is decreasing slightly, although it continues to be widely performed. The decline seems to be faster among women with higher education.
Education also plays a fundamental role concerning attitudes towards domestic violence in Africa. Many less or uneducated African women find it appropriate for a wife to be beaten by her husband for specific reasons like arguing with him, refusing to have sex, burning food and venturing outside without telling him, it says.
In the introduction, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon notes that the report "finds that progress in ensuring the equal status of women and men has been made in many areas, including school enrolment, health and economic participation. At the same time, it makes clear that much more needs to be done."
In fact, while the report shows progress in the availability of gender statistics, it also underlines the lack of regular, consistent and reliable statistical measures on the status of women.
Data from nearly all countries are available on the UNSD website, although those countries where more targeted intervention is needed might not be on the list, Francois Coutu, a public information officer with UNSD, told IPS.
Another problem is that even when statistics are available, it is not possible to compare them and data are also lacking in details, leaving out essential information, said the chief editor of the report, Srdjan Mrkic.
Statistics are available for nearly all countries in the world, but often only general information is provided, stressed Mrkic. Statistics, including characteristics such as age, marital status, education, ethnicity and religion, which are fundamental details to properly understand and develop policies to rectify violence against women, are available in "The World's Women 2010" for approximately 50 countries.
The U.N Statistical Commission, established in 1947, has elaborated international methodological standards and guidelines in many statistics areas while making data more available across countries and regions than ever before.
Still, "increasing the capacity to produce reliable statistics, especially about gender equality, remains a challenge in many countries," stressed Mrkic, with lack of funds disadvantaging developing countries.
source:ips news
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Women Sterilised Against Their Will Seek Justice, Again
Poor, rural, Quechua-speaking women in the Peruvian province of Anta who were victims of a forced sterilisation programme between 1996 and 2000 have filed a new lawsuit in their continuing struggle for justice.
In May 2009, Jaime Schwartz, the public prosecutor investigating the case against four former health ministers of the Alberto Fujimori administration (1990-2000), decided to shelve the investigation. He said the case involved alleged crimes against the victims' life, body and health, and manslaughter, and that the statute of limitations had expired.
But the plaintiffs in the case had brought accusations of genocide and torture, which as crimes against humanity have no statute of limitation. The attorney-general's office upheld Schwartz's decision, overruling the complaint lodged against it by the victims and the human rights organisations providing them with legal advice.
Now the Women's Association of Forced Sterilisation Victims of Anta, a mountainous province in the southern department of Cuzco, has decided to combat impunity with a new strategy: it is presenting a new lawsuit against those responsible for family planning policy in the last four years of the Fujimori regime.
The Association's approximately 100 members are rural women whose testimonies have revealed the hidden side of the National Programme for Reproductive Health and Family Planning, imposed by coercion and deceit under the guise of an anti-poverty plan.
Sabina Huillca, 41, told IPS: "I remember perfectly the day they sterilised me against my will, because what they did to me made me suffer ever since. It was August 24, 1996," she said, trying to keep her voice calm.
She is one of the witnesses who will testify before the justice authorities against those who devised and implemented the programme.
"After giving birth to my fourth daughter, I went to the Izcuchaca health centre to see the doctor. He told me not to have any more children and to have voluntary surgical contraception (VSC)," she said.
"I told him 'No'. 'You're silly', he said, 'you will have more children and you won't be able to raise them'." While she lay resting on a bed, a nurse gave her an injection. "I didn't know, and no one told me, that it was an anaesthetic," she said.
"When I woke up, my hands and feet were tied to the bed with bandages. I was immobilised. I could see them finishing off some stitches. 'What have you done to me!'" I shouted.
"'We're nearly done,' the doctor said, and I started to cry. 'I don't want this, I don't want this!' I shouted in despair. But the damage was already done," said Huillca, who was 28 years old at the time.
"Nada personal" (Nothing Personal), a 1998 report by human rights lawyer and activist Giulia Tamayo, commissioned by the Peruvian section of the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defence of Women's Rights (CLADEM), describes the coercive nature of the VSC programme.
The study documented for the first time the systematic use of sterilisation practices that particularly targeted poor, indigenous, rural women.
As a result of the publication, Tamayo received threats from the government. She had to leave the country and went to live in Spain, but has now returned to Peru to advise the Anta Women's Association on the new lawsuit.
The Peruvian state has admitted that 300,000 sterilisations were performed under the VSC programme. The ombudsman's office has collected direct testimony from 2,074 women who were sterilised without their consent between 1996 and 2000.
"The power structures that protected the authors of criminal acts are still in place, guaranteeing their impunity up to the present day. This means that the rights of women who suffered from mass forced sterilisation continue to be violated," Tamayo told IPS.
In 2003, the Peruvian state signed a friendly settlement agreement before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in the case of Mamérita Mestanza, who died in 1998 as a result of a poorly performed tubal ligation procedure done without her consent.
The state acknowledged its responsibility, recognised the abuses committed under the family planning programme, undertook to investigate and bring to trial the government officials who devised and implemented the campaign, and promised to pay reparations to Mestanza's family.
But the attorney-general's office dragged its feet on the promised investigation, which made little progress before it was shelved by the public prosecutor in 2009. Meanwhile Alejandro Aguinaga, one of the accused, a former health minister and personal physician to Fujimori, was elected to Congress in 2006 and is now vice president of the legislature.
Fujimori is in prison for 25 years, convicted of several charges of corruption and human rights violations.
