The UN women’s rights committee said that the US is one of only seven countries throughout the world that is not party to the international convention that protects women’s human rights, including their right to sexual and reproductive health.
“The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) urges the United States of America to adhere to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in order to respect, protect, fulfil and promote the human rights of women and girls,” the committee said in a statement.
CEDAW noted that while the US signed the convention in 1980, it has yet to ratify it.
Standing in solidarity
UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet described the US Supreme Court ruling to strike down the Roe v Wade as “a huge blow to women’s human rights and gender equality.”
The committee again reiterated its call for States parties to remove punitive measures for women who undergo abortion and to legalize abortion – at least in cases of rape, incest, threats to the life or health of the pregnant woman, and in the case of severe foetal impairment.
“With 189 States parties, the CEDAW Convention is the only near-universal treaty that comprehensively protects women’s human rights, including their sexual and reproductive health rights”, the statement said.
Articles of protection
The UN-appointed panel drew specific attention to article 16, which “protects women’s rights to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children”, adding that unsafe abortion is a leading cause of maternal mortality.
They also spelled out that under article 12, the right to health includes bodily autonomy and encompasses women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive freedoms.
Freedom to choose
Access to safe and legal abortion and to quality post-abortion care, especially in cases of complications resulting from unsafe abortions, helps to reduce maternal mortality rates, prevent adolescent and unwanted pregnancies and ensure women’s right to freely decide over their bodies.
The committee has repeatedly stressed that denying access to safe and legal abortion is “a severe restriction on women’s ability to exercise their reproductive freedom, and that forcing women to carry a pregnancy to full term involves mental and physical suffering amounting to gender-based violence against women and, in certain circumstances, to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, in violation of the CEDAW Convention”.
The UN-appointed committee reiterated its committed to uphold the human rights of women and girls around the world and “will not resile from this mandate, especially in relation to access to safe and legal abortion for all women”.
Unsplash/Gayatri Malhotra
Protesters demonstrate against US Supreme Court decision to criminalize a women’s right to abortion.
Recognizing the past “collective failure” in the Conference’s final declaration, world leaders called for greater ambition to ensure that the dire state of the ocean is addressed, and admitted frankly to being “deeply alarmed by the global emergency facing the ocean”.
At the closing, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Miguel de Serpa Soares, commended co-hosts – Portugal and Kenya – for the conference’s enormous success.
“[The Conference] has given us the opportunity to unpack critical issues and generate new ideas. It also made clear the work that remains, and the need to scale up that work for the recovery of our ocean”, Mr. Serpa Soares said, adding that it is essential to now turn the tide.
More than 6,000 participants, including 24 Heads of State and Government, and over 2,000 representatives of civil society attended the Conference, advocating for urgent and concrete actions to tackle the ocean crisis.
Collective failure
Recognizing a “collective failure to achieve Ocean related targets” so far, leaders renewed their commitment to take urgent action and to cooperate at all levels, to fully achieve targets as soon as possible.
Among the challenges the Ocean faces are coastal erosion, rising sea levels, warmer and more acidic waters, marine pollution, overexploitation of fish stocks and decrease of marine biodiversity.
Acknowledging that climate change is “one of the greatest challenges of our time”, and the need to “act decisively and urgently to improve the health, productivity, sustainable use and resilience of the ocean and its ecosystems”, top politicians gathered in Lisbon stressed that science-based and innovative actions, along with international cooperation, are essential to provide the necessary solutions.
Calling for transformative change, leaders stressed the need to address the cumulative impacts of a warming planet, on the ocean, including ecosystem degradation and species extinctions.
Reaffirming commitments
Reaffirming that the ocean is fundamental to life on our planet and to our future, the signatories emphasized the particular importance of implementing the Paris Agreement of 2015, and last November’s Glasgow Climate Pact to help ensure the health, productivity, sustainable use, and resilience of the ocean.
“We are committed to halting and reversing the decline in the health of the ocean’s ecosystems and biodiversity, and to protecting and restoring its resilience and ecological integrity.
Voluntary commitments include:
The Protecting Our Planet Challenge will invest at least USD $1 billion to support the creation, expansion, and management of marine protected areas by 2030.
The European Investment Bank will extend an additional EUR 150 million across the Caribbean Region as part of the Clean Oceans Initiative to improve climate resilience, water management and solid waste management.
Portugal committed to ensure that 100 per cent of the marine area under Portuguese sovereignty or jurisdiction is assessed as being in Good Environmental State and classify 30% of the national marine areas by 2030.
Kenya is currently developing a national blue economy strategic plan, inclusive and multistakeholder-oriented. Kenya also committed to developing a national action plan on sea-based marine plastic litter.
India committed to a Coastal Clean Seas Campaign and will work toward a ban on single use plastics.
“We call for an ambitious, balanced, practical, effective, robust, and transformative post-2020 global biodiversity framework”, the Lisbon declaration continued.
