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UN General Assembly High-Level Debate on Gender Equality:
Panel: Women in Decision-making. Convened by the President of the General Assembly.
Presentation: Pregaluxmi (Pregs) Govender, South Africa
A Challenge to the UN to use its power to change women's lives in this century:
In Africa women have attained a high proportion of representation in many parliaments, from Rwanda to South Africa. However, the power of parliaments and governments has been reduced as decisions affecting women's lives have moved beyond the control of public institutions. The UN is the most representative global body that has established normative standards on human rights and gender equality. Yet those who hold economic power disregard these norms and treat country economies as private casinos. Global companies and their individual owners (whose personal wealth far exceeds the GDP of some countries), are accountable to no one yet their interests often supersede state sovereignty. Decision-making is skewed in the interests of the rich and powerful despite the promise of democracy as organizations such as the World Trade Organization advance the rights of capital above citizen rights. UN organizations established to advance the rights of women and gender equality are generally under-resourced with little power to impact on crucial decisions. Generally set up to fail, these structures and the women in them, often end up playing catch-up. Worse, they often fight against each other for pathetic resources, whether from governments or donors.
South Africa is an example of the consequences of the disjuncture between excellent public sector policy and the global and local interests of the private sector. After 1994, through Parliament women achieved:
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Gender equality and socio-economic rights in the Constitution.
- A Parliamentary Committee on the status of women, which had major victories in ensuring gender-sensitive laws and national budget.
- Laws such as the right to reproductive choice, domestic violence, minority status of women in customary law, child maintenance and women's rights in the workplace.
- A national budget commitment to policy priorities in the interests of the poorest women.
- A post-Beijing commitment to decrease military spending and reallocate to women's empowerment.
SA has been referred to as a model country, correctly so, in all of the above areas. Yet large numbers of women who bear the brunt of violence and HIV/AIDS, still cannot find paid employment, live way below the poverty level, without access to free clean water and sanitation, housing, affordable healthcare or food for themselves and their families. Global agreements and trends that bear significant responsibility include:
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The General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs that SA implemented at a rate that cost women workers in the clothing sector tens of thousands of jobs. Instead of protecting jobs, especially of women workers whose wages supported families, women were shunted into unemployment and the unprotected informal economy.
- Macro-economic priority in SA decreased public spending in areas critical to reconstructing a society where the economic effects of apartheid continue. It promised: “a growth rate of 6% per annum and job creation of 400 000 per annum by the year 2000”. Neither target was met. Jobs created are mainly in low-paid vulnerable work, and the numbers do not match the increase in the labor force. The result is that numbers of the “working poor,” particularly among women, increased.
- The General Agreement on Services promotes the privatization of services like water, health, and education and has undermined socioeconomic rights across our continent. Studies of one of the first countries in Africa to privatize water, Senegal, reveal that today water is of poorer quality and expensive. Poor women spend more hours trying to find free water than before.
- One of the most damaging debates for women was a nonsensical debate on whether HIV causes AIDS. It diverted attention away from government's Constitutional responsibility to challenge the patents that impedes access to generic equivalents, necessary for affordable healthcare. Instead, it ultimately protected patent rights above patient rights.
- SA negotiated an arms deal, following the global trend to increase military spending. Initially estimated at R28billion, it has more than doubled. The rationale was that the cost of purchasing arms would be offset by investments that would create many jobs. The few jobs created have not offset costs, which have been exacerbated by loans taken from the governments that sold SA the arms. The arms deal is today synonymous with corruption, yet it was clear from the outset that corruption is a routine part of such deals.
These are some of reasons why excellent gains made in Parliaments, have had such little impact. There are many things the UN can do beyond rhetorical statements on Women's Day. I want to take just one. Many have argued for the UN to have a powerful global women's entity with normative and operational responsibility to impact at policy level and on the ground. It must be powerfully resourced and led by someone with sufficient authority (no less than an Under Secretary General). Then it can ensure:
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Coherent application by all UN bodies and other global bodies to human rights and gender equality norms. Trade agreements cannot contravene UN human rights conventions
- The implementation of commitments made at the UN by member countries such as the Peace Dividend and CEDAW
This entity has to assert transformative power and leadership against the patriarchal power of hate, greed and fear. This is not about men and women fighting each other but fighting an authoritarian system of patriarchy. The challenge to the United Nations is to transform moribund bureaucracy to reassert power in the interests of the poorest and most powerless. Defining power as the power of love within ourselves and each other, we can emerge our deepest courage. We can use our voices, positions, access and power to develop the material conditions necessary for every human being to realise their creative potential.
Pregs Govender
International Women's Day, 8 March 2007
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