The state's failure to carry out this part of the friendly agreement "is prolonging the pain of thousands of victims, because the accused are carrying on as respectable members of society when they really should be called to account in the courts," said Tamayo, who is also a researcher for the Spanish chapter of the global rights watchdog Amnesty International.
"This time, those responsible for the forced sterilisation plan will be sued individually for crimes against humanity and torture," she said.
Each of the accused will also be charged "for war crimes, because the coerced sterilisation was carried out in the context of the 1980-2000 armed conflict (between the military and leftwing guerrillas), when the armed forces were used to threaten and terrorise" the civilian population, Tamayo said.
Specifying international crimes (which include crimes against humanity, genocide, torture and war crimes) will allow "other countries to prosecute the accused, if the Peruvian state continues to protect them," she said.
"The IACHR has already indicated that forced sterilisation is a matter of international law," the rights activist said.
Tamayo said the lawsuit will be brought by the victims in Anta, because in that province "sterilisation was implemented door to door, the health authorities were given 'quotas' of sterilised women that they were required to meet, and all the victims belonged to the same indigenous ethnic group."
This shows that "those who designed the programme defined its targets with abominable precision," Tamayo said.
One of the first to take up the fight for justice in the case of coerced sterilisations was the now famous Quechua-speaking lawmaker Hilaria Supa, a native of Anta, one of whose daughters is a victim of the VSC programme.
"Since the operation, to this day, I have suffered because of what was done to me by force," said Huillca, who lives in the rural village of Huayllaccocha, where several other cases of forced sterilisation have been documented.
"They damaged me as a woman. After that I was not able to pick up my small children, or work in the fields, which our livelihood depends on. I can't even cook, because I get terrible pains," she said, describing little-known consequences borne by the victims.
"I have difficulty walking; my life is full of suffering. Furthermore, in the community I am treated as second-rate, because in the village a woman who does not work is very much looked down on," she continued, no longer able to hide her sadness.
"The worst of it all is that one of the doctors who damaged me for life is still working in the Izcuchaca health centre," she said. "Every time I see him I feel furious, because nothing has happened to him."
Unfulfilled Promise of Free Maternal Health Care for Mothers
Musa, a fishmonger who lives in the slum community of Susan’s Bay, east of Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown, complains bitterly about the severe lack of resources at Princess Christian Maternity Hospital, Freetown’s main public health facility: "Nobody could do anything to help my baby".
Aminata Sesay, one of the hospital’s nursing sisters, explains the staff did everything they in their power, but without an incubator, there was nothing they could do save the infant. "It needed to be placed inside an incubator, and there was none available," she says, shrugging her shoulders.
The hospital has only three incubators, and all of them were already occupied on that day. The facility needs at least ten incubators to meet the demand, the nurse reckons.
Princess Christian Maternity Hospital's resources are under continuous pressure. It's 140 beds are always full, and women are routinely discharged early in order to make space for new admissions.
Resource shortage
In August, the same month that Musa’s baby died in hospital, James Bamie Davies, commissioner of the customs and excise department of Sierra Leone’s National Revenue Authority (NRA), announced in a government gazette an auction of medical appliances, including eight incubators.
According to the commissioner, the incubators were a private donation to the health ministry by a Sierra Leonean emigrant who works as a nursing manager at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. But after their arrival, the health ministry had failed to clear them from the quay.
NRA public information officer John Baimba Sesay told IPS the incubators were put up for auction in accordance with the Customs Act, which states that if goods are not cleared by customs within 30 days, they have to be auctioned.
Only the public outcry that followed the announcement of the auction in the gazette, did the Ministry of Health and Sanitation spring into action and recover the goods.
Dr Samuel Kargbo, director of the reproductive and child health programme of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, admits that the unavailability of equipment and infrastructure as well as the extensive bureaucracy within his department has hampered health care provision throughout the country.
It has also partially counter-acted the benefits of the free public health care services for children under the age of five as well as pregnant and lactating women, which government launched on 27 April in an attempt to reduce high child mortality rates in the country.
High child mortality
One in five children die before they reach the age of five in Sierra Leone, and one in eight women die during childbirth, according to the 2008 United Nations Human Development Index.
In the five months since the introduction of the new services, public health facilities have experienced critical challenges in implementing the new policy, as they lack skilled health personnel, particularly gynaecologists and nurses, notes Kargbo, adding that many hospitals throughout the country don’t have running water, electricity and generators.
According the national Ministry of Health, Sierra Leone, which as a population of 5.7 million, has only eight obstetrician-gynaecologists employed in the public health system and about the same number working in the private health sector.
There have also been serious allegations by civil society organisations that some patients are asked to pay for those services, even though they are free of charge.
Aminata Sesay told IPS that, to improve their salaries, some health workers try to extort money from women in labour who don’t have a choice but to pay if they want to be assisted.
Nurses' salaries have been increased substantially by government after a countrywide strike action in May – from $35 a month to $130 a month – but health workers say this is still not enough for them to survive and to justify the long hours they are expected to work.
The cost for a bag of rice is about $30 and, considering the high cost of living and to settle utility bills, I think we need $500 a month," Sesay complains.
First successes
Despite his vocal criticism of the public health system, Kargbo highlights the fact that Sierra Leone is still trying to recover from its twelve-year civil war, which only ended in 2003. "It is a gradual process, and we have started to see a few successes in the five months after the free health care started," he notes.
"We have noted an increase in the utilisation of health facilities by over 80 percent, whilst it was at 30 percent before the free health care policy was introduced," Kargbo further explains, saying that only ten percent of women used to give birth in a hospital setting.
