Preliminary outline of Working Group Report on eliminating ...
Women in Economic and Social Life
Background Paper for the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice
Mayra Gómez[1]
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 3
2. Understanding women’s economic and social rights 9
2.1 The legal basis for women’s economic and social rights 9
2.2 Advancing gender sensitive interpretations of economic and social rights 14
2.3 Understanding the obligations of States at the intersection of the rights to non-discrimination and equality and economic and social rights 17
2.4 Temporary special measures 35
3. Women’s economic and social rights throughout the life cycle 38
3.1 Multiple and intersecting discrimination and inequalities 38
3.2 Education 40
3.3 Women’s work: Formal and informal, paid and unpaid 47
3.4 Maternity and child care 58
3.5 Housing 64
3.6 Food and nutrition 68
3.7 Land and property 71
3.8 Water and sanitation 76
3.9 Social security and social protection 80
3.10 Austerity and women’s rights 84
4. Accountability for women’s economic and social rights 92
4.1 The role of the International Human Rights System 92
4.2 Gender budgeting as a tool for monitoring and accountability 96
4.3 International and regional economic/financial actors and agencies 98
4.4 Thoughts on the post-2015 development framework 99
5. Recommendations 105
5.1 Recommendations for States 105
5.2 Recommendations for United Nations Human Rights Bodies 109
5.3 Recommendations to International and Regional Economic/Financial Actors and Agencies 109
Annex 1: Specific Guidance and Recommendations Relevant to Women’s Economic and Social Rights under CEDAW 111
Annex 2: Specific Guidance and Comments Relevant to Women’s Economic and Social Rights under ICESCR 118
1. Introduction
“Women’s economic, social and cultural rights must be a primary strategy in addressing and remedying women’s inequality.”
- Primer on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights[2]
This paper addresses discrimination against women in economic and social life, with a focus on economic and financial crisis. While much has been written about the recent global economic and financial crises, and while some attention has been given to how these crises have impacted women, less attention has been given to understanding these impacts through an international human rights lens – and in particular through the lens of women’s economic and social rights. This paper aims in part to help fill that gap.
However, women’s economic and social rights are fundamental at all times, not only during times of crisis. Economic and social rights – including the rights to the highest attainable standard of health,[3] to adequate housing, to work and to just and favorable conditions of work, to water and sanitation, to education, to social security, and to food and nutrition – are all vital to women’s equality and to their ability to live a life of dignity. Yet, in all parts of the world and in all areas of economic and social rights, women are disproportionately disadvantaged and face unique challenges because of their gender. Even today, in many respects women lag far behind men when it comes to the actual enjoyment of economic and social rights, and in this way it can be said that women are marginalized within the domain of economic and social rights.
In addition, it can also be said that economic and social rights are themselves marginalized within the broader domain of human rights, and this is a related problem which must also be brought to light and remedied. Despite repeated commitments from the international community that all human rights – be they civil, cultural, economic, political, or social – are “universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated”[4] and that they must be all be treated “on the same footing,”[5] it is nonetheless true that economic and social rights as a subset of human rights have been relegated to the sidelines when it comes to international and national policy discourse and debates. This is particularly true in the area of economic policy, where the goal of ‘growth’ is often privileged over the enjoyment of human rights, and where the needs of the poorest and of the most marginalized do not factor into routine decision making. Yet, civil society continues to push for the centrality and primacy of economic and social rights, as can be seen in recent debates related to the post-2015 development agenda.[6]
The burden borne of those choices has not been shouldered equally by all. For women to achieve the gender equality that is their right, the prevailing attitude towards economic and social rights must change. Economic and social rights must garner the same prominence and status as other human rights, and they (along with all human rights) must be given primacy over any other policy area, as stated in Article 1 of the Vienna Declaration of 1993: “Human rights and fundamental freedoms are the birthright of all human beings; their protection and promotion is the first responsibility of Governments.”[7] States are first and foremost responsible to ensure that all human rights are respected, protected, promoted, and fulfilled.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, enshrines civil and political rights for women alongside their economic, social and cultural rights. CEDAW provides an important legal basis and framework for women’s economic and social rights and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has played an especially critical role in advancing a holistic view of women’s rights which encompasses all dimensions.
The quality of women’s economic and social life over the course of their life cycle mirrors to a large degree the extent to which they are able to enjoy their human rights – including their economic and social rights – and the extent to which these rights are upheld in practice. To be sure, women’s economic and social life is deeply connected to their public and political life, and in reality these aspects cannot be easily compartmentalized. While many States now include legal guarantees of non-discrimination and equality in their Constitutions, fewer States enshrine economic and social rights at this highest level of national law (although to some extent this is also changing). However, equality provisions within national law must be interpreted to extend to, and protect women’s economic and social rights.
In addition, because the right to equality is not subject to progressive realization, it is an immediate obligation of States to ensure that women are able to enjoy their right to equality within economic and social spheres. Here a substantive and indivisible approach must be used in order to ensure that women enjoy their right to equality in the de facto sense (i.e. ‘equality of results’ and not only de jure equality). Immediacy of obligations can be contrasted with the notion of progressivity, the latter of which has been described by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as “a necessary flexibility device,” which, while it applies to the general realization of an economic or social right, cannot be said to apply to women’s right to equality.[8]
With this understanding in mind, there are two challenges which lay ahead. The first is to raise the profile of economic and social rights, and within that, to shine a bright light on women’s experiences and realities. Addressing these two challenges underpin the structure and content of this paper.
Women’s Economic and Social Rights in Crisis
While women’s economic and social rights are fundamental at all times, the recent economic and financial crisis does help to illuminate the gaps that exist in the protection of these rights, as well as to clarify the consequences for women across the world when States fail to meet their human rights obligations. Therefore, the economic and financial crisis offers a kind of window to understanding women’s economic and social rights, and the real-world responses of States have illustrated how economic and social policy measures can be protective or hostile towards women’s rights. This paper addresses some of these consequences, and the various ways in which State policy has impacted women.
To set the stage for this discussion we must say a few words at the outset about the global economic crisis of 2007-2009. That crisis has had a range of devastating consequences around the world, and it is perhaps hard to overstate the nature and scope of the ramifications. Some economists have put it this way:
By now, the tectonic damage left by the global financial crisis of 2007-09 has been well documented. World per capita output, which typically expands by about 2.2 percent annually, contracted by 1.8 percent in 2009, the largest contraction the global economy experienced since World War II. During the crisis, markets around the world experienced colossal disruptions in asset and credit markets, massive erosions of wealth, and unprecedented numbers of bankruptcies. Five years after the crisis began, its lingering effects are still all too visible in advanced countries and emerging markets alike: the global recession left in its wake a worldwide increase of 30 million in the number of people unemployed. These are painful reminders of why there is a need to improve our understanding of financial crises.[9]
For developing nations and the economies of the Global South, economic crisis has been on the one hand all too common, and on the other hand, all too often overlooked by the international community. In one International Monetary Fund (IMF) study, researchers covering the period from 1970-2007 showed that “of the 124 banking crises and 208 currency crises, 62% took place in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean combined, while only 6% took place in advanced economies (OECD countries, except Mexico and South Korea).”[10] However, because of financial contagion effects as well as the global economic recession, financial markets in developing countries have been severely impacted within the most recent global crisis, as well.[11]
In light of the dramatic global consequences, in the wake of the crisis a critical space has been opened – particularly for human rights advocates, progressive and feminist economists, environmental activists, and civil society movements around the world – to question the fundamental assumptions which have long underpinned the global economy. This is a vital opportunity for the world. While it may seem abstract and removed, the truth is that every person – regardless of where they live or what their lives are like – is very intimately impacted by global economic decisions. International agencies such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) have observed that “[a] key lesson from the global financial and economic crisis is that policies for economic growth which have prevailed over the past three decades need a rethink.”[12]
Many have argued that the global economic neo-liberal model is fundamentally flawed in various ways: financially flawed as it operates with high levels of debt, socially flawed because it concentrates extreme amounts of wealth in the hands of a few elite, and environmentally flawed because it commodifies nature and sacrifices ecological sustainability, all the while revering ‘growth’ as its overarching driver and rationale.[13]
It is a subject of intense debate as to whether certain macro-economic policies[14] not only further economic and social inequality,[15] but also produce economic crisis as a matter of course.[16] Nonetheless, as the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs has pointed out: “Even before the current financial and economic crisis, questions had been raised about the core assumption that fiscal discipline and restrictive monetary policies, combined with the liberalization of markets, would deliver on economic growth and poverty reduction. That assumption has not been borne out by the evidence.”[17]
From a women’s rights perspective, what is clear is that economic crises have a disproportionate impact on women. Researchers have highlighted that in general men are better positioned to weather economic crisis. In general, men have more economic security as they have higher paying jobs along with more assets and wealth. Their jobs are more likely to offer benefits, such as health care and pensions, and be covered by unemployment insurance.[18]
On the whole, though the specific effects of the crisis differ by context, the overall picture is one of deepening economic insecurity for women and an increase in women’s burden of unpaid care work.[19] There has also been a broad recognition amongst feminist economists and others that the underlying macro-economic structures which gave rise to the crisis in the first place are the very same structures which also perpetuate restrictions of women’s economic opportunities compared to men’s.[20] Therefore, addressing the crisis provides an opportunity to address patterns of gender inequality and discrimination which have too long existed as the economic status quo. In fact, the Global Jobs Pact, adopted by ILO member States also in 2009 underscores this message, stating that the “current crisis should be viewed as an opportunity to shape new gender equality policy responses.”[21]
Despite this opportunity, Government responses to the economic crisis have not always taken gender into account. In fact, it could be said that they have rarely taken gender into account. In Europe, for example, which has strong regional standards on women’s rights and gender equality, the European Economic Recovery Plan made no mention of the words “gender,” “‘women” or “equality,” an absence which some have highlighted as “symbolic of a low sensibility towards gender equality in responding to the crisis.”[22] Indeed, the European Commission’s Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men found that “[i]n the urgency of the crisis it appears that, to date, little attention has been given to ensuring that gender is taken into account when formulating policy responses.”[23] With respect to the G20, which has emerged as an influential new global actor in the wake of the economic crisis, some economists have argued that “the G20 has not seriously considered the consequences for women and men when formulating policies and setting its agenda.”[24]
This is the kind of ‘gender-blind’ and ‘rights-blind’ thinking which needs to end in order for women to enjoy their economic and social rights. To tackle the problem, economic and social rights must be taken seriously as human rights, and women’s equality must occupy a central and visible space within economic decision-making and policy-making. To help further thinking on women’s economic and social rights, the next three sections address understanding women’s economic and social rights (Section 2.), women’s economic and social rights throughout the life cycle, (Section 3.) and accountability for women’s economic and social rights (Section 4.). The final section (Section 5.) lays out specific recommendation to States, United Nations Human Rights Bodies, and International and Regional Economic/Financial Actors and Agencies for the promotion, protection and advancement of women’s economic and social rights.
2. Understanding women’s economic and social rights
2.1 The legal basis for women’s economic and social rights
International human rights law contains multiple provisions protecting economic and social rights, as well as women’s right to equality in the enjoyment of these rights. It is this vital intersection between substantive economic and social rights and women’s right to equality that must be examined and advanced. This Sub-Section provides an overview of the legal and other relevant standards which exist recognizing these rights.
The Universal Declaration on Human Rights[25] (UDHR) guarantees the right to non-discrimination (Article 2); the right to marry and to found a family, and the equal rights of spouses, both during marriage and at its dissolution (Article 16); the right to own property alone as well as in association with others (Article 17); the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment (Article 23, §1); the right to equal pay for equal work (Article 23, §2); the right to just and favorable remuneration (Article 23, §3); the right to form and to join trade unions (Article 23, §4); the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay (Article 24); the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being oneself and one’s family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security (Article 25), the protection of motherhood and childhood (Article 25); and the right to education (Article 26). Article 28 states that everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration can be fully realized.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women[26] (CEDAW) obliges States parties to embody the principle of equality of women and men in their national legal frameworks and to “take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women” (Article 2). Article 3 provides that “States [p]arties shall take in all fields, in particular in the political, social, economic and cultural fields, all appropriate measures, including legislation, to ensure the full development and advancement of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men.”[27] Article 4 encourages States to adopt temporary special measures aimed at accelerating de facto equality between women and men.
As mentioned above, CEDAW enshrines women’s economic and social rights alongside their civil and political rights, and specifically guarantee women’s rights to non-discrimination and equality (Articles 1 and 2); in education (Article 10); in employment Article 11 §1); in social security (Article 11 §1); as well as their right to protection against discrimination on the grounds of marriage or maternity (Article 11 §2); to protection against discrimination in the field of health care and appropriate services in connection with pregnancy (Article 12); and to protection against discrimination in other areas of economic and social life in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of women and men, the same rights, in particular the right to family benefits and the right to bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial credit (Article 13 §(a) and (b)). CEDAW also specifies the particular rights of rural women, including the right to have equal access to agricultural credit and loans, the right to equal treatment in land and agrarian reform, and the right to equal enjoyment of adequate living conditions (Article 14),[28] and obliges States parties to grant women legal capacity in civil matters equal to that of men including equal rights to conclude contracts and to administer property and equal treatment in all stages of procedure in courts and tribunals (Article 15). In the context of marriage and family relations, CEDAW requires States parties to uphold equal rights and responsibilities for women and men during marriage and at its dissolution and to ensure “the same rights for both spouses in respect of the ownership, acquisition, management, administration, enjoyment and disposition of property, whether free of charge or for a valuable consideration” (Article 16).[29]
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights[30] (ICESCR) also guarantees the right to non-discrimination (Article 2) and recognizes the equal right of women and men to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (Article 3).[31] It guarantees the right to work (Article 6) and the right to just and favorable conditions of work (Article 7). Article 7 explicitly provides that “Fair wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value without distinction of any kind, in particular women being guaranteed conditions of work not inferior to those enjoyed by men, with equal pay for equal work.”[32] It guarantees the right of everyone to form trade unions and join the trade union of one’s choice (Article 8); recognizes the right of everyone to social security, including social insurance (Article 9); and recognizes that protection and assistance should be accorded to the family (Article 10). Article 11 guarantees the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for oneself and one’s family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions, as well as the right to be free from hunger. Article 12 guarantees the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, while Articles 13 and 14 guarantee the right of everyone to education and the right to free primary education, respectively.[33]
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights[34] (ICCPR) guarantees the right to non-discrimination (Article 2), the right to equality between women and men (Article 3) and the right to equality of persons before the courts (Article 14). It prohibits arbitrary or unlawful interference with one’s privacy, family, or home (Article 17), and it too addresses equality of spousal rights during marriage and at its dissolution (Article 23), and confirms equal protection of the law for all without discrimination (Article 26).
Additional dimensions of women’s (and girls’) economic and social rights are also enshrined and protected within other international human rights instruments, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965),[35] the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989),[36] the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1959),[37] and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990).[38]
At regional levels, similar legal protections exist on women’s economic and social rights. Beginning in Africa, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights[39] stipulates that the rights enshrined within it apply to all persons regardless of sex (Article 2), that all are entitled to equality before the law (Article 3), and that all are obliged to treat others without discrimination (Article 2). It guarantees the right to work under equitable and satisfactory conditions, and the right to receive equal pay for equal work (Article 15); the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health (Article 16); and the right to education (Article 17). Article 18 provides that States parties shall eliminate discrimination against women and also ensure the protection of the rights of the woman and the child as stipulated in international declarations and conventions.
The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa[40] underscores the principles of non-discrimination (Article 2) and specifically obliges States parties to “enact and effectively implement appropriate legislative or regulatory measures, including those prohibiting and curbing all forms of discrimination, particularly those harmful practices which endanger the health and general well-being of women” (Article 2).[41] The same Article requires that States parties “commit themselves to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of women and men through public education, information, education and communication strategies, with a view to achieving the elimination of harmful cultural and traditional practices and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes, or on stereotyped roles for women and men.”[42] Article 3 guarantees protection against violence, exploitation or degradation of women.
The Protocol requires that in case of separation, divorce, or annulment of marriage, women and men shall have the right to an equitable sharing of the joint property deriving from the marriage (Article 7), and that existing discriminatory laws and practices shall be reformed to promote and protect the rights of women (Article 8). Articles 12 and 13 of the Protocol provide for women’s right to education and training, as well as their economic and social welfare rights (which encompass women’s right to work and to just and favorable conditions of work, as well States’ obligations to take necessary measures to recognize the economic value of the work of women in the home. Article 13 also guarantees adequate and paid pre- and post-natal maternity leave in both the private and public sector. Article 13 recognizes that “both parents bear the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of children and that this is a social function for which the State and the private sector have secondary responsibility.”[43] Article 14 addresses women’s health and reproductive rights, Article 15 the right to food security, Article 16 the right to adequate housing, Article 18 the right to a healthy and sustainable environment, and Article 19 the right to development.
The Protocol also obliges States parties to take all appropriate measures to promote women’s access to and control over productive resources such as land and guarantee their right to property (Article 19). It articulates the rights of widows in terms of treatment, custody of children, and remarriage (Article 20), and stipulates that “a widow shall have the right to an equitable share in the inheritance of the property of her husband. A widow shall have the right to continue to live in the matrimonial house. In case of remarriage, she shall retain this right if the house belongs to her or she has inherited it” (Article 21).[44]
The Revised Arab Charter on Human Rights[45] upholds the right to non-discrimination (Article 3) and to equal protection before the law (Articles 11, 12 and 22). The Revised Charter states that: “Men and women have equal human dignity and equal rights and obligations in the framework of the positive discrimination established in favour of women by the Islamic Shariah and other divine laws and by applicable laws and international instruments. Accordingly, each State party pledges to take all the requisite measures to guarantee equal opportunities and effective equality between men and women in the enjoyment of all the rights set out in this Charter” (Article 3 §3). The Revised Charter contains provisions on the right to protection against arbitrary or unlawful interference with regard to one’s privacy, family and home (Article 21); the right to own property (Article 31); the right to work (Article 34); the right to freely form trade unions or to join trade unions (Article 35); the right of every citizen to social security, including social insurance (Article 36); the right to development (Article 37); the right to an adequate standard of living, including food, clothing, housing, services and the right to a healthy environment (Article 38); the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and the right of the citizen to free basic health-care services (Article 39); and the right to education (Article 41).
The European Social Charter (revised)[46] recognizes the right to work (Article 1); the right to just conditions of work (Article 2); the right to safe and healthy working conditions (Article 3); the right to a fair remuneration (Article 4); the right to organize (Article 5); the right to bargain collectively (Article 6); the right of employed women to protection of maternity (Article 8); the right vocational guidance and training (Articles 9 & 10); the right to protection of health (Article 11); the right to social security (Article 12); the right to social and medical assistance (Article 13); the right to benefit from social welfare services (Article 14); the right of the family to social, legal and economic protection (Article 16); the right of migrant workers and their families to protection and assistance (Article 19); the right to equal opportunities and equal treatment in matters of employment and occupation without discrimination on the grounds of sex (Article 20); the right of elderly persons to social protection (Article 23); the right of workers with family responsibilities to equal opportunities and equal treatment (Article 27); the right to protection against poverty and social exclusion (Article 30); and the right to housing (Article 31). The Charter also requires equality for women in respect to all the enumerated rights.
In the Americas, the American Convention on Human Rights recognizes the right of non-discrimination on the basis of sex (Article 1), as well as the equality of rights and the adequate balancing of responsibilities of the spouses as to marriage, during marriage, and in the event of its dissolution (Article 17). It recognizes rights to property (Article 21) and privacy (Article 11).[47] The Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,[48] (aka the Protocol of San Salvador) recognizes the right to non-discrimination (Article 3); as well as the right to work (Article 6); to just, equitable, and satisfactory conditions of work (Article 7); to social security (Article 9); to health (Article 10); to food (Article 12); to education (Article 13); and to the formation and the protection of families (Article 15). Both the Convention and the Additional Protocol requires equality for women in respect to all the enumerated rights. Also in the Inter-American system, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women[49] guarantees the right of every woman to be free from violence in both the public and private spheres. Article 5 of the Convention provides that “Every woman is entitled to the free and full exercise of her civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, and may rely on the full protection of those rights as embodied in regional and international instruments on human rights. The States [p]arties recognize that violence against women prevents and nullifies the exercise of these rights.”[50]
Most recently, in 2009, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) established the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, whose mandate it is to promote human rights in the ten ASEAN countries.[51] In 2012, the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration was adopted.[52] The Declaration affirms “all the economic, social and cultural rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” and enshrines a number of specific economic and social rights (paras. 26-34), as well as makes specific reference to the right to development (paras. 35-37). The Declaration also provides that the rights of women are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and references the 1988 Declaration of the Advancement of Women in the ASEAN Region. Adopted some 24 years prior, the Declaration of the Advancement of Women in the ASEAN Region specifically notes that each ASEAN member should endeavor “[t]o promote and implement the equitable and effective participation of women whenever possible in all fields and at various levels of the political, economic, social and cultural life of society at the national, regional and international levels.”[53]
2.2 Advancing gender sensitive interpretations of economic and social rights[54]
Much work remains to ensure that all economic and social rights are ‘engendered’ from a women’s equality perspective. In this regard, it is vital that we approach women’s economic and social rights through a substantive equality perspective, which understands that the notion of equality cannot be seen in a purely formal sense. Rather, as has been underscored by both the CEDAW Committee and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, substantive equality entails that women must be guaranteed de facto equality with respect to their economic and social rights, so that they are able to enjoy these rights in practice.[55] In particular, “the substantive equality approach requires States to acknowledge the actual impact policies and practices have on women, looking at the particular context and take positive measures to ensure equal access and equal benefits for women.”[56] The requirement of de facto equality is also a legal requirement under international human rights law.
While economic and social rights are themselves well articulated in international human rights law, and have over the years seen increasing refinement in terms of content and understanding of State obligations, there remains a gap in the understanding of how gender inequality affects the experience of either the enjoyment or violation of those rights, and hence, how economic and social rights can be understood from a gendered perspective. It is important to see economic and social rights not from a generic or gender-blind perspective, but rather from the perspectives of women. So as to illuminate further this question, Section 3 of this paper looks more closely at many of these rights from the standpoint of women’s equality, through the lens of women’s life cycle.
The Montreal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have been an important contribution in moving toward this understanding and this nexus.[57] They recognize that:
Economic, social and cultural rights have a particular significance for women because as a group, women are disproportionately affected by poverty, and by social and cultural marginalization. Women’s poverty is a central manifestation, and a direct result of women’s lesser social, economic and political power. In turn, women’s poverty reinforces their subordination, and constrains their enjoyment of every other right.[58]
Therefore, it is vital to delve into the question of what economic and social rights mean from a gender perspective, and how economic and social rights, and women’s rights to non-discrimination and equality, relate to each other. One pitfall, which we should be careful not to fall into as we discuss this relationship, is that of ‘instrumentalizing’ women’s right to equality or women’s economic and social rights. That is, we must be careful to ensure that the primary value or emphasis in terms of advancement for women is not on some external aim (i.e. improvement of social welfare, improvement of children’s health and well-being, or improvement of economies) but rather on the intrinsic value of women’s equality itself. That is not to say that there are not very important benefits which accrue when women are able to enjoy their human rights – certainly there are many – but rather that the primary emphasis should remain on advancing women’s equality and gender justice. Not for some other cause, but for its own sake.[59]
For example, while it is no doubt important to highlight women’s vital contribution to economies around the world, the World Bank has come under criticism from some women’s rights advocates and feminist economists for instrumentalizing women and reducing women’s equality to “smart economics.” A line of thinking which seemingly embraces the idea that the advancement of women’s rights is important insofar as women are ‘economic units’ that can boost national economic development .[60] It is a vision which stands somewhat at odds with a human rights centered approach to economic policy making – which would see the advancement of women’s human rights in economic and social life as the aim and the goal, not merely the vehicle to achieving some other end.
Transforming the Instrumentalist View of Women
“States must respect, protect and fulfill human rights obligations and ensure that responses to the crisis do the same. For example, proposed monetary or fiscal responses to the crisis must be reviewed from the perspective of their effect on the enjoyment of human rights, not solely on their effect on growth.”
