Plan International - Girls' Rights Platform - Girls' rights are human rights: Positioning girls at the heart of the international agenda

A crosscutting issue in women's life cycles is their vulnerability to poverty, especially when they are from minority communities. As recommended by the ILO and the Report of the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group chaired by Michelle Bachelet, social protection floors are vital tools to reduce women's poverty and improve women's level of economic empowerment.

The correlation between income and development and gender equality is well established. Both theory and empirical evidence indicate that empowering women means a more efficient use of a nation's human capital endowment and that reducing gender inequality enhances productivity and economic growth.

The conflict and post-conflict experience leads to an increased awareness of the different conditions of States, including weak, fragile, failed and/or hybrid States, and an increasing focus on State-building processes. State-building is understood as "purposeful action to develop the capacity, institutions and legitimacy of the state in relation to an effective political process for negotiating the mutual demands between state and societal groups". Such processes reveal the complex and critical roles and relations of State and non-State actors in the renegotiation of the balance of power, the allocation of resources and entitlements, and the formation of the identity of whole nations. Contestations over national identity are heightened during times of political change and present new vulnerabilities for those women whose values, roles and behaviours do not fit the power elite's idealized imagery of womanhood. Where identity politics are predominant, women's movements defending universal standards of gender equality risk marginalization and stigmatization, especially when such standards are characterized as unwanted external influence and a source of threat.

Political will of States is the key element to ensure gender equality outcomes, combined with persistent support, pressure and scrutiny by women's movements, whose autonomy should be protected by the State

Violence against women in all its forms, whether in the private or the public space, undermines women's capacity to effectively engage in political and public life.

Domestic violence is public as well as private in its debilitating impact on women. It can also be used directly as a form of punishment by resentful husbands or other family members against wives or female relatives who become leaders in their community.

Secure rights over resources, including property, land, housing, food, water and sanitation, are essential to women's equality and well-being, and to their economic independence and autonomy.

In some countries, discriminatory legislation or implementation of legislation results in the negation of women's rights to land and other productive resources. These issues have been examined by a UN-Women/OHCHR expert group meeting, in which a member of the Working Group participated, and have been documented in an in-depth report.

Despite efforts to extend the reach of ILO Conventions to women in precarious employment, many women still do not have the basic rights set out above. The informal economy, on which overwhelming numbers of women depend for their livelihood, remains beyond the reach of labour regulation and maternity rights. The extension of paid maternity leave to women entrepreneurs or self-employed women is a good practice found in some countries. Under European Union Directives, there is a requirement to provide paid maternity leave for self-employed women, calculated on the basis of average loss of income or profit (subject to ceiling) or a national allowances level such as minimum wage. Leave is not compulsory, however, and the conditions on which is it paid often differ from those for women in formal employment. The Working Group welcomes in that regard a decision by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (Communication No. 36/2012) in which it considered that the abolition of an initially existing public maternity leave scheme, without establishing an adequate alternative maternity leave scheme to cover loss of income during maternity immediately available to self-employed women, constituted a breach of article 11 (2) (b) of the Convention.

When the State becomes aware of such informal systems, it must put in place oversight mechanisms and procedures for appeals to the State justice system to quash decisions that discriminate against women. The State must make an effort to provide alternatives to these informal legal systems, for example, by rendering the formal State system more accessible.

The Working Group is particularly concerned about the discrimination experienced by women because of their economic status. It has witnessed first-hand during its country visits that women living in poverty are disparately affected in their access to health services, particularly reproductive and sexual health and preventive health care.

In terms of protection, the State must set up effective services that respond to women's needs in the short, medium and long term. Risks and factors that may lead to discrimination against women must be identified proactively so that effective interventions may be staged before violations are committed.

Ensuring access to justice for women and girls who have suffered discrimination within the family or in cultural life is part of the State obligation to protect and respect their right to equality. This access must be guaranteed at the legislative and institutional levels. This means, for example, revising all additional laws that affect family and personal status matters, a process in which women must be involved. Also concerned are auxiliary regulations, including special measures adopted, where necessary, in such areas as taxation, social security, retirement benefits, survivors' benefits, rights relating to nationality and the right to family reunification, to ensure women and girls' de facto equality in the various types of family. Women must take part in the formulation and interpretation of national laws, including those relating to family affairs. At the institutional level, they must be involved, on an equal footing, in policy development and judicial bodies so as to ensure that the principle of equality is effectively applied and that decisions handed down demonstrate respect for gender equality. Improving access to justice for women also requires gender-equality training for State authorities and non-State officials responsible for law enforcement, social services and education and for medical and forensic personnel.

[The Working Group recommends that States:] Take and implement strong and efficient measures to prevent female genital mutilation and other harmful practices;

[The Working Group recommends that States:] Decriminalize sexual and reproductive behaviours that are attributed exclusively or mainly to women, including adultery and prostitution, and termination of pregnancy;

[The Working Group recommends that States:] Monitor and prevent the use of mental health to institutionalize women unnecessarily as a social control mechanism.

Good practice requires: (a) the removal of barriers, whether cultural, economic, institutional or religious, preventing women from having an equal opportunity to gain access to positions of power at all levels; (b) the elimination of disempowering stereotypes, misogyny and violence against women in public and private spheres; (c) parity for women in decision-making forums; (d) and gender-sensitive mainstreaming of policymaking processes, including budgeting.

Efforts to sensitize society to women’s human rights issues and feminist analysis, and their inclusion in Government research and policy, create an ameliorating environment for progressive legal and policy development and implementation, in contrast to a masculinist financial culture of unfettered risk and neoliberal policies.