He promised the health department will focus on the swift implementation of the new health policy throughout the country and monitor quality of care: "We have instituted a mechanism to address complaints, and we have a monitoring team to see that the implementation of the health care policy moves smoothly."
Data collected in the countries’ twelve districts in the past five months show an overall drop in maternal and infant mortality rates, according to Abass Kamara, public relations officer at the Ministry of Health. Port Loko district in northern Sierra Leone, for example, counted only one maternal death per month since the introduction of the free health services, compared to an average of eight maternal deaths per month before, he says.
Karmara is optimistic that these are first signs for a continuous improvement of maternal and child mortality rates in Sierra Leone: "Things are beginning to look up."
Mayalie Bangura, 34, a teacher who lost her first child during childbirth, is one of the mothers who recently benefited from the new policy, when she was pregnant with her second baby. "After my water broke, my neighbours rushed me to the Satellite Clinic in Freetown. The nurses helped me during labour, gave me blood transfusion and other medicines," she recalls.
Says Bangura: "After a week, I was strong again and discharged with my healthy baby boy. I could not believe that I did not have to spend a single dime. Before, it would have cost me over 800,000 Leone [$200]."
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
First Woman President Makes a Mark
When Roza Isakovna Otunbayeva was selected to be President of Kyrgyzstan, she became the first woman head of state in the predominantly Muslim Central Asian region.
And she also took on a mission. Her mission is to pave the way for parliamentary democracy in a country that was formerly a part of the Soviet Union.
Her first task was to stabilise the situation arising out of the ethnic clashes in the southern city of Osh, which is her hometown. Her next job will be to conduct free and fair parliamentary elections, and then clear the way for her people to elect a new president.
"Electing a woman as the head of state shows our thinking is changing and that our nation is ready for real democracy," said poet and journalist Olzhobay Shakir .
On Apr. 7 this year Roza Otunbayeva was selected to head a Russian- supported Kyrgyz interim government, following widespread rioting in capital Bishkek and the ousting of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
"She was a compromise candidate, the only one with a clean image," political scientist Alexander Knyazev told IPS. Political analyst Turat Akimov agrees. "All the men were seen as being corrupt and dictatorial. They were forced to choose the only woman among them."
Hope for a peaceful transition to democracy might seem misplaced given that Otunbayeva first tasted political power on a wave of political unrest. In 2005, she had been one of the key leaders of the 'Tulip Revolution' which led to the overthrow of former president Askar Akayev.
Otunbayeva says she learnt a great deal about calming violence when she went as part of a UN peace mission to Georgia. From 2002 to 2004, she had been involved in bringing harmony between hostile groups following the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict.
In a struggle that had then extended for a decade, casualties had been high and tensions extreme.
"We organised meetings of women from both ethnic groups who had lost their sons in the fighting. These were difficult negotiations, but in the name of peace and life they agreed to sit and talk to each other," says Otunbayeva.
"We also arranged talks between former soldiers who had fought against each other. As a result, people gained the courage to go ahead and carry on a dialogue. I have seen conflict from up close," she told the local newspaper Lemon.
Five years later, as president, she had to deal with ethnic clashes in her own backyard. In May-June this year the southern towns of Osh and Jalal-Abad were rocked by violence between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz.
Otunbayeva was forced to declare a state of emergency on Jun. 12 in an attempt to control the situation. The clashes killed up to 2,000 people, and rendered some 400,000 homeless.
She had sought help from Russia, but even after calling the Kremlin leaders five times, no assistance was forthcoming. Russia only sent a few troops to guard its own military installations.
But she managed to stabilise the situation and held a national referendum Jun. 27. Given the unsettled conditions, the voter turnout was an impressive 65 percent. The electorate almost unanimously supported the new draft Constitution, and confirmed Roza Otunbayeva as interim president.
She is not eligible to run for president now, and her term will end Dec. 31 next year.
"The right decision will be for her to create conditions for peaceful polling," political analyst Bermet Bukasheva told IPS. "A leader should not use administrative powers to remain in office. She should oversee the transition to democracy as a neutral figure."
To achieve this, Otunbayeva would have to ensure that the two ethnic groups live peaceably. She will also have to provide the homeless with shelter through the long winter.
She had promised in her inaugural speech Jul. 4 that she would "cooperate constructively with all political forces, and support pluralism, freedom of speech and human rights." She has reiterated this aim many times since. But it might be a difficult promise to keep in a country where thousands of families have lost their homes and loved ones.
There was too little time to do all this before the parliamentary elections Oct. 10. Besides, some of the political leaders are Otunbayeva's associates, and it is hard to imagine her as an unbiased facilitator.
But Otunbayeva is a consummate diplomat. She honed her skills when she headed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs three times, and also as ambassador to the U.S. and to the UK, as well as being chairperson of the former Soviet commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
And she also took on a mission. Her mission is to pave the way for parliamentary democracy in a country that was formerly a part of the Soviet Union.
Her first task was to stabilise the situation arising out of the ethnic clashes in the southern city of Osh, which is her hometown. Her next job will be to conduct free and fair parliamentary elections, and then clear the way for her people to elect a new president.
"Electing a woman as the head of state shows our thinking is changing and that our nation is ready for real democracy," said poet and journalist Olzhobay Shakir .
On Apr. 7 this year Roza Otunbayeva was selected to head a Russian- supported Kyrgyz interim government, following widespread rioting in capital Bishkek and the ousting of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
"She was a compromise candidate, the only one with a clean image," political scientist Alexander Knyazev told IPS. Political analyst Turat Akimov agrees. "All the men were seen as being corrupt and dictatorial. They were forced to choose the only woman among them."