-Natalie Raaber & Diana Aguiar
Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)
Feminist critiques, policy alternatives and calls for systemic change to an economy in crisis
Part of the key to transforming the instrumentalist view of women lies in gender sensitization and changing the values that underpin the dominant economic model; a model where women’s leadership has been largely absent:
It is clear that fewer women than men are involved in financial and economic decision making. The European Commission’s 2009 Report on Equality between Women and Men indicates that the Central Banks of all Member States were led by a male governor and its 2007 Report indicated that on average, the highest decision-making bodies of EU central banks include five men for every women. At European level, all three of the financial institutions (European Central Bank, European Investment Ban and European Investment Fund) are led by men and women account for only 16% of the highest decision-making bodies of these institutions. A number of commentators consider that increasing the proportion of women decision makers in these sectors may contribute to promoting a more gender-sensitive analysis of related responses. It is also clear that decision makers generally need to be sensitive to the gender dimension of their work.[61]
The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) has highlighted that “Women need to take part in fiscal processes and in the broader debates around responses to the crisis as these affect their lives: planning and implementing budgets and dealing with tax policies are just two examples of spaces in which women should be.”[62] In terms of good practice, the Government of Iceland has sought to ensure equal numbers of women and men on public committees, councils and boards. The proportion of genders must be as even as possible and not less than 40 per cent when there are more than three members. This standard on gender representation also applies to the boards of public companies on which the Government or local authorities are represented.[63] In Malaysia, in June 2011, the Government mandated a 30 per cent target for women representation at senior decision-making and corporate boards by 2016.[64] To realize the target, the Government has introduced the Women Directors Programme, which aims to prepare qualified women for directorship roles in publicly-listed companies.[65]
2.3 Understanding the obligations of States at the intersection of the rights to non-discrimination and equality and economic and social rights
As we have seen in Sub-Section 2.1 above, CEDAW enshrines the full range of women’s human rights and recalls in its Preamble that: “discrimination against women violates the principles of equality of rights and respect for human dignity, is an obstacle to the participation of women, on equal terms with men, in the political, social, economic and cultural life of their countries, hampers the growth of the prosperity of society and the family and makes more difficult the full development of the potentialities of women in the service of their countries and of humanity.”[66] It enshrines women’s right to equality, their right to non-discrimination, and integrates women’s civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights within the framework of a single treaty.[67]
The CEDAW Committee has an impressive track record when it comes to addressing women’s economic and social rights within the context of its Concluding Observations on State party reports. Over the years an important body of norms has been amassed in this area through CEDAW’s Concluding Observations alone. Over the course of just this past year (2013), the Committee has reviewed a total of 24 State party reports. Within the context of each individual review, women’s economic and social disadvantage was addressed at length, and detailed recommendations were made to rectify this disadvantage.[68] The Table below is provided to give a sense of the economic and social issues which the CEDAW Committee is regularly raising within the context of its reviews, and the kinds of recommendations it is making to States parties.[69]
|Summary of CEDAW 2013 Concluding Observations on States parties |
|addressing economic and social issues |
|Issues addressed |Specific concerns and recommendations |
|Education |*Concern over low enrolment of women in traditionally |
| |male-dominated fields of study, such as mathematics, |
|*CEDAW Article 10: |informatics, natural sciences and technology (Andorra, 2013) |
|States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to |*Concern over lack of training for teachers on women’s rights |
|eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure to |and the absence from school curricula and academic programs of a|
|them equal rights with men in the field of education and in |human rights-based approach to addressing gender relations |
|particular to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and |(Andorra, 2013) |
|women: |*State party urged to strengthen literacy programmes for women |
| |and girls, especially in rural areas, and increase opportunities|
|(a) The same conditions for career and vocational guidance, |for skills training of rural women and girls through non-formal |
|for access to studies and for the achievement of diplomas in |education, including in traditionally male-dominated fields |
|educational establishments of all categories in rural as well|(Benin, 2013) |
|as in urban areas; this equality shall be ensured in |*State party urged to establish reporting and accountability |
|pre-school, general, technical, professional and higher |mechanisms to ensure that the perpetrators of sexual abuse of |
|technical education, as well as in all types of vocational |girls in schools are duly prosecuted and punished (Benin, 2013) |
|training; |*State party should encourage young women to choose |
|(b) Access to the same curricula, the same examinations, |non-traditional fields of study and professions, including |
|teaching staff with qualifications of the same standard and |through the adoption of temporary special measures, and |
|school premises and equipment of the same quality; |implement programmes aimed at counseling boys and girls on the |
|(c) The elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles |full range of educational choices (Moldova, 2013; Bosnia and |
|of men and women at all levels and in all forms of education |Herzegovina, 2013) |
|by encouraging coeducation and other types of education which|*State party urged to develop a strategy to ensure that |
|will help to achieve this aim and, in particular, by the |essential education services for women and girls are |
|revision of textbooks and school programmes and the |sufficiently funded (Afghanistan, 2013) |
|adaptation of teaching methods; |*State party urged to review procedures relating to the |
|(d ) The same opportunities to benefit from scholarships and |university entrance examination and remove biases that |
|other study grants; |effectively limit women’s access to this level of education |
|(e) The same opportunities for access to programmes of |(Afghanistan, 2013) |
|continuing education, including adult and functional literacy|*State party urged to raise awareness among communities, |
|programmes, particularly those aimed at reducing, at the |families, students, teachers and officials, especially men, |
|earliest possible time, any gap in education existing between|about the importance of women’s and girls’ education (DRC, 2013)|
|men and women; |*State party urged to step up career guidance activities to |
|(f) The reduction of female student drop-out rates and the |encourage girls to pursue non-traditional paths and improve the |
|organization of programmes for girls and women who have left |gender awareness of teaching personnel at all levels of the |
|school prematurely; |education system (United Kingdom, 2013) |
|(g) The same Opportunities to participate actively in sports |*State party urged to take coordinated measures to encourage |
|and physical education; |increased participation by girls in science, technology, |
|(h) Access to specific educational information to help to |engineering and mathematics, and in apprenticeships (United |
|ensure the health and well-being of families, including |Kingdom, 2013) |
|information and advice on family planning. | |
| | |
|Employment |*Concern over the pay gap between men and women, including in |
| |the area of domestic work (Andorra, 2013) |
|*CEDAW Article 11 .1 (§§ a, b, c |*Concern over the lack of legislation specifically sanctioning |
|and d): |sexual harassment in the workplace (Andorra, 2013) |
|States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to |*Concern over the obstacles facing women with disabilities in |
|eliminate discrimination against women in the field of |gaining access to vocational training and the labor market |
|employment in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men |(Andorra, 2013) |
|and women, the same rights, in particular: |*Concern over the lack of information about the situation of |
| |women migrant workers in the workplace, the possibility for them|
|(a) The right to work as an inalienable right of all human |to receive protection against hazards, safety at work and |
|beings; |mechanisms to protect them from lower wages at work and from |
|(b) The right to the same employment opportunities, including|unfair dismissal (Andorra, 2013) |
|the application of the same criteria for selection in matters|*Concern over low number of women in formal employment, the |
|of employment; |concentration of women in the informal sector and the lack of |
|(c) The right to free choice of profession and employment, |measures to facilitate their integration into the formal sector |
|the right to promotion, job security and all benefits and |(Benin, 2013) |
|conditions of service and the right to receive vocational |*State party urged to adopt effective measures to eliminate |
|training and retraining, including apprenticeships, advanced |occupational segregation both horizontal and vertical, based on |
|vocational training and recurrent training; |stereotypes related to gender; and closely monitor the working |
|(d) The right to equal remuneration, including benefits, and |conditions of women in the informal sector and ensure their |
|to equal treatment in respect of work of equal value, as well|access to social services and social security (Colombia, 2013; |
|as equality of treatment in the evaluation of the quality of |Afghanistan, 2013) |
|work … |*State party urged to disseminate and effectively implement the |
| |legislation prohibiting and criminalizing sexual harassment in |
| |the workplace (Moldova, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to reduce the wage gap between women and men |
| |and include the principle of “equal pay for work of equal value”|
| |in all areas of work (Seychelles, 2013; Afghanistan, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to take measures to encourage and support |
| |self-employed women by facilitating their access to credit in |
| |all economic areas (Seychelles, 2013) |
| | |
|Maternity and child care |*Concern over lack of childcare facilities, which constitutes an|
| |obstacle to the full exercise of women’s right to work |
|*CEDAW Article 11.2: |(Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2013) |
|In order to prevent discrimination against women on the |*Concern over overprotective maternity leave in the Labor Code |
|grounds of marriage or maternity and to ensure their |and the lack of parental leave that reinforce the unequal |
|effective right to work, States Parties shall take |division of family responsibilities between women and men and |
|appropriate measures: |may drive women into unemployment and poverty (Moldova, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to enhance the availability and affordability|
|(a) To prohibit, subject to the imposition of sanctions, |of childcare facilities to help women exercise their right to |
|dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy or of maternity leave |work, in order to increase women’s access to the labor market |
|and discrimination in dismissals on the basis of marital |(Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2013) |
|status; |*State party urged to ensure that the implementation of the |
|(b) To introduce maternity leave with pay or with comparable |framework law regulating the social sector results in the |
|social benefits without loss of former employment, seniority |harmonization of pregnancy and maternity protection, in order to|
|or social allowances; |guarantee paid maternity leave for all women (Bosnia and |
|(c) To encourage the provision of the necessary supporting |Herzegovina, 2013) |
|social services to enable parents to combine family |*State party urged to carry out awareness-raising and education |
|obligations with work responsibilities and participation in |initiatives for both women and men on the sharing of domestic |
|public life, in particular through promoting the |and family responsibilities between women and men and provide |
|establishment and development of a network of child-care |incentives for active participation by men in such |
|facilities; |responsibilities, e.g., by introducing special non-transferable |
|(d) To provide special protection to women during pregnancy |paternity leave (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2013) |
|in types of work proved to be harmful to them. |*State party urged to increase the number and capacity of public|
| |day-care nurseries and day schools, promote responsible |
| |fatherhood and take measures to encourage fathers to participate|
| |more actively in child-raising and to share equally other |
| |domestic duties (Seychelles, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to adopt a regulatory framework for the |
| |informal sector and for women working from home, with a view to |
| |providing women with access to social security, maternity |
| |protection and other benefits (Tajikistan, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to ratify the Workers with Family |
| |Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156), and the Maternity |
| |Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183), of the International |
| |Labour Organization (Tajikistan, 2013; Cyprus, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to expand and allocate adequate resources to |
| |childcare facilities throughout the State party and introduce |
| |flexible working hours for women and men in both the public and |
| |private sectors (Dominican Republic, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to mitigate the impact of the proposed |
| |reforms of the welfare system on the costs of childcare for |
| |low-income families and the increased burden of care that this |
| |places on women (United Kingdom, 2013) |
| | |
|Housing |*Concern over women subjected to displacement and eviction owing|
| |to large-scale land concessions and urban development (Cambodia,|
|*CEDAW Article 13: |2013) |
|States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to |*Concern that dismantling of the social fund (OEE) and the |
|eliminate discrimination against women in other areas of |workers´ housing organization (OEK) as social dialogue |
|economic and social life in order to ensure, on a basis of |organizations has had a negative impact on housing services |
|equality of men and women, the same rights … |(Greece, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to recognize that forced eviction is not a |
|*CEDAW Article 14.2 (§ h): |gender-neutral phenomenon, but that it disproportionately |
|States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to |affects women, and to take immediate measures to protect women |
|eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas in |and girls from further eviction (Cambodia, 2013) |
|order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, | |
|that they participate in and benefit from rural development | |
|and, in particular, shall ensure to such women the right: … | |
| | |
|h) To enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in | |
|relation to housing, sanitation, electricity and water | |
|supply, transport and communications. | |
| | |
|*CEDAW Article 16.1(§ h) | |
|States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to | |
|eliminate discrimination against women in all matters | |
|relating to marriage and family relations and in particular | |
|shall ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women: … | |
| | |
|(h) The same rights for both spouses in respect of the | |
|ownership, acquisition, management, administration, enjoyment| |
|and disposition of property, whether free of charge or for a | |
|valuable consideration. | |
| | |
|Food and nutrition |*State party urged to develop sustainable solutions for women to|
| |whom their land has been returned which, inter alia, incorporate|
|*CEDAW Article 13: |women’s right to have access to productive resources, such as |
|States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to |seeds, water, and credit and foster their capacity to earn a |
|eliminate discrimination against women in other areas of |living and produce their own food; and ensure that the |
|economic and social life in order to ensure, on a basis of |protection of these rights prevail over the profit interests of |
|equality of men and women, the same rights … |third parties involved in the mega-agricultural and mining |
| |projects by inter alia promoting public-private partnerships |
| |(Colombia, 2013) |
| | |
|Secure rights to land and productive resources |*Concern over limited access of women to land ownership |
| |(Dominican Republic, 2013) |
|*CEDAW Article 13: |*Concern that customary practices of excluding women from |
|States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to |inheriting agricultural land remain dominant in rural areas and |
|eliminate discrimination against women in other areas of |that women continue to face practical difficulties in gaining |
|economic and social life in order to ensure, on a basis of |access to both land and credit (Benin, 2013) |
|equality of men and women, the same rights … |*Concern that women are not sufficiently included in the |
| |decision-making process and management of resources, such as |
|*CEDAW Article 14.2 (§§ g and h): |land, water and forestry (Benin, 2013) |
|States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to |*State party urged to take measures to tackle the root causes, |
|eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas in |including irregularities in the registration of land, preventing|
|order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, |rural women from gaining access to land, property and credit |
|that they participate in and benefit from rural development |(Cape Verde, 2013) |
|and, in particular, shall ensure to such women the right: … | |
|(g) To have access to agricultural credit and loans, | |
|marketing facilities, appropriate technology and equal | |
|treatment in land and agrarian reform as well as in land | |
|resettlement schemes; | |
|(h) To enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in | |
|relation to housing, sanitation, electricity and water | |
|supply, transport and communications. | |
|*CEDAW Article 16.1(§ h) | |
|States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to | |
|eliminate discrimination against women in all matters | |
|relating to marriage and family relations and in particular | |
|shall ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women: … | |
| | |
|(h) The same rights for both spouses in respect of the | |
|ownership, acquisition, management, administration, enjoyment| |
|and disposition of property, whether free of charge or for a | |
|valuable consideration. | |
| | |
|Water and sanitation |*State party urged to increase its efforts to strengthen the |
| |educational infrastructure including the availability of |
|*CEDAW Article 13: |appropriate sanitary facilities (Benin, 2013) |
|States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to |*State party urged to build appropriate sanitary facilities in |
|eliminate discrimination against women in other areas of |existing and new schools (DRC, 2013) |
|economic and social life in order to ensure, on a basis of | |
|equality of men and women, the same rights … | |
| | |
|*CEDAW Article 14.2 (§ h): | |
|States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to | |
|eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas in | |
|order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, | |
|that they participate in and benefit from rural development | |
|and, in particular, shall ensure to such women the right: … | |
| | |
|(h) To enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in | |
|relation to housing, sanitation, electricity and water | |
|supply, transport and communications. | |
| | |
|Social security and social protection |*Concern that the large majority of the female working |
| |population is engaged in the informal labor sector hence without|
|*CEDAW Article 11.1 (§ e) |access to social security benefits (Colombia, 2013) |
|States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to |*Concern that large majority of women work in the informal |
|eliminate discrimination against women in the field of |sector (agriculture) and in the care economy (domestic and |
|employment in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men |home-based work), and that as such they are not recognized as |
|and women, the same rights, in particular: … |workers in the existing labor legislation, and are thus |
|(e) The right to social security, particularly in cases of |unprotected and do not have access to social security and other |
|retirement, unemployment, sickness, invalidity and old age |benefits (Afghanistan, 2013) |
|and other incapacity to work, as well as the right to paid |*Concern over barriers faced by domestic workers in gaining |
|leave … |access to social security (Dominican Republic, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to raise the retirement age for women so that|
| |it is the same as that for men and expand pension schemes in |
| |order to ensure at least the minimum subsistence level for women|
| |and men (Moldova, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to prepare a plan of action for the |
| |protection of women working in the informal sector, such as |
| |agriculture and remunerated domestic work (Afghanistan, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to provide a regulatory framework for the |
| |informal sector, with a view to providing women in this sector |
| |with access to social security and other benefits (Angola, 2013)|
| | |
|Temporary Special Measures and economic and social rights |*State party urged to adopt economic temporary special measures |
| |with the aim of developing and strengthening the capacity of |
|*CEDAW Article 4: |women entrepreneurs, in particular young women who intend to |
|1. Adoption by States Parties of temporary special measures |manage their own business (Andorra, 2013) |
|aimed at accelerating de facto equality between men and women|*State party urged to enhance the economic and political |
|shall not be considered discrimination as defined in the |empowerment of women in rural areas, through the use of |
|present Convention, but shall in no way entail as a |temporary special measures, in order to ensure that women |
|consequence the maintenance of unequal or separate standards;|participate in the decision-making process and management of |
|these measures shall be discontinued when the objectives of |resources, in particular land, water and forestry (Benin, 2013) |
|equality of opportunity and treatment have been achieved. |*State party should encourage young women to choose |
|2. Adoption by States Parties of special measures, including |non-traditional fields of study and professions, including |
|those measures contained in the present Convention, aimed at |through the adoption of temporary special measures, and |
|protecting maternity shall not be considered discriminatory. |implement programmes aimed at counseling boys and girls on the |
| |full range of educational choices (Moldova, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to strengthen efforts to eliminate |
| |occupational segregation, including through the adoption of |
| |temporary special measures, and adopt measures to implement the |
| |principle of equal pay for work of equal value and to narrow and|
| |close the gender wage gap by applying job evaluation schemes in |
| |the public sector connected with wage increases in sectors |
| |dominated by women (Moldova, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to adopt of temporary special measures in the|
| |area of employment where the better performance of women and |
| |girls in mathematics and scientific professions is not |
| |translated into employment of women (Seychelles, 2013) |
|Intersectionality and economic and social rights |*State party urged to develop comprehensive and gender-sensitive|
| |policies for indigenous peoples and for Afro-Colombians, aimed |
| |at effectively addressing discrimination against them; and |
| |ensure indigenous and Afro-Colombian women adequate access to |
| |health care services, education and employment opportunities |
| |(Colombia, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to achieve de facto equal opportunities for |
| |women and men in the labor market, including disadvantaged |
| |groups of women (Colombia, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to promote access for Roma girls to education|
| |and their retention at all levels of education, by raising |
| |awareness of the importance of education as a human right and as|
| |the basis for the empowerment of women, and strengthen the |
| |implementation of re-entry policies enabling Roma girls who have|
| |dropped out to return to school (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to increase access by Roma women, women in |
| |rural areas, women with disabilities and older women to formal |
| |employment (Moldova, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to take effective measures to ensure access |
| |for rural women to justice, education, housing, formal |
| |employment, skills development and training opportunities and |
| |ownership and use of land, taking into account their specific |
| |needs (Tajikistan, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to establish mechanisms to regularly monitor |
| |the impact of social and economic policies on disadvantaged |
| |groups of women, including by taking a comprehensive, |
| |multifaceted approach to addressing the specific challenges of |
| |migration that may affect |
| |women (Tajikistan, 2013; Cuba, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to ensure that refugee returnees, in |
| |particular women and girls, have adequate access to health |
| |services, education, food, shelter, free movement and |
| |opportunities to secure justice and durable solutions |
| |(Afghanistan, 2013; Pakistan, 2013) |
| |*State party urged to implement specific measures to combat |
| |rural women’s poverty and ensure their access to justice, |
| |health-care services, education, housing, clean water and |
| |sanitation, fertile land and income-generating projects (Cape |
| |Verde, 2013; DRC, 2013; Angola, 2013) |
To be sure, the CEDAW Committee has taken an extremely active role in advancing women’s equality within the sphere of economic and social rights.[70] The CEDAW Committee has also provided specific guidance on women’s economic and social rights within the scope of its General Recommendations. These are summarized briefly in the Table contained in Annex 1. It has issued a number of specific General Recommendations in the area of women’s economic and social rights, including No. 13 on equal remuneration for work of equal value; [71] No. 16 on unpaid women workers in rural and urban family enterprises;[72] No. 17 on measurement and quantification of the unremunerated domestic activities of women and their recognition in the GNP;[73] No. 24 on women and health;[74] and No 29 on economic consequences of marriage, family relations and their dissolution.[75] Several General Recommendations have also been cross-cutting in nature, including No. 18 on disabled women;[76] No. 19 on violence against women;[77] No. 21. on equality in marriage and family relations;[78] No. 26 on women migrant workers;[79] and No. 27 on older women and protection of their human rights.[80]
As also noted above, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) also enshrines women’s right to equality, their right to non-discrimination, and gives particular emphasis to economic and social rights. The Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights has said that the rights of non-discrimination and equality (contained in Articles 2 & 3 of the ICESCR) are not stand-alone provisions, but rather should be read in conjunction with each specific right guaranteed under Covenant.[81] The Committee has also provided specific guidance on women’s economic and social rights within the scope of its General Comments, which are summarized briefly in the Table contained in Annex 2.
In terms of understanding State obligations vis-à-vis women’s economic and social rights, it is helpful to draw both from CEDAW and the ICESCR. An interesting legal concept which is found under the ICESCR, but not under CEDAW, is the concept of “progressive realization.”[82] The ICESCR recognizes the varying ability of States to fulfill the rights outlined in the Covenant, and therefore the concept of “progressive realization” constitutes recognition of the fact that full realization of all economic and social rights will generally not be able to be achieved in a short period of time.[83] However, when economic and social rights are seen through the lens of women’s rights to non-discrimination and equality, it must be understood that State obligations are immediate, and that progressivity cannot be said to apply.[84] This is a critical nexus: the place where women’s right to non-discrimination, their right to equality, and their economic and social rights overlap and give rise to unique and specific State obligations which are of an immediate nature.
General Comment No. 16 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the equal right of women and men to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights[85] provides special insight on the nature of State obligations in this area. Consistent with State obligations articulated under CEDAW, it recognizes that the enjoyment of human rights on the basis of equality between women and men must be understood comprehensively and on the basis of substantive equality. In that regard, guarantees of non-discrimination and equality in international human rights law mandate both de facto and de jure equality. In particular, the Committee noted that:
Gender-based assumptions and expectations generally place women at a disadvantage with respect to substantive enjoyment of rights, such as freedom to act and to be recognised as autonomous, fully capable adults, to participate fully in economic, social and political development, and to make decisions concerning their circumstances and conditions. Gender-based assumptions about economic, social and cultural roles preclude the sharing of responsibility between men and women in all spheres that is necessary to equality.[86]
General Comment No. 16 also provides insight into the question of how women’s rights of non-discrimination and equality (contained in Articles 2 & 3 of the ICESCR) can be read in conjunction with each specific right guaranteed under Covenant.[87] The following illustrative examples help to highlight this intersection:
Equality in relation to the right to work (Article 11 of CEDAW and Article 6(1) of the ICESCR) requires that, in law and in practice, men and women have equal access to jobs at all levels and all occupations and that vocational training and guidance programs, in both the public and private sectors, provide men and women with the skills, information and knowledge necessary for them to benefit equally from the right to work.[88] Equality in terms of the right to just and favorable conditions of work (Article 7(a) of the ICESCR) requires, inter alia, that States identify and eliminate the underlying causes of pay differentials, such as gender-biased job evaluation or the perception that productivity differences between men and women exist. States should also monitor compliance by the private sector with national legislation on working conditions through an effectively functioning labor inspectorate. States should adopt legislation that prescribes equal consideration in promotion, non-wage compensation and equal opportunity and support for vocational or professional development in the workplace. States should also reduce the constraints faced by men and women in reconciling professional and family responsibilities by promoting adequate policies for childcare and care of dependent family members.[89] In relation to the right to form and join trade unions (Article 8 of the ICESCR) States are required to allow women and men to organize and join trade workers associations that address their specific concerns. Particular attention should be given to domestic workers, rural women, women working in female-dominated industries and women working at home, who are often deprived of this right.[90]
Equality in relation to the right of everyone to social security (Article 11.1(e) of CEDAW and Article 9 of the ICESCR), requires States to equalize the compulsory retirement age for both men and women. They must further ensure that women receive the equal benefit of public and private pension schemes, and States must also guarantee adequate maternity leave for women, paternity leave for men, and parental leave for both men and women.[91]
Equality in relation to marriage and family life (Article 16 of CEDAW and Article 10 of the ICESCR) requires that States provide victims of domestic violence, who are primarily female, with access to safe housing, remedies and redress of physical, mental and emotional damage. States must also ensure that women and men have an equal right to choose if, when and whom to marry, as well as the right of women to decide on the number and spacing of children. The legal age of marriage for men and women should be the same, and boys and girls should be protected equally from practices that promote child marriage, marriage by proxy, or coercion. States must also ensure that women have equal rights to marital property and inheritance upon their husband’s death. In particular, States must take appropriate measures to eliminate violence against women and act with due diligence to prevent, investigate, mediate, punish and redress acts of violence against them by private actors.[92]
Equality in relation to the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living (Articles 3 and 13 of CEDAW (see also Article 14 of CEDAW on Rural Women) and Article 11 of the ICESCR) requires that women have a right to own, use or otherwise control housing, land and property on an equal basis with men, and to access necessary resources to do so. It also requires States parties, inter alia, to ensure that women have access to, or control over, means of food production, and actively address customary practices under which women are not allowed to eat until the men are fully fed, or are only allowed less nutritious food.[93]
Equality in relation to the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (Article 12 of CEDAW and Article 12 of the ICESCR) obliges States to remove legal and other obstacles that prevent women and men from accessing and benefiting from healthcare on a basis of equality. They are required to address the ways in which gender roles affect access to determinants of health (such as food and water), remove legal restrictions on reproductive health provisions. States must also prohibit harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and ensure provision of adequate training for health care workers to deal with women’s health issues.[94] Equality, in this context means focusing on those restrictions which only or disproportionately impact women, such as restrictions on access to the full range of reproductive health services.
Equality in relation to the right to education (Article 10 of CEDAW and Article 13 of the ICESCR) requires States to adopt legislation and policies to ensure the same admissions criteria for boys and girls in all levels of education. States should ensure, in particular through information and awareness raising campaigns, that families do not giving preferential treatment to boys in sending their children to school, and that curricula promote equality and non-discrimination and do not promote gender stereotyping. States must also create favorable conditions to ensure the safety of children, in particular girls, on their way to and from school, as well as within school.[95]
In addition to looking at the right to equality and its intersection with each of the substantive rights, it is also possible to look more conceptually at the nature of State obligations by understanding the general ‘types’ or ‘categories’ of State obligations. Under both CEDAW and the ICESCR, States are obligated to respect, protect and fulfill women’s economic and social rights. While these have been at times called ‘levels’ of State obligations, no obligation here can be said to be more fundamental than another; States are obligated to respect, protect and fulfill women’s economic and social rights at all times. Let us look at each type of obligation more closely:
(1) The Obligation to Respect entails that States shall refrain from any action which infringes on women’s economic and social rights, or which prevents women from satisfying these rights for themselves when they are able to do so. Respecting the right obliges States not to adopt (or, as the case many be, to repeal and rescind) laws, policies, administrative measures and programs that violate women’s rights to non-discrimination and equality, including in economic and social spheres. In particular, States must to take into account the effect of apparently gender-neutral laws, policies and programs and to consider whether they could result in a negative impact on the ability of women and men to enjoy their economic and social rights on a basis of equality.[96] States must refrain from making laws, policies, regulations, programs, administrative procedures and institutional structures that directly or indirectly result in the denial of the equal enjoyment by women of their economic and social rights.[97]
(2) The Obligation to Protect entails that States must protect women within their jurisdiction from violations of their human rights, including economic and social rights, by non-State actors (including businesses and international financial institutions, as well as family members). CEDAW Article 2(e) specifically provides that States must “…take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women by any person, organization or enterprise” and Article 2 in general imposes “a due diligence obligation” on States prevent discrimination by private actors.[98] The obligation to protect requires States to take steps aimed directly at the elimination of prejudices, customary and all other practices that perpetuate the notion of inferiority or superiority of either of the sexes, and stereotyped roles for women and men. Obligations also include the respect and adoption of constitutional and legislative provisions on the equal right of women and men to enjoy all human rights and the prohibition of discrimination of any kind; the adoption of legislation to eliminate discrimination and to prevent third parties from interfering directly or indirectly with the enjoyment of these rights; the adoption of administrative measures and programs, as well as the establishment of public institutions, agencies and programs to protect women against discrimination. In addition, States have an obligation to monitor and regulate the conduct of non-State actors to ensure that they do not violate the equal right of women to enjoy their economic and social rights. This obligation explicitly applies, for example, in cases where public services have been partially or fully privatized.[99]
(3) The Obligation to Fulfill entails that States must realize the full enjoyment of all human rights, including economic and social rights, for all persons within their jurisdiction. The obligation requires States to take steps to ensure enjoyment of economic and social rights, in line with a States’ maximum of available resources.[100] However, while some aspects of the obligation to fulfill are subject to progressivity, other aspects – particularly those related to non-discrimination and equality – are immediate (as discussed above). The obligation to fulfill requires that States take a wide variety of immediate steps to ensure that women and men enjoy equal rights de jure and de facto, including, where appropriate, the adoption of temporary special measures. This entails obligations of conduct as well as obligations of results. States must fulfill their legal obligations to all women through designing public policies, programs and institutional frameworks that are aimed at fulfilling the specific needs of women leading to the full development of their potential on an equal basis with men.[101] In relation to this point, States must ensure the meaningful participation of women in assessment and analysis, program planning and design, budgeting and financing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and projects.[102] The obligation to fulfill itself further contains duties to provide, promote and facilitate.[103]
In addition to these obligations, States are also generally prohibited from engaging in retrogressive measures,[104] and at all times, States must prioritize the needs of the most disadvantaged and marginalized, including women.
In relation to corporate and private actors, we have already seen that the obligation to protect provides that States must protect women within their jurisdiction from violations of their human rights, including economic and social rights, by non-State actors, including businesses and international financial institutions. The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, endorsed by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2011, help to unpack the obligations of States vis-à-vis business and corporate actors and are grounded in the recognition of: (a) States’ existing obligations to respect, protect and fulfill human rights and fundamental freedoms; (b) The role of business enterprises as specialized organs of society performing specialized functions, required to comply with all applicable laws and to respect human rights; and (c) The need for rights and obligations to be matched to appropriate and effective remedies when breached.[105] A foundational principle is that States must protect against human rights abuse within their territory and/or jurisdiction by third parties, including business enterprises, and that this requires taking appropriate steps to prevent, investigate, punish and redress such abuse through effective policies, legislation, regulations and adjudication.[106] For further information on women, business and human rights, please see the background paper prepared by Ama Marston, which (inter alia) addresses women as business leaders, entrepreneurs and decision-makers, and examines corporate responsibility and the gender impact of corporate and international trade practices.
States also have human rights obligations outside of their own borders, and here the Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations (ETOs) of States are especially useful.[107] The Maastricht Principles provide that the ETOs of States encompass a) obligations relating to the acts and omissions of a State, within or beyond its territory, that have effects on the enjoyment of human rights outside of that State’s territory; and b) obligations of a global character that are set out in the Charter of the United Nations and human rights instruments to take action, separately, and jointly through international cooperation, to realize human rights universally.[108]
The Maastricht Principles reaffirm existing conventional and customary international law in the area of extra-territorial obligations and lay out the international legal framework of obligations to respect, to protect and to fulfill human rights abroad and make clear that in that context “States must at all times observe the principles of non-discrimination, equality, including gender equality, transparency and accountability.”[109] The Maastricht Principles also acknowledge that accountability and remedies are required under the international human rights framework, and that “States must ensure the availability of effective mechanisms to provide for accountability in the discharge of their extraterritorial obligations”[110]
ETOs have recently been recognized under both the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In 2011 in its Concluding Observations on Germany, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights addressed extra-territorial obligation to respect rights including through development cooperation and trade agreements:
Committee notes with deep concern the impact of the State party’s agriculture and trade policies, which promote the export of subsidized agricultural products to developing countries, on the enjoyment of the right to an adequate standard of living and particularly on the right to food in the receiving countries … . The Committee urges the State party to fully apply a human rights-based approach to its international trade and agriculture policies, including by reviewing the impact of subsidies on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights in importing countries. In this regard, the Committee draws the attention of the State party to the guidelines on international measures, actions and commitments as contained in the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Right to Food (2004). The Committee expresses concern that the State party’s policy-making process in, as well as its support for, investments by German companies abroad does not give due consideration to human rights … [and] calls on the State party to ensure that its policies on investments by German companies abroad serve the economic, social and cultural rights in the host countries.[111]
In 2012, the Human Rights Committee similarly addressed accountability and remedies for Germany’s extra-territorial obligation to protect rights in the context of corporate accountability, stating that:
While welcoming measures taken by the State party to provide remedies against German companies acting abroad allegedly in contravention of relevant human rights standards, the Committee is concerned that such remedies may not be sufficient in all cases …. The State party is encouraged to set out clearly the expectation that all business enterprises domiciled in its territory and/or its jurisdiction respect human rights standards in accordance with the Covenant throughout their operations. It is also encouraged to take appropriate measures to strengthen the remedies provided to protect people who have been victims of activities of such business enterprises operating abroad.[112]
The Maastricht Principles also provide a clear articulation of customary and conventional international law as it relates to the obligations of Member States of inter-governmental organizations, including in particular international financial institutions (IFIs) regarding their respective human rights obligations, since such Member States make up the decision-making bodies that control or otherwise influence IFIs. Principle 9 addresses the scope of jurisdiction, and stipulates that:
A State has obligations to respect, protect and fulfil economic, social and cultural rights in any of the following: a) situations over which it exercises authority or effective control, whether or not such control is exercised in accordance with international law; b) situations over which State acts or omissions bring about foreseeable effects on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, whether within or outside its territory; c) situations in which the State, acting separately or jointly, whether through its executive, legislative or judicial branches, is in a position to exercise decisive influence or to take measures to realize economic, social and cultural rights extraterritorially, in accordance with international law.[113]
IFIs, as organs of society, also must abide by human rights norms. In particular, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, the World Bank is obligated not to defeat the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations (UN Charter). Additionally, the World Bank must work to further the objectives of the UN Charter, and of course must not undermine those objectives.[114] This requirement is laid out in Article 59 of the Charter, which mandates that “the creation of any new specialized agencies require[s] accomplishment of the purposes set forth in Article 55.”[115] The purposes and objectives articulated in Article 55 include, inter alia, the promotion of “universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.”[116] Furthermore, Article 103 of the UN Charter makes clear that “in the event of a conflict between the obligations of the Members of the United Nations under the present Charter and their obligations under any other international agreement, their obligations under the present Charter shall prevail.”[117] In other words, these UN Charter obligations would trump any contradictory clauses in donor project agreements.
2.4 Temporary special measures
To remedy patterns of gender inequality, States are also required to put in place temporary special measures. This is an important concept within human rights, and applies across the full spectrum of rights – be they civil, cultural, economic, political or social. For our purposes here, we can define temporary special measures as measures of a temporary nature which are intended to accelerate the improvement of the position of women to achieve their de facto or substantive equality with men, and to effect the structural, social and economic changes necessary to correct past and current discrimination against women.[118] Similar concepts include “affirmative action,” “positive action,” “positive measures,” “reverse discrimination,” or “positive discrimination,” but temporary special measures are the term of art under international human rights law.[119]
CEDAW explicitly requires under its Article 4 that:
1. Adoption by States Parties of temporary special measures aimed at accelerating de facto equality between men and women shall not be considered discrimination as defined in the present Convention, but shall in no way entail as a consequence the maintenance of unequal or separate standards; these measures shall be discontinued when the objectives of equality of opportunity and treatment have been achieved.
2. Adoption by States Parties of special measures, including those measures contained in the present Convention, aimed at protecting maternity shall not be considered discriminatory.[120]
The CEDAW Committee has itself adopted two General Recommendation in the area of temporary special measures, one in 1988[121] and the most recent in 2004.[122] The first of these (General Recommendation No. 5) encourages States to make more use of temporary special measures such as positive action, preferential treatment or quota systems to advance women’s integration into education, the economy, politics and employment.[123] The second (General Recommendation No. 25) provides further insight into the nature of State party obligations in this area.[124]
In its General Recommendation No. 25, the Committee provides that the adoption of temporary special measures must be considered whenever issues of accelerating access to equal participation, on the one hand, and accelerating the redistribution of power and resources, on the other hand. It notes that “equality of results” is “the logical corollary of de facto or substantive equality. These results may be quantitative and/or qualitative in nature; that is, women enjoying their rights in various fields in fairly equal numbers with men, enjoying the same income levels, equality in decision-making and political influence, and women enjoying freedom from violence.”[125]
Therefore, in order to advance women’s equality within economic and social spheres, States are mandated to enact temporary special measures aimed at enhancing women’s status and ensuring that they are able to enjoy their economic and social rights on par with men. It is also important within the context of temporary special measures to also address patterns of intersectional discrimination which may be experienced by particular groups of women (please see below for further discussion). Many States have taken such measures, and some of these initiatives will be highlighted in the following Section as good practice. Within the context of its Concluding Observations on States parties, the CEDAW Committee has also repeatedly asked States to strengthen and expand the use of temporary special measures, including within economic and social spheres. Two recent examples include the CEDAW Committee’s Concluding Observations on Afghanistan and Hungary. On Afghanistan, the Committee urged the State party to “[a]dopt effective measures in the formal labour market, including temporary special measures, to increase female participation and eliminate both horizontal and vertical occupational segregation, to narrow and close the wage gap between women and men, and to ensure the application of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value, as well as equal opportunities at work.”[126] On Hungary, the Committee recommended that the State party apply temporary special measures to “… [f]acilitate access to education and employment for women in rural areas, Roma women and women with disabilities.”[127]
The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has similarly recognized that “Substantive equality for men and women will not be achieved simply through the enactment of laws or the adoption of policies that are, prima facie, gender-neutral,” and that “The adoption of temporary special measures may be necessary to accelerate the equal enjoyment by women of all economic, social and cultural rights and to improve the de facto position of women.”[128]
3. Women’s economic and social rights throughout the life cycle
A girl child born into the world is born into a world which is profoundly gendered. From her first days to her last, her life’s experiences – of others and of herself – will inevitably be marked by the expectations, beliefs, stereotypes, values, opportunities, roles and responsibilities that are associated with being female in her culture. While every girl is unique, and while every woman’s life is different, they can be said to share certain aspects of qualities of their life as a result of living in a gendered and patriarchal reality. How gender discrimination and inequality manifest themselves at different stages of the life cycle varies. Young girls, young women, middle-aged women and older women may have different experiences of gender discrimination and inequality, yet at all stages of life, gender discrimination and inequality are present and persistent factors in the lives of women and girls. No country has yet succeeded in closing the gender gap in all aspects of economic and social life.
This Section explores women’s economic and social rights throughout the life cycle and attempts to illuminate three questions: First, what does women’s economic and social life look like when seen through the lens of their enjoyment of economic and social rights – for example, vis-à-vis education, work, etc.?; Second, how has the economic crisis of recent years impacted or impinged the realization of these rights for women and what can be learned from State policy responses?; and Third, how can economic and social rights be better understood from a gender equality perspective and what benefit does this have?
3.1 Multiple and intersecting discrimination and inequalities
Before embarking upon those discussions, however, it must be said that while gender discrimination and inequality may affect all women to one degree or another, women are not a homogenous group. The CEDAW Committee has recognized that certain groups of women, in addition to suffering from discrimination directed against them as women, may also suffer from multiple forms of discrimination, including as a result of discrimination based on race, ethnic or religious identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, class, caste or other factors. The Committee highlights that such discrimination may affect these groups of women primarily, or to a different degree or in different ways than men, and that States should take specific temporary special measures to eliminate such multiple forms of discrimination against women and its compounded negative impact on them.[129] For example, the CEDAW Committee has recommended that States conduct regular and comprehensive studies on discrimination against minority women in the field of education and provide information and data on the situation of minority women in education.[130]
The Montreal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights note that:
Intersecting discrimination can determine the form or nature that discrimination takes, the circumstances in which it occurs, the consequences of the discrimination, and the availability of appropriate remedies. To ensure that all women enjoy the benefits of their economic, social and cultural rights, specific measures are needed to address the ways in which women are differently affected in their enjoyment of a right as a result of the intersection of discrimination based on sex with discrimination based on other characteristics.[131]
In the area of economic and social rights, it is easy to see the effects of multiple and intersecting inequalities in both Global North and Global South contexts. The disparities are evident in all areas, including education, income, health outcomes, access to services and benefits, etc. In Canada, for example, census data shows that racial minorities are far more likely to live in poverty, to face barriers to workplaces, and even when they get a job, they are more likely to earn less than the majority population. Controlling for age, immigration status, and education does not eliminate the gap.[132] When gender is added to the mix, researchers found that income poverty increases: women belonging to minority racial groups were paid 53.4 cents for every dollar white men were paid in 2005, whereas men belonging to minority racial groups were paid 73.6 cents for every dollar. Women belonging to minority racial groups made 84.7 cents for every dollar that white women made.[133] The OECD notes that empirical studies highlight that gender and race discrimination in the labor market are important factors behind the often high levels of earnings inequality in emerging economies.[134] As the ILO has recognized: “… men and women clearly do not form homogeneous, diametrically opposed groups. Though gender inequality still exists on the labour market, we cannot treat it in broad strokes, but rather must recognize diversity and ask ourselves which women and which men are being affected?”[135]
With this understanding in mind, and in light of the previous discussion on State obligations and the use of temporary special measures, it can be said that States also have a duty to effectively combat multiple and intersectional discrimination and inequalities. To address these situations, States must adopt the necessary laws, policies and practices, and prioritize the needs to the most marginalized and excluded, including single women, households headed by single women or girls, women belonging to racial/ethnic/religious/linguistic minorities, immigrant and migrant women, lesbians, women living with HIV, ‘at risk’ women and girls, women with disabilities, elderly women, women with small children, and pregnant women. Because social inequalities may be exacerbated during times of economic crisis, States should remedy and repair multiple and intersecting discrimination and inequalities within the context of economic, financial and related policy-making.
