The Women’s Learning Partnership hosted an all-day program today entitled 2020 Vision: Mobilizing for Women’s Rights and Eliminating Violence Against Women.

Ambassador Melanne Verveer gave the first keynote address, stating that governments should not relegate “women’s issues” as a special category since they are hard power issues that should be mainstreamed. When women are suppressed and the government is weak, terrorism takes hold, making women’s rights a national security issue. The main issues under the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) that must still be addressed include education for girls, economic participation for women, the right of political participation for women, the right to be free from violence, and the right to health. These issues must be addressed holistically and in connection with each other since they are highly interdependent. Women’s advocates must also seek less visible, untraditional allies like men and religious leaders when seeking women’s rights.

Panel 1: Securing Women’s Safety and Dignity: Mobilizing for a World Free of Violence Against Women.
In this panel, women’s activists from Jordan, Nigeria and Brazil discussed how governments are slowly starting to pass legislation criminalizing violence against women, though implementation is slow. Young women leaders are critical to the women’s movement to continue fighting for further implementation and greater achievement of the BPfA goals. The panel also highlighted the vital importance of sex disaggregated data and gender budget analysis to understand the true nature of women’s rights in individual countries. Coalitions of women to mobilize politically are also vital for women to achieve political presence and power.

Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, gave the second keynote address. She discussed how culture seems to be in opposition to women’s rights and human rights. She argued that instead, culture is a major catalyst for human rights change and that a cultural and gender lens is necessary to bring change from within. This approach brings deep insights and contexts for indigenous change. As an example, women are working all over the world to interpret religious texts from a feminist perspective. Activists must work through the national system to change laws as well as the community level to make change on the ground. Partnering with men is also necessary to make them a part of a credible solution to women’s rights.

Mary Robinson, Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, gave the third keynote address and suggested that the 10th anniversary of Security Council Resolution (SCR)1325 shouldn’t be marked by rhetoric but with better implementation. Deputy Under-Secretary Asha-Rose Migiro recently formed a high-level steering committee for SCR 1325 and asked Mary Robinson to chair an NGO committee to advise the steering committee. This advisory body is comprised of experts in the NGO community working on issues related to women and security.

Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel Peace laureate, gave the final keynote address. She spoke about the women’s human rights movement in Iran and the growth of feminism among hard-line religious women as they experienced discriminatory laws themselves. Many of the activists were arrested and faced persecution during the recent One Million Signatures campaign, but it is important for the women’s movement to be seen as compatible and consistent with the principles of Islam. By using a feminist interpretation of Islam, they can argue against the fundamentalists who use religious rhetoric to treat women with inequality.

Panel 2: Movement Building from the Local to the Global: What CEDAW Means for Women at the Grassroots.
The second panel was comprised of women activists from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region who discussed local and regional campaigns for women’s rights. The One Million Signatures campaign in Iran has garnered wide international support, but many of the leaders were arrested and lost their jobs and homes, leaving them without any financial resources. The women continue to fight for their rights and are slowly forming partnerships with sympathetic men who will advocate with them. The “Equality without Reservation” coalition of Arab states is advocating for uniform reservation of CEDAW, removal of all reservations to the Convention, and ratification of the Optional Protocol. Many Arab countries are moving in the direction of lifting reservations as a result of the work of NGO advocacy. Additionally, the equal citizenship campaign by many NGOs in the Arab region advocates for laws that allow women to pass on their citizenship to their children. Many MENA countries have laws that specify male citizenship and define women’s identity in relation to their male relatives, in contrast to many of the state constitutions that guarantee equality. Recently, three MENA countries have enacted nationality laws that allow women to give citizenship to their children and other countries are moving in that direction.