Poverty
Today, more than 1 billion people live in extreme poverty; the
overwhelming majority of them are women. In the past decade the
number of women living in poverty has increased disproportionately
to the number of men, and the risk for falling into poverty is
higher for women than for men. Poverty is particularly acute among
women living in rural households.
Women are poorer because they have fewer economic opportunities and
less autonomy than men. Their access to economic resources,
education and training, and support services is limited. They also
have very little participation in the way decisions are made. The
rigidity of socially prescribed roles for women and the tendency to
scale back social services have increased the burden of poverty on
women.
The Platform recommends action to:
Review, adopt and maintain macroeconomic policies and
development strategies that address the needs and efforts of
women in poverty;
Revise laws and administrative practices in order to ensure
women's equal rights and access to economic resources;
Provide women with access to savings and credit mechanisms and
institutions;
Develop gender-based methodologies and conduct research to
address the feminization of poverty.
Education & Training
Education is a human right and an essential tool for achieving
equality, development and peace. Though overall progress has been
achieved in girls' enrolment at primary and secondary levels, girls
in many countries still face discrimination due to customary
attitudes, early marriages and pregnancies, lack of accessible
schools, and inadequate and gender-biased teaching and educational
materials. Girls continue to be denied quality education,
especially at higher levels and in science and technology.
Investing in formal and non-formal education and training for girls
and women has proved to be one of the best means of achieving
sustainable development and economic growth.
The Platform recommends action to:
Ensure equal access to education. Governments are to commit
themselves, by the year 2000, to universal access to basic
education and completion of primary education by at least 80 per
cent of primary-school-age children.
They also agree to close the gender gap in primary- and
secondary-school education by the year 2000, and to achieve
universal education in all countries before the year 2015;
Eradicate illiteracy among women. Governments are to reduce the
female illiteracy rate at least to half its 1990 level;
Improve women's access to vocational training, science and
technology, and continuing education;
Develop non-discriminatory education and training;
Allocate sufficient resources for and monitor the implementation
of educational reforms;
Promote lifelong education and training for girls and women.
Health
Women's health involves their emotional, social and physical
well-being. It is determined by the social, political and economic
context of their lives, as well as by biology. The enjoyment of the
highest attainable standard of physical and mental health is vital
for the life and well-being of women. It is also crucial to their
ability to participate in all areas of public and private life.
This right must be secured throughout their whole life cycle in
equality with men.
The Platform defines reproductive health as a state of complete
physical, mental and social well-being and sexual health whose
purpose is the enhancement of life and personal relations. Equal
relationships between men and women in matters of sexual relations
and reproduction require mutual respect, consent and shared
responsibility. The Platform recognizes that reproductive rights
rest on the recognition of the basic human rights of all couples
and individuals to decide freely and responsibly how many children
they want to have, and when. They also have the right to obtain
information and make decisions on reproduction free of
discrimination, coercion and violence.
The Platform recommends actions to:
Increase women's access throughout the life cycle to
appropriate, affordable and quality health care, information and
related services;
Reduce maternal mortality by at least 50 per cent of the 1990
levels by the year 2000 and a further one half by the year 2015;
Encourage both women and men to take responsibility for their
sexual and reproductive behaviour;
Undertake gender-sensitive initiatives that address sexually
transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive
health issues;
Increase resources and monitor follow-up for women's health.
Violence
In all societies, to a greater or lesser degree, women and girls
are subject to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts
across lines of income, class and culture, in both public and
private life. They often face rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment
and intimidation in the workplace. They are particularly vulnerable
to systematic violence during war. Sexual slavery, forced
pregnancy, sterilization and forced abortion, prenatal sex
selection and female infanticide are also acts of violence. All
such acts of violence violate and impair or nullify women's
enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Such groups of
women as migrant workers require special attention because they are
particularly vulnerable to violence.
Lack of preventive and protective laws, and lack of access or
ineffective enforcement by public authorities of such laws where
they exist, only perpetuate and increase violence against women.