Hope for a peaceful transition to democracy might seem misplaced given that Otunbayeva first tasted political power on a wave of political unrest. In 2005, she had been one of the key leaders of the 'Tulip Revolution' which led to the overthrow of former president Askar Akayev.
Otunbayeva says she learnt a great deal about calming violence when she went as part of a UN peace mission to Georgia. From 2002 to 2004, she had been involved in bringing harmony between hostile groups following the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict.
In a struggle that had then extended for a decade, casualties had been high and tensions extreme.
"We organised meetings of women from both ethnic groups who had lost their sons in the fighting. These were difficult negotiations, but in the name of peace and life they agreed to sit and talk to each other," says Otunbayeva.
"We also arranged talks between former soldiers who had fought against each other. As a result, people gained the courage to go ahead and carry on a dialogue. I have seen conflict from up close," she told the local newspaper Lemon.
Five years later, as president, she had to deal with ethnic clashes in her own backyard. In May-June this year the southern towns of Osh and Jalal-Abad were rocked by violence between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz.
Otunbayeva was forced to declare a state of emergency on Jun. 12 in an attempt to control the situation. The clashes killed up to 2,000 people, and rendered some 400,000 homeless.
She had sought help from Russia, but even after calling the Kremlin leaders five times, no assistance was forthcoming. Russia only sent a few troops to guard its own military installations.
But she managed to stabilise the situation and held a national referendum Jun. 27. Given the unsettled conditions, the voter turnout was an impressive 65 percent. The electorate almost unanimously supported the new draft Constitution, and confirmed Roza Otunbayeva as interim president.
She is not eligible to run for president now, and her term will end Dec. 31 next year.
"The right decision will be for her to create conditions for peaceful polling," political analyst Bermet Bukasheva told IPS. "A leader should not use administrative powers to remain in office. She should oversee the transition to democracy as a neutral figure."
To achieve this, Otunbayeva would have to ensure that the two ethnic groups live peaceably. She will also have to provide the homeless with shelter through the long winter.
She had promised in her inaugural speech Jul. 4 that she would "cooperate constructively with all political forces, and support pluralism, freedom of speech and human rights." She has reiterated this aim many times since. But it might be a difficult promise to keep in a country where thousands of families have lost their homes and loved ones.
There was too little time to do all this before the parliamentary elections Oct. 10. Besides, some of the political leaders are Otunbayeva's associates, and it is hard to imagine her as an unbiased facilitator.
But Otunbayeva is a consummate diplomat. She honed her skills when she headed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs three times, and also as ambassador to the U.S. and to the UK, as well as being chairperson of the former Soviet commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Monday, October 11, 2010
Not All Women in Local Government Making a Difference
Florence Shagwa, a female councillor at the Gaborone City Council, considers her three-year business qualification worthless.
Shagwa, who holds a Business and Accounting Certificate that she attained at the University of Botswana part-time over three years, was employed by banks as a training manager before taking up her current post.
But looking around at the other female councillors she works with, Shagwa knows that she is better educated than most. "For those who might claim to be a bit educated they had gone as far as senior school only, while for some it is a big deal to write," Shagwa said speaking of her fellow female councillors.
And while she does not necessarily think it is a piece of paper that women councillors need to make an impact, she said that one of the hindering factors that women face in local government are their own education levels.
"For (these women), even (working) in a formalised environment and meeting or rubbing shoulders with people who matter is a problem. They always shy away when meeting such people," she said.
According to the country’s Independent Electoral Commission no qualifications are needed for one to run for a post in local government except to campaign for votes. However, participants are vetted for criminal records.
"I do not have a problem with other women except with their attitudes. As an individual I do make an effort to be well informed. But I cannot say the same about most of the women in council," she said.
Shagwa said most of the female councillors incorrectly think that they should not be seen to take the lead. "As women we do not believe in ourselves because of the culture that we grew up with. We believe that we are not supposed to take the initiative and leave that to our male counterparts," she said adding roles in local government are not defined to attract educated people.
Shagwa, who also sits on numerous committees in the council including the Finance committee where projects and budgets are approved, said that many people did not feel becoming a local councillor was worth their while.
"Well-educated people think that campaigning to join local government would be like wasting their time. But it is just about serving the people," she said explaining that she has been effective in representing and serving the people in her community at the council level by advocating for their basic needs.
While one might think that female councillors would be better placed to empower other women in their communities, Shagwa said that it is not the case.
"In Gaborone I have not seen any women councillor working to empower other women except to prove that they are better than those women in their societies," she said. She strongly feels that generally women at local government are not serving their people but their own interests.
But for Mayor Caroline Lesang, things in her area run a bit differently. The mayor of Lobatse Town Council just 80 kilometres south of Gaborone, believes that with six women out of a total of 13 councillors in her local government, gender sensitivity in their deliberations is the norm of the day.
Lesang, who is also the national Vice President of the Botswana Association of Local Authorities that works to promote local governance, said that all programs in their council deliberations have to include women.
But she added that the current system made it difficult for women to make an impact on local legislation initiatives and the budget. "We can do the budgets but when it gets to central government for approval it would be reduced in such a way that one could never achieve all the things that they budgeted for," she said.
Lesang explained that the current system does not empower women. She said women lack resources to campaign during elections. She said that generally women do not vote for other women even though they are the majority of voters and the ones at the forefront of the campaigns.
"This is the reason that many women cannot make it to council. If they do, it has to be double the work done by when it was a man campaigning for the seat," she said.
