The following is a post written by Vital Voices Asia Program intern, Shonali Banerjee.

The small Pacific island of Timor-Leste has been referred to by many as one of the world’s newest and poorest nations. However, recent progress has been made in women’s health and education.

According to the country’s latest Demographic and Health Survey, the current fertility rate stands at 5.7 births per woman, two children less than in 2003. The infant mortality rate has also dropped significantly in the last 7 years, from 60 to 44 deaths to 1,000 births.

Experts have attributed these leaps in public health to women’s increased access to education, a higher number of women in the work force, and the increased availability of reproductive health services. A recent survey also shows that there is a greater demand for family planning and an increase in the use of skilled birth attendants and maternal services.

One of the most drastic changes in the nation has been a shift in women’s attitudes toward childbearing. According to a survey, 72 percent of women in Timor-Leste want to have less children and space out having children. Only 35 percent of surveyed women felt the same way in 2003.

Former Health Minister Rui de Araujo says that these striking results show that the country was right to focus many of its policies on primary health care, health promotion, community involvement and education.

Read the full story: “Timor-Leste: ’spectacular’ reduction in child mortality rates,” IRIN Asia.

The following is a post written by Vital Voices Asia Program intern, Shonali Banerjee.

In an effort to reduce the domestic maternal mortality rate, the Indonesian government has announced that it will provide funding for deliveries performed by skilled birth attendants for three million women.

The Indonesian Health Minister has said that many maternal deaths can be attributed to the use of unskilled birth attendants. During the opening of a conference addressing the Millennium Development Goals, the Health Minister stated that the national government would help local governments fund skilled health professionals and health centers.

Only 5 percent of the 5 million pregnant women in Indonesia currently receive assistance for deliveries. Indonesia is currently off-track in meeting its maternal mortality rate target of 102 per 100,000 live births by 2015. The maternal mortality rate in Indonesia is six times higher than in its neighboring country Malaysia.

Read the full story: “Indonesia to provide poor with safer maternal care,” IRIN Asia.

The followig is a blog post written by Vital Voices Asia Program Intern, Shonali Banerjee.

A new sex education initiative is sparking controversy throughout the Philippines. The new plan aims to cut down the rapid population growth rate that is arguably responsible for the country’s skyrocketing poverty rates. Speaking openly about sex is taboo within the nation, and the influential Roman Catholic Church has demanded that the new plan be scrapped. However, the federal government is struggling to find any other potential solutions to the 2 percent annual population growth.

According to Mona Valisno, the Education Secretary, the plan is to introduce the Adolescent Reproductive Health Program to students from fifth grade onward. The initiative will at first be launched in 80 public elementary schools and 79 high schools, but will soon be expanded nationwide. Numerous topics will be discussed within the program, including the different aspects of personal hygiene, reproductive health, pre-marital sex, teenage pregnancy, and HIV/AIDS awareness.

Secretary Valisno has said that numerous psychologists were consulted during the planning process of the program, ensuring that the material discussed would be age appropriate.

“Our role here is to educate the young people on issues that directly affect them and empower them to make informed choices and decisions.”

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In an address at the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women on March 3, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer, spoke on the progress made and obstacles that remain in the effort to realize UN Millennium Development Goals related to women’s empowerment and international development. Verveer emphasized the value that safeguarding women’s rights, improving maternal health, and supporting women’s economic advancement can have on whole communities.

“Millennium Development Goal 3, on gender equality, is the linchpin—the means to the achievement of all other MDGs.”

During its 54th session, the Commission on the Status of Women is undertaking a 15-year review of the global commitments made at the historic UN Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China, in 1995. Ambassador Verveer said that much work lies ahead before those commitments are fully honored, especially regarding the challenge of violence against women, but she is urged on by the unanimous passage of a UN resolution for the creation of the first UN agency that will be exclusively committed to women’s global advancement.

Read Ambassador Verveer’s Statement here.