Resilient and healthy marine environments are the foundations of climate regulation and sustainable development, with the potential to produce food and energy for billions.
At the conference, more than 150 Member States made voluntary commitments to conserve or protect at least 30 percent of the global ocean within Marine Protected Areas, and other effective area-based conservation measures, by 2030.
“I am impressed by the new commitments [countries made], Mr. Serpa Soares said at the closing ceremony, adding that “commitments must be implemented at pace and monitored”. Some examples include:
Protecting or exceeding 30% of national maritime zones by 2030
Achieving carbon neutrality by 2040
Reducing plastic pollution
Increasing renewable energy use
Allocating billions of dollars to research on ocean acidification, climate resilience projects and to monitoring, control and surveillance
With the mission to generate and use knowledge for the transformational action needed to achieve a healthy, safe, and resilient ocean for sustainable development by 2030 and beyond, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the UN Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is driving development for the Decade of action.
For that, the Decade framework is designed to produce better-informed ocean management, restore fish stocks; mobilize actions for sustainable fisheries and sustainable aquaculture for sufficient, safe and nutritious food.
Ocean Image Bank/Thomas Horig
One of the biggest threats to our oceans is man-made pollution.
It’s also geared to reducing marine pollution of all kinds, from both land and sea based sources, and work towards more effective marine protection, and develop and implement measures to adapt to climate change, reducing disaster risk, and the impacts of sea level rise, together with reducing emissions from maritime transportation.
Recognizing that developing countries, in particular small island developing States (SIDS) and least developed countries, face particular capacity challenges, political leaders are committing to strengthen data collection efforts, and enhancing cooperation at all levels to share knowledge.
After Lisbon
Financing is another particular focus of the declaration. The seven-page document states that innovative financing solutions must be found to drive the transformation towards sustainable ocean-based economies, and scale up nature-based solutions, as well as ecosystem-based approaches to support the resilience, restoration, and conservation of coastal ecosystems.
Declaring that the Conference proved the Blue Economy is now a huge part of the future security of humanity, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, Peter Thomson, called for more financial resources for it.
UNDP/Pierre Michel Jean
Sustainable fishing is improving livelihoods in Haiti.
He noted that the Secretary-General had pushed for consensus, after launching a red alert for humanity, and Mr. Thomson added that 2022 was proving to be a “super year”, calling for young people to be at the table for all the discussions on the ocean’s future, moving forward.
Speaking to UN News, Miguel de Serpa Soares added that the UN Ocean Conference was not the sole focus for ocean action this year.
“In the next several months, we will have several crucial events that hold many opportunities to demonstrate our commitments and ambition to turn the tide in favour of ocean sustainability”.
Following the event in Lisbon, the path to save our ocean will continue through the Intergovernmental Conference on a treaty on marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework negotiations, and the negotiations for increased climate finance and adaptation actions at COP27 in Egypt.
Empower youth, women, and indigenous people
Recognizing the important role of indigenous, traditional, and local knowledge, innovation and practices held by indigenous peoples, as well as the role of social science in planning, decision-making and implementation, leaders are calling to meaningful participation of local communities.
UN News/Eleuterio Guevane
Young volunteers supporting the Ocean Conference in Lisbon.
“Empower women and girls, as their full, equal and meaningful participation is key in progressing towards a sustainable ocean-based economy and to achieving Goal 14”, the declaration highlights, stressing the importance of giving the power to youth to enable them to understand the “need to contribute to the health of the ocean, including in decision-making, through promoting and supporting quality education and life-long learning for ocean literacy”.
Calling on stakeholders to urgently take ambitions and concerted action to accelerate implementation to achieve Goal 14, the Conference concluded saying that “restoring harmony with nature through a healthy ocean is critical for the planet”.
Hope, and urgency
Encouraged by a renewed sense of hope and urgency about our future ocean, Mr. Serpa Soares concluded: “as we leave, we must follow-up on our commitments”.
“As the famous Tongan and Fijian writer Epeli Hau‘ofa said, we are the ocean. The ocean is in all of us, it is what sustains us, and it is the basis for our future survival on this planet Earth.”, he said.
The power of science
Building on the scientific focus of the week, UNESCO launched its key State of the Ocean Report on Friday.
The report was developed to provide new and revealing data on the current state of the ocean, structured around the initial 10 challenges of the Decade.
UNESCO’s Chief of the Ocean Science Section, Henrik Enevoldsen, spoke to UN News and said that the report complemented the scientific work of the conference, enhancing our capacity to manage the ocean.
Talking about the outcome of the conference he said it “highlighted the areas where we need more knowledge to provide a proper basis for decision makers [and to] better manage the ocean.
UN News has been on the ground in Lisbon, Portugal, all week, bringing you multimedia coverage of the Ocean Conference. You can access all our reports and interviews, here.