3.2 Education
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From an early age, girls face discrimination and inequality that impacts their ability to succeed and enjoy autonomy later in life. A girl’s inability to access quality education is a prime example of how discrimination and inequality can take root. UNESCO has stated that “Gender-based discrimination in education is both a cause and a consequence of deep-rooted disparities in society.”[136] The OECD’s Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) similarly shows that “[w]omen’s low status in the family is linked to reduced educational attainment and economic outcomes for women and girls.”[137]
The gender gap in education is not as stark as it once was: today, female enrolment is rising at greater rate than among males, and data show that gender parity achieved in two-thirds of countries at primary and/or secondary levels.[138] In some countries, disparities in favor of girls sometimes develop at the higher levels of education.[139] While girls’ education has been at times seen as a game-changer for women’s equality and empowerment, the reality is that the relationship, at least in terms of earning potential, is not a direct one. The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative[140] (UNGEI) notes that while gender parity shows signs of improvement within schools, parallel changes in the labor market and society at large do not show similar gains.[141] In the United States, for example, researchers have shown that while women are now more likely to complete four-year college degrees than men, it does not appear that their higher levels of education will close the gender wage gap.[142] Nonetheless, it is important to stress that girls’ education is valuable for its own sake, even while it may not be a panacea for women’s economic equality.[143]
Despite the progress of recent years, it cannot be said that all of the doors to education have been opened for girls. Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani schoolgirl whose assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen in 2012 brought increased international attention to girls’ right to education, has been a vocal advocate and her case demonstrates that more gains must be made.[144] Indeed, persistent gender barriers remain in the area of access to education, and some of the apparent successes can be misleading. In many countries girls take on domestic responsibilities, including the care of younger siblings and the gathering of fuel and water, which may limit their ability to go to school or to do well in school. Many girls also work for pay instead of going to school: an estimated 67.1 per cent of all child domestic workers (17.2 million children worldwide) are girls.[145] Depending on the country and the culture, boys may also receive preferences when it comes to education.[146]
Girls also may experience pressure for early marriage, as well as sexual harassment and violence in and out of educational settings, which may force them to drop out of school.[147] Early marriage of course also sets girls up for early pregnancy, a significant contributor to maternal mortality, particularly in developing countries.[148] Even in situations of early pregnancy, however, the CEDAW Committee has been very clear that girls are entitled to continue with their schooling. For example, on Indonesia, the Committee has urged the State party to “[e]nsure equal access of girls and young women, including those in domestic services, to all levels of education and take measures to retain girls in schools including by providing public scholarships for girls and incentives for parents and employers to send their daughters and domestic workers to school and enabling young women to return to school after pregnancy.”[149]
Plan International notes while most countries still only track enrolment, enrolment is an inherently flawed measure of girls’ access to education.[150] Attendance is a much better measure of access, and for girls attendance is routinely cut short due to domestic responsibilities such as cooking, fetching water and firewood, and childcare;[151] lack of adequate water and sanitation in schools to meet the needs of menstruating girls;[152] and gender-based violence and sexual harassment in schools.[153]
Intersectional discrimination also greatly impacts upon girls’ schooling. For example, researchers have reported Romani girls being given less attention at school because authorities expect them not to complete their education due to ethnic stereotypes about either early marriage or early pregnancy.[154]
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to education (V. Muñoz Villalobos) has noted that “[r]hetoric in favour of girls’ rights has not prevented education from continuing to be one of the lowest budget priorities and one of the least favoured areas in public policy.”[155] The Special Rapporteur has also said that stereotyping at school and within educational curriculum is a major problem, reporting inter alia that: both men and women teachers have low expectations of girls’ intellectual skills, that teachers often give girls less feedback and frequently report that they enjoy teaching boys more than girls; that girls have lower and fewer expectations of themselves in and out of school and think that their future consists primarily of being wives and mothers; that low expectations are reinforced by textbooks, curricula and assessment material, in which no female figures appear; that prizes won by girls and girls’ achievements are not as widely reported or publicized as boys’; and that there is a clear tendency to use sexist language within schools and within curricula.[156]
In terms of helping to develop the content of the right to education from a gender equality perspective, the Special Rapporteur made a range of specific recommendations aimed at increasing the availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability of education for girls.[157] In terms of good practice, UNESCO has noted that examples of interventions for promoting gender equality in education can be thought of as ‘targeted’ (ensuring mostly access to education), ‘systemic’ (with a focus on universal access and quality), or ‘enabling’ (with a focus mostly on access but also on long term change).[158]
Targeting strategies are reportedly the most common approach followed by Governments to yield speedy results in expanding girls’ educational access.[159] Examples of targeted measures which have been used include cutting the costs of school fees (China, Kenya, Malawi, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and the United Republic of Tanzania) and also supplementing household access by covering indirect costs, providing cash transfers that compensate for the opportunity costs of children’s income such as scholarships and stipends (Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua and Pakistan).[160] While targeting is important, gains made in girls’ education can also be quickly reversed without further systemic and enabling strategies in place.
Systemic measures focus on universal access as well as quality, which UNESCO defines as follows:
Universal access reforms include those that focus on expanding provision of schooling infrastructure and strengthening the environment in which schooling takes place. Quality reforms include those that address the content or mode of provision of particular educational inputs, such as revising curricula and textbooks, or improving teachers’ skills in gender-aware teaching and learning methods.[161]
On quality, good practices include the removal of gender stereotypes from teaching materials, the inclusion of women’s human rights in standard school curriculums and the diversification of girls’ education into math, science and technology. It is also good practice to ensure that school career guidance counseling encourages girls to choose studies which will improve their earning capacity and career development. The CEDAW Committee has also recommended to States parties that they ensure that technical and vocational training enables girls to acquire income generating skills by also orienting them towards traditionally male dominated careers.[162] Other examples of systemic measures to promote girls’ education include providing female teachers (Bangladesh) and encouraging teachers to engage with communities to overcome inhibitions about girls’ schooling (Kenya, Uganda).[163]
Since 1976, Iceland has a core syllabus on education. The Centre for Gender Equality has worked with the Ministry for Education and the Ministry for Welfare to increase these Ministries’ focus on young people and gender equality issues. To this extent, the Ministry of Education recently added “gender equality” to the main curriculum, and, in 2010 published a textbook (Kynungabók) which offers guidance to teacher on gender equality issues and which has to be mandatorily used in their teaching. The objectives of the textbook, designed for students in middle and secondary school, are: to provide a realistic picture of the status of women and men in Icelandic society; to demonstrate that gender stereotypes hurt everyone; to help children critically analyse cultural gender constructs; and, more importantly, to create awareness about women’s rights.
Enabling measures have been defined as “intervening in the community through debates and discussions on gender issues, mobilizing mothers to participate in community forums or user committees, creating awareness of the importance of education of girls through folk media, media campaigns and wider mobilization,”[164] and include, for example, the formations of mothers’ clubs fostering mother-to-mother interactions and intense mobilization campaigns for girls’ education (the Gambia).[165]
The global trend when it comes to women and higher education is promising on many fronts. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), there has been “unprecedented growth in women’s enrolment over the past four decades” with the number of female students in tertiary institutions growing almost at twice the rate of men since 1970.[166] In fact, tertiary education is the level at which female enrolments have seen the greatest increase in almost all regions, and UNESCO reports that “these changing patterns of participation in tertiary education shifted gender disparity from a male to a female advantage.”[167] In the United States, for example, the 2008-2009 academic year represented the first time ever that women received more doctoral degrees than men.[168]
However, there continue to be significant gender gaps in higher education, and women are for example still under-represented in science, engineering and technology.[169] These gender gaps in higher education can also translate later in life into gendered career paths and less well paying and less prestigious jobs for women. Here too the CEDAW Committee has made important recommendations, for example as with its Concluding Observations on the United Kingdom, which encouraged the State party to “[s]tep up career guidance activities to encourage girls to pursue non traditional paths and improve the gender awareness of teaching personnel at all levels of the education system… [and] take coordinated measures to encourage increased participation by girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and in apprenticeships.[170] Similarly, on Norway the CEDAW Committee urged the State party to adopt temporary special measures to accelerate advancement of women in academia, through women specific grants and other affirmative action measures.[171]
Women’s and girls’ right to education with a focus on economic crisis
In situations of economic crisis, and as households cope with declining household income, girls in poor countries with pre-existing low female schooling rates are highly vulnerable to being pulled out of school.[172] As the ILO has found, “because mothers have to increase their hours of remunerated work, female children are likely to face a high risk of being withdrawn from schools, in order to take care of younger siblings and sick family members, undertaking unpaid work – replacing the mother’s role in the household.”[173]
Plan International confirms this finding and reports that “it is frequently adolescent girls who leave school to look after families when their mothers work longer hours and travel further in search of work. Primary school completion rates often decline during periods of economic contraction with girls experiencing 29 per cent decrease versus 22 per cent for boys.”[174] Girls also frequently need to find paid work themselves in order to boost family income during periods of economic crisis.[175] Plan International goes on to report:
In Cambodia, the lack of a social safety net meant that many girls left school and migrated from their villages to urban centres to become domestic workers. In Bangladesh, there were widespread reports of school dropouts, affecting girls more than boys, and children from femaleheaded households. … Given their increased vulnerability, the vast majority of female-headed households in rural areas reported that their children and more often their daughters had to quit school as a result of the food price hikes. … A quantitative analysis conducted as part of research in Nigeria found that a girl in Lagos was 2 per cent more likely to drop out of school than a boy in 2007, whereas a year later, she was 10 per cent more likely to drop out.[176]
Protecting girls’ education in many cases means protecting their families against economic shocks and incentivizing parents to keep their girls in school. Brazil’s Bolsa Familia program – reportedly the largest Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program in the world, assisting 12.6 million Brazilian families in 2010 – has successfully decreased girls’ dropout rates. Reportedly, 94 per cent of the recipients of the Bolsa Familia transfers are women.[177] According to the World Bank, poor families with children receive an average of R$70.00 (about US$35) in direct transfers. In return, parents commit to keeping their girls and boys in school and taking them for regular health checks.[178] For girls ages 15 - 17, who are at greatest risk of dropping out of school, Bolsa Familia increased their likelihood of remaining in school by 19 percentage points.[179]
Similarly, Bangladesh launched the Female Secondary School Assistance Project (FSSAP) in 199 3. Within ten years the project covered one quarter of rural Bangladesh and now benefits almost one million girls across the country in more than 6,000 schools.[180] The project provides a stipend to girls who agree to delay marriage until they complete secondary education, and has proven highly successful in improving girls’ school attendance rates.[181] In addition, in Punjab, Pakistan, girls are eligible for a school stipend under the broader Punjab Education Sector Reform Programme (PESRP). The female school stipend program provides girls in targeted districts defined by their low literacy rate with a stipend conditional on class attendance. An early study of the impacts of this stipend found significant impact on girls’ attendance of schools.[182]
3.3 Women’s work: Formal and informal, paid and unpaid
“[M]any laws still make it difficult for women to fully participate in economic life – whether by getting jobs or starting businesses. Discriminatory rules bar women from certain jobs, restrict access to capital for women-owned firms and limit women’s capacity to make legal decisions. Gender differences in laws affect both developing and developed economies, and women in all regions.”
-- World Bank, ‘Women, Business and the Law 2014: Removing Restrictions to Enhance Gender Equality – Key Findings,’ 2013[183]
Young adulthood for women may mean many things. It may mean advanced education. Often, it means the beginning of participation in the labor market, whether formal or informal. In many cases it also means staring a family, and balancing the demands of work inside and outside of the home. The balance of roles and responsibilities that women shoulder are heavily influenced by gender and age, with women’s reproductive years generally spanning from age 15 to 44, according to the World Health Organization.
When it comes to women’s paid work, whether formal or informal, women as a whole are more likely than men to be concentrated in part-time and low wage work, limiting their economic independence and compromising opportunities for career advancement and eligibility for social benefits.[184] They tend to be under-represented “in positions of power and status”[185] and overrepresented in precarious, atypical and vulnerable work or employment.[186] Segregation in the workplace is a related problem, with women clustered in what some have referred to as ‘pink-collar’ jobs, largely service sector jobs which offer inferior working conditions, less job security and provide lower pay.[187] In 2012, the ILO reported that women “are confined to a more limited range of occupations than men” and that there are significant gender gaps in economic indicators of job quality, including gender gaps in employment vulnerability (where there is a global gender gap of 2.3 percentage points) and occupational segregation.[188]
Women are also less likely to be represented on corporate boards and in positions of senior management.[189] Globally, women hold just 24 per cent of senior management roles and just 19 per cent of board roles are held by women.[190] One notable exception is China, where women now hold 51 per cent of senior management positions, and there has also been a recent rise in the number of women CEOs.[191]
In terms of occupational segregation, in most developing countries, women have increasingly moved out of agriculture and into the service sector, with the exception of countries in East Asia, where women’s employment in industry has risen to 25 per cent.[192] In more affluent countries, more than 85 per cent of women work in the service sector, primarily in education and health.[193] The ILO reports that a number of countries have taken important steps to reduce segregation in the workplace (including Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom) and recommends that policies to combat occupational segregation should also encourage men to enter industries or occupations traditionally associated with women.[194]
According to one study by the ILO, in high income countries:
… gender inequality in the labour market remains a pressing problem. Despite women’s gains in education, wage gaps remain substantial. Wage gaps are usually wider between men and women with tertiary education. Women are still less likely to participate in the labour market, and when they do, they are more likely to work part-time. In most countries, women are overrepresented in low-wage work and are more likely to be poor or socially excluded. This trend is particularly pronounced among women over age 65: for this group, gender gaps in poverty rates are alarmingly high.[195]
For further information on women in the labor market, please see the background paper prepared by Sandra Fredman, which provides a review of laws and best practice in relation to women’s labor market equality in a selection of countries.[196]
The ILO has also indicated “striking inequalities” between female workers with and without young children, noting that “the gap in employment rates is often wider among these two groups of women than between the sexes.”[197] This reality has in part caused sociologists to coin the phrase ‘motherhood penalty,’ for the systematic disadvantage that many mothers face in the workplace. For further information about the motherhood penalty, please see the background paper prepared by Efrat Herzberg, which addresses these issues in additional detail.
Sexual harassment and discrimination on the job are also pressing problems. According to UN figures, between 40 and 50 per cent of women in the European Union experience “unwanted sexual advances, physical contact, verbal suggestions or other forms of sexual harassment” at work.[198] In the Asia and Pacific region, the figure is estimated to be between 30 to 40 per cent.[199] For further information on women’s right to work and sexual harassment, please see the background paper prepared by Frances Raday, which addresses these issues in additional detail. Domestic violence also directly impacts women’s ability to work. Researchers report that:
Domestic violence often causes victims to miss days of work due to injuries, mental health problems, and fear of the abuser locating the victim at her workplace. The CDC [n.b. Centers for Disease Control, a Government public health agency in the United States] estimated that abused women in the United States missed nearly 8 million days of paid work in a single year – the equivalent of losing more than 32,000 full-time jobs from the U.S. economy.[ Domestic violence also reduces victims’ productivity when at work as a result of lowered self-esteem, depression, elevated stress levels, poorer concentration, and other mental and physical health issues stemming from the violence. Absenteeism and decreased productivity in turn can lead to missed promotions and even job loss. Victims of domestic violence have higher rates of job turnover than non-abused women, contributing to victims’ reduced earning capacity and restricted job mobility. A victim’s friends and family members may also miss work in order to assist the victim, multiplying the productivity costs to households and the larger economy. In Bangladesh, researchers calculated that each incident of domestic violence costs the victims’ household, on average, roughly 4.5% of the household’s total monthly income.[200]
Women’s work is not limited only to paid employment. Care work – largely preformed by women and girls in both developed and developing countries – is generally unpaid, and undervalued. [201] Care work also places a heavy time burden on women and girls. In Mexico, for example, UNDP has documented that on an average day, women spend close to 6 hours on domestic activities and childcare, severely limiting the time available for income-generating and leisure activities.[202] Caregiving is also not limited to child care (which is further addressed below), but encompasses the support and care of older persons, the sick, persons with disabilities, and others.
Again, intersectional discrimination also profoundly affects women’s experiences in the workplace. In the US, income data disaggregated by race and sex show that on average African-American women earn just 63 cents for every dollar earned by a white man, while Hispanic women earn just 54 cents for every dollar earned by a white man.. [203] White women earn on average 77 cents for every dollar earned by a white man.[204]
Women’s right to work with a focus on economic crisis
UN-Women has reported that, since the crisis, gender gaps in unemployment have worsened across all regions.[205] It has also noted that labor market deregulations which in some countries have followed the crises led to a general worsening of working conditions and to a weakening of wage bargaining power that has pushed even more women into vulnerable employment.[206] Similarly, since the crisis, the ILO has also highlighted that gender gaps in the labor market have worsened, and that the crisis has increased what was an already large gender gap in unemployment.[207]
In the midst of economic crises, the World Bank has reported that:
The experience of past crises suggests gender-specific first and second round impacts of the current crisis on women’s income and their work choices. First round impacts include the fall in women’s income in developing countries as result of employment losses in export oriented industries, tightening micro-finance lending, and/or drop in remittances. Second round impacts are part of households coping strategies and result in women joining the work force to help poor families weather drops in family income.[208]
Data demonstrates the significance of women’s income in situations of economic crises, and one result has been what has been termed as the ‘added worker’ effect, whereby women enter the labor force in order to provide additional income security to the household, particularly in cases where there is male unemployment or wages are reduced.[209] In previous economic downturns, Argentina, Mexico and Peru all experienced the added worker effect.[210] These economic pressures can also force women into precarious, exploitative or dangerous forms of work,[211] or lead them to migrate aboard in order to find employment.[212] Eva Biaudet, the OSCE Special Representative and Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings has also warned that the economic crisis could make women more vulnerable to trafficking, noting that “[w]idespread unemployment, a drastic decline in opportunities and a loss in remittances from labour migrants result in desperate situations both in countries of origin and of destination, where people have few viable alternatives and are prone to take more risks.”[213]
Women in the informal economy have also been deeply affected by the crisis. According to research conducted between July and September 2009 by the Inclusive Cities Project by Women in Informal Employment, Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), in developing countries there was an “overall deterioration of employment and income levels of women workers in the informal economy.” [214] Results were based on interviews with 219 informal workers, 82 per cent of whom were women. For example, 77 per cent of waste-pickers interviewed in Pune, India, reported a decline in their income; between January and June 2009, the prices of waste materials had dropped between 5 and 7 per cent.[215] In Bogotá, Colombia, and Santiago, Chile, prices had dropped even more, by 42 per cent and 50 per cent respectively.[216] Researchers went on to highlight that:
Of the 52 street vendors interviewed, 62 per cent reported a decline in the volume of trade since January, 2009; 77 per cent reported a reduction of weekly profits; and 83 per cent reported an increase in business costs. Eighty-four per cent of own-account home-based workers reported that their monthly incomes had fallen during the first half of 2009, and 75 per cent also reported a reduction in the volume of trade. One third of these home-based workers worked longer hours than before, in order to maintain the profit margin.[217]
The same research shows that nearly 40 per cent of female respondents were the primary income earners in their household, and in other households, women’s income made a vital contribution to household income. Twenty per cent of respondents reported recent retrenchments of household members during the previous six months, whilst 40 per cent reported a drastic reduction of income provided by one or more members of the household over the same period. [218] Survey results indicated that an increased number of informal women workers were supporting their entire families on substantially less income.[219]
To combat these kinds of repercussions, some Governments have established special programs which have greatly benefitted women – typically by increasing women’s employment in the public sector. Such programs have been developed in Peru (through the Programa de Apoyo al Ingreso Temporal – PAIT), Chile (through the Programa de Empleo Mínimo – PEM), India (through the Employment Guarantee Scheme) and Argentina (through the Programa Jefes de Hogar -- PJH).[220] According to the ILO, in the wake of the most recent crisis:
Ten countries reported on labour market measures targeting women, all high- and middle-income countries where female participation was low (except Latvia). These measures included training for unemployed women in Argentina and Chile and training for women returning to the labour market (Italy and Japan). Four countries increased their public works programmes with quotas for, or focus on, female participation (India, Latvia, Serbia and South Africa), while Turkey increased the scope of subsidized employment for long-term unemployed women. Two countries also targeted female entrepreneurs: Egypt introduced a 2 per cent cut in interest rates on loans to micro- and small enterprises targeted at women-headed households and Turkey introduced special credit lines for female artisans, as a crisis response.[221]
In Brazil, Chile, Singapore and Korea, Governments have invested in re-skilling, training and unemployment protection, unemployment benefits and measures for women workers.[222] In Brazil, the National Technical Education and Employment Program (PRONATAC) is a national program for capacitation and professionalization which covers 66 per cent of women.[223] In the Republic of Korea, the Initiative for Women’s Reemployment seeks to resolve the problem of women’s career interruption due to childbirth and childcare, and supports women’s re-employment.[224] The Women’s Re-employment Support Center is an institution supporting employment, where various services such as internship opportunities, job training and career management are provided for women who interrupted their careers due to childbirth and child rearing.[225] As of 2012, the Government reports that there are 100 Centers in operation throughout the country.[226]
In Malta and Portugal, States have similarly invested in re-training of unemployed persons to new jobs which break gender stereotypes, especially for those with family responsibilities.[227] In India, quotas for women in employment guarantee programs targeted at the poorest households.[228] In the Czech Republic, the Government instituted in 2012 ‘Priorities and Procedures in Promoting Equal Opportunities for Men and Women,’ which aimed at redressing discrimination in employment and guaranteeing equal participation of women and men in the labor market.[229]
The ILO notes, however, that countries that were able to offer labor market measures to unemployed women on a large scale already had programs in place. There were few major new programs.[230] For example, South Africa expanded the country’s public works program, which has a quota for female participants.[231] A similar approach was followed in Turkey, where an additional 65,000 women benefited from subsidized employment between 2009 and 2010.[232]
In addition to these challenges, in the wake of the economic crisis, women’s rights advocates have described a ‘care crisis,’ in which women have to increasingly pick up the slack in care left by crumbling social protections in health, education, and other sectors.[233] Feminist economists warn that:
There is an important relationship between the work of social reproduction and market work since there are only 24 hours a day. Demand for the unpaid work of social reproduction puts pressure on the time available for paid work in the market economy. Many studies of the impact of the 1990s Asian financial crisis and 1980s structural adjustment policies document consequences such as reduced incomes as women have to go out of work or take up less remunerative and part time work, or make compromises on time devoted to caring for children.[234]
Other crises, for example the HIV pandemic, can also lead to increased care burdens on women. In addition, economic policies which may seek to increase women’s participation in formal employment may not pay sufficient attention to women’s caregiving role, thereby having the effect of increasing women’s double burden. At the same time that public policy must recognize caregiving and afford it more value, public policy should also not reinforce gender stereotypes and roles by maintaining women’s disproportionate burden when it comes to care work.
More affluent families may choose to hire domestic workers in order to alleviate the care burden. The ILO and UNICEF note that domestic workers are often used as a ‘coping strategy’ by wealthier families to help reconcile paid work with household responsibilities and childcare. However, shifting the burden of care work onto domestic workers brings up a range of other issues, as domestic workers remain among the most vulnerable to exploitation and abuse:
Because domestic workers, the overwhelming majority of whom are women including some girls, most often are in the informal economy, they are unprotected by labour legislation. Because they carry out their work in private homes and hidden from view, they are not recognized as workers and do not benefit from labour rights guarantees such as minimum wages, regulated hours of work, overtime pay, paid leave, and maternity protection. Oftentimes, they work very long hours for low pay and without entitlements to leave periods. Typically, they come from low-income, rural or migrant groups, and lack voice and representation to improve their conditions of work. Many are exposed to highly exploitative working conditions and violence, including sexual harassment and verbal or physical abuse.[235]
Several options exist for reducing women’s unpaid care burden. One important strategy is to provide “subsidised care services – for children, older people, and people with disabilities – to enable women’s more active participation in the public sphere.”[236] In developing countries, provision of water, electricity, and sanitation facilities all can significantly reduce women’s time burden with respect to household labor and caregiving. In particular, research shows that provision of electricity and water in or near to the home can reduce the burden of care work in poorer countries where such infrastructure is not in place, for example in remote and rural areas:
Easier access to fuel and water lessens the time that women and children must spend collecting these resources and makes it quicker to complete tasks such as cooking and cleaning. In addition, adequate safe water and fuel contributes to the health of family members and reduces the time care-givers must spend looking after sick people. The Millennium Project Taskforce on Water and Sanitation also notes that mothers with improved domestic water services are better able to care for their children, in part because they devote less time to fetching water and seeking privacy for defecation, which in turn contributes to reducing child mortality rates … In addition, access to fuel and water in the home facilitates home-based income-earning activities such as hairdressing and cooking, making it easier for those responsible for unpaid care to combine paid work with their unpaid care responsibilities.[237]
In the Republic of Korea, Elderly Care Insurance (ECI) entitles all citizens over the age of 65 to public care services, covering costs associated with a range of potential needs, including help with domestic work, delivery of prepared meals, and institutional care.[238] A similar program exists in Japan (called long term care insurance, or LTCI), which is aimed at shifting responsibility away from the family (i.e. women) and into the public domain.[239]
In terms of employment, because women tend to be concentrated in certain sectors, women working in the public sector and in various export-oriented industries have been disproportionately affected by job losses following the economic crises. Despite this, much of the focus has been on male unemployment. The impact of austerity measures on women working in the public sector is considered below. But here we can highlight that export-oriented countries have experienced substantial declines in export levels due to a drastic reduction in demand from countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.[240] This decline has disproportionately affected women working in certain industries, such as textiles and apparel.
According to UNAIDS, women make up some 60–80 per cent of export manufacturing workers in low- and middle-income countries.[241] For example, in countries like Nicaragua decreased demand for exported goods has led to the displacement of nearly a third of the maquila workforce, a workforce which is almost entirely made up of women.[242] While the maquilas are notorious for their poor and exploitative labor conditions, these job losses have nonetheless made women’s economic lives more precarious. In Cambodia, over 38,000 jobs were lost in the textile and clothing sector, the largest formal sector employer for women and comprised of 90 per cent women workers.[243] In the Philippines, more than half of the 40,000 jobs lost were in export processing zones, where 80 per cent of workers are women.[244]
Unfortunately, economic crisis is often used as an excuse to reassert patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes about the role of men as primary economic providers.[245] The European Commission’s Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men has noted that “Gender based stereotypes may also exacerbate inequalities [in times of crisis]. For example, the ‘male breadwinner’ model which still predominates in many countries, may lead to a priority being given to men’s jobs and a reliance on women to provide a social safety net through informal paid and unpaid work.”[246] Others have similarly noted that “Women bear the brunt of crisis because of the paradigm of the male bread-winner that prevails all over the world across cultural divides, from Cuba to Japan. When job retrenchment takes place, the tendency is to protect employment for men and compromise on women’s jobs.”[247] During the Asian crisis, for example, women experienced unequal treatment in terms of dismissal, social security entitlements and rehiring.[248]
Similarly, seniority rules which determine whose jobs are kept and whose jobs are cut -- while gender neutral on their face – often favor men in practice. Add to this the fact that the impact on women in terms of unemployment is likely to be underestimated. Experts have found that regardless of what sectors are most harmed by the economic crisis, in some countries, gender norms are such that women are first fired, because men are generally perceived to be the legitimate bread-winners when jobs are scarce:
A global survey conducted in 2005 found that almost 40 per cent of those interviewed agreed that when jobs are scarce, men have more right to a job. Experience with the Asian financial crisis confirmed this tendency, with women laid off at 7 times the rate of men in the Republic of Korea. We can expect this to be a dominant feature of layoffs in a large number of countries in the current crisis, and it is likely that in developing economies, many more women will be pushed into the informal sector as a result. Official unemployment data are likely to miss this trend because, even if underemployed, women will be counted among the ranks of the employed in labor force surveys. In developed economies, there is evidence that some unemployed women withdraw from the labor force as a response to joblessness. This too will result in the underestimation of the unemployment effects of the crisis on women.[249]
Economic crisis also has specific implications for women and men migrant workers. Migrant workers in general are often targeted during periods of economic instability and crisis. According to UNAIDS, reports from high-income countries that women migrant workers were forced to return to their homelands began appearing shortly after the crisis started: “This represents an entire shift in the global sphere of women’s labour from paid to unpaid domestic work, and increases the burden of domestic labour on women in all contexts.”[250] In addition, nationalistic sentiment may increase, and local residents may perceive that migrant workers are shrinking the pool of domestic jobs.[251] Some countries, for example Malaysia, have taken increased steps to discourage migrant workers from entering.[252] According to the Programme on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (PWESCR), return migration associated with the economic crisis has exacerbated pockets of poverty due to lost remittances and increased pressure on local labor markets. In India, for example, large numbers of migrants have returned to their former villages. It is estimated that out of the 60 million migrant workers, 10 million workers returned back. In the city of Surat, the rate of return migration was reportedly as high as 50 per cent.[253]
3.4 Maternity and child care
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Women are faced with a duality because a large part of their productive and reproductive years are combined, making time demands on them that are not made on men in societies that place care burdens on women (i.e. unpaid care work). Maternity and child care represent one of the structural barriers preventing women from engaging in the labor market on equal footing with men. The ILO Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981, (No. 156)[254] and its corresponding Recommendation (No. 165)[255] provide a framework for reconciling work and family responsibilities.
The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women has recognized that the full integration of women into the formal economy and, in particular, into economic decision-making, means changing the current gender-based division of labor into new economic structures where women and men enjoy equal treatment, pay and power, including sharing of paid and unpaid work.[256] The Commission has also urged States and other relevant actors to “take appropriate measures to achieve equal sharing of work and parental responsibilities between women and men, including measures to reconcile care and professional life and emphasize men’s equal responsibilities with respect to household work,” as well as to “design, implement and promote family friendly policies and services, including affordable, accessible and quality care services for children and other dependants, parental and other leave schemes and campaigns to sensitize public opinion and other relevant actors on equal sharing of employment and family responsibilities between women and men.”[257]
The ILO has also had a special role in protecting maternity: It was during the first International Labour Conference (ILC) in 1919 that the first Convention on maternity protection (Convention No. 3) was adopted.[258] This Convention was followed by Convention No. 103 in 1952[259] and Convention No.183 in 2000.[260] These two Conventions progressively expanded upon the scope and entitlements of maternity protection at work, with the core aim of ensuring that women’s work does not pose risks to the health of the woman and to her pregnancy, and to ensure that women’s reproductive roles do not compromise their economic and employment security.[261] The ILO reports that:
Globally, 51 per cent, of countries provide a maternity leave period of at least 14 weeks, the standard established by Convention 183. 20 per cent of countries meet or exceed the 18 weeks of leave suggested in Recommendation No. 191. About one-third (35 per cent) of countries provide 12 to 13 weeks of leave – less than the duration specified by Convention No. 183, but consistent with the level set by Conventions No. 3 and 103 of at least 12 weeks of leave. Only 14 per cent of countries provide less than 12 weeks of maternity leave.[262]
The regions with the highest proportion of countries in conformity with these aspects of Convention No. 183 are Central Asia and Europe, while conformity is particularly low in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East.[263] Out of the 167 countries studied, 97 per cent provided some cash benefits to women during maternity leave.[264]
UN-Women notes that policies to subsidize or provide childcare by the public sector would help to compensate women for the costs they incur within the home from engaging in paid work. For example, childcare can be provided either through the private sector (and ideally with the provision of public subsidies), or directly by the State as it is done in many countries. UN-Women reports that evidence shows that such policies increase women’s participation in economic activities.[265]
Providing protection and support to breastfeeding mothers in the workplace is also important. While according to UNICEF and the ILO, in order to ensure a newborn’s good health and nutrition exclusive breastfeeding is recommended during the first six months after childbirth, “meeting these vital nutritional needs of the infant may present a challenge for working mothers, especially in the informal economy and in other types of precarious work in which decent work deficits often abound, including atypical, temporary and short-term contracts.” [266] UNICEF and the ILO report that even when maternity protection or provisions exist, enforcement is lacking, and that women still too often suffer discrimination in hiring, or they risk losing their jobs once hired, due to maternity. Sometimes new mothers cut short their leave for fear of losing their job, and at times they may be forced to put the nutritional health of their child at risk, as when a baby is weaned prematurely.[267]
For further information on maternity and childcare, please see the background paper prepared by Sharon Offenberger, which addresses these issues in additional detail.