And Ephraim Mabengano, a male councillor agrees. He said that there are no structures or committees that empower women councillors to have an impact in the running of local government. He said it is encumbered on the women who are there already to propose that committees be formed to empower themselves.
"You will find that they are not well informed, they do not make much contribution in council deliberations as they do not have much time to read to inform themselves after work," Mabengano said.
Though some disagree. Political analyst at the University of Botswana, Zibani Maundeni, said women participation in politics at the local level is surely a key driver for women’s empowerment.
Maundeni believes that there is no discrimination as women are treated as their male counterparts.
"From my experience after visiting different councils around the country I have not heard a female mayor or women in leading posts in different committees complaining that they are not being given support as when the post was being held by a male candidate – be it in making decisions on projects or the budget," Maundeni said.
Shagwa, who holds a Business and Accounting Certificate that she attained at the University of Botswana part-time over three years, was employed by banks as a training manager before taking up her current post.
But looking around at the other female councillors she works with, Shagwa knows that she is better educated than most. "For those who might claim to be a bit educated they had gone as far as senior school only, while for some it is a big deal to write," Shagwa said speaking of her fellow female councillors.
And while she does not necessarily think it is a piece of paper that women councillors need to make an impact, she said that one of the hindering factors that women face in local government are their own education levels.
"For (these women), even (working) in a formalised environment and meeting or rubbing shoulders with people who matter is a problem. They always shy away when meeting such people," she said.
According to the country’s Independent Electoral Commission no qualifications are needed for one to run for a post in local government except to campaign for votes. However, participants are vetted for criminal records.
"I do not have a problem with other women except with their attitudes. As an individual I do make an effort to be well informed. But I cannot say the same about most of the women in council," she said.
Shagwa said most of the female councillors incorrectly think that they should not be seen to take the lead. "As women we do not believe in ourselves because of the culture that we grew up with. We believe that we are not supposed to take the initiative and leave that to our male counterparts," she said adding roles in local government are not defined to attract educated people.
Shagwa, who also sits on numerous committees in the council including the Finance committee where projects and budgets are approved, said that many people did not feel becoming a local councillor was worth their while.
"Well-educated people think that campaigning to join local government would be like wasting their time. But it is just about serving the people," she said explaining that she has been effective in representing and serving the people in her community at the council level by advocating for their basic needs.
While one might think that female councillors would be better placed to empower other women in their communities, Shagwa said that it is not the case.
"In Gaborone I have not seen any women councillor working to empower other women except to prove that they are better than those women in their societies," she said. She strongly feels that generally women at local government are not serving their people but their own interests.
But for Mayor Caroline Lesang, things in her area run a bit differently. The mayor of Lobatse Town Council just 80 kilometres south of Gaborone, believes that with six women out of a total of 13 councillors in her local government, gender sensitivity in their deliberations is the norm of the day.
Lesang, who is also the national Vice President of the Botswana Association of Local Authorities that works to promote local governance, said that all programs in their council deliberations have to include women.
But she added that the current system made it difficult for women to make an impact on local legislation initiatives and the budget. "We can do the budgets but when it gets to central government for approval it would be reduced in such a way that one could never achieve all the things that they budgeted for," she said.
Lesang explained that the current system does not empower women. She said women lack resources to campaign during elections. She said that generally women do not vote for other women even though they are the majority of voters and the ones at the forefront of the campaigns.
"This is the reason that many women cannot make it to council. If they do, it has to be double the work done by when it was a man campaigning for the seat," she said.
And Ephraim Mabengano, a male councillor agrees. He said that there are no structures or committees that empower women councillors to have an impact in the running of local government. He said it is encumbered on the women who are there already to propose that committees be formed to empower themselves.
"You will find that they are not well informed, they do not make much contribution in council deliberations as they do not have much time to read to inform themselves after work," Mabengano said.
Though some disagree. Political analyst at the University of Botswana, Zibani Maundeni, said women participation in politics at the local level is surely a key driver for women’s empowerment.
Maundeni believes that there is no discrimination as women are treated as their male counterparts.
"From my experience after visiting different councils around the country I have not heard a female mayor or women in leading posts in different committees complaining that they are not being given support as when the post was being held by a male candidate – be it in making decisions on projects or the budget," Maundeni said.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Liberian Women Find Their Voice
"Voice for the voiceless" is the slogan adorning the walls of Liberia’s first and Africa’s second radio station for women.
Situated down a bumpy, dirt track on the edge of the capital, Monrovia, the Liberia Women Democracy Radio (LWDR), claims it wants to advance women and promote change. In a country trying to rebuild itself after 14 years of civil war in which women bore the brunt of the violence, they remain the most vulnerable group in society.
"Before the radio station, we couldn’t get our voices heard. The big people wouldn’t take our problems seriously," says Deborah Reeves, a mother of four in Monrovia. "Now they hear them over and over."
The 30 year old lives on Pagos Island, a stretch of land surrounded by swamps completely cut off from the rest of the city. On an island without electricity, public schools, a police station and not one health centre, the four thousand inhabitants struggle to even make a living.
"I’ve seen things on this island that aren’t right in a civilised world," exclaims Reeves as she shelters in the community church with around forty other women.
"We’re a forgotten community, just fending for ourselves.No one sees us. It’s like we’re not even here."
Reeves has brought people from the community together to talk about how they, as women, can use the radio station to tell their stories in an attempt to get authorities to act. As they sit in the stifling heat, some with their babies strapped to their backs, others with a small child at their knees, slowly, one by one, they get the courage to stand up to tell their story.