The world’s coastal populations contribute significantly to the global economy – an estimated $1.5 trillion per year – with expectations pointing to some $3 trillion by 2030.
Ensuring ocean ecosystem health, supporting livelihoods and driving economic growth requires targeted support for key sectors, including fisheries and aquaculture, tourism, energy, shipping and port activities, and seabed mining, as well as innovative areas such as renewable energy and marine biotechnology.
Marine resources ‘essential’
This is particularly important to small island developing states (SIDS), for whom marine resources are critical assets, providing them with food security, nutrition, employment, foreign exchange, and recreation.
Further, through evidence-based policy interventions, these assets can also make enhanced and sustained contributions to the economic growth, and prosperity of SIDS and least developed countries (LDCs).
Participating in the main interactive dialogue of the second-day of the Conference, former President of Seychelles, Danny Faure, explained to UN News that it is “extremely important that small States have a place at the table, to ensure that they can put forward their aspirations and move in the right direction”.
Acknowledging that climate change continues to affect his own country, and several SIDS, Mr. Faure called on the international community to continue to support countries like Seychelles.
“The blue economy is essential for the livelihoods of our people and nations. I see [investment] coming very slowly and I believe it is very important that, internationally, we continue to maintain the focus, so we can build partnerships between civil society and private sector,” he stated.
Fish is sun dried at a landing site in Kigoma, Tanzania.
What does a truly sustainable blue economy mean?
Despite of the lack of a universally accepted definition of the term blue economy, the World Bank defines it as “the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem.
A blue economy prioritizes all three pillars of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social. When talking about sustainable development, it is important to understand the difference between a blue economy and an ocean economy. The term implies that the initiative is environmentally sustainable, inclusive and climate resilient.
In addition to providing goods and services measurable in monetary terms, coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass meadows and wetlands deliver critical ecosystem services such as coastal protection and carbon sequestration.
Seagrass, which evolved over 70 million years ago from terrestrial grass, is one of the most diverse and valuable marine ecosystems on the planet.
Action now
Small island developing states control 30 per cent of all oceans and seas. But how can SIDS and the private sector build equitable and accountable partnerships for sustainable ocean?
Calling for the implementation of the promises set out in the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action, known by the shorthand SAMOA Pathway and the ambitions of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14), on conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, experts on the second day of the Conference reiterated the importance of harnessing private sector collaboration to make it possible.
Impacts of climate change
Speaking to UN News, the Secretary to Government of Tuvalu, Tapugao Falefou, said that his country was “not just beginning to understand what climate change is and how impacts [the world] but also physically understanding how it impacts [us].”
Describing major coastal erosion, drought and inland inundated by seawater, Mr. Falefou said “that didn’t happen 20 years back. These are the impacts of climate change that I can attest to, that larger countries may not experience.”
The path of multilateralism
With millions employed worldwide in fishing and fish farming, most in developing countries, healthy and resilient marine and coastal ecosystems are fundamental to sustainable development.
Other sectors that are critical to the resilience of developing countries include the coastal tourism sector, which contributes up to 40 per cent or more of the global gross domestic product (GDP) in some SIDS, and the marine fisheries sector, which provides nearly 20 per cent of the average intake of animal protein consumed by 3.2 billion people, and more than 50 per cent of the average intake in some least developed countries.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General, added that without multilateralism, no one can solve the problem of the Ocean.
“SIDS have the potential to be large ocean economies (…) if we do so sustainably, we can unlock development prospects”, she added, emphasizing the blue economy path.
A fisherwoman on her way to sell the fish she caught at Joal port in Senegal.
Women and the ocean
Focusing on the interlinkage between the SDG14 and SDG 5 (gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls) a panel of experts advocated for increasing women’s participation and leadership at all levels.
With women critically under-represented in the field of ocean actions, particularly in decision-making roles in ocean science, policy-making, and blue economy, the panel called for more action and a radical change in society.
“We have an enormous responsibility to do whatever we can to ensure the sustainability of our planet, and an event like this [Conference] is probably one of the most important in terms of the future of life,” said Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, President of the World Maritime University, based in Sweden.
Reiterating the importance of looking into women’s working conditions and pay-gap in fisheries, Ms. Doumbia-Henry added: “We need to focus on some of these questions, and what I am tired of is the lip service, we need to make the changes, and implement, to take it forward.”
Mainstream women’s participation
For Maria Damanaki, founder of Leading Women for the Ocean, concrete action plan is needed, along with legislation.
“We need to see women as part of the blue economy, we need to see them everywhere, to mainstream their participation, because without their leadership, humanity as a whole is going to lose a lot,” Ms. Damanaki said.
With the expected participation of over 12 thousand ocean advocates, including world leaders, entrepreneurs, youth, influencers, and scientists, the Conference will continue to ignite fresh impetus for advancing SDG14, at the heart of global action to protect life under water. Concrete measures will be adopted to build ocean resilience and more sustainable communities, underpinned by a new wave of commitments to restore the ocean’s health.