The 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, marking the fifteenth anniversary of the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, is a year of reflection on the progress on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals. At the opening session of CSW attended by nearly 8,000 NGO and government delegates, the UN Deputy Secretary General, the President of ECOSOC, the Under-Secretary General for the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the Assistant Secretary General Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, the Executive Director of UNIFEM, and the Chair of CEDAW gave overviews of the efforts made by each of their departments and organizations. They each emphasized that Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has designated gender equality and women’s empowerment as priority areas in the next five years. Women are key to national economic growth, peace and security, and development. While gaps remain between legislation and implementation, the rhetoric must be supported by action to achieve these goals.

According to Ambassador Hamidon Ali, the current President of ECOSOC, this year holds special significance for women’s empowerment. This year ECOSOC will review the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), the global blueprints for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Specifically, MDG3 (promote gender equality and empower women) is considered a goal in and of itself but also as a means to achieving all other goals, since no country can develop without the full and effective participation of women.

While education and the development of national laws have been areas of progress, the global economic crisis has impacted the rate of women’s employment, especially poor and rural women. Other challenges include balancing work/caregiving responsibilities for women, the increase of human trafficking, and the uneven and sporadic progress of women’s equality. There is hope that the new Under-Secretary General for Women’s Affairs will leverage the momentum and strength of the UN system to attain further progress in these areas, in collaboration with the invaluable role of NGOs working with local communities.

In 2010, the international community marks the 15^th anniversary of the historic Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China in 1995. It was in Beijing that former-First Lady and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared:

“human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.”

In preparation for this significant anniversary, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has requested member governments to respond to a questionnaire on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, which was adopted at the conference to guide progress on women’s rights around the world. UN regional commissions are simultaneously evaluating achievements and considering challenges in the period from 2004 to 2009.

Among the 26 nations to recently submit their questionnaires, Turkey has released a report that highlights legal developments made while noting that implementation of various laws has proven difficult. Gender-sensitive advancements have been made to legislation including the Labor Law, Criminal Code and Civil Code. Adopted provisions now extend equal rights of employment to all women and formally abolish discrimination against women and girls. Patriarchal and derogatory language has been removed from the national Civil Code, replaced with language that emphasizes the joint responsibility and ability of spouses to make decisions in their household. A National Plan has also been developed to guide action on women’s rights in the spheres of education, poverty, health and the environment, among others.

Perhaps the most problematic area for women’s rights in Turkey, as noted in the government’s response to the questionnaire, is the prevalence of violence against women. Despite legal provisions, the implementation of the Criminal Code and violence-prevention measures remains a significant challenge. Further, “the sexist point of view in the societal structure creates barriers against women’s participation in social life and their enjoyment of the existing legal rights.” The report concludes with a call for collaboration between agencies and organizations of the state in an effort to advance gender equality.

Questionnaire to Governments -Turkey Responds

Related:

The Significance of CEDAW in Turkey: Interview with Urun Guner

As U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Susan Rice released a statement today in commemoration of the 30^th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Rice said that “notable progress” has been made in the 30 years since the introduction of CEDAW, which is informally known as the Treaty for the Rights of Women. Ambassador Rice called for action to “close remaining gender gaps, both at home and abroad.” Speaking on the commitment of the United States, one of the only remaining nations that has yet to ratify CEDAW, Rice said:

“The Obama Administration strongly supports this landmark treaty, and is committed to United States ratification.”

The Ambassador went on to note U.S. support of the creation of a UN agency that will be dedicated solely to women and gender issues. Rice further added: “The battle to eliminate discrimination and enshrine women’s equal rights is not yet won. The U.S. will not rest until, with others, we make this shared goal a reality.”

Statement by Ambassador Susan E. Rice- U.S. Mission to the United Nations

On December 18, 1979, the United Nations General Assembly voted to adopt the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), informally known as the Treaty for the Rights of Women. Today, 30 years later, the international community commemorates the adoption of this critical instrument for the preservation and practice of women’s rights.

The Treaty for the Rights of Women is an international instrument for governments, activists, advocates and citizens joined in a global movement towards the full realization and practice of women’s rights. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979, the Treaty has since been ratified by 186 nations as the preeminent treaty acknowledging the comprehensive rights of women as fundamental human rights. In defining discrimination against women, the Treaty includes any restriction or exclusion, made on the basis of sex, which has as its purpose or effect a denial of the full recognition and exercise of a woman’s fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil, or any other sphere.