Maternity and child care with a focus on economic crisis
In the wake of the crisis in Europe, the rights of pregnant women to maternity leave and benefits have been curtailed and discrimination against pregnant women has been documented in at least four countries (Greece, Portugal, Italy and the Czech Republic).[268]
Some countries have taken positive steps. For example, Canada, Latvia, Hungary, Japan and Spain have all put in place initiatives for women to return to work after maternity leave, encouragements for men to take paternity leave and more accessible childcare services.[269] The ILO reports that:
Nine countries reported on some form of additional childcare support, mostly belonging to the group of high-income countries, including six where female labour force participation was high (Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Moldova, Netherlands and the United States). Noticeably, most additional childcare was provided in countries where there was an added worker effect (i.e. an increase in female labour force participation post-crisis), and in a few countries where female participation decreased (the Netherlands and the United States). Moreover, childcare support – a labour intensive sector – acted as a labour demand-side measure through the construction of childcare infrastructure.[270]
In the Netherlands, the Government introduced a package of family-friendly measures in the 2009 Crisis Pact, which included extension of parental leave from 13 to 26 weeks.[271] The Pact also included improvements in the accessibility and quality of childcare as well as a public benefit scheme for self-employed women.[272]
In the Republic of Korea, the Government has also implemented measures to alleviate women’s disproportionate childcare burden and to encourage women’s labor market participation by expanding childcare benefits:
In 2012, all children aged between 0 and 2, all children at the age of five but for children of age between 3 and 4, only those from the households with lower 70% income received the benefit. From 2013, all children regardless of the household income can benefit from childcare benefit. In addition, since the home care allowance was launched in 2009 and included children from the households with income of 100-120 percent of the minimum living standard in 2012. In 2013, this has been enlarged to all children aged 0 to 5, regardless of household income.[273]
In Luxembourg, the Ministry for Family and Integration in cooperation with the municipalities in 2009 established a childcare voucher-service system (CSA). The CSA is meant to improve the re-integration of parents into the labor market and also ensures high quality services to children. Children from low income families and those at risk of poverty benefit from 25 hours for care per week, free of charge, and for those hours of care exceeding 25 hours per week, they benefit from reduced fees.[274]
While no ILO standard exists concerning paternity leave, paternity leave is available in a number of countries.[275] One interesting example of paternity leave protection can be found in Iceland, where fathers have an “independent, non-transferable leave quota.”[276] Even after the economic crisis, mothers and fathers are entitled to five months of non-transferable leave, with an additional two months of shared leave. The reimbursement rate is 80 per cent of the normal salary. These kinds of initiatives are encouraging and ought to be replicated in order to promote a more equitable sharing of family responsibilities. UNICEF and the ILO have noted that:
Paid paternity leave is a measure that provides an opportunity for men’s more equal sharing of their infant’s care. When incentives to take such leave exist, these measures have been shown to facilitate greater involvement of fathers in such care, which enhances child development. Evidence shows that extended periods of paternity leave and parental leave available to both men and women have a positive effect in supporting workers with family responsibilities, while enabling fathers to exercise their rights as parents and caregivers. Moreover, these provisions contribute to achieving gender equality, since greater sharing of childcare gives women better access to and sustained participation in the labor force, greater income-earning potential, and more equitable treatment and opportunities including for advancement, all of which contribute to closing the gender pay gap.[277]
Parental leave – which as opposed to maternity/paternity leave is “a relatively long-term leave available to either parent, allowing them to take care of an infant or young child over a period of time usually following the maternity or paternity leave period” – is also not included in any of the ILO Conventions. However, both Recommendation No. 191[278] (accompanying Convention No. 183[279] on maternity protection) and Recommendation No. 165[280] (accompanying Convention No. 156[281] on workers with family responsibilities) do contain provisions on parental leave.[282]
To guide policy making in this area the ILO has recommended the following ‘Requirements for family-friendly measures to be gender-equality-friendly:’
▪ Recognizing men’s caring role: Offering parental leave and making parental leave, after the initial maternity leave, available to both men and women and non-transferable.
▪ Making paid work more family-compatible: Flexible arrangements with regard to working schedules, rest periods and holidays; provision of annual leave, short leave for emergencies; (good) part-time, flexitime, time banking, teleworking, reduction of daily hours of work and of overtime.
▪ Making family responsibilities more compatible with work: Ensure availability of affordable and good-quality child-care and other family services and facilities that assist workers in meeting their employment and family responsibilities.
▪ Promoting a more equal sharing of family responsibilities between men and women, through information, awareness-raising measures and education policies.
▪ Promoting public and private actions to lighten the burden of family and household responsibilities through labor-saving devices, public transport, supply of water and energy.[283]
Some countries also provide tax deductions/credits for costs associated with care. For example, in the United States, the Federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit helps working parents or caregivers pay for child care or other dependent care. The amount of credit received is a percentage of care expenses, ranging from 20-35 per cent (the benefit is provided on a sliding scale such that as income increases, the percentage paid decreases).[284] In South Africa, the Government had been implementing a Child Support Grant in the form of childcare allowances paid to the main caregiver.[285] In Colombia, working mothers receive subsidized childcare.[286]
In 2006, Croatia adopted its National Policy for the Promotion of Gender Equality, which sets out a number of specific measures promoting the sharing of family responsibilities between women and men and increasing the availability of childcare services.[287] The Policy also provides for conducting media campaigns to promote equal sharing of household work and family responsibilities and equal distribution of parental responsibilities for the care of children, including the promotion of use of parental leave by fathers to ensure more active participation of women in the labor force and increase the number of fathers taking parental leave.[288]
The ILO and UNICEF also report that the Government of Chile has made “considerable efforts to expand childcare services as a means to create better quality jobs and to promote gender equality and national development.” Since 2005, for example, the number of free public nursery places for children aged 3 months to 2 years who are living the poorest areas of Chile increased from 14,400 to 64,000 in 2008. Kindergarten places for children aged 2–4 years, which numbered 84,000 in 2005, we estimated to expand to about 127,000 by 2009.[289]
3.5 Housing
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For many women, the home is often the center of daily life – it is a place for carrying out daily household chores, raising a family, and engaging in small income generating activities. As with other economic and social rights, for women in particular the status of their housing rights is intimately connected to their health, their security and their overall well-being.
Some of the most important work done around women’s housing rights internationally in the past was done under the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing between 2002 and 2006 (then Miloon Kothari). The 2006 report of the Special Rapporteur on these issues, presented to the Human Rights Council, offered the main findings stemming from a significant body of thematic research, country missions, regional civil society consultations and information received from Governments and other actors on the status and implementation of women’s right to adequate housing.[290]
Those consultations highlighted how, in all parts of the world, the status of a woman’s housing reflects her overall level of economic and personal security. For many women, the home is the economic and social center of a woman’s life, and it is the space in which much of a women’s day-to-day life is lived. Yet, despite the obvious importance of housing to women, the gendered nature of social and economic relations within and outside of the household means that women are often excluded from and discriminated against in virtually every aspect of housing -- be it policy development, control over household resources, rights of inheritance and ownership, community decision-making, and even the design and construction of housing.
The most recent report of the mandate (2011) of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing (Raquel Rolnik) looking at the question of women and housing rights, highlighted a host of issues which continue to impact the ability of women to enjoy their right to adequate housing or which otherwise have a disproportionate gender impact.[291] The report found that:
In all regions, patriarchy and gender discrimination; poverty; and the impact of globalization, neo-liberal economic policies and privatization surfaced as overarching issues of concern which set the stage for violations of women’s right to adequate housing. More specifically, the impact of natural and human-induced disasters, conflict and internal displacement, war and occupation, lack of affordable and low-cost housing, forced evictions, homelessness, domestic violence, lack of women’s participation in law and policy-making, lack of access to remedies, inadequate and discriminatory laws, and the application of discriminatory customary law, all emerged as relevant barriers to women’s right to adequate housing across regions.[292]
In relation to the practice of forced evictions, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has recognized that women deserve special consideration and assistance in cases of evictions, noting that “Women … suffer disproportionately from the practice of forced evictions.”[293] In addition, in its resolution 2004/28 on forced evictions, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights noted that that “every woman, man and child has the right to a secure place to live in peace and dignity, which includes the right not to be evicted unlawfully, arbitrarily or on a discriminatory basis from their home, land or community.”[294] The Commission also recalled that while certain groups were more vulnerable to forced eviction, “women in all groups are disproportionately affected, given the extent of statutory and other forms of discrimination which often apply in relation to the property rights of women, including homeownership and rights of access to property of accommodation, and given the particular vulnerability of women to acts of gender based violence and sexual abuse when they are rendered homeless.”[295]
The United Nations’ Special Rapporteurs on Violence against Women and on the Right to Adequate Housing have also addressed violence against women within the context of forced eviction (which may or may not coincide with conflict situations). In 2000, the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women (Radhika Coomaraswamy) observed:
Violence occurring in relation to forced eviction starts before the eviction process. Psychological stress on learning about the eviction can destabilise the family atmosphere and cause emotional trauma. Sometimes, rape is used by the evictors to break resistance. During the eviction, verbal abuse and beatings, rape and even killing are common. The destruction of the home and the destruction of property are further traumatic experiences. The destruction of the home is often equivalent to the destruction of life; everything that was accomplished so far is destroyed. Coping with injuries, the death of family members, inadequate housing or even homelessness, poverty, lack of community support when relocated away from the home town are all possible burdens that have to be taken on by women after eviction.[296]
In 2009, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women (Yakin Ertürk) reported that, “The impact of these forced evictions, often by militia or armed forces, is profoundly devastating for women and is correlated with heightened rates of physical, psychological and economic violence against women before during and after the evictions. This is true both in terms of violence against women at the hands of state authorities, non-state actors, community members, as well as violence against women by their partners or relatives within the home.”[297] Similar concerns have been voiced by the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing (Miloon Kothari), whose global consultations revealed that within the context of forced evictions women were often beaten by the authorities, arrested, beaten and abused, inhumanly transported, and arbitrary detained.[298]
Women also face barriers related to housing because of intersectional discrimination. Immigrant women in Europe, for example, are more likely to be homeless or to live in sub-standard accommodations.[299] In the United States, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reports that African-American home buyers learned about the existence of 17 per cent fewer homes and were shown on average 18 percent fewer properties that prospective white home buyers with similar profiles and backgrounds.[300]
Women’s right to adequate housing with a focus on economic crisis
The Special Rapporteur (Raquel Rolnik) also highlighted the impact of the economic crisis, and particularly cuts to public housing programs which were reported to have a devastating impact for women in many countries across the world. For example, the Special Rapporteur highlighted that in 2011, the United States cut US$2.8 billion from its federal housing programs, impacting ethnic minority women, women single heads of households, and women with disabilities, the hardest.[301] In addition, the Special Rapporteur addressed the impact of the foreclosure crisis on women, highlighting that “[t]he consequences of foreclosure for women are similar to what has been documented in terms of the impact of forced evictions, namely increased social isolation, increased exposure to domestic violence, and deepened poverty.”[302]
In terms of domestic violence, there is a well known relationship between violence against women and situations of homelessness and inadequate housing.[303] Lack of adequate housing severely limits a woman’s abilities to leave a violent situation, and economic crisis can aggravate this dynamic by diminishing a woman’s economic autonomy. In this area, the Special Rapporteur however has noted that new policies have been adopted in recent years which increasingly protect women’s right to adequate housing is within the context of domestic violence. For example:
[T]he Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe issued a recommendation on the implementation of the right to housing in 2009, advocating the adoption and implementation of national housing strategies by all Council of Europe member States. Section 4.3.6. of the recommendation deals explicitly with women and women victims of violence, calling upon States ―to protect women victims of violence through specific legal and policy initiatives including the provision of specialized emergency shelters and other alternative housing. Section 5 also urges States to adopt national housing strategies that ―apply a gender perspective, identify disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and include positive measures for ensuring their effective enjoyment of the right to housing, and also to ―adopt anti-violence provisions in housing legislation and policies and ensure that domestic violence laws include provisions to protect women’s right to housing, including the right to privacy and security.[304]
In addition, at national levels, countries like Serbia, Brazil and Argentina have also recognized in their domestic legislation the right of women to reside in their marital home, regardless of ownership, and to have the perpetrator removed from the home.[305]
Brazil in 2009 also institutes the Minha Casa Minha Vida (My House My Life) public housing program. Minha Casa Minha Vida guarantees accessible housing to low income families, gives women the titles to properties, except when the man holds child custody.[306]
In her report, the Special Rapporteur also took the opportunity to provide guidance on a gender perspective on the specific elements of the right to adequate housing.[307] Her approach is one which should be replicated vis-à-vis other economic and social rights. For example, the Special Rapporteur highlighted that housing law, policy and programming should explicitly recognize the independent right of women to security of tenure, irrespective of their family or relationship status. She also highlighted that definitions of affordable housing should take into account any gender disparity in income and access to financial resources, and prioritize the allocation of social or public housing to those who cannot afford the cost of housing.[308]
3.6 Food and nutrition
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has stated that, globally, people’s overall access to food is very dependent on the work of rural women.[309] While the next Sub-Section (please see Sub-Section 3.7 below on land and property) addresses in more detail women’s role in agriculture, here is can be said that even though rural women are critical to global food security, the irony is that they themselves are amongst the most likely to be undernourished and to be pushed into hunger when food prices escalate. This has obvious health ramifications for women, especially pregnant women and lactating mother who have additional nutritional needs. In this regard, researchers have highlighted that “Women are doubly vulnerable to malnutrition, because of their high nutritional requirements for pregnancy and lactation and also because of gender inequalities in poverty.”[310]
This reality, coupled with gender discriminatory practices in the allocation of food within the household place women and girls at increased risk of a series of health complications. For example, studies from India show that women, as caretakers of the family, are expected to eat only the remaining or leftover food, which can result in malnutrition.[311] Similar patterns, where women are simply not prioritized within the household to receive the food they need to safeguard their health and well-being, have also been observed in countries as diverse as Vietnam and Guatemala; resulting in stunted growth, micronutrient deficiencies, chronic energy deficiency, low-birth weight babies, and maternal mortality.[312] While food scarcity exacerbates these problems, evidence also shows that men reap “proportionally more nutritional benefit from economic development than women.”[313]
The 2012 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food (Olivier De Schutter) addresses women’s rights and the right to food.[314] In his report, the Special Rapporteur highlights that access to food can be secured by obtaining incomes from employment or self-employment; by social transfers; or by own production, for individuals who have access to land and other productive inputs, and that in each of these areas women face persistent gender discrimination.[315] The Special Rapporteur has also recommended making women direct beneficiaries of the cash transfer systems (rather than the men as heads of households) to improve household food security.[316]
Women’s rights to food and nutrition with a focus on economic crisis
The global food crisis, spurred on by contracting economies, rising oil prices and climate change has caused food prices to escalate in many parts of the world. The World Bank reports that food prices remain volatile, and that local food prices in many countries have not come down, despite the fact that international food prices have fallen.[317] In South Africa, food prices increased by 7.1 per cent between 2010 and 2011, and some of the highest increases in food prices over the past 3 to 4 years have occurred in the Russian Federation, with increases between 7 per cent and 11 per cent every year since 2008.[318]
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific has also reported:
While food prices have come down from the historical peaks observed in early-2008, the prices of many staples remain higher than the pre-food-price-crisis levels. This means that the poor face a “twin” crisis—high cost of food on which they spend around 60-80 per cent of their incomes; and the threat to their livelihoods from the still unfolding global financial crisis. Women, who have the responsibility to put food on the table, bear the brunt of the burden.[319]
Indeed, the World Food Programme (WFP) has highlighted that high food prices associated with the food crisis have forced many poor families to reduce their food intake.[320] At the same time, women’s workload – both paid and unpaid – has been increased in order to either produce more food or earn more income to purchase food.[321] The WFP reports that “[a]nd as usual, a woman will always be the last to eat …”[322] UNAIDS has similarly noted a qualitative study from six countries (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Yemen, Zambia) which showed that women’s nutritional needs, even when pregnant, are not prioritized during times of crisis.”[323]
To help ensure food security for women, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food has recommended that States make the investments to relieve women of the burden of the care; accommodate the specific time and mobility constraints on women as a result of their role in the care work, while at the same time transforming gender roles; mainstream gender across all laws, policies and programs; and adopt multisector and multi-year strategies that move towards full equality for women, under the supervision of an independent body to monitor progress, relying on gender-disaggregated data in all areas relating to the achievement of food security.[324]
3.7 Land and property
Women’s access to and control over land and property is essential to women’s equality and well-being. These resources help to ensure that women are able to provide for the essential needs of themselves and their families, and help women to weather economic shocks.[325] The Swedish International Development Agency has noted that “In many parts of the world, women’s poorer command over productive resources, including land, technology, and credit, translates into lower earnings, fewer options, and greater vulnerability compared to men. This is especially true during economic crises and recessions.”[326] According to the OECD’s Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), on average, women hold only 15 per cent of land titles for countries where data is available, and that 86 out of 121 countries scored in the 2012 SIGI have discriminatory inheritance laws or practices.[327]
Land is of course also closely connected to food security and the right to food (please see Sub-Section 3.6 above). Women play a critical role in agriculture, and represent most of the world’s small farmers of irrigated crops. At least half of the world’s food is grown by women farmers, and in African countries that figure rises to 80 per cent.[328] Yet, while African women increasingly assume a vital role in agriculture – and are the backbone of food security on the Continent – they remain among the most disadvantaged. African women, like women in other parts of the world, very often lack formal rights to the land which they farm, making their access to land tenuous at best.
Globally, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20–30 per cent.[329] These gains in agricultural production could lift some 100–150 million people out of hunger.[330] FAO also added:
[T]he potential production gains calculated by this method are based on the existing distribution of land. This implies that countries where women control proportionately more land could achieve the greatest potential gains. It may be the case, however, that the overall gender gap in access to agricultural resources is, in fact, wider where women control less land. The actual gains from closing the gender gap in access to resources would be greater in countries where the gender gap is wider. Increasing women’s access to land as well as complementary inputs in that case would generate broader socio-economic benefits than those captured in this analysis.[331]
A recent study from the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee on discrimination in the context of the right to food found that women’s access to control and ownership of land or property is crucial to the strengthening of their security and livelihoods:[332]
It is important to understand the multiple factors – laws, inheritance, marital status and agrarian reform policies – that impede women’s equal access to land and the way these affect women by virtue of their gender at the individual, community and national levels. FAO [The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization] estimates that de facto female-headed households account for around 25 per cent of all rural households, reflecting the multiplicity of women, from single parents, widows and wives of migrant workers to women migrant workers. Despite representing the majority of the agricultural workforce and production, women are estimated to have access to or control 5 per cent of land globally. … The right to control, have access to and manage land is tied to a woman’s right to exercise financial independence, earn a livelihood and subsequently provide a livelihood for herself and her household. Agrarian reform policies that are “gender-blind” continue to exclude women from entitlements to land. States undergoing agrarian reform or land redistribution schemes must uphold the equal right of women to land, regardless of marital status.[333]
UN-Women and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights also recently released a Handbook on Effective Strategies to Realize Women’s Rights to Land and Other Productive Resources.[334] The Handbook provides a summary of the international human rights standards which have been articulated protecting these rights, as well as multiple examples of good practices adopted by States in this area.[335] Good practice examples centered around overarching issues and strategies; security of tenure and prohibition of forced eviction; legal systems and access to justice; marriage and family; land law, policy and programming; institutional implementation; awareness raising and training; and particular groups of women, including Indigenous women, women affected by HIV and displaced women.[336]
Despite the good laws, policies and practices which have been adopted by States, the greatest challenges in implementation, particularly in terms of ensuring gender equality, often arise at the local level in the context of regulation of land use, management and administration. While States are sometimes reluctant to address the gender-bias inherent in many customary systems of land allocation, women’s human rights advocates highlight that gender equality in access to and control over land, has to be argued from the point of view of women’s interests and not that of citizens or the family. [337]
Lessons from various land reform processes demonstrate that women are often excluded as beneficiaries of agrarian land reform. For various reasons often related to gender-based assumptions about land ownership and access (or rather, failure to account for gender-based realities of land ownership and access), land reform legislation thus fails to address issues of equal access and representation for women. Notwithstanding the increasing number and proportion of female-headed households, land reform often targets generic ‘heads of households’ that are assumed to be men. The continuous disregard for joint ownership, as well as single female heads of households, contributes to the under-representation of women as beneficiaries of agrarian land reform. To reverse this trend, programs targeting women should include direct proactive inclusion measures such as mandatory joint titling. Moreover, proactive measures must consider gender equality as a specific and central objective of land reform.
Women’s rights to land and property with a focus on economic crisis
One of the results of the economic crisis and of rising food and fuel prices has been an increase in large scale land acquisitions or ‘land grabs.’ Land grabs themselves tend to be quite controversial, and have been defined as the purchase or lease of vast tracts of land by wealthier, food-insecure nations and private investors from mostly poor, developing countries in order to produce crops for export.[338]
Today’s food and financial crises have, in tandem, triggered a new global land grab. On the one hand, ‘food insecure’ governments that rely on imports to feed their people are snatching up vast areas of farmland abroad for their own offshore food production. On the other hand, food corporations and private investors, hungry for profits in the midst of the deepening financial crisis, see investment in foreign farmland as an important new source of revenue. As a result, fertile agricultural land is becoming increasingly privatised and concentrated. If left unchecked, this global land grab could spell the end of small-scale farming, and rural livelihoods, in numerous places around the world.[339]
Oxfam reports that, to date, at least 33 million hectares of land deals have been identified since 2001 – an area 8 times the size of the Netherlands.[340]
Because women are the majority of the world’s small farmers, this situation has special implications for them. And, because women already have tenuous rights over land, due to gender discrimination in land allocation and rights, land grabbing can make their situation more even precarious by further depriving them of access to land, either entirely or by pushing them to more and more marginal land for farming.
It should also be said that much of the land purchased in this manner is not intended for food production at all, but rather for biofuel production. While biofuels have been hailed as ‘green’ energy alternatives to fossil fuels, FAO warns that there is no guaranteed outcome. Rather, “[t]he impact depends on how biofuels are produced – both in terms of how crops are grown and of how conversion takes place – as well as on how they are brought to the market. The global impact is more likely to be negative if large tracts of additional land are brought under agricultural cultivation.”[341] When no food is grown on land used to produce biofuel crops, food security for local populations can deteriorate and displacement of communities due to forced eviction can have further detrimental impacts on food production and access to land, particularly for women.
FAO has specifically highlighted that risks associated with the development of biofuels include worsening income distribution and a deterioration of women’s status: “[e]xpansion of biofuel production will, in many cases, lead to greater competition for land. For smallholder farmers, women farmers and/or pastoralists, who may have weak land-tenure rights, this could lead to displacement. The emphasis on exploiting marginal lands for biofuel crop production may also work against female farmers.”[342]
This, of course, also has negative implications in terms of food security, as agricultural land gets converted from growing food crops to growing biofuel crops. On this last point, FAO also reports that:
The conversion of these [marginal] lands to plantations for biofuels production might therefore cause the partial or total displacement of women’s agricultural activities towards increasingly marginal lands, with negative repercussions for women’s ability to meet household obligations, including traditional food provision and food security. Furthermore, if land traditionally used by women switches to energy crop plantations, the roles men and women play in decision-making concerning household agricultural activities may be altered. In particular, women’s ability to participate in land-use decision-making may be reduced as the amount of land they control will decline.[343]
The Special Rapporteur on the right to food, (Olivier De Schutter), in his proposed Core Human Rights Principles Applicable to Large-Scale Land Acquisitions or Leases advocates for the inclusion of sex-disaggregated data in undertaking impact assessments.[344] Other positive steps include the African Union Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa, in which African States have resolved to “strengthen security of land tenure for women which require special attention.” [345] In addition, the Nairobi Action Plan on Large Scale Land-Based Investments in Africa also highlights the need to “maximize opportunities for Africa’s farmers, with special attention to smallholders [n.b. the majority of whom are women] and minimize the potential negative impacts of large-scale land acquisitions, such as land dispossession and environmental degradation, in order to achieve an equitable and sustainable agricultural and economic transformation that will ensure food security and development.” [346]
3.8 Water and sanitation
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The water literature on gender reflects women’s unique relationship with water, as well as with sanitation and hygiene. Globally, gendered division of labor in water collection shows that women and girls together represent 75 per cent of household water collectors, and that in some countries the proportion reaches up to 90 per cent.[347] According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation this “creates significant burden, especially when the time taken to collect water is considerable.”[348] According to a combined analysis of 25 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, women spend at least 16 million hours per day collecting water compared to 6 million hours spent by men.[349]
This is a significant burden in terms of time, as well as in terms of labor. Often, women and girls must travel great distances and carry heavy loads. In fact, evidence suggests that women and girls will carry water equaling up to 20 kilograms (or slightly over 44 pounds, which is the weight of 20 liters of water).[350] Repetitively, this kind of chronic exertion can lead to back and joint problems, as well as acute injury such as sprains and fractures from falls. In some countries, spending three, four or five hours each day, every day, collecting water is not unusual.[351] In Africa, UN-Water reports that forty billion working hours, or 25 per cent of household time, are spent each year carrying water.[352] And for these working hours, it is overwhelmingly women who are performing the work, almost all of it is unpaid, a dimension which is not often investigated or discussed. The need for women’s unpaid labor – including vis-à-vis the time and effort it takes to meet daily water and sanitation needs – also often increases with shocks, such as those associated with climate change, the AIDS pandemic or economic restructuring.[353]
Water is life, and the reality is that the collection of water must take priority over other activities. As such, this responsibility in practice prevents women and girls from engaging in other meaningful activities, including going to school, running a business, taking care of other personal responsibilities, or having time left over for rest and recreation.[354] Over time, this detrimentally affects women’s health and wellbeing, their ability to access education and their ability to earn a livelihood.[355] Moreover, because of their domestic roles and responsibilities women are also the ones in greatest physical contact with contaminated water and human waste.[356] This fact alone exposes them to a host of biological pathogens and chemical hazards which negatively affect health, including when disposing of their own family’s waste.[357]
In many communities women must also walk a long distance to use toilet facilities, often risking their personal safety. There is an increased incidence of sexual and physical assault for women when toilets are in a remote location. In rural areas where toilets may be unavailable, deforestation and loss of vegetation have forced women and girls to rise earlier in the mornings and to walk further in search of privacy.[358] In addition to those personal security issues, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Gender and Water Alliance (GWA), the International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC), Cap-Net and the Global Water Partnership (GWP), women are also acutely affected by the absence of sanitary latrines for the following reasons: 1) When women have to wait until dark to defecate and urinate in the open they tend to drink less during the day, resulting in all kinds of health problems such as urinary tract infections (UTIs); 2) Hygienic conditions are often poor at public defecation areas, leading to worms and other water-borne diseases, which women often have to deal with because of their care-giving roles; and 3) Girls, particularly after puberty and after the onset of menses, miss school due to lack of proper sanitary facilities.[359]
The UN Special Rapporteur on Water and Sanitation (Catarina de Albuquerque) has similarly raised concern within the context of her field missions about that fact that women and girls are overwhelmingly tasked with collecting water and must spend an inordinate amount of time searching for water.[360] She has also raised concern over the fact that, while collecting water, women and girls are physically and sexually threatened, abused and assaulted.
Women’s rights to water and sanitation with a focus on economic crisis
In many countries, privatization of social services has been a common response to economic crisis. The Government of Greece, for example, has moved to privatize State-owned services, including water and energy. [361] While privatization in and of itself does not necessarily violate women’s economic and social rights, it can at times amount to a retrogressive measure if it is done without the proper processes and safeguards in place. Privatization hits women both in terms of lost jobs in the public sector, and diminished access to quality services. From the standpoint of women’s jobs, advocates have warned that: “It is becoming clearer that if public sector jobs are replaced at all, it is by outsourcing of public services to the private sector, with poor pay and terms and conditions.”[362]
Additionally, the impact of water privatization illustrates well how women carry a disproportionate burden when social services that were once public become private. The Interagency Task Force on Gender and Water highlights that “[a] majority of the world’s poor, women are significantly affected when water services are privatized. When the price of water increases, the burden on women as caregivers and household and economic providers also increases.”[363]
UNDP, GWA, IRC, Cap-Net and GWP highlight further that for women, privatization means an increase in water user rates and thus affects poor people negatively, particularly poor women and female-headed households and, furthermore, that privatization of water and sanitation fails to take into account community water management experiences and a gender perspective. [364] Others similarly report:
Poor women, as managers of household and community water and related responsibilities, have been first to signal problems with water privatization, including: astronomical price hikes, in some cases consuming a large portion of monthly income; water cut-offs due to unpaid bills; lack of accountability mechanisms for users; deterioration of water quality; and hygiene issues. In some instances, poor and working women have been forced to decide between paying for water and feeding their children.[365]
In order to protect against these kinds of situations, clear rules and regulations are needed to ensure that privatization does not negatively affect poor households, and in particular women and female-headed households.[366]
3.9 Social security and social protection
“Gender-based inequalities in the labour market and the unequal share of unpaid family responsibilities born by women as well as a subsequent bias in the way social protection systems are structured (mainly through social insurance for the formal economy in many countries) have resulted in unequal access, coverage and provision of social security for women. In return, gender inequalities and the lack of consideration given to women’s specific social protection needs often put women at greater risk throughout the life course. This situation calls for a gender responsive policy approach.”
- Lou Tessier, Maya Stern Plaza, Christina Behrendt, Florence Bonnet and Emmanuelle St-Pierre Guilbault, ‘Social Protection Floors and Gender Equality: A Brief Overview,’ 2013
Old age brings special challenges to women in terms of their economic and social security and rights. The cumulative disadvantage that women face throughout the life cycle – in education, work and pay, marriage and the family, ability to access resources and assets – result in higher levels of female poverty and economic insecurity during old age.[367] In the United States, for example, research shows that poverty falls fairly consistently throughout the life cycle for men.[368] However, the same is not true for women. While older men have poverty rates below 7 per cent, the only time that the poverty rate for women falls below 10 per cent is during middle age (ages 45-59).[369] According to researchers “[t]hese are likely the years when they are most likely to live with men and among those when they are unlikely to have sole responsibility for the care of dependent children.”[370]
General Recommendation No. 27 of the CEDAW Committee on older women and protection of their human rights recognizes that the “impact of gender inequality throughout their lifespan is exacerbated in old age.”[371] General Recommendation No. 27 also underscores that States have a legal obligation under the CEDAW Convention to eliminate discrimination in all its forms against older women in economic and social life.[372]
One problem that older women face is the gender gap in pensions, which is defined as the percentage by which women’s average pension is lower than that of men.[373] In the European Union, the gender gap in pensions is 39 per cent.[374] For further information on women and pension, please see the background paper prepared by Frances Raday, which addresses these issues in additional detail.