During the week, UN News will bring you daily coverage on the Conference as well as interviews, podcasts, and features, which you can access here.
A half-century of reproduction rights upended by the Supreme Court. Credit: Greenpeace.
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Inter Press Service
BOSTON, USA, Jun 27 (IPS) – After half a century, Americans’ constitutional right to get an abortion has been overturned by the Supreme Court. The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – handed down on June 24, 2022 – has far-reaching consequences. The Conversation asked Nicole Huberfeld and Linda C. McClain, health law and constitutional law experts at Boston University, to explain what just happened, and what happens next.
What did the Supreme Court rule?
The Supreme Court decided by a 6-3 majority to uphold Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In doing so, the majority opinion overturned two key decisions protecting access to abortion: 1973’s Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, decided in 1992.
The opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, said that the Constitution does not mention abortion. Nor does the Constitution guarantee abortion rights via another right, the right to liberty.
The opinion rejected Roe’s and Casey’s argument that the constitutional right to liberty included an individual’s right to privacy in choosing to have an abortion, in the same way that it protects other decisions concerning intimate sexual conduct, such as contraception and marriage. According to the opinion, abortion is “fundamentally different” because it destroys fetal life.
The court’s narrow approach to the concept of constitutional liberty is at odds with the broader position it took in the earlier Casey ruling, as well as in a landmark marriage equality case, 2015’s Obergefell v. Hodges. But the majority said that nothing in their opinion should affect the right of same-sex couples to marry.
Alito’s opinion also rejected the legal principle of “stare decisis,” or adhering to precedent. Supporters of the right to abortion argue that the Casey and Roe rulings should have been left in place as, in the words of the Casey ruling, reproductive rights allow women to “participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation.”
Chief Justice John Roberts concurred in the judgment that Mississippi’s law was constitutional, but did not agree with the majority opinion that Roe and Casey should be overruled entirely.
The ruling does not mean that abortion is banned throughout the U.S. Rather, arguments about the legality of abortion will now play out in state legislatures, where, Alito noted, women “are not without electoral or political power.”
States will be allowed to regulate or prohibit abortion subject only to what is known as “rational basis” review – this is a weaker standard than Casey’s “undue burden” test. Under Casey’s undue burden test, states were prevented from enacting restrictions that placed substantial obstacles in the path of those seeking abortion. Now, abortion bans will be presumed to be legal as long as there is a “rational basis” for the legislature to believe the law serves legitimate state interests.
In a strenuous dissent, Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor faulted the court’s narrow approach to liberty and challenged its disregard both for stare decisis and for the impact of overruling Roe and Casey on the lives of women in the United States. The dissenters said the impact of the decision would be “the curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens.” They also expressed deep concern over the ruling’s effect on poor women’s ability to access abortion services in the U.S.
Where does this decision fit into the history of reproductive rights in the U.S.?
This is a huge moment. The court’s ruling has done what reproductive rights advocates feared for decades: It has taken away the constitutional right to privacy that protected access to abortion.
This decision was decades in the making. Thirty years ago when Casey was being argued, many legal experts thought the court was poised to overrule Roe. Then, the court had eight justices appointed by Republican presidents, several of whom indicated readiness to overrule in dissenting opinions.
Instead, Republican appointees Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O’Connor and David Souter upheld Roe. They revised its framework to allow more state regulation throughout pregnancy and weakened the test for evaluating those laws. Under Roe’s “strict scrutiny” test, any restriction on the right to privacy to access an abortion had to be “narrowly tailored” to further a “compelling” state interest. But Casey’s “undue burden” test gave states wider latitude to regulate abortion.
In recent years, states have adopted numerous restrictions on abortion that would not have survived Roe’s tougher “strict scrutiny” test. Even so, many state restrictions have been struck down in federal courts under the undue burden test, including bans on abortions prior to fetal viability and so-called “TRAP” – targeted regulation of abortion provider – laws that made it harder to keep clinics open.
President Donald Trump’s pledge to appoint “pro-life” justices to federal courts – and his appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices – finally made possible the goal of opponents of legal abortion: overruling Roe and Casey.
What happens next?
Even before Dobbs, the ability to access abortion was limited by a patchwork of laws across the United States. Republican states have more restrictive laws than Democratic ones, with people living in the Midwest and South subject to the strongest limits.
Thirteen states have so-called “trigger laws,” which greatly restrict access to abortion. These will soon go into effect now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe and Casey, requiring only state attorney general certification or other action by a state official.
Nine states have pre-Roe laws never taken off the books that significantly restrict or ban access to abortion. Altogether, nearly half of states will restrict access to abortion through a variety of measures like banning abortion from six weeks of pregnancy – before many women know they are pregnant – and limiting the reasons abortions may be obtained, such as forbidding abortion in the case of fetal anomalies.