The Platform recommends actions to:
Adopt and implement legislation to end violence against women;
Work actively to ratify and implement all international
agreements related to violence against women, including the UN
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination
against Women;
Adopt new laws and enforce existing ones to punish members of
security forces and police or any other State agents for acts of
violence against women;
Set up shelters, provide legal aid and other services for girls
and women at risk, and provide counselling and rehabilitation
for perpetrators of violence against women;
Step up national and international cooperation to dismantle
networks engaged in trafficking in women.
Armed Conflict
Peace is a prerequisite for the attainment of equality between
women and men. Unfortunately, armed and other types of conflict
still persist in many parts of the world. Aggression, foreign
occupation and ethnic and other conflicts are an ongoing reality
affecting women and men in nearly every region, aided by excessive
military expenditures and the arms trade.
Though women rarely have any role in the decisions leading to armed
conflicts, they work to preserve social order in the midst of the
conflicts. They also make an important contribution as peace
educators and resolvers of conflicts.
The Platform recognizes that rape, which is common during armed
conflicts, is a crime, and under certain circumstances is an act of
genocide. It condemns "ethnic cleansing" as a strategy of war and
rape as one of its consequences. Such practices must be stopped and
their perpetrators punished, it asserts.
The Platform recommends action to:
Increase the participation of women in conflict resolution at
decision-making levels;
Reduce excessive military expenditures and control the
availability of armaments;
Work towards the universal ratification of the anti-mine
Convention and Protocol by the year 2000;
Recognize the important roles and contributions of women in
peace movements throughout the world;
Recognize the need to protect women living in situations of
armed and other conflict or under foreign occupation, or who
have become refugees or displaced.
Economy
Women contribute significantly to economic life everywhere. Their
share in the labour force continues to rise, they are becoming more
involved in micro-, small and medium enterprises and their income
is becoming increasingly necessary to all households.
However, women are largely excluded from economic decision-making.
They face low wages, poor working conditions and limited employment
and professional opportunities. Though women contribute to
development through paid as well as unpaid work, their unpaid work,
such as domestic and community work, is not measured in
quantitative terms and not valued in national accounts.
Discrimination in education and training, hiring, and remuneration
and promotion, as well as inflexible working conditions, lack of
access to productive resources and inadequate sharing of family
responsibilities, contribute to restricted employment, economic and
professional opportunities for women.
vThe Platform recommends action to:
Promote women's economic rights and independence, including
access to employment and appropriate working conditions and
control over economic resources;
Facilitate women's equal access to resources, employment,
markets and trade;
Provide business services, training and access to markets,
information and technology, particularly to low-income women;
Strengthen women's economic capacity and commercial networks;
Eliminate occupational segregation and all forms of employment
discrimination;
Promote harmonization of work and family responsibilities for
women and men.
Decision-making
Women's equal participation in decision-making is not only a demand
for simple social justice or democracy. It is essential for
achieving transparent and accountable government. It will also
provide a balance that more accurately reflects the composition of
society.
Despite the widespread movement towards democratization in most
countries, women remain largely underrepresented at most levels of
government, especially in ministerial and other executive bodies or
in reaching the target of having 30 per cent of decision-making
positions held by women by 1995, as endorsed by the UNEconomic and
Social Council. They have achieved little progress in attaining
political power in legislative bodies. Globally, only 10 per cent
of legislative positions, and a lower percentage of ministerial
positions, are held by women.
Similarly, the underrepresentation of women in decision-making
positions in the arts, culture, sports, the media, education,
religion and law have prevented women from having a significant
impact on many key institutions and policies.
The Platform recommends action to:
Ensure women's equal access to and full participation in power
structures and decision-making in governmental bodies and public
administration entities, including the judiciary, international
and non-governmental organizations, political parties and trade
unions;
Increase women's capacity to participate in decision-making and
leadership positions.
Institutional Mechanisms
Most countries have established institutions for the advancement of
women. These are diverse in form and uneven in their effectiveness.
They are often marginalized in national government structures,
without a clear mandate, and lack adequate staff and resources as
well as support from national political leadership. At the regional
and international levels, mechanisms and institutions for the
advancement of women encounter similar problems.
Many organizations have developed methodologies for gender-based
policy analysis. Unfortunately, they are applied either
sporadically or not at all.