However, not all women receive pensions and the World Bank reports that, globally, public spending on pensions tends to be regressive and tends to concentrate on a very small proportion of workers.[375] Moving beyond pension schemes, an estimated 75 to 80 per cent of the world’s population lacks access to social security.[376] For those that do have access to social security, women in particular are far less likely to benefit from contributory social security schemes.[377] This is because women have generally lower rates of labor force participation as compared to men, and their labor force participation is often interrupted as a result of pregnancy and child care. Women also tend to be concentrated in jobs which are more often insecure, informal, and which on the whole pay less, and “[a]cross all regions, women are strongly represented in non-waged employment” (e.g. contributing family workers).[378] As the ILO has noted:
Many women are not in a position to contribute to social insurance at all due to the nature of their employment, or have irregular contribution records and/or low contributions that lead to low benefit levels or - in the worst cases - no derived benefit at all. The persistent inequalities in earnings between men and women further enhance the gap in the level of benefits received by women in some contributory schemes, which calculate benefit as a proportion of past wages.[379]
The ILO also highlights that that cuts in tax-funded pension schemes disproportionately disadvantage women, since the better paid contribution-funded schemes favour workers in the formal economy who tend to be men, and in particular men with many years in high income jobs with uninterrupted careers.[380]
Women’s rights to social security and social protection in the context of economic crisis
The World Bank reports that the financial crisis has significantly impacted pension systems in the Europe and Central Asia region, noting that “[t]he financial crisis has quickly turned into an economic crisis with major implications for all public programs, including pension systems.”[381] Some countries have responded to the crisis by raising pensionable ages and some have cut pensions in payment, as well as reducing future public pension obligations.[382] The ILO has highlighted that cuts in tax-funded pension schemes disproportionately disadvantage women, since the better paid contribution-funded schemes favor workers in the formal economy who tend to be men, and in particular men with many years in high income jobs with uninterrupted careers.[383]
While it is important to bolster the pension system, it is also important to strengthen the social safety net for older women as a whole. The Report of the Advisory Group chaired by Michelle Bachelet on “Social protection floor for a fair and inclusive globalization,” (aka Bachelet Report) emphasizes the role of social protection in cushioning the impact of the economic crisis, particularly for marginalized groups, including women.[384] The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty (Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona) has also noted that social protection systems play an important role in protecting the economic and social rights of the poor during times of economic crisis and recommended that:
A comprehensive rights-based social protection system must therefore be the foundation of any transformative recovery from the global economic and financial crises. Strengthening social protection systems now will ensure greater resilience against future crises, while supporting the most vulnerable will help to prevent the transmission of the effects of the crises to future generations.[385]
Social protection is also especially relevant for women, who as a group tend to enjoy less economic security at all stages of the life cycle. UN-Women highlights that “… [i]t is easy to see how a universal rights-based approach [to social protection], instead of a selective needs-based one, will contribute more towards reducing poverty, containing inequality, sustaining equitable economic growth and encouraging women’s greater empowerment and autonomy for women.”[386]
In 2009, the Social Protection Floor Initiative (SPF-I) launched by the ILO put forward an two-dimensional concept of social protection which guarantees the following elements:
▪ basic income security, in the form of various social transfers (in cash or in kind), such as pensions for the elderly and persons with disabilities, child benefits, income support benefits and/or employment guarantees and services for the unemployed and working poor;
▪ universal access to essential affordable social services in the areas of health, water and sanitation, education, food security, housing, and others defined according to national priorities.[387]
ILO Recommendation No. 202 concerning National Floors of Social Protection[388] provides that States should establish as quickly as possible and maintain their social protection floors comprising basic social security guarantees. These guarantees should ensure at a minimum that, over the life cycle, all in need have access to essential health care and to basic income security which together secure effective access to goods and services defined as necessary at the national level.[389] Indeed, Social Protection Floors for women are particularly important because of ongoing inequality with respect to income and labour force participation. But, this is not the only reason. Rather, women are far less likely than men to hold economic power across the board: they are less likely to own assets, to have access to financing and credit alternatives, or to have secure rights to land and other productive resources.[390] This situation of economic vulnerability means that women often have very little protection against poverty and economic shocks of all kinds.[391] Such a situation also increases women’s economic dependency on men, thereby reducing their autonomy and ability to act in their own interest.
3.10 Austerity and women’s rights
“The bottom line is this: It is becoming clear that fiscal austerity may hold back the very growth and restructuring that is needed and at the same time, erode hard-won gains for women.”
-Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women
Critical Perspectives on Financial and Economic Crises: Why Gender Matters
It is also important to focus on the specific impacts of austerity on women’s economic and social rights. In the immediate aftermath of the recent economic and financial crisis, many Governments responded with increased spending (for example, increased expenditure on public infrastructure, expanding social employment services, and increased benefits to unemployed persons).[392] These efforts mitigated some of the worst effects of the crisis, and were estimated to have created some 7 to 11 million jobs in 2009.[393]
This approach, however, was later superseded by a trend towards austerity and cuts to public sector expenditure. While European countries like the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain and Greece perhaps come most readily to mind when discussing austerity, many countries outside of Europe also adopted austerity measures in the aftermath of the economic crisis, including Ghana, New Zealand, South Korea and Botswana.[394] Many countries, both inside and outside of Europe, have been made to accept austerity measures as a condition to receive International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans needed to finance government debt, including Latvia, Romania, Ghana, Ireland, Côte d’Ivoire and Jamaica.[395] In a survey of 56 developing countries, researchers found that in 2010 two-thirds of those countries were cutting budget allocations to sectors significantly affecting women’s rights and gender equality, including education, health, social protection, as well as public subsidies for food and fuel and other essential items.[396]
The main focus of austerity measures has been on reducing public expenditure rather than raising taxation levels.[397] Austerity measures are often grounded in the argument that cut backs to public expenditure is necessary to slash deficits and revitalize economy after times of crisis.[398] However, many economists contest this point, arguing that austerity policies lead countries to sink deeper into recession.[399] Even the IMF’s chief economists have noted hat austerity measures have caused more economic damage than some experts had previously assumed.[400]
From a human rights perspective, austerity measures can often be considered retrogressive measures, and as such are subject to heightened scrutiny.[401] Maria Virginia Bras Gomes, member of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has observed that “When countries claimed that they did not have adequate resources, you normally saw that it was probably not that they did not have the resources, but it was because these rights had not been considered a priority, and therefore domestic investment was not based on such a priority.”[402]
Austerity deserves special attention from the standpoint of women’s rights. UN-Women has underlined that fiscal contraction generated by austerity produces both cuts in female employment as well as in the provision of public goods and services. These cuts impact women both in their roles as household economic providers as well as in their roles as caregivers.[403] A recent report of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights highlights that:
Structural inequalities and disparities affecting women’s enjoyment of human rights have been worsened by the cumulative effects of several austerity measures, particularly as regards the rights to decent work and an adequate standard of living.49 In 2011, women faced a higher risk of poverty than men in the EU, with rates of 25.2% and 23% respectively. Cuts in public-sector jobs, pensions and services, including childcare, parental and child benefits, health care and services to victims of violence and legal aid, affect women in particular. Cuts have also been made in gender equality programmes. Women who are primary caretakers in the family have assumed the largely unrecognised burden of care, such as for people with disabilities or children, which has grown heavier as states reduce staff and financial support and impose stricter conditions for receiving benefits. As governments recede from social protection and the uncompensated care economy grows, women’s ability to participate on an equal footing in public and economic life dwindles.[404]
Looking at female employment, public sector lays offs and wage cuts generated through austerity measures have had a disproportionate impact on women. Such cuts have taken place in countries like Greece, Italy and Ireland.[405] In the European Union, 69.2 per cent of public sector workers are women, concentrated in health, social work and education.[406] In the United Kingdom, some 710,000 public sector jobs are due to be cut by 2015 as a result of austerity measures, and in most regions, between 60 per cent and 75 per cent of jobs lost are women’s jobs.[407] As a result, in the United Kingdom women’s rate of unemployment is growing faster than men’s, despite an initial surge of male layoffs in construction and manufacturing. Since 2008, the data reveals that women’s unemployment in the United Kingdom has increased at double the rate for men (by 2.3 and 1.2 percentage points respectively).[408] In the United States, women held an estimated 70 per cent of the 765,000 public sector jobs which were cut between 2007 and 2011.[409]
Looking at cuts in goods and services, the European Women’s Lobby, the largest umbrella organization of women’s associations in the European Union, has noted that:
Although cutbacks in public services and benefits affect everyone, the impact will be particularly felt by women, who use public services more than men and who rely more on social benefits. Cuts in public services and benefits have a double impact on women: on the one hand, women’s economic independence is compromised and their poverty heightened. On the other hand, women are forced to cushion the impact of cutbacks in public services as the services are transferred back to the households, i.e. women.[410]
In the United Kingdom, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) estimates that because of cuts to social programs and other measures which disproportionately benefit women, “women will pay for roughly 72 per cent of the changes in taxes, benefits and tax credits set out in the budget,” with single mothers hit hardest of all.[411]
Furthermore, the European Women’s Lobby warned that “Public gender equality institutions are being destroyed on the pretext of austerity.”[412] In Spain and Romania, national gender equality institutions/bodies have been abolished altogether. In Turkey, Denmark, Ireland and the Czech Republic, they have been merged with other institutions, while in the United Kingdom and Greece they have had their funding cut drastically.[413] In Ireland there have also been cuts to budgets for monitoring incidents and patterns of gender-based violence, as well as reduction in budgets of public bodies responsible for equal opportunities.[414]
For developing countries, austerity has been a common – although not uncontested – reality, often imposed as a condition of international financial agreements and so –called ‘structural adjustment policies’ (SAPs).[415] One study on the impact of these policies on women concluded that “[w]omen constitute a disproportionate section of the losers because of the additional burdens imposed on them as a result of decline in real wages, rising unemployment, dramatic increases in prices of household goods … .”[416] Feminist economists have similarly surmised that “[t]he neoliberal macroeconomic restructuring policies such as Structural Adjustment Policies implemented by the International Monetary Fund during the 1980s were criticised for being extremely gender-blind, the austerity measures that they encouraged meant that the gap in social services had to be provided elsewhere, and it was often women who took up the slack, adding to their time-burden.”[417]
Alternative Visions to Austerity
“… the experience of the past 40 years has shown the limitations of our ability to liberate and empower women if we are forced to accept the current rules of the economic game.”
-Julie Matthaei, Professor of Economics
‘Beyond Economic Man: Economic Crisis, Feminist Economics, and the Solidarity Economy’
While many States have adopted policy responses to the crisis which have deepened women’s inequality and poverty, austerity and privatization are not the sole visions, nor are they the only alternatives. Counter-cyclical approaches (as put in place in the United States,[418] as well as in some Latin American countries, for example Chile[419]) in general have “helped to reduce the depth and duration of the impact and to leverage a more rapid recovery.”[420] UN-Women has also found that maintaining public investment and social spending can help to counter the worst effects of the recession on women and fuel economic recovery: stating “There is a wealth of evidence to support this and to draw upon for a better policy response.”[421]
Merely refusing to engage in austerity and cut backs to social programs can be protective for women. For example, in most European Union countries, States have either kept or increased minimum wages, an issue which disproportionately affects women as they tend to be lower paid than men due to the gender wage gap.[422] Likewise, in Japan and Germany work-sharing schemes include workers who don’t have regular contracts, and decrease the working hours of all the workers for a certain time, without having to lay some off.[423] This has helped to ensure that women, who are often amongst the first to be laid off, are able to continue to work.
However, not all countries have been in a position to deploy strong countercyclical policies. This is true for the poorest countries, where it is estimated that only a quarter have had sufficient financial resources to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis by creating social safety nets or job programs.[424] In Latin America for example, the capacity to implement countercyclical tools during the crisis varied considerably between countries in the region.[425]
UN-Women’s report on ‘Economic Crisis and Women’s Work: Exploring Progressive Strategies in a Rapidly Changing Global Environment,’ highlights the cases of Sweden in the 1990s and Argentina as two examples where States adopted crisis response strategies that were sensitive to women’s rights.[426] In Sweden, the Government provided direct public employment for women and helped reduce unpaid work in the care economy and household.[427] Rather than allowing its social welfare model to deteriorate during crisis:
Sweden expanded the system with a renewed emphasis on employment programmes and active labour market policies. This protected women from the worst effects of the financial crisis and economic downswing and provided a demand cushion that assisted faster recovery of the real economy. … The Swedish recovery programme also focused on avoiding labour market exclusion, particularly for women. Two cornerstones of Swedish family policy—paid parental leave and subsidies to day care for children—that were both maintained during the crisis and even expanded to some extent, have been recognized as being particularly beneficial to women workers, even by researchers who have otherwise queried the fiscal costs of such programmes …The welfare state provisions continued to provide strong social protection and safety nets to those at the bottom of the income and wage pyramid. Government benefits supplemented the incomes of the lower- paid and non-working population. These measures prevented the emergence of poverty, reduced tendencies to enhance inequality in the wake of the crisis, and also operated as countercyclical buffers that cushioned domestic demand from further declines.[428]
Similarly, in Argentina, the Government instituted countercyclical macroeconomic policies in response to national economic crisis in 2001-2002. While Argentina had up until that time been marked by extreme social inequality, the Government sought to “drastically change the economic policy model in order to move away from dynamics of exclusion and marginalization in labourmarkets, which had become the norm in the economy since the mid 1970s.”[429] The combined results of increased public employment opportunities (all the while protecting just and favorable conditions of work), as well as expansions in social protection benefits, finally reversed the trend of increasing income inequality.[430] Argentina recovered from the 2001 crisis with an annual growth rate of 8 per cent from 2002. It also reduced its overall poverty rate from 56 per cent to 20 per cent, and its unemployment rate fell from 30 per cent to 7 per cent.[431] However, there is also evidence to suggest that while women workers benefitted, they did not benefit from the recovery as much as did men workers, again underscoring the need to ensure robust gender-sensitive counter-cyclical policies.[432]
In terms of other good practice, UNAIDS has also noted that:
Evidence from previous economic crises supports the need to invest in social protection mechanisms on a long-term basis, which can then be ramped up during times of crisis in conjunction with stimulus packages and other financial measures. Developing countries that already had social safety nets in place were best able to weather the effects of the beginning of the economic crisis in 2008 and 2009. This included several Asian countries, which had already experienced a significant economic shock in 1997–1998 and had put in place social protection mechanisms, including social insurance schemes, food subsidies, welfare programmes for children, elderly people and people with disabilities, student subsidies, and conditional cash transfers for women sending their children to school. Social health insurance schemes and exemption mechanisms for vulnerable people provide a well-recognized means of reducing the impact of rising healthcare costs on poorer households. Unconditional cash-transfer programmes, as introduced by Indonesia, that provide cash to poor households as a means of mitigating economic shock have also proven to be a viable form of protection. A combination of policies that protect the multiple dimensions of welfare, nutrition and educational status of women and girls alongside mechanisms such as cash transfers leave women and girls better able to manage crises.[433]
Iceland stands out as a country which has taken pioneering steps to protect women within the context of the current crisis. In the beginning of 2009, the Government of Iceland appointed a working group tasked with evaluating the impact of the economic crisis from a gender perspective, and with the objective of ensuring that gender equality principles will be reflected in State-led initiatives taken to restore the economy.[434]
While these approaches serve as important precedents, responses to the current crisis have tended to fall short for women. UNAIDS has highlighted that “[s]timulus packages that have been introduced to provide an economic boost in several high- and middle-income countries have not considered how they might be able to address gender inequalities.”[435] Indeed, many States have directed their stimulus packages towards male-dominated industries and implemented counter-cyclical approaches in the form of large infrastructure development and construction projects (for example as in China), which have tended to create more jobs for men rather than for women. This approach “runs the risk of reaffirming gender inequalities” and research shows that supporting formal employment that benefits men while at the same time making cuts to health and social services such as child-care facilities places women in a position of economic dependency and puts an increased care burden on women, exacerbating their time poverty.[436]
In this regard, it is important for public sector spending to focus on social infrastructure investment, particularly in the areas of education, health care, child and dependent care, as well as other social services (water and sanitation, energy, etc.). From a women’s rights perspective the benefits are two fold: first, this kind of investing helps to support and stimulate those sectors of the labor market in which women tend to be employed, and second, investment in these areas also has the added benefit of relieving women’s disproportionate care burden.[437]
In addition, many countries have also implemented gender responsive budgeting which can be undertaken in the design and review of counter-cyclical stimulus packages. Morocco, for example, is taking innovative steps in relation to gender budgeting and requires reporting on the extent to which women’s rights are being realized in the implementation of public policies.[438] Many other countries have taken similar steps. While gender budgeting is a good idea in terms of women’s equality generally, in the context of economic crisis gender budgeting can “enhance the chances of women equitably benefiting from counter-cyclical measures, both in public investment for job retention and creation, and expanding social protection, in particular for the poor and the most vulnerable” (for a more detailed discussion on gender budgeting, please see also Sub-Section 4.2 below)[439]
4. Accountability for women’s economic and social rights
4.1 The role of the International Human Rights System
Accountability is a crucial component of a rights regime and of the rights based approach to development. Accountability entails States, as duty bearers, being held accountable to human rights standards as well as to the beneficiaries of those standards – the rights holders. Accountability can take many forms. First and foremost, accountability provides a means by which rights holders can challenge the acts and omissions of States that result in violations of human rights and the States’ corresponding human rights obligations to respect, protect and fulfill those rights. Such accountability mechanisms, as discussed further below, can be at domestic or international levels.
Other forms of human rights accountability can entail independent and impartial monitoring of human rights with findings that can compel a State to abide by their human rights obligations. Periodic reporting to UN treaty bodies or investigation by UN special procedures, while not necessarily meant for individual or specific complaints, can be effective at addressing legislation, policies and practices that do not conform with international human rights standards.
Domestic Incorporation of Human Rights Accountability
Its been demonstrated that one of the most effective means of accountability is for human rights norms and standards to be made justiciable in the domestic legal framework and for rights holders to not only hold duty bearers accountable but also achieve remedies for violations of human rights. Indeed, under the human rights framework, with rights come corresponding obligations and when those rights and obligations are violated there must be accountability and remedies. Article 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights requires that “Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.”[440] The UN General Assembly has also weighed in on this issue, stating that “Remedies for gross violations of international human rights … include the victim’s right to … adequate, effective and prompt reparation for harm suffered.”[441]
The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women also recognizes the need for accountability mechanisms, with Article 2(c) requiring States parties “to establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis with men and to ensure through competent national tribunals and other public institutions the effective protection of women against any act of discrimination.”[442]
Similarly, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), in Article 2, requires that “Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes …. to ensure that any person whose rights or freedoms as herein recognized are violated shall have an effective remedy” and “to ensure that any person claiming such a remedy shall have his right thereto determined by competent judicial, administrative or legislative authorities, or by any other competent authority provided for by the legal system of the State, and to develop the possibilities of judicial remedy.”[443] Article 2 of the ICCPR also requires States parties “to ensure that the competent authorities shall enforce such remedies when granted.”[444]
While the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), under which the most elaborate articulation of economic and social can be found, lacks an explicit clause dealing with remedies, the right to a remedy is implicit in any human rights instrument, and Article 8 of the UDHR reaffirms this principle of law. Indeed, General Comment No. 3 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, states that “among the measures which might be considered appropriate [for implementation of the ICESCR] … is the provision of judicial remedies” and “that the enjoyment of the rights recognized, without discrimination, will often be appropriately promoted, in part, through the provision of judicial or other effective remedies.”[445] In its General Comment No. 9, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, citing “fundamental requirements of international human rights law,” made clear that “Covenant norms must be recognized in appropriate ways within the domestic legal order, [including that] appropriate means of redress, or remedies, must be available to any aggrieved individual or group, and appropriate means of ensuring governmental accountability must be put in place.”[446]
Furthermore, General Comment No. 9 points out that while “the right to an effective remedy need not be interpreted as always requiring a judicial remedy” as “administrative remedies will, in many cases, be adequate and those living within the jurisdiction of a State party have a legitimate expectation, based on the principle of good faith, that all administrative authorities will take account of the requirements of the Covenant in their decision-making.”[447] However, “any such administrative remedies should be accessible, affordable, timely and effective” and “an ultimate right of judicial appeal from administrative procedures of this type would also often be appropriate.”[448] Many aspects of ICESCR rights, however, readily lend themselves to judicial remedies, which, according to the Committee “would seem indispensable in order to satisfy the requirements of the Covenant” and thus “whenever a Covenant right cannot be made fully effective without some role for the judiciary, judicial remedies are necessary.”[449] Consequently, with respect to women, domestic accountability mechanisms and remedies must be effective in enforcing human rights from a woman’s perspective and must be accessible, including economically accessible, to women.
The issue of retrogression is key in the context of the financial crisis and austerity measures. The ICESCR prohibits any deliberately retrogressive measures that can not be justified by reference to the totality of the rights provided for in the Covenant and in the context of the full use of the maximum available resources.[450] National accountability mechanisms thus should be able to hold States accountable to this standard and any prima facia case of retrogression should shift the burden of proof to the State to demonstrate that any retrogression in economic or social rights of women is otherwise justified. When the State fails to do so, national accountability mechanisms should require that the retrogressive measures end and that remedies are made available to those who are damaged by such measures.
International Accountability and Cases Brought before International Human Rights Mechanisms
In cases were domestic mechanisms fall short of providing full accountability and effective remedies, international mechanisms are available. These mechanisms include UN treaty bodies and regional human rights tribunals.[451] All treaty bodies and regional mechanisms are increasingly taking into consideration the gender dimensions of human rights and all have strict prohibitions on discrimination.
Various cases involving women’s right to equality in the area of economic and social life have been successfully brought before several international treaty bodies, most notably the Human Rights Committee and the CEDAW Committee. For example, one of the first such cases was decided in 1987 by the Human Rights Committee. F. H. Zwaan-de Vries v. the Netherlands (1987)[452] held that that legislation which granted unemployment benefits to married men but not married women was discriminatory under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.[453] In 1988, the Human Rights Committee issued its judgment in the case of Avellanal v. Peru. In this case, the petitioner challenged a legal provision which stipulated that when a woman is married only the husband is entitled to represent matrimonial property before the Courts (then Article 168 of the Peruvian Civil Code).[454] Here too the Human Rights Committee found a violation under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.[455]
The CEDAW Committee has perhaps seen the most cases addressing discrimination in women’s economic and social rights, including several cases brought by victims of domestic violence. The case of Ms. A.T. v. Hungary (2003), addresses in part the question of women’s housing rights within the context of domestic violence.[456] In this case, the CEDAW Committee found that immediate and effective measures were necessary to guarantee the physical and mental integrity of the victim and her family. The Committee also found that the States had an obligation to ensure that the victim was provided with a safe home, appropriate child support, and legal assistance. The Committee specifically held that an adequate emergency shelter system must be put in place to address the immediate needs of victims of domestic violence.[457] In subsequent years, several other cases have also been brought addressing violence against women and outline State obligations of support and due diligence, including Fatma Yildirim (deceased) v. Austria (2007),[458] Şahide Goekce (deceased) v. Austria (2007),[459] Karen Tayag Vertido v. The Philippines (2010),[460] Isatou Jallow v. Bulgaria (2012),[461] V.K. v. Bulgaria (2011),[462] V.P.P. v. Bulgaria (2012),[463] and Cecilia Kell v. Canada (2012).[464]
This last case also addresses women’s housing and property rights within the context of domestic violence. In this case, the husband – who had been physically as well as economically abusive to the petitioner for a number of years –unilaterally removed the petitioner’s name from the certification of co-ownership of their martial home (or ‘Agreement of Lease’), in effect making the husband the sole owner of the property.[465] In this case the CEDAW Committee found violations of Canada’s obligations and ordered the State party, inter alia, to provide the petitioner with housing commensurate in quality, location and size to the one that she was deprived of and provide appropriate monetary compensation for material and moral damages commensurate with the gravity of the violations of her rights.[466] In addition, the CEDAW Committee held that the petitioner was a victim of intersectional discrimination based on her status as an Aboriginal woman, as well as a survivor of domestic violence. The CEDAW Committee also recommended that Canada recruit and train more aboriginal women to provide legal aid to women from their communities, including on domestic violence and property rights.[467]
In the area of employment, R.K.B. v. Turkey (2012), involves a case of a woman whose employment contract was terminated.[468] Her employer also allegedly threatened to spread rumors that the petitioner had extramarital affairs, and pressured her to sign a document stating that she had received all of her work entitlements and precluding her from suing for unfair dismissal.[469] Because she felt her work contract had been terminated without a valid reason, the petitioner filed a complaint within the Turkish Labor Courts, and also initiated criminal proceedings for libel against her employer.[470] Failing to find redress at the national level, the petitioner then took her case before the CEDAW Committee, which found that the State party has failed to fulfill its obligations under the Convention. The CEDAW Committee ordered, inter alia, that the petitioner be awarded with appropriate reparation, including adequate compensation, in accordance with article 5 of the Labour Act. It also ordered that that the State take measures to ensure that article 5 of the Labour Act and the Convention are implemented in practice by relevant national tribunals and other public institutions in order to provide for effective protection of women against any act of gender-based discrimination in employment.[471]
Finally, international accountability can also consist of monitoring and recommendation, including through periodic reporting processes before treaty bodies, examination by Human Rights Council special procedures, and the Universal Periodic Review process. While these mechanisms may not be well suited for individual or group complaints, they can provide international pressure aimed at holding States accountable for general violations at the level of policy or practice or both. Civil society should avail themselves to these mechanisms in order to provide full details of any policies or practices that violate or otherwise erode women’s economic and social rights, particularly at the structural or systemic level.
4.2 Gender budgeting as a tool for monitoring and accountability
As discussed briefly above in Sub-Section 3.10 above, gender budgeting can promote accountability for women’s economic and social rights. UN-Women has described gender-responsive budgeting as “government planning, programming and budgeting that contributes to the advancement of gender equality and the fulfillment of women’s rights.”[472] Researchers have highlighted that:
The public sector has a key role to play in creating the conditions for gender equality. Through its budget allocations, the state has the potential to redress inequalities and discrimination in the household, in asset ownership, and in labor and credit markets. This can be achieved through various measures including spending on education and training that close gender gaps, investments in access to health care, and expenditures that reduce women’s care burden.[473]
Furthermore:
Use of gender-responsive budgets can be used to systematically ensure adequate resources for gender equality and women’s empowerment in the context of the financial crisis, as long as they are founded on a gender-sensitive macroeconomic policy framework. The gender budgeting initiatives have sometimes failed to meet this need in the past because they are being implemented outside the macroeconomic policy framework. The principles underpinning macroeconomic policy tend to conflict with the gender agenda leading to limited resource allocations. A sector-wide approach to gender budgeting is also recommended as it will enable more resources to be identified to fund the social sector, which benefits women and girls.[474]
Gender responsive budgeting essentially consists of five components: describing the situation of women and men (as well as girls and boys) when analyzing a particular situation problem; assessing whether government policy and program interventions aimed at addressing that situation have been designed in a gender-sensitive manner; checking to see whether sufficient budgetary allowances have actually been made to implement gender–sensitive policies and programming; checking whether the expenditure has actually been spent according to plan; and lastly, examining the de facto or actual impact of the policies, programs and expenditures in the lives of women and men, girls and boys, with a view to the impact on advancing gender equality.[475]
Good practice in the area of gender budgeting have been well documented.[476] Many countries, such as Australia, Mozambique, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Rwanda, Switzerland, Tanzania, Uganda and the United Kingdom have incorporated gender equality in their national budgets. The European Parliament has also taken important steps to design and apply a gender budgeting methodology to the European Union Budget.[477]
Gender responsive budgeting can illuminate the reasons underlying gaps between policies and implementation, a frequent barrier to women’s de facto enjoyment of their economic and social rights. In South Africa, a main objective of the Women’s Budget Initiative is to make the functioning of the Government transparent and to hold it accountable for implementing gender-responsive policies.[478]
According to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, that region has seen progress in gender budgeting, but the gains made in this front need to be protected during the current crisis. They have also highlighted that it is especially important to make sure that fiscal stimulus measures do not divert funds set aside for gender budgeting initiatives. Similarly, it is important to have in place strong and effective public expenditure monitoring systems to ensure that budgetary allocations reach their intended beneficiaries.[479]
In addition, it is important to ensure that poverty indicators used to monitor the effectiveness of anti-poverty policies and programs are themselves made gender-sensitive. Because indicators are often aggregates whose units of analysis are households rather than individuals, they do not necessarily capture women’s experience clearly. As highlighted by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) this methodology often wrongly assumes that resources are evenly distributed among all members of a household and that their needs are equivalent.[480]
4.3 International and regional economic/financial actors and agencies
As articulated in Sub-Section 2.3 above on understanding the obligations of States, States do not rescind their human rights obligations when they become part of an international financial institution (IFI). IFIs include multi-lateral development banks (e.g. the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, the African Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank). They also include other global institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Most, if not all, IFIs have made commitments to ensure gender equality, at least rhetorically. Many also have specific gender policies in place. For example, the World Bank’s Gender and Development Policy Framework comprises of nine Operational Policies and/or Bank Procedures: five of which are relevant for investment lending generally, one of which is relevant for development policy lending, and three of which are relevant for safeguard policies.[481] One of these Operational Policies (OP/BP 4.20) specifically focuses on gender and development.[482] The African Development Bank has an Updated Gender Policy and Gender Plan of Action (UGPOA) for 2009-2011.[483] The Asian Development Bank also has an Operational Policy on Gender and Development[484] and the Inter-American Development Bank has adopted a Operational Policy on Gender Equality in Development.[485]
However, other institutions such as the IMF have no gender policy whatsoever, and critiques highlight that even when gender policies are in place they “… tend to be weak, are poorly resourced, understaffed, and lack incentives for staff to engender their work. … gender experts -- or IFI staff who work on gender issues -- comprise less than 1 percent at all the IFIs, and the average is .3 percent.”[486]
Accountability of IFIs to international human rights norms in general, and women’s rights in particular, is a major challenge which makes it all the more important to enforced the ETOs of States (as detailed in Sub-Section 2.3 above). While some IFIs have internal accountability mechanisms, one problem is that internal policies at times have been written in such a way as to exclude certain decisions from gender equality standards. For example, the World Bank applies its gender and development policy only to project-based lending, and not to policy-based lending, despite the fact that policy-based lending frequently supports economic reforms that significantly harm women and girls through cuts to social services and benefits.[487] Lack of transparency as been cited is also a major concern, making it even more difficult to bring effective complaints using IFI complaint mechanisms.[488]
4.4 Thoughts on the post-2015 development framework
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been widely accepted as the dominant global framework for improving human development, yet they have also been widely criticized for failing to integrate human rights, prioritize the most marginalized, and hold Governments around the world accountable for their progress. This accountability gap – wherein State obligations for economic and social rights are clear under international human rights law, but not meaningfully incorporated and reflected in development goals – is a vital aspect of the global development agenda that must be remedied, particularly from the standpoint of women’s rights and gender equality.