Meanwhile, 16 states and the District of Columbia protect access to abortion in a variety of ways, such as state statutes, constitutional amendments or state Supreme Court decisions.
None of the states that limit abortion access currently criminalize the pregnant person’s action. Rather, they threaten health care providers with civil or criminal actions, including loss of their license to practice medicine.
Some states are creating “safe havens” where people can travel to access an abortion legally. People have already been traveling to states like Massachusetts from highly restrictive states.
The court’s decision may drive federal action, too.
The House of Representatives passed the Women’s Health Protection Act, which protects health care providers and pregnant people seeking abortion, but Senate Republicans have blocked the bill from coming up for a vote. Congress could also reconsider providing limited Medicaid payment for abortion, but such federal legislation also seems unlikely to succeed.
President Joe Biden could use executive power to instruct federal agencies to review existing regulations to ensure that access to abortion continues to occur in as many places as possible. Congressional Republicans could test the water on nationwide abortion bans. While such efforts are likely to fail, these efforts could cause confusion for people who are already vulnerable.
What does this mean for people in America seeking an abortion?
Unintended pregnancies and abortions are more common among poor women and women of color, both in the U.S. and around the world.
Research shows that people have abortions whether lawful or not, but in nations where access to abortion is limited or outlawed, women are more likely to suffer negative health outcomes, such as infection, excessive bleeding and uterine perforation. Those who must carry a pregnancy to full term are more likely to suffer pregnancy-related deaths.
The state-by-state access to abortion resulting from this decision means many people will have to travel farther to obtain an abortion. And distance will mean fewer people will get abortions, especially lower-income women – a fact the Supreme Court itself recognized in 2016.
But since 2020, medication abortion – a two-pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol – has been the most common method of ending pregnancy in the U.S. The coronavirus pandemic accelerated this shift, as it drove the Food and Drug Administration to make medication abortions more available by allowing doctors to prescribe the pills through telemedicine and permitting medication to be mailed without in-person consultation.
Many states that restrict access to abortion also are trying to prevent medication abortion. But stopping telehealth providers from mailing pills will be a challenge. Further, because the FDA approved this regimen, states will be contradicting federal law, setting up conflict that may lead to more litigation.
The Supreme Court’s rolling back a right that has been recognized for 50 years puts the U.S. in the minority of nations, most of which are moving toward liberalization. Nevertheless, even though abortion is seen by many as essential health care, the cultural fight will surely continue.
NEW DELHI, India, Jun 27 (IPS) – The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted lives all over the world. According to this report, gender is emerging as a significant factor in the social, economic and health effects of Covid-19. Women have been hit much harder socially and economically than men. The greatest and most persistent gender gap was seen in employment and uncompensated labour, with 26% of women reporting loss of work compared with 20% of men globally in September 2021.
Phumzile Mlambo-NgcukaUNESCO has projected almost 11 million girls might not return to school due to Covid-19’s unprecedented education disruption. This alarming number not only threatens “decades of progress made towards gender equality, but also puts girls around the world at risk of adolescent pregnancy, early and forced marriage and violence,” states this report. As almost 90% of the world’s countries have shut their schools in efforts to slow the transmission, this study estimates that 20 million more secondary school-aged girls could be out of school after the crisis has passed.
“The world has changed, and these changes are impacting women. Poverty has deepened, the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women are under attack, climate change is upon us, and changes in technology are also disproportionately impacting women. The world is facing a gender divide,” says Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Chair of the Board at Women Deliver and former United Nations (UN) Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women in an exclusive interview given to IPS News.
The impact of Covid-19 pandemic has threatened to reverse decades of progress made towards gender equality. Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka says, in the last decade the world was heading in the right direction including addressing extreme poverty, but now things have changed.
“The pandemic has hit women disproportionately and young women, women are now facing food insecurity in a significant way, and of course we’ve seen that the conflicts have not ended, they have escalated. We have the war in Ukraine, and as you may know any situation that creates a humanitarian crisis, women are always likely to be the ones that pay the price more than men bearing arms. Women and children tend to be affected much more and then of course an increase in gender-based violence in trafficking of women,” says Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka.
Women have faced compounding burdens from being over-represented working in health systems, to facing increased risks of violence, exploitation, abuse or harassment during times of crisis and quarantine. Women have been at the forefront of the battle against the pandemic as they make up almost 70% of the health care workforce, exposing them to greater risk of infection, while they are under-represented in leadership and decision-making processes in the health care sector.
This crisis and its subsequent shutdown response resulted in dramatic increase in unpaid emotional and care burden on women and families, women were already doing most of the world’s unpaid care work prior to the onset of the pandemic, only to have it increased since 2020.
Worldwide, women lost more than 65 million jobs in 2020 alone, resulting in an estimated US$800 billion loss of income, an estimate which doesn’t even include wages lost by the millions of women working in the informal economy – domestic workers, market vendors and garment workers – who have been sent home or whose hours have been drastically cut. COVID-19 has dealt a striking blow to recent gains for women in the workforce.
