Women's Views on News |
- UN council discusses women’s human rights
- Call for sex education to be modernised
- Government to look into Tamil deportations
| UN council discusses women’s human rights Posted: 26 Jun 2014 07:35 AM PDT
"Cultural attitudes and gender ideologies frequently regard women as subordinate to men, or dictate that men should control women," said Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. "These attitudes may be so widely and deeply held within the community that they are almost invisible – except in their effects. "For they perpetuate discrimination, violence and humiliation." Pillay was speaking at the annual day of discussion dedicated to women's human rights during the 26th session of the Human Rights Council. She emphasised that deep-seated gender stereotypes about women's roles were reinforced by decision-makers' inability to make real commitments to change society's preconceptions. Dubravka Simonovic, member of the committee which observes States' compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), stressed that the Convention's key purpose was to achieve substantive equality between men and women. For that purpose, the Convention recommends to States to abolish discriminatory laws and modify discriminatory social norms. Simonovic told participants that Article 5a of the Convention obliges States to eliminate discriminatory stereotypes based on socially constructed roles and attributes associated with gender. Further, Article 5b recognises the common responsibility of men and women in the upbringing of their children. "This addresses the need to change stereotypes about the mother as the nurturer and the father as the bread winner that are most strongly replicated in family roles in relation to child rearing," she said. The UN Human Rights Office commissioned Simone Cusack to analyse how stereotyping in the judiciary undermines justice for women, in particular in cases of gender-based violence. The study revealed the five ways in which this occurred. First, it compromises judges' impartiality. It also influences their understanding of criminal offences and their perception on whether violence has occurred in cases such as the rape of sex workers, of married women by their husbands, or domestic violence in same-sex relationships. Stereotypes affect judges' views about witness credibility or legal capacity. Such is the case when judges form a negative view about the credibility of the victims who do not behave in a stereotypical manner. Further, stereotyping can also stop judges from holding perpetrators accountable or even cause them to blame the victim. Finally, stereotyping can impede access to legal rights and protection for victims of violence. The R.P.B v. Philippines case presented to CEDAW under the individual complaint procedure, Cusack mentioned, highlighted many of these harms. The rapist of a deaf and mute 17-year-old girl was acquitted by the court because the Judge expected the victim to fight her aggressor in order to protect her purity. Speaking of the impact of stereotypes on the reproductive and sexual health and rights of women and girls, Veronica Undurraga, Law Professor at Adolfo Ibañez University in Santiago, Chile, said that there was a belief that girls should not manifest any interest in sexuality, whereas male teenagers were expected to be more vocal and aggressive. "Both young male and female adolescents should receive sexual education in order to prevent pregnancies and abortions among girls who are more often the victims of sexual coercion," Undurraga said. "Education health systems should respect the needs of girls who seek information and access to reproductive health services." Undurraga also highlighted the idea that married women should always be available for their husbands, denying them the rights to decide when they wish to engage in sex. They can also be vulnerable to violence perpetrated by their husbands, which is often not punished in the courts. The Executive Director of the Ethiopian Centre for Disability and Development, Yetnebersh Nigussie, said that women with disabilities had long been overlooked in the gender movement and that they had to deal with compounded stereotypes because of their gender and their disability. "There is a challenge of proving two layers of humanity in order to be accepted as a woman with disabilities in this world," she said. "First they have to prove that they are a person, before their disability, and also that they are a woman." Nigussie highlighted that women with disabilities are believed to be sexually inactive and therefore unsuitable for marriage. They are also the least likely to acquire an education for fear that they could be abducted, raped or subject to other forms of violence in school. Further, women with intellectual disabilities in particular, including when they are victims of sexual violence, were seldom considered reliable witnesses in courts. Todd Minerson, Executive Director of the White Ribbon Campaign and moderator of the discussion, noted that lesbian, gay, bisexual and intersex women, sex workers, women with problems of substance abuse, migrant women and indigenous women should also be considered when talking about compounded gender stereotypes. His organisation, which is the world's largest coalition of men and boys against violence against women, endeavours to transform the harmful understanding of masculinity that permeated the violence. It also works for the recognition that the gender equality struggle must also be fought by men and boys.  |
| Call for sex education to be modernised Posted: 26 Jun 2014 04:05 AM PDT