On 5 April 2013 the United Nations observed the 1,000-day mark to the 2015 target date for achieving MDGs. As the MDGs enter their final days before expiring in 2015, many human rights organizations,[489] development agencies,[490] women’s rights groups,[491] and environmental groups[492] are demanding that human rights be at the at the core of any post-2015 development framework. At the center has been the call to ensure that the post-2015 framework is “anchored in human rights” and that the new framework “moves from a model of charity to one of justice, based on the inherent dignity of people as human rights-holders, domestic governments as primary duty-bearers, and all development actors sharing common but differentiated responsibilities.”[493] Advocates have also highlighted that relying on human rights standards and principles to give moral and legal force to development targets is more in line with the principle of accountability than relying on goal-setting alone, and would yield better results in terms of achieving actual development objectives.[494]
This call had been increasingly echoed by others. For example, on 21 May 2013, 17 Special Procedures mandate-holders of the United Nations Human Rights Council issued a joint statement calling for “[g]rounding development priorities in human rights.”[495] It states that “human rights norms and standards provide concrete guidance as to how goals and targets for the post-2015 development agenda should be framed. Governments have already committed to uphold human rights in numerous international treaties. Grounding development priorities in human rights is not only a legal and moral imperative, but can also enhance effectiveness and accountability.”[496] The statement also puts forward three key recommendations for a post-2015 agenda, namely: 1) incorporation of equality as a stand-alone and cross-cutting goal, 2) inclusion of a goal on the provision of social protection floors, and 3) putting accountability at the core of the post-2015 development framework.[497]
On 6 June 2013, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, also wrote an open letter to permanent representatives of UN Member States in New York and Geneva, outlining her key messages for the post-2015 development agenda. In her letter, the High Commissioner proposes ten elements for the post-2015 agenda, which include: a human rights-based approach; freedom from fear as well as freedom from want; equality as a separate goal (rather than economic growth); inclusion of marginalized groups; an end to poverty; a healthy environment as the underlying determinant of internationally guaranteed human rights; international reform, to ensure human rights-based policy coherence at the international level; universal applicability; a strong accountability framework; and greater responsibility to be shown by the private sector, with appropriate government regulation.[498] On 25 June 2013, the European Union Council Conclusions on the Overarching Post 2015 Agenda also emphasize that the post-2015 framework “[e]nsure a rights-based approach encompassing all human rights.”[499]
In addition, civil society organizations have also expressed their views in the form of consensus documents. Most notably, the Vienna+20 CSO Declaration, adopted in Vienna on June 26, 2013,[500] addresses human rights in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, calling upon States to “reaffirm the primacy of human rights in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda … [and] to transform the current aid-based model into a new universally applicable framework based on human rights and well-being, gender equality, social and economic justice and respect for planetary boundaries.”[501] It also calls upon States to:
… respect, protect and fulfil the economic, social, and cultural rights of all peoples, with prioritization of marginalized groups without retrogression and on the basis of non-discrimination and equality, immediately ensuring universal social protection floors, universal health coverage, adequate food and nutrition, water, sanitation, education and housing. For this purpose, any new targets and indicators have to be disaggregated, time-bound and equity-sensitive and consistent with the progressive realization of human rights. They have to protect workers’ rights, guarantee minimum wages and pensions, close gender, ethnic, regional and other wage gaps, and restrain excessive levels of compensation.[502]
These developments point to a widespread consensus around this idea of employing a human rights approach to development. However, placing human rights at the center of the post-2015 development framework remains a significant challenge. Some have said that “Human rights could be [a] faultline in post-2015 development agenda”[503] Some politicians have even suggested that Governments may have “red lines” when it comes to the integration of human rights in the post-2015 framework.[504]
For women’s economic and social rights, the post-2015 agenda represents both a risk and an opportunity. One risk is that the post-2015 agenda will take a limited view of women’s economic and social rights, and instead of prioritizing the poorest and most marginalized women, will prioritize development objectives which are not rights-based and that amount to ‘low hanging fruit.’ The opportunity, of course, is to further entrench women’s rights and the principle of gender equality into the global development agenda, resulting in important concrete gains for women and girls across the world and greater equality and empowerment in economic and social life.[505]
UN-Women has prepared a document to help guide global discussions on the integration of women’s rights in the post-2015 agenda, entitled A Transformative Stand-Alone Goal on Achieving Gender Equality, Women’s Rights and Women’s Empowerment: Imperatives and Key Components.[506] Stating that the post-2015 development framework “must avoid the shortcomings of the MDG framework which, from a gender perspective, include the failure to address the structural causes of gender inequality (including addressing issues such as violence against women, unpaid care work, limited control over assets and property, and unequal participation in private and public decision-making,” UN-Women suggests three basic components to comprise a new stand-alone goal on gender equality, namely: freedom from violence; capabilities and resources; and voice, leadership and participation.[507] Many of the specific targets and indicators suggested go directly to effective monitoring and implementation of a range of women’s economic and social rights. These specific targets and indicators, as specified under each of the goal areas, are summarized in the Table below.
|Summary of Targets and Indicators |
|suggested by UN-Women for a Stand-Alone Goal to Achieve Gender Equality, Women’s Rights and Women’s Empowerment in the |
|Post-2015 Development Agenda |
|Goal Area 1: Freedom From Violence |Suggested Indicators |
|Target: Prevent and respond to |Total and age-specific rate of ever-partnered women subjected to sexual and/or physical|
|violence against women and girls |violence by a current or former intimate partner in the last 12 months, by frequency. |
| |Total and age-specific rate of ever-partnered women subjected to sexual and/or physical|
| |violence by a current or former intimate partner during lifetime, by frequency. |
| |Rates of female genital mutilation and other traditional harmful practices. |
| |Percentage of women aged 20-24 who were married or in a union before age 18. |
|Target: Change perceptions, attitudes |Percentage of people who think it is never justifiable for a man to beat his wife, by |
|and behaviors that condone and justify|sex. |
|violence |Percentage of people who think a woman can refuse to have sex with her husband under |
|against women and girls |any circumstance, by sex. |
|Target: Ensure security, support |Proportion of women over 15 years-old subjected to physical or sexual violence in the |
|services and justice for women and |past 12 months who reported it to the justice system. |
|girls |Proportion of the population who feel safe walking alone at night in the area where |
| |they live, by sex. |
| |Proportion of national budgets allocated to the prevention of, and the response to, |
| |violence against women. |
| |Proportion of law enforcement professionals who are women (including judges and the |
| |police). |
|Goal Area 2: Capabilities and |Suggested Indicators |
|Resources | |
|Target: Eradicate women’s poverty |Percentage of people earning their own income, by sex |
| |Ownership of dwelling, by sex. |
| |Percentage of population undernourished, by sex. |
| |Old age pension recipient ratio 65+, by sex. |
|Target: Promote decent work for women |Proportion employed in vulnerable employment, by sex. |
| |Gender gap in wages. |
| |Percentage of low pay workers, by sex. |
|Target: Build women’s access to, and |Proportion of adult population owning land, by sex. |
|control over, |Proportion of population with access to institutional credit (other than microfinance),|
|productive assets |by sex. |
|Target: Reduce women’s time burdens |Average weekly number of hours spent on unpaid domestic work, by sex. |
| |Proportion of children under primary school age enrolled in organized childcare. |
|Target: Promote education and skills |Transition rate to secondary education, by sex. |
|for women and girls |Secondary completion rate, by sex. |
| |Share of female science, engineering, manufacturing and construction graduates at |
| |tertiary level. |
| |Percentage of population using the Internet, by sex. |
|Target: Improve women’s and girls’ |Prevalence of lower respiratory tract infections, by sex. |
|health |Percentage of population aged 15-49 living with HIV/AIDS, by sex. |
| |Under-5 mortality rate, by sex. |
|Target: Reduce maternal mortality and |Maternal mortality ratio. |
|ensure |Available emergency obstetric care facilities per 100,000 population. |
|women’s and girls’ sexual and |Unmet need for family planning. |
|reproductive health, |Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel. |
|and reproductive rights |Age of mother at birth of first child ever born. |
|Target: Ensure women’s sustainable |Percentage of households using solid cooking fuels, by urban/rural location. |
|access to |Percentage of households with access to electricity, by urban/rural location. |
|energy |Average weekly time spent on firewood collection, by sex. |
|Target: Ensure women’s sustainable |Average weekly time spent in water collection (including waiting time at public supply |
|access to water and sanitation |points), by sex. |
| |Proportion of population using an improved drinking-water source. |
| |Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility. |
|Goal Area 3: Voice, Leadership and |Suggested Indicators |
|Participation | |
|Target: Promote equal decision making |Percentage of women who have a say in household decisions regarding large purchases. |
|in households |Percentage of women who have a say in household decisions regarding their own health. |
| |Percentage of women who have a say in household decisions regarding visiting relatives.|
| | |
| |Percentage of people who think important decisions in the household should be made by |
| |both men and women, by sex. |
|Target: Promote participation in |Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments. |
|public institutions |Proportion of seats held by women in local governments. |
| |Percentage of the population with basic national identity documentation, by sex. |
| |Birth registration coverage, by sex. |
| |Proportion of women in decision-making roles in relevant regional organizations |
| |involved in preventing conflict |
|Target: Promote women’s leadership in |Proportion of women in company boards. Percentage of women in managerial positions in |
|the private sector |firms. |
| |Proportion of media professionals who are women. |
|Target: Strengthen women’s collective |Proportion of managers of civil society institutions who are women. |
|action |Proportion of women who are members of civil society organizations. |
5. Recommendations
“While it is important to ensure that policies designed to address the immediate crisis identify differential impacts on vulnerable groups, it is also important to look to the future and identify the world that we want to emerge from the current crisis. We need to act now to challenge inequalities and discrimination, so that in the recovery we draw on the talents, skills and energies of the widest possible cross-section of society.”
- European Commission Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities
for Women and Men
5.1 Recommendations for States
Women’s economic and social rights are a fundamental dimension of women’s equality and empowerment. While economic and financial crisis represent particular challenges, women’s economic and social rights are critical at all times and demand specific attention and protection. States, international human rights bodies and mechanisms, and international and regional economic/financial actors all have a vital role to play. The following recommendations are offered to help improve the status of these rights.
Ratification of International Treaties and Domestication
States should ratify – without reservations – key international human rights treaties protecting women’s economic and social rights, as well as their rights to non-discrimination and equality, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. States who have already ratified these treaties should remove any reservations that they may have, and States should also ratify the relevant Optional Protocols associated with these treaties.
Temporary Special Measures
States should accelerate the equal participation of women in economic and social life, and should adopt without delay temporary special measures aimed at ensuring women’s de facto equality in economic and social life, including in relation to education, employment, health, housing, food and nutrition, land and property, water and sanitation, and social security. States should consult CEDAW General Recommendations and Concluding Observations for guidance on how to design and implement temporary special measures.
Intersectionality
States should recognize and address at all levels the impact of multiple disadvantage/intersectional discrimination on women’s economic and social life, including in the context of addressing the economic crisis, and ensure that measures pay attention to women in particularly marginalized/vulnerable positions – for example, as experienced by women marginalized on the basis of race/ethnicity/language/culture or caste, older women, single mothers, women affected by HIV, disabled women, displaced women and female migrant workers, etc. States should ensure that data and national statistics are broken down by sex and other relevant factors such as age, disability, race, and ethnic origin.
Women’s Substantive Economic and Social Rights
States must comply fully with their international human rights obligations to respect, protect and fulfill the complete spectrum of women’s economic and social rights in accordance with the provisions of international human rights laws and standards (including vis-à-vis education, work, health, housing, food and nutrition, land and property, water and sanitation, etc.) and do so on the basis of non-discrimination and substantive equality. Several important recommendations have been made in this regard by Unites Nations treaty bodies (please see Annexes 1 & 2 for further detail) as well as by United Nations Special Rapporteur and others, which should be looked to for authoritative guidance on how to formulate effect laws, policies and programs. States should pay special attention to these recommendations and ensure their domestic implementation. States should further recognize that the right to equality entails immediate obligations related to women’s economic and social rights, and therefore is not to be subject to the ‘progressive realization’ standard. States obligated to allocate the maximum for available resources to the effective realization of women’s economic and social rights.
Concretely, States should design, adopt and implement gender-sensitive and human rights-based laws, policies and programs which reflect international human rights standards related to women’s economic and social rights, and incorporate and reflect gender sensitive understandings these rights. In particular, States should: ensure accountability for actors who violate women’s economic and social rights and women’s access to effective remedies; facilitates women’s empowerment by creating awareness of women’s economic and social rights;[508] prioritize the needs of particularly vulnerable and/or marginalized women, taking into account intersectional and multiple forms of discrimination; ensure that women are able to meaningful participate in design, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of laws, policies, programs and budgets related to the enjoyment of their economic and social rights; ensure that implementation of laws, policies, programs and budgets is adequately supported in terms of both financial and human resources; and provide for the collection of gender-sensitive and gender-disaggregated data which can serve as a tool for evaluation and measurement of women’s de facto enjoyment of their economic and social rights.
Specific areas of women’s economic and social rights are also addressed in more detail below:
Education
States must uphold girls’ right to education, and should adopt measures to guarantee their rights to non-discrimination and equality in relation to the right to education. States should ensure that girls are protected against exploitation and child/early marriage, and that they are protected against physical and sexual abuse both within and outside of the school system. States should provide incentives to further girls’ education, and provide support to vulnerable girls and their families to offset the costs of education, including by providing specific programs aimed at ensuring girls are able to succeed in, and stay in, school. In particular, States should ensure that mechanisms are put in place to ensure that girls stay in school despite economic strain on families and a potential increase in the burden of care for women are needed. Conditional cash transfers have been effective in many countries and should be combined with measures to reduce the higher burden of care put on women and girls during crises. States should also encourage young women to choose non-traditional fields of study and professions and step up career guidance activities to encourage girls to pursue non-traditional paths. States should also improve the gender awareness of teaching personnel at all levels of the education system, and ensure that curricula promote the human rights of women and girls, and combat gender stereotypes.
Employment
States should ensure that women have access to quality part-time and full-time work and should adopt effective measures to eliminate occupational segregation, both horizontal and vertical. States should reduce the wage gap between women and men and include the principle of “equal pay for work of equal value” in all areas of work. States should also ensure more flexible working opportunities for women, contributing to gender-sensitive employment creation. States should also adopt, disseminate and effectively implement legislation prohibiting and criminalizing sexual harassment in the workplace.
States should encourage balanced representation of both sexes in positions of senior leadership (at both Board and management levels) through gender mainstreaming, affirmative action, and active campaigns against gender stereotypes.
States should compensate for unequal employment opportunities based on gender – principally compensating for the adverse impact of career breaks through paid leave and right of return to post. States should also provide training and apprenticeship opportunities to women and include the skills needed for new jobs in the future. States should encourage implementation of Women’s Empowerment Principles[509] by businesses, so as to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community.
Maternity and Child Care
States should ensure that legislative and social policy frameworks at national level should contain strong provisions on maternity protection, in keeping with ILO Convention No. 183 on Maternity Protection.
States should also reduce the burden of unpaid care work through provision of care services – child care (and in some demographic contexts, care for elderly) being especially correlated to women’s participation in the labor force.
Reducing Women’s Caregiving Burden and Promoting Equal Sharing of Family Responsibilities
States should ratify ILO Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981, (No. 156) and implement its corresponding Recommendation (No. 165). States should reduce the burden of house work through better infrastructure – principally electricity, water, sanitation, mobility and school access. States should support workers with family responsibilities and facilitate a more even sharing of these responsibilities between the sexes. In this regard, States should take steps to balance the gender division of paid and unpaid work and invest in programs to increase fathers’ share of parenting and other caregiving. There should be a focus on encouraging greater sharing of domestic labor so that women do not continue to carry the majority of domestic tasks. States should also carry out awareness-raising and education initiatives for both women and men on the sharing of domestic and family responsibilities
States should ensure that the increase in unpaid care for women and girls that often occurs in times of economic crisis needs to be mitigated against through the provision of social care supports such as child-care services and support for elderly people and people with disabilities.
Social Security and Social Protection
States should implement Recommendation 202 of the ILO on Social Protection Floors (2012). States should combat gender inequality by creating and maintaining an adequate Social Protection Floor and should ensure that social protection measures actively promote gender equality and empowerment of women.
In the design and implementation of social protection systems, States should also take into account the multiple forms of discrimination that women experience throughout their lives and ensure that women’s specific needs are addressed throughout the life cycle.
Public Financing and Economic Crisis Response
States should ensure that allocation of public resources promotes gender equality and ensure that all proposed policies are subject routinely to gender impact assessment, as a matter of good governance. States should finance public campaigns to challenge gender stereotypes, and finance adequately implementation of legislation against discrimination. In particular, States should combat patriarchal attitudes about men as primary economic ‘breadwinners.’
States should give systematic consideration to the differential gender impacts of the crisis and of policy responses to the crisis; assess the impact of the economic crisis on women and girls and take into account the gender dimension in future initiatives taken to counteract the crisis or limit its impact. In regard to financial stimulus packages for women’s employment, States should ensure that priorities do not focus only on infrastructure projects which create jobs primarily for men but also social investments in care services which reduce the pressure on unpaid work.
States should create jobs especially in the public sector by investing in social infrastructure (education, health, child and dependent persons care), which would also ease the disproportionate burden on women to enable them to participate in the labor market. States should also allocate funding for social infrastructure investment, in areas such as public health, education, child care, and other social services.
States should avoid austerity measures in general, but where unavoidable and justified under international human rights law, should assess them carefully for gendered effects.
Gender Budgeting
States should ensure that participatory ender budgeting is a standard methodology of all public budget processes and ensure oversight bodies have a quota for equal representation of women. States should endeavor to ensure gender equality by correcting negative consequences of ‘gender-blind’ budgets and improve governance and accountability, in particular in respect of the financial targeting and future budgets.
States should improve women’s participation at all levels of decision-making, especially in the areas of budgets and in respect of governance arrangements for financial systems.
Monitoring and Data Collection
States should effectively monitor and analyze women’s enjoyment of economic and social rights, including by disaggregating key employment data by gender to improve monitoring and analysis of the gender impact of the economic and financial crisis, and to facilitate the identification of measures at national level to ameliorate adverse impacts.
5.2 Recommendations for United Nations Human Rights Bodies
Accountability for Women’s Economic and Social Rights
United Nations human rights bodies and special procedures should prioritize ensuring access to timely and effective accountability mechanisms for violations of women’s economic and social rights, and pay special attention to addressing any conceptual tensions between the immediate obligations of States to ensure women’s right to equality and the ‘progressive realization’ standard. They should encourage States that have not done so to ratify international human rights treaties along with their Optional Protocols. United Nations human rights bodies and special procedures should also encourage effective implementation of human rights obligations in domestic laws, so as to ensure women’s de jure and de facto equality, including in the sphere of economic and social life.
Normative Development of Women’s Economic and Social Rights
United Nations human rights bodies and special procedures should continue to provide gender-sensitive analyses of substantive economic and social rights and their relationship to women’s right to equality, including paying particular attention to the obligations of States to respect, protect and fulfill women’s economic and social rights.
5.3 Recommendations to International and Regional Economic/Financial Actors and Agencies
Internal Gender Policy
International and regional economic/financial actors and agencies should adopt and/or strengthen internal gender policies so as to meaningfully reflect women’s rights to non-discrimination and equality, as well as their substantive economic and social rights, as guaranteed under international human rights law, in all decisions, policies and programming.
Activities and Lending Practices which Detrimentally Impact Women
International and regional economic/financial actors and agencies should refrain from activities and lending practices which result in violations of women’s rights to non-discrimination and equality, as well as depravation of their substantive economic and social rights. International and regional economic/financial actors and agencies should also refrain from activities and lending practices which would result in adding to women’s burden of care, for example, through cuts to social services and protection benefits.
Effective Enforcement Mechanisms
International and regional economic/financial actors and agencies should ensure effective enforcement mechanisms are in place through which women can effectively lodge complaints related to violations of their rights and receive just and fair remedies.
Monitoring and Evaluation
International and regional economic/financial actors and agencies should continually monitor and evaluate the impact of their decisions, policies and programming on women’s rights to non-discrimination and equality, as well as their substantive economic and social rights, and correct policies and programs which have a discriminatory impact or effect.
Annex 1: Specific Guidance and Recommendations Relevant to Women’s Economic and Social Rights under CEDAW
|CEDAW General Recommendation |Subject of CEDAW General |Specific Guidance and Recommendations Relevant to Women’s |
|No. |Recommendation |Economic and Social Rights[510] |
|General Recommendation no. 3 |Education and public |Urges States to adopt education and public information programs |
| |information campaigns[511] |to eliminate prejudices and current practices that hinder the |
| | |full operation of the principle of the social equality of women.|
|General Recommendation no. 5 |Temporary special measures[512]|Recommends that States make more use of temporary special |
| | |measures such as positive action, preferential treatment or |
| | |quota systems to advance women’s integration into education, the|
| | |economy, politics and employment. |
|General Recommendation no. 6 |Effective national machinery |Urges States to establish and/or strengthen effective national |
| |and publicity[513] |machinery, institutions and procedures, at a high level of |
| | |Government, and with adequate resources, commitment and |
| | |authority to: (a) Advise on the impact on women of all |
| | |government policies; (b) Monitor the situation of women |
| | |comprehensively; and (c) Help formulate new policies and |
| | |effectively carry out strategies and measures to eliminate |
| | |discrimination. |
|General Recommendation no. 9 |Statistical data concerning the|Recommends that States ensure that their national statistical |
| |situation of women[514] |services responsible for planning national censuses and other |
| | |social and economic surveys formulate their questionnaires in |
| | |such a way that data can be disaggregated according to gender. |
|General Recommendation no. 13|Equal remuneration for work of |Encourages States to ratify the International Labour |
| |equal value[515] |Organisation Convention No. 100 concerning Equal Remuneration |
| | |for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value. |
|General Recommendation no. 14|Female circumcision[516] |Recommends that States take appropriate and effective measures |
| | |with a view to eradicating the practice of female circumcision |
| | |and that they include in their national health policies |
| | |appropriate strategies aimed at eradicating female circumcision |
| | |in public health care. |
|General Recommendation no. 15|Avoidance of discrimination |Recommends (a) that that States intensify efforts in |
| |against women in national |disseminating information to increase public awareness of the |
| |strategies for the prevention |risk of HIV infection and AIDS, especially in women and |
| |and control of acquired |children, and of its effects on them; (b) that programs to |
| |immunodeficiency syndrome |combat AIDS should give special attention to the rights and |
| |(AIDS)[517] |needs of women and children, and to the factors relating to the |
| | |reproductive role of women and their subordinate position in |
| | |some societies which make them especially vulnerable to HIV |
| | |infection; (c) that States ensure the active participation of |
| | |women in primary health care and take measures to enhance their |
| | |role as care providers, health workers and educators in the |
| | |prevention of infection with HIV; and (d) that States include in|
| | |their reports under article 12 of the Convention information on |
| | |the effects of AIDS on the situation of women and on the action |
| | |taken to cater to the needs of those women who are infected and |
| | |to prevent specific discrimination against women in response to |
| | |AIDS. |
|General Recommendation no. 16|Unpaid women workers in rural |Affirms that unpaid work constitutes a form of women’s |
| |and urban family |exploitation that is contrary to the Convention, and recommends |
| |enterprises[518] |that States: (a) include in their reports to the Committee |
| | |information on the legal and social situation of unpaid women |
| | |working in family enterprises; (b) collect statistical data on |
| | |women who work without payment, social security and social |
| | |benefits in enterprises owned by a family member, and include |
| | |these data in their report to the Committee; and (c) take the |
| | |necessary steps to guarantee payment, social security and social|
| | |benefits for women who work without such benefits in enterprises|
| | |owned by a family member. |
|General Recommendation no. 17|Measurement and quantification |Recommends that States encourage and support research and |
| |of the unremunerated domestic |experimental studies to measure and value the unremunerated |
| |activities of women and their |domestic activities of women; for example, by conducting |
| |recognition in the gross |time-use surveys as part of their national household survey |
| |national product[519] |programs and by collecting statistics disaggregated by gender on|
| | |time spent on activities both in the household and on the labor |
| | |market; and that they take steps to quantify and include the |
| | |unremunerated domestic activities of women in the gross national|
| | |product. |
|General Recommendation no. 18|Disabled women[520] |Recommends that States provide information on disabled women in |
| | |their periodic reports, and on measures taken to deal with their|
| | |particular situation, including special measures to ensure that |
| | |they have equal access to education and employment, health |
| | |services and social security, and to ensure that they can |
| | |participate in all areas of social and cultural life. |
|General Recommendation no. 19|Violence against women[521] |Provides various recommendations to States related to |
| | |elimination of violence against women. Highlights that poverty |
| | |and unemployment increase opportunities for trafficking in |
| | |women, as well as force many women, including young girls, into |
| | |prostitution. Notes that equality in employment can be seriously|
| | |impaired when women are subjected to gender-specific violence, |
| | |such as sexual harassment in the workplace. Underscores that |
| | |States should take appropriate and effective measures to |
| | |overcome all forms of gender-based violence, whether by public |
| | |or private act. It also recognizes that lack of economic |
| | |independence forces many women to stay in violent relationships.|
|General Recommendation no. 21|Equality in marriage and family|Notes that the responsibilities that women have to bear and |
| |relations[522] |raise children affect their right of access to education, |
| | |employment and other activities related to their personal |
| | |development, and impose inequitable burdens of work on women. |
| | |The General Recommendation also notes that women have the right |
| | |to choose a profession or employment that is best suited to her |
| | |abilities, qualifications and aspirations. It also reiterates a|
| | |woman’s right to own, manage, enjoy and dispose of property, |
| | |which “is central to a woman’s right to enjoy financial |
| | |independence.” This General Recommendation also provides |
| | |specific guidance on marital property and inheritance, and |
| | |highlights that when girls marry and have children, their health|
| | |can be adversely affected and their education is impeded. As a |
| | |result their economic autonomy is restricted. |
|General Recommendation no. 24|Women and health[523] |Requires States to eliminate discrimination against women in |
| | |their access to health-care services throughout the life cycle, |
| | |particularly in the areas of family planning, pregnancy and |
| | |confinement and during the post-natal period. Notes that the |
| | |full realization of women’s right to health can be achieved only|
| | |when States parties fulfill their obligation to respect, protect|
| | |and promote women’s fundamental human right to nutritional |
| | |well-being throughout their lifespan by means of a food supply |
| | |that is safe, nutritious and adapted to local conditions. Notes|
| | |socio-economic factors that vary for women in general and some |
| | |groups of women in particular. For example, unequal power |
| | |relationships between women and men in the home and workplace |
| | |may negatively affect women’s nutrition and health. They may |
| | |also be exposed to different forms of violence which can affect |
| | |their health. Girl children and adolescent girls are often |
| | |vulnerable to sexual abuse by older men and family members, |
| | |placing them at risk of physical and psychological harm and |
| | |unwanted and early pregnancy. Some cultural or traditional |
| | |practices such as female genital mutilation also carry a high |
| | |risk of death and disability. The General Recommendation |
| | |underscores the duty of States to take all appropriate measures |
| | |to ensure adequate living conditions, particularly housing, |
| | |sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and |
| | |communications, all of which are critical for the prevention of |
| | |disease and the promotion of good health care. It further calls|
| | |upon States to ensure, on a basis of equality of women and men, |
| | |access to health-care services, information and education |
| | |implies an obligation to respect, protect and fulfill women’s |
| | |rights to health care. |
|General Recommendation no. 25|Temporary special measures[524]|Provides guidance on the concept of substantive equality, |
| | |highlighting that a formal legal or programmatic approach is not|
| | |sufficient to achieve women’s de facto equality with men, which |
| | |the Committee interprets as substantive equality. In addition, |
| | |the Convention requires that women be given an equal start and |
| | |that they be empowered by an enabling environment to achieve |
| | |equality of results. It is not enough to guarantee women |
| | |treatment that is identical to that of men. Rather, biological |
| | |as well as socially and culturally constructed differences |
| | |between women and men must be taken into account. Under certain |
| | |circumstances, non-identical treatment of women and men will be |
| | |required in order to address such differences. Pursuit of the |
| | |goal of substantive equality also calls for an |
| | |effective strategy aimed at overcoming |
| | |under-representation of women and a redistribution of resources |
| | |and power between women and men. The General Recommendation |
| | |encourages States to adopt temporary special measures to |
| | |accelerate the equal participation of women in, inter alia, |
| | |economic, social, and cultural fields. |
|General Recommendation no. 26|Women migrant workers[525] |Describes the common responsibilities of countries of origin and|
| | |destination with respect to women migrant workers. The General |
| | |recommendation highlights the obligation of States to ensure |
| | |safe |
| | |migration procedures and the obligation to |
| | |respect, protect and fulfill the human rights of women |
| | |throughout the migration cycle. Those obligations must be |
| | |undertaken in recognition of the social and economic |
| | |contributions of women migrant workers to their own countries |
| | |and countries of destination, including through caregiving and |
| | |domestic work. |
|General Recommendation no. 27|Older women and protection of |Notes that States have an obligation to eliminate discrimination|
| |their human rights[526] |in all its forms against older women in economic and social |
| | |life. In relation to work and pension benefits, the General |
| | |Recommendation provides that States have an obligation to ensure|
| | |that pension policies are not discriminatory in any manner, even|
| | |when women opt to retire early, and that all older women who |
| | |have been active have access to adequate pensions. States |
| | |parties should adopt all appropriate measures, including, where |
| | |necessary, temporary special measures, to guarantee such |
| | |pensions. The General Recommendation also provides that States |
| | |should ensure that older women, including those who have the |
| | |responsibility for the care of children, have access to |
| | |appropriate social and economic benefits, such as childcare |
| | |benefits, as well as access to all necessary support when caring|
| | |for elderly parents or relatives. Similarly, States should |
| | |provide adequate non-contributory pensions, on an equal basis |
| | |with men, to all women who have no other pension or insufficient|
| | |income security, and State-funded allowances should be made |
| | |available and accessible to older women, particularly those |
| | |living in remote or rural areas. |
|General Recommendation no. 28|Core obligations of States |Notes that States must address all aspects of their legal |
| |parties under Article 2[527] |obligations under the Convention to respect, protect and fulfill|
| | |women’s right to non-discrimination and to the enjoyment of |
| | |equality. Notes also that States have an obligation not to |
| | |cause discrimination against women through acts or omissions; |
| | |they are further obliged to react actively against |
| | |discrimination against women, regardless of whether such acts or|
| | |omissions are perpetrated by the State or by |
| | |private actors. |
|General Recommendation no. 29|Economic consequences of |Notes that family structures, gendered labor division within the|
| |marriage, family relations and |family and family laws affect women’s economic well-being no |
| |their dissolution[528] |less than labor market structures and labor laws. Indeed, women |
| | |often do not equally enjoy their family’s economic wealth and |
| | |gains, and they usually bear greater cost than men upon the |
| | |breakdown of the family and may be left destitute upon |
| | |widowhood, especially if they have children and particularly |
| | |where the State provides little or no economic safety net. The |
| | |General Recommendation makes various recommendation with respect|
| | |to Constitutional and legal frameworks, forms of family, |
| | |economic aspects of family formation, economic aspects during |
| | |relationship, and economic and financial consequences upon |
| | |dissolution of relationships. |
Annex 2: Specific Guidance and Comments Relevant to Women’s Economic and Social Rights under ICESCR
|CESCR General Comment No. |Subject of CESCR General |Specific Guidance and Comments Relevant to Women’s Economic and |
| |Comment |Social Rights[529] |
|General Comment no. 4 |The right to adequate |Describes the content of the right to adequate housing. |
| |housing[530] |Provides that the right to adequate housing applies to everyone.|
| | |While the reference to “himself and his family” reflects |
| | |assumptions as to gender roles and economic activity patterns |
| | |commonly accepted in 1966 when the Covenant was adopted, the |
| | |Committee notes that the phrase cannot be read today as implying|
| | |any limitations upon the applicability of the right to |
| | |individuals or to female-headed households or other such groups.|
|General Comment no. 5 |Persons with disabilities[531] |Notes that persons with disabilities are sometimes treated as |
| | |genderless human beings. As a result, the double discrimination |
| | |suffered by women with disabilities is often neglected. Despite|
| | |frequent calls by the international community for particular |
| | |emphasis to be placed upon their situation, very few efforts |
| | |have been undertaken. The Committee therefore urged States |
| | |parties to address the situation of women with disabilities, |
| | |with high priority being given in future to the implementation |
| | |of economic, social and cultural rights-related programs. |
| | |Provides that women with disabilities also have the right to |
| | |protection and support in relation to motherhood and pregnancy. |
|General Comment no. 6 |The economic, social and |In accordance with article 3 of the Covenant, by which States |
| |cultural rights of older |parties undertake “to ensure the equal right of women and men to|
| |persons[532] |the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights,” the |
| | |Committee considers that States parties should pay particular |
| | |attention to older women who, because they have spent all or |
| | |part of their lives caring for their families without engaging |
| | |in a remunerated activity entitling them to an old-age pension, |
| | |and who are also not entitled to a widow’s pension, are often in|
| | |critical situations. In addition, to deal with such situations |
| | |and comply fully with article 9 of the Covenant and paragraph 2 |
| | |(h) of the Proclamation on Ageing, States parties should |
| | |institute non-contributory old-age benefits or other assistance |
| | |for all persons, regardless of their sex, who find themselves |
| | |without resources on attaining an age specified in national |
| | |legislation. Given their greater life expectancy and the fact |
| | |that it is more often they who have no contributory pensions, |
| | |women would be the principal beneficiaries. |
|General Comment no. 7 |Forced evictions[533] |Notes that women, children, youth, older persons, indigenous |
| | |people, ethnic and other minorities, and other vulnerable |
| | |individuals and groups all suffer disproportionately from the |
| | |practice of forced eviction. Women in all groups are especially |
| | |vulnerable given the extent of statutory and other forms of |
| | |discrimination which often apply in relation to property rights |
| | |(including home ownership) or rights of access to property or |
| | |accommodation, and their particular vulnerability to acts of |
| | |violence and sexual abuse when they are rendered homeless. The |
| | |non-discrimination provisions of articles 2.2 and 3 of the |
| | |Covenant impose an additional obligation upon Governments to |
| | |ensure that, where evictions do occur, appropriate measures are |
| | |taken to ensure that no form of discrimination is involved. |
|General Comment no. 12 |The right to adequate food[534]|Outlines the content of the right to food and notes that |
| | |national strategies to ensure food and nutrition security for |
| | |all should give particular attention to the need to prevent |
| | |discrimination in access to food or resources for food. This |
| | |should include: guarantees of full and equal access to economic |
| | |resources, particularly for women, including the right to |
| | |inheritance and the ownership of land and other property, |
| | |credit, natural resources and appropriate technology; measures |
| | |to respect and protect self-employment and work which provides a|
| | |remuneration ensuring a decent living for wage earners and their|
| | |families (as stipulated in article 7 (a) (ii) of the Covenant); |
| | |maintaining registries on rights in land (including forests). |
|General Comment no. 13 |The right to education[535] |Notes that States have obligations to respect, protect and |
| | |fulfill each of the “essential features” (availability, |
| | |accessibility, acceptability, adaptability) of the right to |
| | |education. By way of illustration, a State must protect the |
| | |accessibility of education by ensuring that third parties, |
| | |including parents and employers, do not stop girls from going to|
| | |school. Provides also that States parties are obliged to remove|
| | |gender and other stereotyping which impedes the educational |
| | |access of girls, women and other disadvantaged groups. |
|General Comment no. 14 |The right to the highest |Provides that States are obligated to abstain from imposing |
| |attainable standard of |discriminatory practices relating to women’s health status and |
| |health[536] |needs. States are also obliged to ensure that harmful social or |
| | |traditional practices do not interfere with access to pre- and |
| | |post-natal care and family-planning; to prevent third parties |
| | |from coercing women to undergo traditional practices, e.g. |
| | |female genital mutilation; and to take measures to protect all |
| | |vulnerable or marginalized groups of society, in particular |
| | |women, children, adolescents and older persons, in the light of |
| | |gender-based expressions of violence. Notes further that the |
| | |failure to protect women against violence or to prosecute |
| | |perpetrators and the failure to discourage the continued |
| | |observance of harmful traditional medical or cultural practices |
| | |constitute violations of the Covenant. For girls, the General |
| | |Comment notes that implementation of the principle of |
| | |non-discrimination requires that girls, as well as boys, have |
| | |equal access to adequate nutrition, safe environments, and |
| | |physical as well as mental health services. There is a need to |
| | |adopt effective and appropriate measures to abolish harmful |
| | |traditional practices affecting the health of children, |
| | |particularly girls, including early marriage, female genital |
| | |mutilation, preferential feeding and care of male children. |
|General Comment no. 15 |The right to water[537] |Notes that States must give attention should be given to |
| | |ensuring that disadvantaged and marginalized farmers, including |
| | |women farmers, have equitable access to water and water |
| | |management systems, including sustainable rain harvesting and |
| | |irrigation technology. Provides that whereas the right to water|
| | |applies to everyone, States parties should give special |
| | |attention to those individuals and groups who have traditionally|
| | |faced difficulties in exercising this right, including women. |
| | |In particular, States parties should take steps to ensure that |
| | |women are not excluded from decision-making processes concerning|
| | |water resources and entitlements. The disproportionate burden |
| | |women bear in the collection of water should be alleviated. |
| | |Provides further that States parties have an obligation to |
| | |progressively extend safe sanitation services, particularly to |
| | |rural and deprived urban areas, taking into account the needs of|
| | |women and children. |
|General Comment no. 16 |The equal right of men and |Provides a conceptual framework on the right to equality and the|
| |women to the enjoyment of all |right to non-discrimination. Notes that the essence of article 3|
| |economic, social and cultural |of the ICESCR is that the rights set forth in the Covenant are |
| |rights[538] |to be enjoyed by women and men on a basis of equality, a concept|
| | |that carries substantive meaning. While expressions of formal |
| | |equality may be found in constitutional provisions, legislation |
| | |and policies of governments, Article 3 also mandates the equal |
| | |enjoyment of the rights in the Covenant for women and men in |
| | |practice. The General Comment also provides guidance on |
| | |temporary special measures, noting that the principles of |
| | |equality and non-discrimination, by themselves, are not always |
| | |sufficient to guarantee true equality. Temporary special |
| | |measures may sometimes be needed in order to bring disadvantaged|
| | |or marginalized persons or groups of persons to the same |
| | |substantive level as others. Temporary special measures aim at |
| | |realizing not only de jure or formal equality, but also de facto|
| | |or substantive equality for women and men. However, the |
| | |application of the principle of equality will sometimes require |
| | |that States parties take measures in favor of women in order to |
| | |attenuate or suppress conditions that perpetuate discrimination.|
| | |As long as these measures are necessary to redress de facto |
| | |discrimination, and are terminated when de facto equality is |
| | |achieved, such differentiation is legitimate. The General |
| | |Comment also provides specific guidance on State Obligations, as|
| | |well as implementation at the national level. |
|General Comment no. 18 |The right to work[539] |Notes that Article 3 of the Covenant prescribes that States |
| | |parties undertake to “ensure the equal right of men and women to|
| | |the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights.” The |
| | |Committee underlined the need for a comprehensive system of |
| | |protection to combat gender discrimination and to ensure equal |
| | |opportunities and treatment between women and men in relation to|
| | |their right to work by ensuring equal pay for work of equal |
| | |value.6 In particular, pregnancies must not constitute an |
| | |obstacle to employment and should not constitute justification |
| | |for loss of employment. Lastly, emphasis should be placed on the|
| | |link between the fact that women often have less access to |
| | |education than men and certain traditional cultures which |
| | |compromise the opportunities for the employment and advancement |
| | |of women. Notes that States parties are bound by the obligation|
| | |to respect the right of women and young persons to have access |
| | |to decent work and thus to take measures to combat |
| | |discrimination and to promote equal access and opportunities. |
| | |Notes also that the strategies, programs and policies adopted by|
| | |States parties under structural adjustment programs should not |
| | |interfere with their core obligations in relation to the right |
| | |to work and impact negatively on the right to work of women, |
| | |young persons and the disadvantaged and marginalized individuals|
| | |and groups. Provides that national employment strategies must |
| | |take particular account of the need to eliminate discrimination |
| | |in access to employment. They must ensure equal access to |
| | |economic resources and to technical and vocational training, |
| | |particularly for women. |
|General Comment no. 19 |The right to social |Notes that Article 10 of the Covenant expressly provides that |
| |security[540] |“working mothers should be accorded paid leave or leave with |
| | |adequate social security benefits.” Paid maternity leave should |
| | |be granted to all women, including those involved in atypical |
| | |work, and benefits should be provided for an adequate period.16 |
| | |Appropriate medical benefits should be provided for women and |
| | |children, including perinatal, childbirth and postnatal care and|
| | |care in hospital where necessary. Implementation of Article 3 |
| | |in relation to Article 9 requires, inter alia, equalization of |
| | |the compulsory retirement age for both women and men; ensuring |
| | |that women receive equal benefits in both public and private |
| | |pension schemes; and guaranteeing adequate maternity leave for |
| | |women, paternity leave for men, and parental leave for both |
| | |women and men. In social security schemes that link benefits |
| | |with contributions, States parties should take steps to |
| | |eliminate the factors that prevent women from making equal |
| | |contributions to such schemes (for example, intermittent |
| | |participation in the workforce on account of family |
| | |responsibilities and unequal wage outcomes) or ensure that |
| | |schemes take account of such factors in the design of benefit |
| | |formulas (for example by considering child rearing periods or |
| | |periods to take care of adult dependents in relation to pension |
| | |entitlements). Differences in the average life expectancy of |
| | |women and men can also lead directly or indirectly to |
| | |discrimination in provision of benefits (particularly in the |
| | |case of pensions) and thus need to be taken into account in the |
| | |design of schemes. Non-contributory schemes must also take |
| | |account of the fact that women are more likely to live in |
| | |poverty than men and often have sole responsibility for the care|
| | |of children. |
|General Comment no. 20 |Non-discrimination in economic,|In order for States parties to “guarantee” that Covenant rights |
| |social and cultural rights[541]|will be exercised without discrimination of any kind, |
| | |discrimination must be eliminated both formally and |
| | |substantively. On formal discrimination, eliminating formal |
| | |discrimination requires ensuring that a State’s constitution, |
| | |laws and policy documents do not discriminate on prohibited |
| | |grounds; for example, laws should not deny equal social security|
| | |benefits to women on the basis of their marital status. Some |
| | |individuals or groups of individuals face discrimination on more|
| | |than one of the prohibited grounds, for example women belonging |
| | |to an ethnic or religious minority. Such cumulative |
| | |discrimination has a unique and specific impact on individuals |
| | |and merits particular consideration and remedying. Notes that |
| | |‘sex’ is an expressed ground for discrimination, and notes that |
| | |since the adoption of the Covenant, the notion of the prohibited|
| | |ground ‘sex’ has evolved considerably to cover not only |
| | |physiological characteristics but also the social construction |
| | |of gender stereotypes, prejudices and expected roles, which have|
| | |created obstacles to the equal fulfillment of economic, social |
| | |and cultural rights. Thus, the refusal to hire a woman, on the |
| | |ground that she might become pregnant, or the allocation of |
| | |low-level or part-time jobs to women based on the stereotypical |
| | |assumption that, for example, they are unwilling to commit as |
| | |much time to their work as men, constitutes discrimination. |
| | |Refusal to grant paternity leave may also amount to |
| | |discrimination against men. |
-----------------------
[1] Mayra Gómez is the Co-Executive Director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This paper was submitted to the Working Group to help inform its thematic report and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Working Group.