One speaker, more a teenager than a woman, describes how she started walking to the nearest clinic when she felt her first contraction. It was dark, she was on her own and she had a two to three hour trek ahead of her. She ended up giving birth on the way.
As she stands in front of the women, with passion and sadness in her eyes, she explains how she tried to get the baby to take its first breath.She had no idea how to do it, so she lay there on the road as the baby died in her arms.
"I didn’t want to talk today," she says. "But this is just disgracing women."
This story is just one of thousands.
"In the rural areas, women are not heard," says Lady Mai Hunter, as she looks over her microphone in the production studio at LWDR. These are the hard to reach groups the station wants to broadcast to. Funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) and facilitated by the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM), LWDR broadcasts to eight of Liberia’s fifteen counties. Their aim is to increase their transmitter power and reach out to women all over the country.
At 22 years old and already a young mother herself, Hunter knows all too well the struggles women in Liberia still face. "We have a female President and outside of Liberia people think that everything is okay for women here, but it’s not. Sexual exploitation, rape and wife battering are all big problems here."
In 2006, Liberia voted in Africa’s first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. While this in itself is a great inspiration for women all over the country, female voices are still rare in high level discussions on peace and security. For President Sirleaf, LWDR is a way to get those often forgotten voices aired.
"I’m extremely pleased and I understand we’re the second women’s radio station on the continent and that again pleases us in that we’ve broken ground in this regard," says Sirleaf she.
However, the president is aware of the challenges Liberian women face. "We still have some serious problems in Liberia; serious problems regarding rape, regarding the retention of girls in school. I hope through this station they will be able to focus on these problems."
Rape is the number one reported crime in Liberia and children are often the victims. A recent survey of rape survivors in Monrovia found three out of eight were under the age of twelve, while one in ten was under five. But issues like rape, teenage pregnancy, female genital mutilation and prostitution are rarely, if ever, talked about on other stations across the country.
The media, run almost exclusively by men, seldom touch on these subjects, preferring to pontificate about politics and policy making. With the next elections in October 2011, LWDR is calling for women to start playing a crucial role in shaping their country’s future.
And so far, the Liberia Women Democracy Radio station is providing a glimmer of hope for women like Deborah Reeves. "LWDR is an eye opener for us. To be frank, women face such terrible conditions in this country and their voices are never heard. Now, if I’m hurt, I can use the radio to tell my story and reach authorities who can help us."
Situated down a bumpy, dirt track on the edge of the capital, Monrovia, the Liberia Women Democracy Radio (LWDR), claims it wants to advance women and promote change. In a country trying to rebuild itself after 14 years of civil war in which women bore the brunt of the violence, they remain the most vulnerable group in society.
"Before the radio station, we couldn’t get our voices heard. The big people wouldn’t take our problems seriously," says Deborah Reeves, a mother of four in Monrovia. "Now they hear them over and over."
The 30 year old lives on Pagos Island, a stretch of land surrounded by swamps completely cut off from the rest of the city. On an island without electricity, public schools, a police station and not one health centre, the four thousand inhabitants struggle to even make a living.
"I’ve seen things on this island that aren’t right in a civilised world," exclaims Reeves as she shelters in the community church with around forty other women.
"We’re a forgotten community, just fending for ourselves.No one sees us. It’s like we’re not even here."
Reeves has brought people from the community together to talk about how they, as women, can use the radio station to tell their stories in an attempt to get authorities to act. As they sit in the stifling heat, some with their babies strapped to their backs, others with a small child at their knees, slowly, one by one, they get the courage to stand up to tell their story.
One speaker, more a teenager than a woman, describes how she started walking to the nearest clinic when she felt her first contraction. It was dark, she was on her own and she had a two to three hour trek ahead of her. She ended up giving birth on the way.
As she stands in front of the women, with passion and sadness in her eyes, she explains how she tried to get the baby to take its first breath.She had no idea how to do it, so she lay there on the road as the baby died in her arms.
"I didn’t want to talk today," she says. "But this is just disgracing women."
This story is just one of thousands.
"In the rural areas, women are not heard," says Lady Mai Hunter, as she looks over her microphone in the production studio at LWDR. These are the hard to reach groups the station wants to broadcast to. Funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) and facilitated by the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM), LWDR broadcasts to eight of Liberia’s fifteen counties. Their aim is to increase their transmitter power and reach out to women all over the country.
At 22 years old and already a young mother herself, Hunter knows all too well the struggles women in Liberia still face. "We have a female President and outside of Liberia people think that everything is okay for women here, but it’s not. Sexual exploitation, rape and wife battering are all big problems here."
In 2006, Liberia voted in Africa’s first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. While this in itself is a great inspiration for women all over the country, female voices are still rare in high level discussions on peace and security. For President Sirleaf, LWDR is a way to get those often forgotten voices aired.
"I’m extremely pleased and I understand we’re the second women’s radio station on the continent and that again pleases us in that we’ve broken ground in this regard," says Sirleaf she.
However, the president is aware of the challenges Liberian women face. "We still have some serious problems in Liberia; serious problems regarding rape, regarding the retention of girls in school. I hope through this station they will be able to focus on these problems."
Rape is the number one reported crime in Liberia and children are often the victims. A recent survey of rape survivors in Monrovia found three out of eight were under the age of twelve, while one in ten was under five. But issues like rape, teenage pregnancy, female genital mutilation and prostitution are rarely, if ever, talked about on other stations across the country.
The media, run almost exclusively by men, seldom touch on these subjects, preferring to pontificate about politics and policy making. With the next elections in October 2011, LWDR is calling for women to start playing a crucial role in shaping their country’s future.