Please sign Jennifer McDonald’s petition asking two MSPs to modernise and reinforce sex education in schools: Taking into account our personal experiences, and also those of our peers who are still in school, we have noticed that we have all had little or no teachings in Sex Ed. We need help to eradicate the stigma attached to anything perceived as sexual, as this unhealthy attitude contributes to the demonisation of genitals, safe-sex, and self-pleasure. Firstly, one of the main issues we feel needs to be addressed is the fact that many schools have little or no Sex Ed whatsoever. Children should be getting taught about their bodies, their feelings, and other people’s bodies from a young age, as this would hopefully lessen the mystery, and show whatever they are experiencing is completely natural. We also believe that such classes should be taken by people who specialise in sexual health, as opposed to a teacher whose only experience is their own, and their partners’. Classes should teach more than how to put on a condom, it should inform about arousal, masturbation, discharge (what should be considered normal; what shouldn’t), sexualities, gender binaries and the abundance of different contraceptive methods. Classes should not be about learning the basics and leaving the pupils to figure out the rest. Teenagers shouldn’t feel like they need to turn to pornography when they are confused about sex. We need to teach safe sex for LGBT+ students, as these classes have always been aimed at heterosexual pupils which is no longer an accurate representation of Scottish youth. And support for LGBT+ students who are coming out. Too much of sex education is about avoidance, we should not be portraying normal, healthy, human feelings in such a negative way. We need to stop making teenagers feel guilty and dirty for something that is natural. For, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said: “The idea that sex is something a woman gives a man, and she loses something when she does that … is nonsense. “I want us to raise girls differently where boys and girls start to see sexuality as something that they own, rather than something that a boy takes from a girl.” Sexual assault, rape, STDs, unwanted pregnancy are all possible outcomes of bad sex education. Without being taught about consent or protection, teenagers will not know what is okay and what isn’t. It is about time this got taken seriously.  |
| Government to look into Tamil deportations Posted: 26 Jun 2014 01:09 AM PDT
The UK's foreign secretary William Hague has said the UK government will investigate claims that Tamil asylum seekers are being deported from the UK to Sri Lanka despite evidence they have been subjected to rape and sexual abuse by Sri Lanka’s security forces. Refugees, their lawyers and advocacy groups, the Guardian reported, made the allegations on the opening day of the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, which the UK hosted, and which has faced accusations of hypocrisy over the issue. Lawyers even reported an acceleration of deportations of Tamils in recent weeks, which they believed has been triggered by anticipation of new Sri Lankan guidelines expected to bolster the cases of Tamil asylum seekers fleeing torture. Asylum decisions, Hague pointed out, were handled by the home secretary, Theresa May, while the Foreign Office contributed only to country-by-country assessments of human rights. But he also promised an investigation and training for immigration officers to make them more sensitive to the plight of rape victims. A recent letter to the Guardian, responding to Hague's statement, has, however, asked for removals to Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to be halted in the interim. The letter was signed by Fred Carver, Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice; Andy Keefe, Freedom from Torture; Natasha Walter, Women for Refugee Women; Shami Chakrabarti, Liberty; Professor Cornelius Katona, Helen Bamber Foundation; Yolanda Foster of Amnesty International and Liz McKeanof the End Violence Against Women Coalition. We were, they wrote, 'delighted by the reported announcement by William Hague at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict that the government would investigate the removal of survivors of sexual violence who have claimed asylum in the UK, particularly those from Sri Lanka. 'There are many credible reports of the widespread use of sexual violence as torture in Sri Lanka, yet survivors of such abuse who have claimed asylum here often struggle to get a fair hearing in the asylum process and many have been threatened with or actually experienced removal to Sri Lanka. 'There is also substantial evidence of the use of sexual violence as torture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and reports that returned asylum seekers are vulnerable to such abuse. 'An investigation is therefore much needed. 'We hope this proposed investigation will consider such evidence and also constitute a meaningful review of the way that sexual violence is treated within the asylum process. 'Too many survivors of sexual violence who have to cross borders to seek safety are being denied a fair hearing, many are detained and even returned to places where they may be in danger. 'The current situation is often failing those whom it is designed to protect and traumatising people further. 'We would also ask Hague and Theresa May to ensure that removals to Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are halted until the investigation is completed. Otherwise we may discover that mistakes have been made that cannot be unmade.’ Friday - 2o June - the letter continued, was World Refugee Day and the hope was that this would a day when politicians ‘stand up for the UK’s proud tradition of giving a safe haven to those who come to our shores fleeing persecution in their home countries.'  |
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