Robust and detailed constitutional gender equality protections based on international human rights standards are essential for a strong and enforceable domestic legal framework, and the active intervention of human rights organizations at the request of civil society can contribute to achieving the gender equality goal.

The gender-sensitive education initiative is a promising practice in a fraught context, but is not a stand-alone measure. The case study demonstrates that gender equality cannot be fully achieved through sectorial approaches, but instead requires the creation of an enabling environment animated by comprehensive long-term measures emphasizing the interconnectedness of women’s rights in order to yield both legal and social change.

In 2011, a social worker who founded a local shelter for girl survivors of sexual violence and an international human rights lawyer initiated a coalition with local, regional and international civil society organizations, feminist lawyers and the national human rights commission to file a case seeking to hold the police accountable for failure to address rampant sexual violence against girls. The 160 Girls case was brought to the High Court in 2012. With the support of the shelter, 11 applicants were chosen from more than 160 victims of child rape who had been denied access to justice. The remaining victims were represented by the twelfth applicant, which was the rape shelter itself. It was the first case brought to the High Court under the equality provisions laid out in the 2010 Constitution. The decision was instrumental in establishing the failure of the police to meet national and international standards to conduct prompt, effective, proper and professional investigations into complaints, thereby preventing access to justice. With the use of relevant international human rights instruments and progressive interpretation of constitutional rights and State obligation, the jurisprudence was precedent-setting. The seminal contribution of the decision lay in establishing the rights of the child and the delineation of the scope of State obligation in protecting children from violence, and the duty to investigate and apply existing rape laws.

The Working Group considers that the study of the ways and means by which those movements engage with processes of change involving the law merits in-depth consideration. Such investigation will reveal specific ways that States can create an ameliorating environment for and work collaboratively with autonomous women’s movements towards eliminating discrimination against women in law and in practice.

Measures involving groups of women who experience intersectional discrimination, such as indigenous women, must be developed in accordance with an intersectional, gender-sensitive human rights perspective and engage with women as stakeholders.

Among the key challenges in eliminating discrimination against women in law and practice is the question of sustainability in the efforts and impacts of changing laws. Local and global political and ideological landscapes are ever-shifting and resources are limited and insecure.

[The Working Group recommends that States:] Invest in long-term and multi-dimensional strategies to promote social change, including extensive training, educational and awareness-raising measures to promote a culture of human rights among right and duty holders alike;

The five members of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice assumed their functions on 1 May 2011. The Working Group has held three sessions since then and conducted one country visit, namely, to Morocco. At the time of drafting the present report, the Working Group was engaged in dialogue with the Government of the Republic of Moldova on conducting a visit to that country from 21 to 30 May 2012. It will report on its visit to the Republic of Moldova during the twenty-third session of the Human Rights Council. It has pursued active engagement with a range of stakeholders, including States, United Nations organizations and intergovernmental bodies, human rights mechanisms, civil society organizations and academic experts, and has participated in a number of activities of relevance to its mandate, including by contributing inputs on equality and non-discrimination, and protection and promotion of women's human rights, to various initiatives undertaken by others, including other special procedure mandate holders.

For legal guarantees of gender equality to benefit all women, implementation frameworks and strategies must be responsive to the intersections of sex-based discrimination with other grounds of discrimination, such as race, ethnicity, religion or belief, language, political affiliation, health, status, age, class, caste, national or social origin, property, birth, and sexual orientation and gender identity. Legal guarantees and implementation frameworks and strategies must also integrate special measures to reach women who face multiple forms of discrimination, such as rural and indigenous women, women with disabilities, women living in poverty and women facing other forms of marginalization. This requires a comprehensive and coherent human rights-based approach that ensures that women are at the centre of efforts to hold principally States accountable for implementing international standards guaranteeing civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. National, regional and international human rights mechanisms play critical roles in ensuring the full enjoyment by women of their human rights.

The democratic deficit also expresses itself in the lack of capacity by States to address perpetual insecurity in all its different dimensions, including militarism and the culture of violence, especially, but not only, in situations of conflict and transition, in which women are primary victims.

In 1981, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (the Convention) entered into force. Article 7 of the Convention articulates women's right to equal participation in political and public life as encompassing the right to vote in all elections and public referenda and to be eligible for election to all publicly elected bodies; to participate in the formulation of government policy and the implementation thereof and to hold public office and perform all public functions at all levels of government; and to participate in non-governmental organizations and associations concerned with the public and political life of the country. Article 8, in addition, refers to State obligations to take all appropriate measures to ensure to women, on equal terms with men and without any discrimination, the opportunity to represent their Governments at the international level and to participate in the work of international organizations. The Convention thus specified and expanded the State obligations set out under articles 2, 3 and 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which require a guarantee of the equal right to take part in the conduct of public affairs, including direct participation as well as participation through freely chosen representatives.

Yet, despite decades of efforts, the Working Group notes that, in 2012, the General Assembly expressed its concern at the reality that women in every part of the world continued to be largely marginalized from the political sphere and saw it necessary to again dedicate a resolution to promote women's political participation. In 2012, the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality of the European Parliament indicated its alarm at the underrepresentation of women in the European Union legislative council and leadership positions, and at the stagnation of women's representation at one third or less in parliaments across the region. In 2011, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reported on the "inequitable and sluggish" progress made in women's political representation at different levels of government in the Americas. In 2012, the World Bank found that in the Asia-Pacific region, rapid growth and economic development, with the highest female labour force participation rate in the developing world, have not been enough to attain gender equality, including in the area of political agency and representation.