And so far, the Liberia Women Democracy Radio station is providing a glimmer of hope for women like Deborah Reeves. "LWDR is an eye opener for us. To be frank, women face such terrible conditions in this country and their voices are never heard. Now, if I’m hurt, I can use the radio to tell my story and reach authorities who can help us."
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Native Women Raped by Soldiers Find Justice at Regional Court
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Oct 5, 2010 (IPS) - "I dream of returning to my community and for everything to be normal again, although that won't be easy," Valentina Rosendo, one of two indigenous women who found justice at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, told IPS.
"I want the government to admit that it made a mistake with two indigenous women," she added, after the Court condemned Mexico for failing to protect her rights and those of Inés Fernández, who were raped by soldiers eight years ago.
In February 2002, 17-year-old Rosendo was washing clothes in a river near her home in the village of Barranca Bejuco, in the southern state of Guerrero, when she was accosted by a group of soldiers, two of whom raped her.
A month later, three soldiers raped Inés Fernández in her house in the nearby village of Barranca Tecuani.
In both cases, the Court found the state guilty of failing to guarantee the two Me'phaa Indian women's rights to personal integrity, dignity, legal protection and a fair trial, to a life free of violence, and to not be tortured. Inter-American Court rulings are binding and cannot be appealed.
"They are two very similar sentences," Alejandra Nuño, the Centre for Justice and International Law's (CEJIL) director for Central America and Mexico, told IPS after the two rulings were reported Monday. "They refer to the presence of the soldiers, discrimination, and violence against women. And rape is classified as torture, in a case that has no precedents in Mexico."
When she failed to obtain justice in Mexico, Rosendo brought her case in November 2003 before the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR), with the support of CEJIL and the Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre, from Guerrero. Fernández did the same the following June.
The IACHR referred the cases to the Court in May and August 2009.
The San José, Costa Rica-based Court and the Washington-based IACHR are the Organisation of American States (OAS) human rights bodies.
"The state cannot continue to deny these incidents, when the serious harm caused in these indigenous communities is abundantly clear," Abel Barrera, executive director of Tlachinollan, told IPS. "Inés can't live in peace, and Valentina can't return to her community."
Abuses by the military and police are a permanent feature of life in rural areas in Guerrero, and reporting them to the Mexican justice system has had little to no effect, according to human rights organisations that have documented the cases. The authorities say the security forces are deployed in Guerrero to fight drug trafficking and small guerrilla groups.
The Court, presided over by Peruvian Judge Diego García-Sayán, ruled that the state violated three inter-American conventions: the 1969 American Convention on Human Rights, the 1987 Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, and the 1998 Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women.
In its sentences, handed down on Aug. 30 and 31, the Court called for a thorough civilian investigation into the crimes against the two women, and ordered the Mexican state to make a public apology to them in both Spanish and the Me'phaa language, publish the sentences in the official government gazette, and open a centre that would provide multidisciplinaryhealth services for women in the area where the abuses took place.
It also calls for reforms of Mexico's military justice code, with dates back to 1933, so that members of the armed forces are tried in civilian courts for crimes committed in the course of duty.
The Court ordered the state to pay some 87,000 dollars in damages and compensation to Fernández, her husband Prisciliano Sierra and their children, and 75,000 dollars to Rosendo and her daughter Yenis Bernardino.
It must also pay 48,000 dollars to Tlachinollan and CEJIL to cover legal costs.
"It was not easy to seek justice. I left my town, and my husband left me. The government called me a liar," Rosendo, in a beige blouse and blue jeans, said with tears in her eyes.
Rosendo had tolearn Spanish after she was raped, and she now lives in an unrevealed location somewhere in Mexico where she works at a grocery store and has returned to school to complete her secondary education.
Her nine-year-old daughter is in third grade. "She is desperate, and asks why we move all the time and she has to make new friends. She's not growing up with a normal childhood," said Rosendo, who goes to therapy every Sunday.
Both Rosendo and Fernández have been harassed and received death threats over the years, and have been stigmatised by neighbours, as rape victims.
This is not the first time the Inter-American Court has ordered the Mexican state to reform the military justice code -- which has become one of the flashpoint issues for the executive, legislative and judicial branches.
Conservative President Felipe Calderón announced that he would introduce a bill in Congress to that effect. But the Supreme Court has failed to pronounce itself on the steps to be taken in order to comply with the Inter-American Court rulings.
"We are going to keep a close watch on how Mexico lives up to the sentence, which is binding," Nuño said.
On Oct. 1, the government said it would live up to the two sentences, but did not specify how or when. It has between six and 12 months to fulfil the various provisions.
The Inter-American Court also handed down two rulings against the Mexican state in November 2009.
The first involved the 2001 murders of three young women in Ciudad Juárez on the U.S. border, whose bodies were found on a piece of waste ground known as the Campo Algodonero (Cotton Field). The second found the Mexican state guilty in the forced disappearance of schoolteacher Rosendo Radilla, a community activist who was abducted in 1974 by soldiers in the state of Guerrero.
In both cases, human rights groups have complained how long the government is taking to comply with the sentences.
For that reason, a number of non-governmental organisations want to establish a committee to follow up on compliance with the rulings.
This year, the Court is to issue a decision on the case of environmental activists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, peasant farmers who were arrested and tortured by Mexican soldiers in Guerrero in 1999 and sentenced in 2000 to six and 10 years in prison, respectively, on trumped-up charges of illegal weapons possession and growing marijuana.
Although they were released in November 2001 by then President Vicente Fox (2000-2006) after a major international outcry, they were not pardoned, nor did they receive damages for the abuses and torture they suffered.