“Honestly, my heart goes out to our young people today just because of the difficulties we are facing. I do want to challenge older people like myself to really open the space through collaborations and co-creations with younger people, their involvement and engagement should not be token, but real.
“It’s important for us to mobilize allies from the other side so that it is not always women who are knocking on doors, there must be someone inside who is trying to open the door for you. Working with men and pushing an agenda for men to stand for gender equality is also very important. I go back to emphasizing on the need to have policies, we always must open a door for more people to come in and be empowered,” says Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka.
Whether it is balanced political participation, leadership roles in organizations or power-sharing between women and men, Dr. Mlambo-Gnuka believes the answer lies in setting targets, quotas and policies for effective participation and representation of women.
“We need to have mechanisms for accountability towards those who are responsible for implementing these measures, and we also need women themselves to continue making demands, we must balance what happens in boardrooms policy wise and outside through those who are carrying black cards.
“It’s hard to talk about progress but you cannot deny that there are more women leaders than before, that’s for sure there are more women in the labour force, more girls in schools, but our best is not good enough, there is still much more for us to do,” says Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The widely anticipated Supreme Court decision, by six votes to three, was made in the specific case of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, and Michelle Bachelet said in a statement that it represents a “major setback” for sexual and reproductive health across the US.
The historic decision returns all questions of legality and access to abortion, to the individual states.
Reacting earlier to the US ruling, without making specific reference to it, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that a staggering 45 per cent of all abortions around the world, are unsafe, making the procedure a leading cause of maternal death.
The agencies said it was inevitable that more women will die, as restrictions by national or regional governments increase.
Restrictions, ineffective
“Whether abortion is legal or not, it happens all too often. Data show that restricting access to abortion does not prevent people from seeking abortion, it simply makes it more deadly”, UNFPA highlighted.
According to the agencies’ 2022 State of World Population report, nearly half of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended, and over 60 per cent of these may end in abortion.
UNFPA said that it feared that more unsafe abortions will occur around the world if access becomes more restricted.
“Decisions reversing progress gained have a wider impact on the rights and choices of women and adolescents everywhere”, the agency emphasized.
WHO echoed the message on their official Twitter account, reminding that removing barriers to abortion “protects women’s lives, health and human rights”.
Restrictions to abortions are more likely to drive women and girls towards unsafe procedures.
An attack on women’s autonomy
Ms. Bachelet further reminded that access to safe, legal and effective abortion is firmly rooted in international human right law and is at the core of women and girls’ autonomy, and ability to make their own choices about their bodies and lives, free of discrimination, violence and coercion.
“This decision strips such autonomy from millions of women in the US, in particular those with low incomes and those belonging to racial and ethnic minorities, to the detriment of their fundamental rights”, she warned.
The rights chief highlighted that the decision came after more than 50 countries with previously restrictive laws have liberalized their abortion legislation over the past 25 years.
“With today’s ruling, the US is regrettably moving away from this progressive trend”, she said.
Meanwhile, the UN agency, UN Women, cautioned in another statement that the ability of women to control what happens to their own bodies, is also associated with the roles women are able to play in society, whether as a member of the family, the workforce, or government.
Countries’ responsibilities
The 1994 Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), signed by 179 countries including the United States, recognized how deadly unsafe abortions are, and urged all countries to provide post-abortion care to save lives, irrespective of the legal status of abortion.
The document – resulting from a high-level meeting in Cairo, Egypt—also highlighted that all people should be able to access quality information about their reproductive health and contraceptives.
UNFPA, as the custodian of the Programme of Action, advocates for the right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so.
The agency also warned that if unsafe abortions continue, Sustainable Development Goal 3, related to maternal health, to which all UN Member States have committed, will be at risk of not being met.
Pointing to rising incidences at home and in public and online spaces, she invited the participants to stand up for a moment of silence for the victims and survivors.
COVID repercussions
COVID-induced social isolation, movement restrictions and economic fallouts have contributed to the increase.
“The pandemic has proven a real threat to progress made towards achieving SDG5 on advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment, and the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls,” the deputy UN chief spelled out.
It has also laid bare the weakness of systems to address survivors’ needs, even as new battles emerge, further increasing the risk of conflict-related sexual violence.
Progress amidst challenges
Despite the challenges, Ms. Mohammed was “heartened” that many Governments, civil society organizations, UN entities and others have taken action to stem the scourge.
“By the end of 2021, our research showed that more than 1,600 gender-sensitive measures had been taken across 196 countries and territories, in response to the pandemic,”, she said, adding that over half of them had focused on addressing violence against women and girls.
And hope must be given to the impacted women and girls through actions, ranging from funding women’s rights organizations to integrating measures to end the violence into pandemic response and recovery plans and strengthened social protections to data collections “because we know that what we don’t count, doesn’t count,” said the UN deputy chief.