The Platform recommends action to:
Create or strengthen national machineries and other governmental
bodies; ensure that responsibility for the advancement of women
is vested in the highest possible level of Government;
Integrate gender perspectives in legislation, public policies,
programmes and projects; ensure that before policy decisions are
taken, an analysis of their impact on women and men is carried
out.
Generate and disseminate gender-disaggregated data and
information for planning and evaluation; measure, in
quantitative terms, unremunerated work that is outside national
accounts.
Human Rights
All human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and
interrelated. Their full and equal enjoyment by women and girls is
a priority for Governments and the United Nations and is essential
for the advancement of women.
Governments must not only refrain from violating the human rights
of all women but work actively to promote and protect these rights.
Recognition of the importance of women's human rights is reflected
in the fact that three quarters of the UNMember States have become
parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women. However, the gap between the
existence of rights and their effective enjoyment derives from a
lack of commitment by Governments in promoting and protecting those
rights and the failure of Governments to inform women and men alike
about them.
The Platform recommends action to:
Promote and protect the human rights of women by fully
implementing all human rights instruments, especially the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women;
Review national laws to ensure implementation of all
international human rights agreements;
Ensure equality and non-discrimination under the law and in
practice;
Achieve legal literacy.
Media
Today, many women work in the media, but few have reached positions
at decision-making levels. In most countries, the media continue to
project a negative and degrading image of women and do not reflect
women's diverse lives and contributions to society. Violent and
degrading or pornographic media products in particular affect women
negatively.
Everywhere the media have the potential to make a far greater
contribution to the advancement of women. They can create
self-regulatory mechanisms that can help eliminate gender-biased
programming. Women can also be empowered by having greater skills,
knowledge and access to information technology.
The Platform recommends action to:
Increase women's participation in and access to expression and
decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of
communication; Governments should aim at gender balance through
the appointment of women and men to all advisory, management,
regulatory or monitoring bodies;
Promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the
media. The media organizations, NGOs and the private sector
should promote the equal sharing of family responsibility and
produce materials that portray diverse roles of women leaders;
Develop within mass media and advertising organizations
professional guidelines and codes of conduct and other forms of
self-regulation to promote the presentation of non-stereotyped
images of women, consistent with freedom of expression.
Environment
Through their management and use of natural resources, women
provide sustenance to their families and communities. As consumers
and producers, caretakers of their families and educators, women
play an important role in promoting sustainable development.
The deterioration of natural resources results in negative effects
on the health, well-being and quality of life of the population at
large, especially girls and women of all ages.
However, women, who are rarely formally trained as natural-resource
managers, remain largely absent from decision-making and have their
experience and skills too often marginalized. Despite the
leadership role played by women's organizations, institutional
coordination with national bodies is very weak.
The Platform recommends action to:
Involve women actively in environmental decision-making at all
levels, including as managers, designers and planners, and as
implementers and evaluators of environmental projects;
Integrate gender concerns and perspectives in policies and
programmes for sustainable development;
Strengthen or establish mechanisms at the national, regional and
international levels to assess the impact of development and
environment policies on women.
The Girl-child
In many countries, the girl-child faces discrimination from the
earliest stages of life, through childhood and into adulthood. Due
to harmful attitudes and practices, such as female genital
mutilation, son preference, early marriage, sexual exploitation and
practices related to health and food allocation, fewer girls than
boys survive into adulthood in some areas of the world. Due to lack
of protective laws, or failure to enforce such laws, girls are more
vulnerable to all kinds of violence, particularly sexual violence.
In many regions, girls face discrimination in access to education
and specialized training.
More than 15 million girls aged 15 to 19 each year give birth and
face pregnancy-related complications. Girls are also more
vulnerable than boys to the consequences of unprotected and
premature sexual relations, including HIV/AIDS.
The Platform recommends action to:
Eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl-child;
enact and enforce appropriate legislation that guarantees equal
right to succession and ensures equal right to inherit,
regardless of the sex of the child;
Eliminate negative cultural attitudes and practices against
girls;
Eliminate discrimination against girls in education, skills
development and training;
Eliminate discrimination against girls in health and nutrition;
Eliminate the economic exploitation of child labour and protect
young girls at work;
Strengthen the role of the family in improving the status of the
girl-child.