The militarisation of Guerrero "is aimed at keeping indigenous people from organising," said Barrera, winner of this year's Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, rewarded by the Washington-based RFK Centre for Justice and Human Rights.
source: IPS news
MEXICO CITY, Oct 5, 2010 (IPS) - "I dream of returning to my community and for everything to be normal again, although that won't be easy," Valentina Rosendo, one of two indigenous women who found justice at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, told IPS.
"I want the government to admit that it made a mistake with two indigenous women," she added, after the Court condemned Mexico for failing to protect her rights and those of Inés Fernández, who were raped by soldiers eight years ago.
In February 2002, 17-year-old Rosendo was washing clothes in a river near her home in the village of Barranca Bejuco, in the southern state of Guerrero, when she was accosted by a group of soldiers, two of whom raped her.
A month later, three soldiers raped Inés Fernández in her house in the nearby village of Barranca Tecuani.
In both cases, the Court found the state guilty of failing to guarantee the two Me'phaa Indian women's rights to personal integrity, dignity, legal protection and a fair trial, to a life free of violence, and to not be tortured. Inter-American Court rulings are binding and cannot be appealed.
"They are two very similar sentences," Alejandra Nuño, the Centre for Justice and International Law's (CEJIL) director for Central America and Mexico, told IPS after the two rulings were reported Monday. "They refer to the presence of the soldiers, discrimination, and violence against women. And rape is classified as torture, in a case that has no precedents in Mexico."
When she failed to obtain justice in Mexico, Rosendo brought her case in November 2003 before the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR), with the support of CEJIL and the Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre, from Guerrero. Fernández did the same the following June.
The IACHR referred the cases to the Court in May and August 2009.
The San José, Costa Rica-based Court and the Washington-based IACHR are the Organisation of American States (OAS) human rights bodies.
"The state cannot continue to deny these incidents, when the serious harm caused in these indigenous communities is abundantly clear," Abel Barrera, executive director of Tlachinollan, told IPS. "Inés can't live in peace, and Valentina can't return to her community."
Abuses by the military and police are a permanent feature of life in rural areas in Guerrero, and reporting them to the Mexican justice system has had little to no effect, according to human rights organisations that have documented the cases. The authorities say the security forces are deployed in Guerrero to fight drug trafficking and small guerrilla groups.
The Court, presided over by Peruvian Judge Diego García-Sayán, ruled that the state violated three inter-American conventions: the 1969 American Convention on Human Rights, the 1987 Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, and the 1998 Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women.
In its sentences, handed down on Aug. 30 and 31, the Court called for a thorough civilian investigation into the crimes against the two women, and ordered the Mexican state to make a public apology to them in both Spanish and the Me'phaa language, publish the sentences in the official government gazette, and open a centre that would provide multidisciplinary
It also calls for reforms of Mexico's military justice code, with dates back to 1933, so that members of the armed forces are tried in civilian courts for crimes committed in the course of duty.
The Court ordered the state to pay some 87,000 dollars in damages and compensation to Fernández, her husband Prisciliano Sierra and their children, and 75,000 dollars to Rosendo and her daughter Yenis Bernardino.
It must also pay 48,000 dollars to Tlachinollan and CEJIL to cover legal costs.
"It was not easy to seek justice. I left my town, and my husband left me. The government called me a liar," Rosendo, in a beige blouse and blue jeans, said with tears in her eyes.
Rosendo had to
Her nine-year-old daughter is in third grade. "She is desperate, and asks why we move all the time and she has to make new friends. She's not growing up with a normal childhood," said Rosendo, who goes to therapy every Sunday.
Both Rosendo and Fernández have been harassed and received death threats over the years, and have been stigmatised by neighbours, as rape victims.
This is not the first time the Inter-American Court has ordered the Mexican state to reform the military justice code -- which has become one of the flashpoint issues for the executive, legislative and judicial branches.
Conservative President Felipe Calderón announced that he would introduce a bill in Congress to that effect. But the Supreme Court has failed to pronounce itself on the steps to be taken in order to comply with the Inter-American Court rulings.
"We are going to keep a close watch on how Mexico lives up to the sentence, which is binding," Nuño said.
On Oct. 1, the government said it would live up to the two sentences, but did not specify how or when. It has between six and 12 months to fulfil the various provisions.
The Inter-American Court also handed down two rulings against the Mexican state in November 2009.
The first involved the 2001 murders of three young women in Ciudad Juárez on the U.S. border, whose bodies were found on a piece of waste ground known as the Campo Algodonero (Cotton Field). The second found the Mexican state guilty in the forced disappearance of schoolteacher Rosendo Radilla, a community activist who was abducted in 1974 by soldiers in the state of Guerrero.
In both cases, human rights groups have complained how long the government is taking to comply with the sentences.
For that reason, a number of non-governmental organisations want to establish a committee to follow up on compliance with the rulings.
This year, the Court is to issue a decision on the case of environmental activists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, peasant farmers who were arrested and tortured by Mexican soldiers in Guerrero in 1999 and sentenced in 2000 to six and 10 years in prison, respectively, on trumped-up charges of illegal weapons possession and growing marijuana.
Although they were released in November 2001 by then President Vicente Fox (2000-2006) after a major international outcry, they were not pardoned, nor did they receive damages for the abuses and torture they suffered.
The militarisation of Guerrero "is aimed at keeping indigenous people from organising," said Barrera, winner of this year's Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, rewarded by the Washington-based RFK Centre for Justice and Human Rights.
source: IPS news
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