Sparks of light
Turning to positive developments, she flagged that civil society and governments are finding new ways to work together to tackle the scourge.
The Spotlight Initiative has helped to provide 1.6 million women and girls in more than 25 countries with services related to gender-based violence and some 2.5 million young people have joined programmes promoting gender equitable norms and values.
“Some 130 million people have been reached through campaigns to change behaviour and mindsets; and $179 million has been allocated to civil society organizations,” she informed the participants.
Turning to last year’s Generation Equality forum, Ms. Mohammed noted that it launched an Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence, which has attracted more than 1,000 commitments across priority areas.
‘Push back’
These and other efforts “have never been more badly needed,” she underscored.
“At a time when women’s rights are under assault in many places around the world, we need to push back…to seize every opportunity to transform structures of inequality and discrimination and put ourselves firmly on a path towards gender equality,” stressed the Deputy Secretary-General.
She called on Member States, civil society and private sector partners to mobilize action against gender-based violence by investing in long-term prevention measures that address root causes of the violence.
“It is critical that strategies to prevent and end gender-based violence are part of all recovery efforts as we move out of the COVID-19 pandemic,” she stated, adding that “leadership and action on violence against women and girls are needed, now more than ever”.
“This violence is rooted in historic and unequal patriarchal power structures, racism, exclusion, and marginalization enabled by a legacy of colonialism,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Reem Alsalem, on Tuesday.
Stem ‘alarming’ impunity
Meanwhile, perpetrators continue to go free, without consequences.
“The level of impunity…both State and non-State actors enjoy, is alarming, and the scale and seriousness of violence experienced by indigenous women and girls are inadequately reflected in data collection, legislation, or public policies,” Ms. Alsalem spelled out.
Although the right of indigenous women and girls to be free from violence is enshrined in international law, it has yet to materialize into effective prevention and protection measures by most States, added the Special Rapporteur.
Hiding in shadows
The UN expert warned that legal gaps and grey zones surrounding the accountability of non-State actors, also serves to fuel violence against indigenous women and girls.
Moreover, they experience systemic discrimination in both indigenous and non-indigenous justice systems, facing major barriers in accessing justice, according to her report.
Noting that levels of violence continue unabated with the “full knowledge and often the tacit agreement and support of States,” the independent expert underscored that wherever it occurs, “it must be addressed effectively to end impunity”.
‘Resilient actors’
The report presents an overview of the main causes and consequences of gender-based violence, and highlights good practices and challenges in indigenous women’s ability to access justice and support services.
It called on States to review the interplay of laws between governments and indigenous communities to decrease violence.
The analysis also provides recommendations for States and others to implement policy and legal reforms to help end the scourge.
“Indigenous women and girls must be entitled to full, equal and effective participation that goes beyond lip service and sees them as resilient actors rather than only as survivors of violence,” stressed the Special Rapporteur.
Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not paid for their work.
“It is the survivors who carry the burden of stigma and trauma throughout their lives, often doubly brutalized by harmful social norms and victim-blaming”.
Stand in support
And Virginia Gamba, Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, noted that while at least 14,200 children have been verified as victims of sexual violence, that is “only the tip of the iceberg”.
Mr. Guterres attested: “We stand in solidarity…supporting the most vulnerable women, girls, men and boys as they struggle to live in dignity and peace in the midst of humanitarian crises,” including by increasing support for those victimized and displaced; those vulnerable to trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Rural areas with weak protection systems also need to be a focus for extra support, he added.
This means bolstering national justice systems to hold perpetrators accountable, ensure victims receive medical and psychosocial support, and upholding survivors’ rights.
Additionally, it requires support for women-led civil society organizations to break down social, economic and cultural barriers that deny protection, equality and justice as well as addressing underlying causes of sexual violence in conflict.
“With increased political resolve and financial resources, we can match words with action and end the scourge of sexual violence in conflict, once and for all,” stressed the Secretary-General.
A quarter of reported cases of conflict-related sexual violence in South Sudan are against children.
‘Save succeeding generations’
At the same time, UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten, together with European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, issued a joint call for the international community to help eradicate conflict-related sexual violence, and “save succeeding generations from this scourge”.
“It is time to move beyond reactive approaches and address the underlying causes and invisible drivers of sexual violence…as well as harmful social norms related to honour, shame, and blaming victims,” they said in their joint statement.
They expressed deep shock over the impact that the war in Ukraine is having on civilians, and grave concern over the harrowing personal testimonies and mounting allegations of sexual violence.
“We strongly condemn such crimes and call for an immediate end to the violence”.
Increased militarization
From Afghanistan, to Guinea, Mali, Myanmar, and elsewhere, they drew attention to an “epidemic of coups and military takeovers” that have “turned back the clock on women’s rights”.
And as new crises escalate, wars elsewhere continue, including in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
Each is marked by alarming levels of conflict-related sexual violence used as a tool of political repression, intimidation and reprisal against frontline actors and activists.