The author would like to thank the members of the Working Group, and in particular Frances Raday, for her central input into the conceptual framework of the project and the background papers. The author would also like to thank Rebecca Brown, Graciela Dede, Federica Donati, Elmira Nazombe, and Nathalie Stadelmann for their very helpful comments and input on previous drafts of this paper.
[2] ESCR-Net, COHRE Women and Housing Program, and IWRAW Asia Pacific, ‘Primer on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,’ 2010.
[3] While part of economic and social rights, the right to health is not addressed in this Background Paper as it will be a focus on a forthcoming Working Group report on Health and Safety. This is similarly true of cultural rights, which will be addressed in a forthcoming Working Group report on Family and Culture.
[4] The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna on 25 June 1993, and endorsed by GA Resolution 48/121.
[5] Ibid.
[6] See: Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ‘Over 300 groups call for human rights in core of post-2015 development plan,’ 10 December 2013, available online at: [last accessed 13 December 2013]. See also: Council of the European Union General Affairs Council meeting on the Overarching Post 2015 Agenda - Council Conclusions, 25 June 2013, available online at: [last accessed 13 December 2013].
[7] The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna on 25 June 1993, and endorsed by GA Resolution 48/121.
[8] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 3, The nature of States parties' obligations (Fifth session, 1990), U.N. Doc. E/1991/23, annex III at 86 (1991).
[9] Stijn Claessens, M. Ayhan Kose, Luc Laeven, and Fabián Valencia (Eds.), ‘Understanding Financial Crises: Causes, Consequences, and Policy Responses,’ available at: [last accessed 9 September 2013].
[10] As quoted from: Natalie Raaber & Diana Aguiar, ‘Feminist critiques, policy alternatives and calls for systemic change to an economy in crisis,’ Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), 2012. For original study, please see: Luc Laeven and Fabian Valencia, ‘Systemic Banking Crises: A New Database,’ IMF Working paper, November 2008.
[11] Statement by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr (Graduate Program in International Affairs, The New School), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009. See also: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr , James Heintz & Stephanie Seguino, ‘Critical Perspectives on Financial and Economic Crises: Heterodox Macroeconomics Meets Feminist Economics,’ Feminist Economics, Volume 19, Number 3, 2013, pp. 4-31.
[12] International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘The global crisis: Causes, responses and challenges,’ Geneva: International Labour Office, 2011.
[13] Larry Elliott, economics editor of The Guardian, ‘Three myths that sustain the economic crisis,’ The Guardian, 5 August 2012.
[14] Macro-economic policy has been defined as encompassing monetary policy (incl. interest rates), exchange rate policy and fiscal policy (incl. public spending and taxation). See: Kate Bird, Dan
Harris, and Milo Vandemoortele, ‘The big picture: the role of macro-economic policies in the pro-poor growth story,’ OECD, DAC and POVNE, JLP-PPG Briefing Note 3, June 2010.
[15] UN-Women has noted that “Both the boom that preceded the Great Recession of 2008
and the subsequent evolution of the global economy after that crisis have thus far been associated with significantly increased inequalities, both between and within countries.” See: Jayati Ghosh, ‘Economic Crisis and Women’s Work: Exploring Progressive Strategies in a Rapidly Changing Global Environment,’ UN-Women, January 2013.
[16] For an interesting discussion on these issues, see: The Structural Adjustment Participatory Review International Network (SAPRIN), ‘The Policy Roots of Economic Crisis and Poverty: A Multi-Country Participatory Assessment of Structural Adjustment,’ based on Results of the Joint World Bank/Civil Society Structural Adjustment Participatory Review Initiative (SAPRI) and the Citizens’ Assessment of Structural Adjustment (CASA), November 2001.
[17] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (Division for the Advancement of Women), 2009 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development: Women’s Control over Economic
Resources and Access to Financial Resources, including Microfinance, UN Doc. No. ST/ESA/326, New York, 2009.
[18] Statement by Stephanie Seguino (University of Vermont), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009. See also: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr , James Heintz & Stephanie Seguino, ‘Critical Perspectives on Financial and Economic Crises: Heterodox Macroeconomics Meets Feminist Economics,’ Feminist Economics, Volume 19, Number 3, 2013, pp. 4-31. See also: Radhika Balakrishnan, ‘Macro policy and the MDGs,’ paper prepared for the UN-Women Expert Group Meeting on Structural and policy constraints in achieving the MDGs for women and girls, Mexico City, Mexico, 21-24 October 2013.
[19] Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), ‘The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Women’s Well-Being and Empowerment,’ Publication series: Women’s Economic Empowerment, Sida: 2 December 2010.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Emphasis added. ‘Recovering from the crisis: A Global Jobs Pact,’ adopted by the International Labour Conference at its Ninety-eighth Session, Geneva, 19 June 2009.
[22] Francesca Bettio, Marcella Corsi, Carlo D’Ippoliti, Antigone Lyberaki, Manuela Samek Lodovici
and Alina Verashchagina, ‘The impact of the economic crisis on the situation of women and men and on gender equality policies,’ Synthesis report prepared for the use of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Justice, 2013.
[23] Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, ‘Opinion on the Gender Perspective on the response to the economic and financial crisis,’ June 2009.
[24] James Heintz (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), ‘Missing Women: The G20, Gender Equality and Global Economic Governance,’ Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Washington, D.C.: March 2013. This policy response is in contrast to countries like Iceland, which has (as we shall see below) taken a more gender sensitive approach to the economic crisis. See also: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr , James Heintz & Stephanie Seguino, ‘Critical Perspectives on Financial and Economic Crises: Heterodox Macroeconomics Meets Feminist Economics,’ Feminist Economics, Volume 19, Number 3, 2013, pp. 4-31.
[25] Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. res. 217A (III), U.N. Doc A/810 at 71 (1948).
[26] Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, G.A. res. 34/180, 34 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 46) at 193, U.N. Doc. A/34/46, entered into force 3 September 1981.
[27] Ibid, at Art. 3.
[28] Article 14 (2) of CEDAW obligates State parties “to eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas and to ensure to such women the right to enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relation to housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply.”
[29] Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, G.A. res. 34/180, 34 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 46) at 193, U.N. Doc. A/34/46, entered into force 3 September 1981, at Art. 16.
[30] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, G.A. res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N.GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 49, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 993 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force 3 January 1976.
[31] Article 11 (i) of ICESCR calls upon States parties “to recognize the rights of every one to have adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing and to the continuous improvement of living conditions” and further calls upon States parties “to take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international cooperation based on free consent.”
[32] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, G.A. res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N.GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 49, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 993 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force 3 January 1976, at Article 7, §a (i).
[33] While water and sanitation are not explicitly mentioned in the Covenant, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has said that
Article 11(1), paragraph 1, of the Covenant specifies a number of rights emanating from, and indispensable for, the realization of the right to an adequate standard of living ‘including adequate food, clothing and housing.’ The use of the word ‘including’ indicates that this catalogue of rights was not intended to be exhaustive. The right to water clearly falls within the category of guarantees essential for securing an adequate standard of living, particularly since it is one of the most fundamental conditions for survival. Moreover, the Committee has previously recognized that water is a human right contained in Article 11(1), paragraph 1, (see General Comment No. 6 (1995)). The right to water is also inextricably related to the right to the highest attainable standard of health (Art. 12(1), para. 1) and the rights to adequate housing and adequate food (Art. 11(1), para. 1). The right should also be seen in conjunction with other rights enshrined in the International Bill of Human Rights, foremost amongst them the right to life and human dignity.
United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ‘General Comment 15: The Right to Water (Arts.11 and 12),’ UN Doc. E/C.12/2002/11, 20 January 2003.
[34] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, G.A. res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force 23 March 1976.
[35] International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, G.A. res. 2106 (XX), Annex, 20 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 14) at 47, U.N. Doc. A/6014 (1966), 660 U.N.T.S. 195, entered into force 4 January 1969.
[36] Convention on the Rights of the Child, G.A. res. 44/25, annex, 44 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 167, U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989), entered into force 2 September 1990.
[37] Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 189 U.N.T.S. 150, entered into force 22 April 1954.
[38] International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, G.A. res. 45/158, annex, 45 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49A) at 262, U.N. Doc. A/45/49 (1990), entered into force 1 July 2003.
[39] African [Banjul] Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, adopted 27 June 1981, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982), entered into force 21 October 1986.
[40] Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, Adopted by the 2nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union, Maputo, CAB/LEG/66.6 (13 September 2000); reprinted in 1 Afr. Hum. Rts. L.J. 40, entered into force 25 November 2005.
[41] Ibid., at Art. 2.
[42] Ibid.
[43] Ibid., at Art. 13.
[44] Ibid., at Art. 21.
[45] League of Arab States, Revised Arab Charter on Human Rights, 22 May 2004, reprinted in 12 Int’l Hum. Rts. Rep. 893 (2005), entered into force 15 March 2008.
[46] European Social Charter (revised), (ETS No. 163), entered into force 7 January 1999.
[47] American Convention on Human Rights, O.A.S. Treaty Series No. 36, 1144 U.N.T.S. 123, entered into force 18 July 1978.
[48] Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, “Protocol of San Salvador,” O.A.S. Treaty Series No. 69 (1988), entered into force 16 November 1999. See also: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, ‘Guidelines for Preparation of Progress Indicators in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,’ Doc No. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.132, Doc. 14, 19 July 2008. See also: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, ‘Access to Justice as a Guarantee of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Review of the Standards Adopted by the Inter-American System of Human Rights, Doc. No. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.129, Doc. 4, 7 September 2007.
[49] Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women, 33 I.L.M. 1534 (1994), entered into force 5 March 1995.
[50] Ibid., at Art. 5.
[51] The countries include: Brunei Darussalam, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Republic of Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of Singapore, the Kingdom of Thailand and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.
[52] ASEAN Human Rights Declaration, adopted unanimously by ASEAN members on 18 November 2012 (Phnom Penh, Cambodia).
[53] Declaration of the Advancement of Women in the ASEAN Region, adopted on 5 July 1988 (Bangkok, Thailand).
[54] See: International Women’s Rights Action Watch, ‘Equality and Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Guide to Implementation and Monitoring Under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,’ University of Minnesota: 2004.
[55] As the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has understood:
The enjoyment of human rights on the basis of equality between men and women must be understood comprehensively. Guarantees of non-discrimination and equality in international human rights treaties mandate both de facto and de jure equality. De jure (or formal) equality and de facto (or substantive) equality are different but interconnected concepts. Formal equality assumes that equality is achieved if a law or policy treats men and women in a neutral manner. Substantive equality is concerned, in addition, with the effects of laws, policies and practices and with ensuring that they do not maintain, but rather alleviate, the inherent disadvantage that particular groups experience.
As quoted from: Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 16, Article 3: the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (Thirty- fourth session, 2005), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2005/3 (2005).
[56] IWRAW Asia Pacific and ESCR Net, ‘Claiming Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Resource Guide to Advancing Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Using the Optional Protocol and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Optional Protocol and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,’ April 2013.
[57] The Montreal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted at a meeting of experts held December 7 – 10, 2002 in Montréal, Canada.
[58] Ibid.
[59] See: Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Mr. V. Muñoz Villalobos, ‘Girls’ right to education,’ UN Doc. E/CN.4/2006/45, 8 February 2006.
[60] See: Elaine Zuckerman, ‘Critique: Gender Equality as Smart Economics: A World Bank Group Gender Action Plan (GAP) (Fiscal years 2007-10),’ Gender Action, January 2007. See also: Maya Sethi, ‘What contribution does feminist economics make to the understanding of gender equality?,’ thesis submitted at the Gender Institute, London School of Economics, March 2011.
[61] Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, ‘Opinion on: The Gender Perspective on the response to the economic and financial crisis,’ June 2009.
[62] Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), ‘Highlights from the Strategy Meeting to Follow-Up Efforts on AID Effectiveness, Gender Equality and the Impact of the Crisis on Women,’ 6-7 August 2009. See also: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (Division for the Advancement of Women), 2009 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development: Women’s Control over Economic Resources and Access to Financial Resources, including Microfinance, UN Doc. No. ST/ESA/326, New York, 2009.
[63] The Government of Iceland, ‘25th National Report on the implementation of the 1961 European Social Charter,’ on Articles 1, 15 and 18 for the period 01/01/2007 - 31/12/2010, Report registered by the Secretariat on 8 October 2012.
[64] OHCHR, ‘Preliminary Assessment of Responses Received from the Economic and Social Life (ESL) Questionnaire,’ 21 June 2013 (on file with author).
[65] Ibid.
[66] Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, G.A. res. 34/180, 34 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 46) at 193, U.N. Doc. A/34/46, entered into force 3 September 1981.
[67] Yet, despite the widespread recognition of the principle of non-discrimination, in many jurisdictions women continue to face legal discrimination and inequalities in all areas of economic and social rights. Researchers have noted that de jure inequalities function as “a real impediment to the ability of jobs to improve living standards, productivity and social cohesion in ways which facilitate economic development.” Sandra Fredman, ‘Anti-discrimination laws and work in the developing world: A thematic overview,’ background paper for the World Development Report 2013, 2013.
[68] 56th Session (30 September 2013 - 18 October 2013: Andorra, Benin, Cambodia, Colombia, Republic of Moldova, Seychelles, Tajikistan; 55th Session (8 July 2013 - 26 July 2013): Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Serbia, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Crown Dependencies), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Overseas Territory); 54th Session (11 February 2013 - 1 March 2013): Angola, Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Pakistan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. See also: Marsha A. Freeman, Christine Chinkin and Beate Rudolf (eds.), The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women: A Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2012.
[69] Please note that this is not an exhaustive summary of the contents of the Concluding Observations, but rather serves to indicate the scope of the economic and social issues which have been addressed by the CEDAW Committee over the past year.
[70] See also: Marsha A. Freeman, Christine Chinkin and Beate Rudolf (eds.), The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women: A Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2012.
[71] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 13, Equal remuneration for work of equal value (Eighth session, 1989), U.N. Doc. A/44/38 at 76 (1990).
[72] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 16, Unpaid women workers in rural and urban family enterprises (Tenth session, 1991), U.N. Doc. A/46/38 at 1 (1993).
[73] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 17, Measurement and quantification of the unremunerated domestic activities of women and their recognition in the gross national product (Tenth session, 1991), U.N. Doc. A/46/38 at 2 (1993).
[74] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 24, Women and Health (Twentieth session, 1999), U.N. Doc. A/54/38 at 5 (1999).
[75] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 29, Economic consequences of marriage, family relations and their dissolution (Fifty-fourth session, 2013), U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/29 (2013).
[76] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 18, Disabled women (Tenth session, 1991), U.N. Doc. A/46/38 at 3 (1993).
[77] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 19, Violence against women (Eleventh session, 1992), U.N. Doc. A/47/38 at 1 (1993).
[78] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 21, Equality in marriage and family relations (Thirteenth session, 1992), U.N. Doc. A/49/38 at 1 (1994).
[79] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 26, Women Migrant Workers (Forty-second session, 2008), U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/2009/WP.1/R (2008).
[80] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 27, Older women and protection of their human rights (Forty-seventh session, 2010), U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/27 (2010).
[81] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 16, Article 3: the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (Thirty- fourth session, 2005), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2005/3 (2005).
[82] Here it should be said that CEDAW in general addresses distribution of existing economic and social rights (i.e. discrimination and equality vis-à-vis substantive economic and social rights). However, Article 3 of CEDAW does provide that “States Parties shall take in all fields, in particular in the political, social, economic and cultural fields, all appropriate measures, including legislation, to ensure the full development and advancement of women ….”
[83] Progressive realization should not be misinterpreted as depriving economic, social and cultural rights of all meaningful content. The purpose, rather, is to give Governments flexibility and to recognize government’s different economic capabilities. It is not an escape clause. It includes the idea of continuous improvement and the obligation of the government to ensure that there are no regressive measures.
[84] Article 3 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights guarantees that “The States [p]arties to the present Covenant undertake to ensure the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights set forth in the present Covenant.” International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, G.A. res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 49, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 993 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force 3 January 1976. On Article 3 the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has noted that:
The travaux préparatoires state that article 3 was included in the Covenant, as well as in ICCPR, to indicate that beyond a prohibition of discrimination, “the same rights should be expressly recognized for men and women on an equal footing and suitable measures should be taken to ensure that women had the opportunity to exercise their rights …. Moreover, even if article 3 overlapped with article 2, paragraph 2, it was still necessary to reaffirm the equality rights between men and women. That fundamental principle, which was enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, must be constantly emphasized, especially as there were still many prejudices preventing its full application.” Unlike article 26 of ICCPR, articles 3 and 2, paragraph 2, of ICESCR are not stand-alone provisions, but should be read in conjunction with each specific right guaranteed under part III of the Covenant.
As quoted from: Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 16, Article 3: the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (Thirty- fourth session, 2005), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2005/3 (2005).
67 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ‘General Comment No. 16, Article 3: the Equal Right of Men and Women to the Enjoyment of all Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,’ UN Doc. E/C.12/2005/3 (2005).
[85] Ibid., at para. 14.
[86] For more information, please also see Annexes 1& 2.
[87] UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ‘General Comment No. 16, Article 3: the Equal Right of Men and Women to the Enjoyment of all Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,’ UN Doc. E/C.12/2005/3 (2005), at para. 23.
[88] Ibid., at para. 24.
[89] Ibid., at para. 25.
[90] Ibid., at para. 26.
[91] Ibid., at para. 27.
[92] Ibid., at para. 28.
[93] Ibid., at para. 29.
[94] Ibid., at para. 30.
[95] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 16, Article 3: the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (Thirty- fourth session, 2005), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2005/3 (2005).
[96] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General recommendation No. 28 on the core obligations of States parties under article 2 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/28 (16 December 2010).
[97] Ibid.
[98] Ibid. See also: Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 16, Article 3: the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (Thirty- fourth session, 2005), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2005/3 (2005).
[99] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 16, Article 3: the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (Thirty- fourth session, 2005), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2005/3 (2005).
[100] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General recommendation No. 28 on the core obligations of States parties under article 2 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/28 (16 December 2010).
[101] See: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Report on Indicators for Promoting and Monitoring the Implementation of Human Rights,’ UN Doc. HRI/MC/2008/3, 6 June 2008. This report outlines a conceptual and methodological framework for quantitative human rights indicators and discusses the relevance of using “structural-process-outcome” indicators. See also: Lilian Chenwi, ‘Monitoring the progressive realisation of socio-economic rights: Lessons from the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the South African Constitutional Court,’ Research paper written for Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute, 2010.
[102] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 16, Article 3: the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (Thirty- fourth session, 2005), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2005/3 (2005).
[103] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 3, The nature of States parties’ obligations (Fifth session, 1990), U.N. Doc. E/1991/23, annex III at 86 (1991).
[104] John Ruggie, Interim Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/2006/97 (2006).
[105] Ibid.
[106] Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted on 28 September 2011, at a gathering of experts in international law and human rights convened by Maastricht University and the International Commission of Jurists.
[107] Ibid.
[108] Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted on 28 September 2011, at a gathering of experts in international law and human rights convened by Maastricht University and the International Commission of Jurists, General Principles and Principle 32.
[109] Ibid., at Principle 36. according to Principle 37 on general obligation to provide effective remedy reaffirms that:
States must ensure the enjoyment of the right to a prompt, accessible and effective remedy before an independent authority, including, where necessary, recourse to a judicial authority, for violations of economic, social and cultural rights. Where the harm resulting from an alleged violation has occurred on the territory of a State other than a State in which the harmful conduct took place, any State concerned must provide remedies to the victim. To give effect to this obligation, States should: a) seek cooperation and assistance from other concerned States where necessary to ensure a remedy; b) ensure remedies are available for groups as well as individuals; c) ensure the participation of victims in the determination of appropriate reme¬dies; d) ensure access to remedies, both judicial and non-judicial, at the national and international levels; and e) accept the right of individual complaints and develop judicial remedies at the international level.
Ibid., at Principle 37. According to Principle 38:
Remedies, to be effective, must be capable of leading to a prompt, thorough and impartial investigation; cessation of the violation if it is ongoing; and adequate reparation, including, as necessary, restitution, compensation, satisfaction, rehabilitation and guarantees of non-repetition. To avoid irreparable harm, interim measures must be available and States must respect the indication of interim measures by a competent judicial or quasi-judicial body. Victims have the right to truth about the facts and circumstances surrounding the violations, which should also be disclosed to the public, provided that it causes no further harm to the victim.
[110] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Right, Concluding Observations: Germany, UN Doc. E/C.12/DEU/CO/5, 12 July 2011, at paras. 9 and 10.
[111] Human Rights Committee, Concluding Observations: Germany, UN Doc. CCPRC/C/DEU/CO/6, 12 November 2012, at para 16.
[112] Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted on 28 September 2011, at a gathering of experts in international law and human rights convened by Maastricht University and the International Commission of Jurists., at Principle 9.
[113] See, e.g., Mac Darrow, Between Light and Shadow: The World Bank, The International Monetary Fund and International Human Rights Law, Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2003, pp. 127-133.
[114] Ibid.
[115] Charter of the United Nations, Art. 55(c), adopted 26 June 1945, 59 Stat. 1031, T.S. 993, 3 Bevans 1153, entered into force 24 October 1945. Other human rights obligations are enshrined in Article 1 and Article 56 of the UN Charter, and these too are binding upon all Member States of the United Nations. Article 1(3) states that the “purposes and principles” of the United Nations is “to achieve international co-operation in … promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all….” Article 56 states that “all Members pledge themselves to take joint and separate action … for the achievement of the purposes set forth in Article 55.”
[116] Charter of the United Nations, Art. 103, adopted 26 June 1945, 59 Stat. 1031, T.S. 993, 3 Bevans 1153, entered into force 24 October 1945.
[117] As adapted from: General recommendation No. 25, on article 4, paragraph 1, of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, on temporary special measures, reprinted in Compilation of General Comments and General Recommendations Adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies, U.N. Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.7 at 282 (2004).
[118] Ibid.
[119] Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, G.A. res. 34/180, 34 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 46) at 193, U.N. Doc. A/34/46, entered into force 3 September 1981.
[120] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 5, Temporary special measures (Seventh session, 1988), U.N. Doc. A/43/38 at 109 (1988).
[121] General recommendation No. 25, on article 4, paragraph 1, of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, on temporary special measures, reprinted in Compilation of General Comments and General Recommendations Adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies, U.N. Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.7 at 282 (2004).
[122] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 5, Temporary special measures (Seventh session, 1988), U.N. Doc. A/43/38 at 109 (1988).
[123] General recommendation No. 25, on article 4, paragraph 1, of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, on temporary special measures, reprinted in Compilation of General Comments and General Recommendations Adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies, U.N. Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.7 at 282 (2004).
[124] Ibid., at para. 9.
[125] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, ‘Concluding observations on the combined initial and second periodic reports of Afghanistan,’ adopted by the Committee at its fifty-fifth session (8-26 July 2013), UN Doc. CEDAW/C/AFG/CO/1-2, 30 July 2013.
[126] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, ‘Concluding observations on the combined seventh and eighth periodic reports of Hungary,’ adopted by the Committee at its
fifty-fourth session (11 February–1 March 2013), UN Doc. CEDAW/C/HUN/CO/7-8, 26 March 2013.
[127] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 16, Article 3: the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (Thirty- fourth session, 2005), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2005/3 (2005).
[128] Ibid., at para. 12.
[129] See: Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, ‘Concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Denmark,’ adopted by the Committee at its thirty-sixth session (7-25 August 2006), UN Doc. CEDAW/C/DEN/CO/6, 25 August 2006.
[130] The Montreal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted at a meeting of experts held December 7 – 10, 2002 in Montréal, Canada.
[131] Sheila Block, ‘The Role of Race and Gender in Ontario’s Racialized Income Gap,’ Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, June 2010.
[132] Ibid.
[133] OECD, ‘Special Focus: Inequality in Emerging Economies (EEs),’ 2010.
[134] Megan Gerecke, ‘A policy mix for gender equality? Lessons from high-income countries,’ International Labour Organization (International Institute for Labour Studies), 2013.
[135] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ‘Education: Gender Equality in Education,’ available at: [last accessed 9 September 2013].
[136] OECD, ‘2012 SIGI: Social Institutions and Gender Index: Understanding the drivers of gender inequality,’ 2012.
[137] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ‘World Atlas on Gender Equality in Education,’ 2012.
[138] Ibid.
[139] UNGEI’s work is driven by Millennium Development Goals - MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education: Achieve universal primary education with the target to ensure that by 2015 all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling, and by MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women: with the target to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education and at all levels by 2015.
[140] The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), ‘Transforming Policy and Practice for Gender in Education: A Gender Review of the 2010 EFA Global Monitoring Report Using an Equity and Inclusion Lens,’ Technical Paper, United Nations Children’s’ Fund (UNICEF): New York, 2010.