CEDAW uniquely addresses prejudice as a social construct with systemic and systematic consequences, citing social and cultural patterns of conduct based on perceived inferiority or superiority as root causes that perpetuate discrimination against women. Written in the progressive spirit that was later echoed by the historic 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, the Treaty urges that women and men recognize and remedy a reality that permits socially constructed gender roles to dictate the experience and opportunity afforded an individual.

The Treaty is a decisive call for the promise of equal opportunity to be practically extended to women in areas of political and public life, education, employment, health care, economic and social rights, as well as in marriage and family relations. In distinguishing de facto equality from de jure equality, the Treaty seeks to engage signatories as partners in an active movement to realize women’s rights, promoting concrete measures to be taken by states parties in an effort to accelerate equality between men and women.

Currently, only the United States, Sudan, Somalia, Iran and three other countries have not ratified CEDAW. A signatory since President Jimmy Carter signed the treaty in 1979, the U.S. has been at an impasse in Congress since then, and despite several attempts, the Treaty for the Rights of Women remains unratified. The Obama Administration has declared ratification of CEDAW a priority. Failure to ratify has often undermined American credibility in its rebuke of human rights abuses abroad and calls for women’s human rights.

Following their ratification of the Treaty, various countries across the world have taken action based on CEDAW in efforts to empower women and legitimize and enforce their rights.

• Nicaragua, Jordan, Egypt and Guinea are among other nations that have seen significant increases in literacy rates after improving access to education for women and young girls.
• Colombia has, since ratification, criminalized domestic violence and required protection for victims.
• Ukraine, Nepal, Thailand and the Philippines are among other states that have passed legislation to address sex trafficking.
• Uganda, South Africa, Brazil and others have incorporated provisions of the Treaty into their constitutions and domestic legal codes.
• India developed national guidelines on workplace sexual assault after the Supreme Court found that CEDAW required such protections.

Vital Voices Global Partnership stands with hundreds of NGOs in support of U.S. ratification of the Treaty, so that our country, long respected as an advocate and example of human rights, may lend its full support and credibility to its commitment to ensure the human rights of women across the world.

If you are interested in supporting CEDAW, here are a few ways that you can express your support:

Ratify CEDAW on its 30^th Anniversary –Citizens for Global Solutions

Working Group on CEDAW

Physicians for Human Rights

Related: The Significance of CEDAW in Turkey: Interview with Urun Guner-Vital Voices

In her remarks on Human Rights Day during The Courage to Lead: A Global Summit for Women Leaders, a gathering convened by Vital Voices and The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang spoke about women worldwide taking the lead in an effort to eliminate discrimination and secure the equal rights of all people. Noting that only six years remain before the 2015 deadline for the UN Millennium Development Goals, Kang pressed for greater efforts to address global gender disparities.

The Deputy High Commissioner went on to cite the importance of certain UN conventions, namely the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Kang said that age-old prejudices persist, threatening the full practice of women’s human rights:

“These underlying prejudices and practices determine gender roles, entrench discrimination in other contexts, such as education and participation in decision-making, and also render women more vulnerable to many forms of violence, including trafficking.”

Women Leaders: The Courage to Lead -UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Related:

On Human Rights Day 2009, UN High Commissioner Calls for Non-discrimination -Vital Voices Blog

The introduction of cell phones and internet access has dramatically reduced the number of maternal deaths in villages of Ghana, reports IRIN Africa News. Health workers say that “the availability of cell phones has been pivotal” in preventing maternal deaths. Since the technology came to Amensie village in 2006, not a single maternal death has occurred. In districts with only one midwife or ambulance, many pregnant women in remote villages were unable to reach out for medical assistance in an emergency. A project of Millennium Villages, the cell phone initiative is an effort to realize the UN Millennium Development Goals.

According to UNICEF, half of the pregnant women in Ghana “give birth at home with no skilled health worker present.” Beginning in 2006, mobile handset producer Ericsson teamed up with mobile communications provider Zain to install internet access and mobile phone coverage in remote villages. The Vice-President of Corporate Responsibility at Ericsson, Elaine Weidman, told IRIN:

“We entered the project because we believe information and communications technology play a critical role in helping to end the poverty cycle.”

Read the full article: Ghana: cell phones cut maternal deaths -IRIN Africa News