“It is critical to foster a protective environment that deters and prevents sexual violence in the first instance and enables safe reporting and adequate response,” they said. “Prevention is the best form of protection, including the prevention of conflict itself”.
Targeted action
To address sexual violence, greater political and diplomatic engagement is needed, they said, in ceasefire and peace agreements, threat analysis, greater gender-responsive justice and security sector reform; and for amplifying the voices of survivors and affected communities.
“On this day, we stand united in our unwavering commitment to support survivors and to end impunity for the perpetrators,” they said. “Survivors must be seen by their societies as the holders of rights, to be respected and enforced, in times of war and peace”.
Bodies become battlefields
Natalia Kanem, chief of the UN Population Fund, UNFPA, pointed out that “when wars begin, so does the terror and devastation of sexual violence”.
“The bodies of women and girls become battlefields. Rape is used as a weapon of war just as surely as the bomb that blows up a building or the tank that ploughs through a crowd,” she spelled out.
She elaborated on the many consequences of sexual violence, from brutalized bodies to scarred minds.
It silences and shames women, she said, sowing fear and insecurity and leaves a destructive legacy through prolonged disability, sexually transmitted infections, lost wages, health-care costs and stigma for survivors and their families.
‘Violation of human rights’
Ms. Kanem reminded that sexual violence is a “violation of human rights and a crime under international humanitarian law” that should never be ignored, excused or downplayed. “In fact, it should not happen at all”.
“It points to the scale and ubiquity of gender inequality and gender-based violence in all societies, everywhere, an unacceptable reality that is only exacerbated by crises and conflict,” she stated.
Regardless of circumstances, all women and girls have inherent rights to be safe, to live in peace and with dignity, to enjoy freedom and equality.
The UNFPA chief vowed to stand behind survivor-centred investigations and prosecutions of allegations of sexual violence and to do “everything possible to disrupt the gender inequalities that feed all forms of gender-based violence”.
Ms. Tiep lives and works in Omugo II, an extension of Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement, which is home to 43,000 refugees from South Sudan.
After receiving counselling from the Spotlight Initiative, a UN-EU partnership, she became a volunteer psychosocial support assistant with an NGO in Uganda, helping other women and children leave and recover from violent situations.
“Two things led me to flee South Sudan: the war and my abusive husband. I was living in Yei, South Sudan, working for an organization that handled cases of violence against women.
Life was fine, I had money and a place to stay. I was even able to buy a car from my earnings. However, I now know that even if you have resources, if you have stress in your mind, you can go mad. My husband used to beat me. He was a soldier and would threaten to shoot me. Sometimes, I would sleep in the bush. He felt that the children favoured me, and he would get angry about that, but children know love and that’s why they favoured me. I decided to leave him.
I fled in August 2017 and arrived in Uganda four days later, after a painful journey with my five children. I was unable to carry food; because the children were so young, I had to carry them. We walked using side roads because driving on the main road would get us killed by the rebels. The rebels wanted to capture me as their wife as they knew I had money.
Once we reached the border, we were met by the UN who helped transfer us to the settlement
Eva Sibanda/ UN Women
Rose Mary Tiep a beneficiary of a UN-backed support programme, in Omugo II Refugee Settlement, Uganda.
Adjusting to a new life and challenges
When I first arrived at Omugu II, I wanted to die. I was lonely, I would isolate myself and pity myself. In South Sudan, I was doing well.
As refugees, we experience discrimination. Sometimes, the host community will claim the land as theirs. [Within the settlement, every refugee household is allocated some land to plant food.] Even if they harass you, you’re not allowed to respond to them, or they react violently. The host community are resentful that we are using their land, but this is not their land, this is God’s land. The host community speaks Lugbara, so we cannot communicate.
Psychosocial counselling sessions [with TPO Uganda, an implementing partner of UN Women] helped me a lot. I can support my children now. Thanks to the psychosocial support I received, I was able to be a better mother.
Even when the counselling sessions ended, I mobilized groups of women and we would hold discussions. I transferred the knowledge I gained to the community – I continued the work that I left behind in South Sudan. I chose to enrol as a Volunteer Psychosocial Assistant (VPA) with TPO Uganda.
With the confidence I have gained, I now help families that experience violence and I make referrals to partners, police and to childcare, if the case requires it.
Paying it forward
We give psychosocial support to children who have lost their parents and I learnt how to identify cases of gender-based violence. I usually pose questions to the women, using my own life experience as an example.
The volunteer training changed me, and I am now recognized in the community. I have changed the lives of community members who have experienced violence and I was enrolled as a women’s representative in the Omugo community. I feel confident and comfortable in my work.
I wish that my children could have grown up elsewhere, and not in a settlement. I want to make sure they learn, go to school and get jobs. One day I will be old, I want to prepare them for the future.”
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