[141] Michael F. Thompson, Economic Research Analyst (Indiana Business Research Center, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University), ‘Earnings of a Lifetime: Comparing Women and Men with College and Graduate Degrees,’ InContext, Vol. 10, No. 2, Mar-Apr 2009. One example to the contrary is China, where researchers have found that the gender employment gap and the gender pay gap are narrower for the better educated. See: Wei Chi and Bo Li, ‘Trends in China’s gender employment and pay gap: Estimating Gender Pay Gaps with Employment Selection,’ Journal of Comparative Economics, in press, July 2013.
[142] Girls’ education also has well known social benefits. For example, UNFPA has highlighted that education of girls is closely related to improvements in family health and to falling fertility rates, and that girls’ who are educated grow up to have more healthy children themselves. See: UNFPA, ‘Reproductive Health and Education: The Mutual Relationship,’ available online at: [last accessed 13 December 2013].
[143] See: UN News Centre, ‘At UN, Malala Yousafzai rallies youth to stand up for universal education,’ 12 July 2013.
[144] International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Domestic Work,’ available online at: [last accessed 15 December 2013].
[145] The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), ‘Transforming Policy and Practice for Gender in Education: A Gender Review of the 2010 EFA Global Monitoring Report Using an Equity and Inclusion Lens,’ Technical Paper, United Nations Children’s’ Fund (UNICEF): New York, 2010.
[146] Ibid.
[147] According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, early pregnancy is associated with a higher risk of maternal mortality: girls aged 10-14 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy than women in their twenties while girls aged 15-19 are twice as likely to die. See: Center for Reproductive Rights, ‘Supplementary information on Indonesia, scheduled for review by the CEDAW Committee during its 52nd session,’ 21 June 2012.
[148] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, ‘Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Indonesia,’ adopted by the Committee at its fifty-second session (9-27 July 2012), UN Doc. CEDAW/C/IDN/CO/6-7, 27 July 2012.
[149] Plan International, ‘Because I am a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls 2012 - Learning for Life,’ 2010.
[150] Ibid.
[151] One study by WaterAid Nepal found that more than half of all girls surveyed reported missing school at least once because of menstruation, and lack of privacy for cleaning and washing was the major reason identified by girls for being absent from school during their menstruation (41%). According to the study, this was usually directly due to lack of water being available, but also sometimes due to other related issues, such as missing door locks, even when a toilet is available. See: WaterAid Nepal, ‘Is Menstrual Hygiene and Management an Issue for Adolescent School Girls? A Comparative Study of Four Schools in Different Settings of Nepal,’ March 2009, p. iii.
[152] Margaret Eleanor Greene, Omar J. Robles, Krista Stout and Tanja Suvilaakso, ‘A girl’s right to learn without fear: Working to end gender-based violence at school,’ Plan International, 2013.
[153] Camilla Ida Ravnbøl, ‘Intersectional Discrimination against Children: Discrimination
against Romani children and anti-discrimination measures to address child trafficking,’ Innocenti Working Paper No. IDP 2009-11, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre: Florence, 2009.
[154] Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Mr. V. Muñoz Villalobos, ‘Girls’ right to education,’ UN Doc. E/CN.4/2006/45, 8 February 2006, at para. 55.
[155] Ibid.
[156] Ibid., at paras. 127-152.
[157] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ‘‘Scaling up’
good practices in girls’ education,’ 2005.
[158] Ibid.
[159] Ibid., at pg. 33.
[160] Ibid., at pg. 31.
[161] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, ‘Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Indonesia,’ adopted by the Committee at its fifty-second session (9-27 July 2012), UN Doc. CEDAW/C/IDN/CO/6-7, 27 July 2012.
[162] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ‘‘Scaling up’
good practices in girls’ education,’ 2005.
[163] Ibid., at pg. 32.
[164] Ibid., at pg. 33.
[165] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics, ‘Women in Higher Education,’ available online at: [last accessed 1 December 2013].
[166] In fact, at the tertiary level UNESCO reports that female enrolment ratios exceed those of men in two out of every three countries with data. This is because, in some cases, young men may be more likely than young women to move directly from secondary education into the work force or nonformal
education or go abroad to continue their education. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ‘Global Education Digest 2010: Comparing Education Statistics Across the World,’ UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2010.
[167] Daniel de Vise, ‘More women than men got PhDs last year,’ The Washington Post, 14 September 2010.
[168] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ‘Science, Technology and Gender: an International Report,’ 2011. See also: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ‘Women and Science,’ available online at: [last accessed 1 December 2013].
[169] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, ‘Concluding observations on the seventh periodic report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,’ adopted by the Committee at its fifty-fifth session (8 July – 26 July 2012), UN Doc. CEDAW/C/GBR/CO/, 30 July 20132.
[170] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, ‘Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Norway,’ adopted by the Committee at its fifty-first session (13 February – 2 March 2012), UN Doc. CEDAW/C/NOR/CO/8, 9 March 2012.
[171] Statement by Mayra Buvinic (World Bank), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009. See also: Report of the independent expert (Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona) on the question of human rights and extreme poverty (on the impact of the current global financial crisis on people living in extreme poverty and the enjoyment of their human rights), UN Doc. A/64/279, 11 August 2009.
[172] Naoko Otobe, ‘Global economic crisis, gender and employment: The impact and policy response,’ Employment Sector: Employment Working Paper No. 74, International Labour Organization: Geneva, 2011. See also: International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global economic crisis, gender and work: Key policy challenges and options,’ Global Jobs Pact Policy Briefs, Brief No. 15, 2011.
[173] Maria Stavropoulou and Nicola Jones, ‘Off the balance sheet: the impact of the economic crisis on girls and young women: A review of the evidence,’ Plan International, January 2013.
[174] Ibid.
[175] Ibid.
[176] OHCHR, ‘Preliminary Assessment of Responses Received from the Economic and Social Life (ESL) Questionnaire,’ 21 June 2013 (on file with author). See also: Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, ‘Women’s rights and the right to food,’ UN Doc. A/HRC/22/50, 24 December 2012.
[177] World Bank News & Broadcast, ‘Bolsa Família: Changing the Lives of Millions in Brazil,’ available at: [last accessed 12 September 2013]
[178] Maria Stavropoulou and Nicola Jones, ‘Off the balance sheet: the impact of the economic crisis on girls and young women: A review of the evidence,’ Plan International, January 2013.
[179] Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, ‘Women’s rights and the right to food,’ UN Doc. A/HRC/22/50, 24 December 2012.
[180] Ibid.
[181] Ibid.
[182] Almost 90 per cent of the 143 economies covered by Women, Business and the Law 2014 have at least one legal difference which serves to restrict women’s economic opportunities.
[183] Megan Gerecke, ‘A policy mix for gender equality? Lessons from high-income countries,’ International Labour Organization (International Institute for Labour Studies), 2013.
[184] Ibid. Some countries, including Norway, Belgium, France, Canada (Quebec), Italy and Spain do have explicit quotas for female representation on the Boards of State-owned enterprises, and sometimes privately traded companies as well.
[185] Naoko Otobe, ‘Global economic crisis, gender and employment: The impact and policy response,’ Employment Sector: Employment Working Paper No. 74, International Labour Organization: Geneva, 2011. See also: International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global economic crisis, gender and work: Key policy challenges and options,’ Global Jobs Pact Policy Briefs, Brief No. 15, 2011.
[186] Megan Gerecke, ‘A policy mix for gender equality? Lessons from high-income countries,’ International Labour Organization (International Institute for Labour Studies), 2013.
[187] The ILO describes occupational segregation as having both horizontal and vertical characteristics:
Occupational segregation can take two main forms: horizontal and vertical segregation. Horizontal segregation refers to the over-representation of women in a particular occupation. In this case the employment share of women in certain occupations is higher than their share in others. In contrast, vertical segregation – also referred to as the “glass ceiling” – occurs when men and women work in the same occupation, but men more often do work that comes with more responsibilities, better pay and higher status, due to reasons not attributable to their skills or experience.
International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global Employment Trends for Women,’ International Labour Organization: Geneva, December 2012. For a review of legal and other instruments aimed at addressing labor market discrimination in developing countries, please see: Sandra Fredman, ‘Anti-discrimination laws and work in the developing world: A thematic overview,’ background paper for the World Development Report 2013, 2013.
[188] Grant Thornton International Business Report, ‘Women in senior management: setting the stage for growth,’ 2013.
[189] Ibid. The G7 economies have just 21 per cent of senior roles occupied by women, compared to 28 per cent in BRIC economies, 32 per cent in South East Asia and 40 per cent in Baltic states. In terms of corporate boards, in the G7 just 16 per cent of board members are women, compared to 26 per cent in BRIC economies and 38 per cent in Baltic states.
[190] Ibid.
[191] International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global Employment Trends for Women,’ International Labour Organization: Geneva, December 2012. For a review of legal and other instruments aimed at addressing labor market discrimination in developing countries, please see: Sandra Fredman, ‘Anti-discrimination laws and work in the developing world: A thematic overview,’ background paper for the World Development Report 2013, 2013.
[192] Ibid.
[193] Ibid.
[194] Megan Gerecke, ‘A policy mix for gender equality? Lessons from high-income countries,’ International Labour Organization (International Institute for Labour Studies), 2013. International Labour Organisation Convention No. 100 addresses Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value. For a literature review on the implementation of the Convention, please see: Sandra Fredman, ‘Literature Review on the Implementation of Convention 100,’ 2013 [on file with author].
[195] See also: World Bank, Women, Business and the Law 2014: Removing Restrictions To Enhance Gender Equality, 2013.
[196] Ibid.
[197] The Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, ‘Violence Against Women: the Situation,’ Fact Sheet, November 2011.
[198] Ibid.
[199] The Advocates for Human Rights, ‘Community Costs of Domestic Violence,’ available online at: [last accessed 15 December 2013].
[200] According to the International Labor Organization:
Unpaid work is interlinked with the location individuals occupy in paid work through many channels: it (a) shapes the ability, duration, and types of paid work that can be undertaken and therefore limits access to existing and potential collective action processes and social security; (b) does not offer monetary remuneration, which reduces the exercise of “voice” over decision making and ability to accumulate savings and assets; (c) as in many societies, it is regarded a woman’s “natural” work, performed in the “private” sphere of the family and therefore it essentializes this work and strips it of its socio-economic dimensions and contributions; and (d) assigns paid social reproduction (care) workers to jobs that are presumed to be unskilled, with low pay, slender options for promotion, and scant social protection.
Rania Antonopoulos, ‘The unpaid care work - paid work connection,’ International Labour Organization, Policy Integration and Statistics Department, Working Paper No. 86, Geneva, 2007.
[201] United Nations Development Programme, ‘Human Development Report 2007/2008,’ Oxford University Press: Oxford and New York, 2008.
[202] Anna Chu and Charles Posner, ‘Explore the Data: The State of Women in America,’ Center for American Progress, 25 September 2013.
[203] Ibid.
[204] Speech by Michelle Bachelet, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, at the economics symposium “Critical Perspectives on Financial and Economic Crises: Why Gender Matters” being held in New York from 21-22 January 2013. See also: Amelita King Dejardin and
Jessica Owens, ‘Asia in the Global Economic Crisis: Impacts and Responses from a Gender Perspective,’ Technical Note, ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok and ILO Policy Integration and Statistics Department, Geneva, Responding to the Economic Crisis – Coherent Policies for Growth, Employment and Decent Work in Asia and Pacific, Manila, Philippines, 18-20 February 2009. See also: Report of the independent expert (Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona) on the question of human rights and extreme poverty (on the impact of the current global financial crisis on people living in extreme poverty and the enjoyment of their human rights), UN Doc. A/64/279, 11 August 2009.
[205] Ibid.
[206] International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global Employment Trends for Women,’ International Labour Organization: Geneva, December 2012.
[207] Statement by Mayra Buvinic (World Bank), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009.
[208] Ibid. See also: Naoko Otobe, ‘Global economic crisis, gender and employment: The impact and policy response,’ Employment Sector: Employment Working Paper No. 74, International Labour Organization: Geneva, 2011. See also: International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global economic crisis, gender and work: Key policy challenges and options,’ Global Jobs Pact Policy Briefs, Brief No. 15, 2011. See also: International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global Employment Trends for Women,’ International Labour Organization: Geneva, December 2012.
[209] International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global Employment Trends for Women,’ International Labour Organization: Geneva, December 2012.
[210] See: UN News Centre Press Release; ‘More women in Cambodia turning to sex trade amid financial crisis – UN report,’ 21 July 2009.
[211] Remittance flows to developing countries in 2009 were estimated to be 6.7 per cent lower than those in 2008. See: Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), ‘The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Women’s Well-Being and Empowerment,’ Publication series: Women’s Economic Empowerment, Sida: 2 December 2010.
[212] As quoted in: OSCE Press Release, ‘Human traffickers exploit economic crisis, redoubled prevention efforts urgently needed, warns high-level conference at OSCE,’ 14 September 2009.
[213] As quoted from: Naoko Otobe, ‘Global economic crisis, gender and employment: The impact and policy response,’ Employment Sector: Employment Working Paper No. 74, International Labour Organization: Geneva, 2011. Original Sources: Zoe Elena Horn, ‘Effects of the global economic crisis on women in the informal economy: research findings from WIEGO and the Inclusive Cities partners,’ Gender & Development, Vol. 18, No. 2, 2010, pp. 263–276.
[214] Ibid.
[215] Ibid.
[216] Ibid.
[217] Ibid.
[218] Ibid.
[219] Statement by Mayra Buvinic (World Bank), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2–13 March 2009.
[220] International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global Employment Trends for Women,’ International Labour Organization: Geneva, December 2012.
[221] ILO Bureau for Gender Equality, ‘Making the crisis recovery work for women!,’ International Labour Office, International Women’s Day (8 March), 2011.
[222] OHCHR, ‘Preliminary Assessment of Responses Received from the Economic and Social Life (ESL) Questionnaire,’ 21 June 2013 (on file with author).
[223] Ibid.
[224] Ibid.
[225] Ibid.
[226] ILO Bureau for Gender Equality, ‘Making the crisis recovery work for women!,’ International Labour Office, International Women’s Day (8 March), 2011.
[227] Ibid.
[228] OHCHR, ‘Preliminary Assessment of Responses Received from the Economic and Social Life (ESL) Questionnaire,’ 21 June 2013 (on file with author). See also: Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Czech Republic, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/CZE/CO/5, 22 October 2010.
[229] International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global Employment Trends for Women,’ International Labour Organization: Geneva, December 2012.
[230] Ibid.
[231] Ibid.
[232] Emily Esplen, ‘Gender and Care: Overview Report,’ BRIDGE Report, Institute of Development Studies: Brighton, February 2009. Care work is defined as follows: “Care involves both the direct care of persons – such as feeding and bathing a young child – and the domestic tasks that are a precondition for care-giving, such as preparing meals, cleaning sheets and clothes, purchasing food, or collecting water and fuel.”
[233] Statement by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr (Graduate Program in International Affairs, The New School), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009. See also: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr , James Heintz & Stephanie Seguino, ‘Critical Perspectives on Financial and Economic Crises: Heterodox Macroeconomics Meets Feminist Economics,’ Feminist Economics, Volume 19, Number 3, 2013, pp. 4-31.
[234] UNICEF/ILO, ‘Supporting workers with family responsibilities: connecting child development and the decent work agenda,’ UNICEF/ILO Working Paper presented at the Annual Ministerial Review of the High-Level Segment of Economic and Social Council, New York, 2–9 July 2012. See also: International Domestic Workers’ Network (IDWN), Human Rights Watch, and the International Trade Union Confederation, ‘Claiming Rights: Domestic Workers’ Movements and Global Advances for Labor Reform,’ 2013.
[235] Emily Esplen, ‘Gender and Care: Overview Report,’ BRIDGE Report, Institute of Development Studies: Brighton, February 2009.
[236] Ibid.
[237] Ibid.
[238] Natasha Curry, ‘Low cost and high quality integrated care: what can we learn from Japan?,’ The Guardian, 11 June 2012.
[239] Naoko Otobe, ‘Global economic crisis, gender and employment: The impact and policy response,’ Employment Sector: Employment Working Paper No. 74, International Labour Organization: Geneva, 2011. See also: International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global economic crisis, gender and work: Key policy challenges and options,’ Global Jobs Pact Policy Briefs, Brief No. 15, 2011.
[240] UNAIDS, ‘Impact of the global economic crisis on women, girls and gender equality,’ Discussion paper, August 2012.
[241] Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), ‘The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Women’s Well-Being and Empowerment,’ Publication series: Women’s Economic Empowerment, Sida: 2 December 2010.
[242] Naoko Otobe, ‘Global economic crisis, gender and employment: The impact and policy response,’ Employment Sector: Employment Working Paper No. 74, International Labour Organization: Geneva, 2011. See also: International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global economic crisis, gender and work: Key policy challenges and options,’ Global Jobs Pact Policy Briefs, Brief No. 15, 2011.
[243] Jane Lethbridge, ‘Impact of the Global Economic Crisis and Austerity Measures on Women,’ Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), May 2012.
[244] Talking points for Yassine Fall, Chief of the Economic Empowerment Section, UN Women, ‘Promoting Human Rights in Financial Regulation and Macroeconomic Policies,’ 2013.
[245] Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, ‘Opinion on: The Gender Perspective on the response to the economic and financial crisis,’ June 2009.
[246] Statement by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr (Graduate Program in International Affairs, The New School), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009. See also: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr , James Heintz & Stephanie Seguino, ‘Critical Perspectives on Financial and Economic Crises: Heterodox Macroeconomics Meets Feminist Economics,’ Feminist Economics, Volume 19, Number 3, 2013, pp. 4-31.
[247] Statement by Shamika Sirimanne (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009.
[248] Statement by Stephanie Seguino (University of Vermont), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009. See also: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr , James Heintz & Stephanie Seguino, ‘Critical Perspectives on Financial and Economic Crises: Heterodox Macroeconomics Meets Feminist Economics,’ Feminist Economics, Volume 19, Number 3, 2013, pp. 4-31.
[249] UNAIDS, ‘Impact of the global economic crisis on women, girls and gender equality,’ Discussion paper, August 2012.
[250] Talking points for Yassine Fall, Chief of the Economic Empowerment Section, UN Women, ‘Promoting Human Rights in Financial Regulation and Macroeconomic Policies,’ 2013. As the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) has recognized:
International labour migration is an important coping strategy that women in poor countries have used to deal with local unemployment and decline in earnings. But the migrant labour market is contracting as receiving countries, beset by rising unemployment, increasingly restrict the legal entry of foreign workers. For example, women who migrate from Ethiopia to the Middle East to seek work in domestic service face a shrinking market for legal foreign labour …. Recorded remittances to Ethiopia (worth more to the national economy than FDI) fell by 20 percent from 2008 to 2009. Nevertheless, Ethiopian women continue to migrate as a strategy for coping with the economic downturn in Ethiopia, and the country witnessed a spike in emigration in the first half of 2009. As restrictions on legal migration increase, more women and men will resort to the desperate measure of illegal migration. Undocumented migrants are even more vulnerable to human rights abuses and downward pressure on wages than those with formal status.
As quoted from: Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), ‘The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Women’s Well-Being and Empowerment,’ Publication series: Women’s Economic Empowerment, Sida: 2 December 2010.
[251] See: Trades Union Congress (TUC), ‘Bearing the brunt, leading the response: Women and
the global economic crisis,’ March 2011.
[252] Programme on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (PWESCR), ‘Global Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Women: A Human Rights Perspective,’ 2011.
[253] ILO C156 - Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156), Convention concerning Equal Opportunities and Equal Treatment for Men and Women Workers: Workers with Family Responsibilities (Entry into force: 11 August 1983).
[254] ILO R165 - Workers with Family Responsibilities Recommendation, 1981 (No. 165)
Recommendation concerning Equal Opportunities and Equal Treatment for Men and Women Workers: Workers with Family Responsibilities, Geneva, 67th ILC session (23 June 1981).
[255] United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, ‘Agreed Conclusions on the equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including care-giving in the context of HIV/AIDS,’ Fifty-third session, 2– 13 March 2009.
[256] Ibid.
[257] ILO C003 - Maternity Protection Convention, 1919 (No. 3) Convention concerning the Employment of Women before and after Childbirth (Entry into force: 13 June 1921), Washington, 1st ILC session (29 November 1919).
[258] ILO C103 - Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 (No. 103) Convention concerning Maternity Protection (Revised 1952) (Entry into force: 7 September 1955), Geneva, 35th ILC session (28 June 1952).
[259] ILO C183 - Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183) Convention concerning the revision of the Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 (Entry into force: 7 February 2002), Geneva, 88th ILC session (15 June 2000).
[260] Recommendation No. 191 complements Convention No. 183, and suggests higher protection, including a longer duration of maternity leave and higher benefits. The Recommendation also discusses in greater detail certain aspects of maternity protection addressed in the Convention, including how to ensure health protection, and addresses some additional aspects related to types of leave and financing of benefits. International Labour Office (ILO), ‘Maternity at Work: A review of national legislation: Findings from the ILO Database of Conditions of Work and Employment Laws,’ 2nd Edition, ILO: Geneva, 2012.
[261] Ibid.
[262] Ibid.
[263] Ibid. At the time of the study, only Australia, Lesotho, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland and the United States of America did not provide some sort of cash benefit to women during maternity leave. In some countries, cash benefits were only made available for a certain number of births.
[264] Talking points for Yassine Fall, Chief of the Economic Empowerment Section, UN Women, ‘Promoting Human Rights in Financial Regulation and Macroeconomic Policies,’ 2013.
[265] UNICEF/ILO, ‘Supporting workers with family responsibilities: connecting child development and the decent work agenda,’ UNICEF/ILO Working Paper presented at the Annual Ministerial Review of the High-Level Segment of Economic and Social Council, New York, 2–9 July 2012.
[266] Ibid.
[267] Francesca Bettio, Marcella Corsi, Carlo D’Ippoliti, Antigone Lyberaki, Manuela Samek Lodovici
and Alina Verashchagina, ‘The impact of the economic crisis on the situation of women and men and on gender equality policies,’ Synthesis report, report prepared for the use of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Justice, 2013. The authors go on to highlight that: “In Greece, Ireland and Portugal, Labour Inspections recorded a surge in the infringement of rights protecting pregnant women and mothers of young children during the crisis, while in Italy and the Czech Republic infringements are reported to have frequently occurred in ‘normal times’ as well.”
[268] ILO Bureau for Gender Equality, ‘Making the crisis recovery work for women!,’ International Labour Office, International Women’s Day (8 March), 2011.
[269] International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global Employment Trends for Women,’ International Labour Organization: Geneva, December 2012.
[270] Ibid. Other countries, however, contracted parental benefits and leave (for example, Germany, and Estonia).
[271] Ibid.
[272] See: OHCHR, ‘Preliminary Assessment of Responses Received from the Economic and Social Life (ESL) Questionnaire,’ 21 June 2013 (on file with author).
[273] Ibid.
[274] International Labour Office (ILO), ‘Maternity at Work: A review of national legislation: Findings from the ILO Database of Conditions of Work and Employment Laws,’ 2nd Edition, ILO: Geneva, 2012.
[275] Ibid.
[276] UNICEF/ILO, ‘Supporting workers with family responsibilities: connecting child development and the decent work agenda,’ UNICEF/ILO Working Paper presented at the Annual Ministerial Review of the High-Level Segment of Economic and Social Council, New York, 2–9 July 2012.
[277] ILO R191 - Maternity Protection Recommendation, 2000 (No. 191) Recommendation concerning the revision of the Maternity Protection Recommendation, 1952, Geneva, 88th ILC session (15 June 2000).
[278] ILO C183 - Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183) Convention concerning the revision of the Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 (Entry into force: 7 February 2002), Geneva, 88th ILC session (15 June 2000).
[279] ILO R165 - Workers with Family Responsibilities Recommendation, 1981 (No. 165)
Recommendation concerning Equal Opportunities and Equal Treatment for Men and Women Workers: Workers with Family Responsibilities, Geneva, 67th ILC session (23 June 1981).
[280] ILO C156 - Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156), Convention concerning Equal Opportunities and Equal Treatment for Men and Women Workers: Workers with Family Responsibilities (Entry into force: 11 August 1983).
[281] International Labour Office (ILO), ‘Maternity at Work: A review of national legislation: Findings from the ILO Database of Conditions of Work and Employment Laws,’ 2nd Edition, ILO: Geneva, 2012.
[282] As quoted in: UNICEF/ILO, ‘Supporting workers with family responsibilities: connecting child development and the decent work agenda,’ UNICEF/ILO Working Paper presented at the Annual Ministerial Review of the High-Level Segment of Economic and Social Council, New York, 2–9 July 2012.
[283] United States Internal Revenue Service, ‘Ten Things to Know About the Child and Dependent Care Credit,’ IRS Tax Tip 2011-46, 7 March 2011.
[284] UNICEF/ILO, ‘Supporting workers with family responsibilities: connecting child development and the decent work agenda,’ UNICEF/ILO Working Paper presented at the Annual Ministerial Review of the High-Level Segment of Economic and Social Council, New York, 2–9 July 2012.
[285] World Bank, ‘World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development,’ 2012.
[286] UNICEF/ILO, ‘Supporting workers with family responsibilities: connecting child development and the decent work agenda,’ UNICEF/ILO Working Paper presented at the Annual Ministerial Review of the High-Level Segment of Economic and Social Council, New York, 2–9 July 2012. See also: ‘National Policy for the Promotion of Gender Equality, 2006-2010,’ adopted by the Croatian Parliament at its session held on 13 October 2006.
[287] ‘National Policy for the Promotion of Gender Equality, 2006-2010,’ adopted by the Croatian Parliament at its session held on 13 October 2006.
[288] UNICEF/ILO, ‘Supporting workers with family responsibilities: connecting child development and the decent work agenda,’ UNICEF/ILO Working Paper presented at the Annual Ministerial Review of the High-Level Segment of Economic and Social Council, New York, 2–9 July 2012.
[289] Report by the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination, Miloon Kothari, ‘Women and Adequate Housing,’ UN Doc. E/CN.4/2006/118, 27 February 2006. See also: UN Docs. E/CN.4/2006/41 (14 March 2006), E/CN.4/2005/43 (25 February 2005), and E/CN.4/2003/55 (26 March 2003).
[290] Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an
adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, Raquel Rolnik, UN Doc. A/HRC/19/53, 26 December 2011.
[291] Ibid.
[292] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 7, Forced evictions, and the right to adequate housing (Sixteenth session, 1997), U.N. Doc. E/1998/22, annex IV at 113 (1997).
[293] Commission on Human Rights Resolution: 2004/28, ‘Prohibition of forced evictions,’ 52nd meeting, 16 April 2004.
[294] Ibid.
[295] Radhika Coomaraswamy, ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Addendum: Economic and social policy and its impact on violence against women,’ UN DocE/CN.4/2000/68/Add.5, 24 February 2000.
[296] Yakin Ertürk, ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Addendum: Political economy and violence against women,’ UN Doc. A/HRC/11/6/Add.6, 23 June 2009.
[297] Women’s Right to Adequate Housing and Land: Middle East/North Africa Proceedings of the Alexandria Consultation, Miloon Kothari (UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing) with collaboration and support from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 23–26 July 2004.
[298] Bill Edgar, Joe Doherty and Henk Meert, Immigration and Homelessness in Europe, The Policy Press: Bristol, United Kingdom, 2004.
[299] United States, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Policy Development and Research, ‘Housing Discrimination Against Racial And Ethnic Minorities 2012,’ 2013.
[300] Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an
adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, Raquel Rolnik, UN Doc. A/HRC/19/53, 26 December 2011.
[301] Ibid.
[302] The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), ‘A Place in the World: The Right to Adequate Housing as an Essential Element of a Life Free from Domestic Violence,’ COHRE: Geneva, July 2010.
[303] Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an
adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, Raquel Rolnik, UN Doc. A/HRC/19/53, 26 December 2011.
[304] Ibid.
[305] Statement by H.E. Eleonora Menicucci de Oliveira, Minister of State of Brazil of Public Policies for Women, Celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, New York, 9 July 2012. See also: OHCHR, ‘Preliminary Assessment of Responses Received from the Economic and Social Life (ESL) Questionnaire,’ 21 June 2013 (on file with author).
[306] Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an
adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, Raquel Rolnik, UN Doc. A/HRC/19/53, 26 December 2011. See in particular Section III.
[307] Ibid.
[308] FAO Women and Population Division, Sustainable Development Department, ‘Rural women and the right to food,’ available at: [last accessed 13 September 2013].
[309] Hélène F. Delisle (Department of Nutrition and WHO Collaborating Centre on Nutritional Changes and Development, Universite de Montreal, Canada), ‘Poverty: The Double Burden of Malnutrition in Mothers and the Intergenerational Impact,’ Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 1136 on, Reducing the Impact of Poverty on Health and Human Development: Scientific Approaches, June 2008, pp. 172–184.
[310] UNAIDS, ‘Impact of the global economic crisis on women, girls and gender equality,’ UNAIDS Discussion Paper, August 2012.
[311] Hélène F. Delisle (Department of Nutrition and WHO Collaborating Centre on Nutritional Changes and Development, Universite de Montreal, Canada), ‘Poverty: The Double Burden of Malnutrition in Mothers and the Intergenerational Impact,’ Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 1136 on, Reducing the Impact of Poverty on Health and Human Development: Scientific Approaches, June 2008, pp. 172–184.
[312] Ibid.
[313] Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, ‘Women’s rights and the right to food,’ UN Doc. A/HRC/22/50, 24 December 2012. See also, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, ‘The Right to Food, Gender Equality and Economic Policy,’ Meeting Report, 16-17 September 2011.
[314] Ibid.
[315] Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter (Addendum: Mission to China), UN Doc. A/HRC/19/59/Add.1, 20 January 2012.
[316] World Bank, ‘Food Crisis: Overview,’ available at: [last accessed 13 September 2013].
[317] UNAIDS, ‘Impact of the global economic crisis on women, girls and gender equality,’ Discussion paper, August 2012.
[318] Statement by Shamika Sirimanne (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009.
[319] Statement by Isatou Jallow (head of the WFP gender unit), ‘Women Shoulder Heaviest Burden in Global Food Crisis,’ International Women’s Day Statement, 5 March 2009.
[320] Ibid.
[321] Ibid.
[322] UNAIDS, ‘Impact of the global economic crisis on women, girls and gender equality,’ Discussion paper, August 2012.
[323] Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, ‘Women’s rights and the right to food,’ UN Doc. A/HRC/22/50, 24 December 2012. See also, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, ‘The Right to Food, Gender Equality and Economic Policy,’ Meeting Report, 16-17 September 2011.
[324] Mayra Gómez, ‘Good Practices in Realizing Women’s Rights to Productive Resources, with a Focus on Land,’ Background Paper prepared for the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on ‘Good Practices in Realizing Women’s Rights to Productive Resources, with a Focus on Land,’ convened by UN–Women and UN-OHCHR, Geneva, Switzerland, 25 to 27 June 2012.
[325] Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), ‘The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Women’s Well-Being and Empowerment,’ Publication series: Women’s Economic Empowerment, Sida: 2 December 2010.
[326] OECD, ‘Poverty reduction and social development: Discrimination against women persists around the globe hampering development,’ available online at: [last accessed 1 December 2013]. See also: OECD, ‘2012 SIGI: Social Institutions and Gender Index: Understanding the drivers of gender inequality,’ 2012.
[327] Women in Development Service (SDWW), FAO Women and Population Division, ‘Women and sustainable food security,’ available online at: [last accessed 15 December 2013].
[328] United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), The State of Food and Agriculture: 2010-2011, 2011.
[329] Ibid.
[330] Ibid.
[331] Study of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee on discrimination in the context of the right to food, UN Doc. A/HRC/16/40, 16 February 2011.
[332] Ibid.
[333] UN-Women and UN-OHCHR, Handbook on Effective Strategies to Realize Women’s Rights to Land and Other Productive Resources, New York and Geneva, 2013.
[334] Ibid.
[335] Ibid.
[336] Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay, ‘Introduction: Women and Property, Women as Property,’ Gender Perspectives on Property and Inheritance, A Global Source Book, Oxfam GB, 2002.
[337] Shepard Daniel with Anuradha Mittal, ‘The Great Land Grab: Rush for World’s Farmland Threatens Food Security for the Poor,’ The Oakland Institute, 2009.
[338] The Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT), ‘Land Grabbing,’ available at: [last accessed 13 September 2013]. The Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade is an FP7 project supported by the European Commission that will run from 2011-2015. See also: GRAIN, ‘Seized: The 2008 landgrab for food and financial security,’ 24 October 2008.
[339] Oxfam, ‘Land grabs,’ available at: [last accessed 13 September 2013].
[340] FAO, ‘The State of Food and Agriculture, 2008: Biofuels: Prospects, Risks and Opportunities,’ Rome, 2008.
[341] Ibid.
[342] Andrea Rossi & Yianna Lambrou, ‘Gender and Equity Issues in Liquid Biofuels Production: Minimizing the Risks to Maximize the Opportunities,’ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome 2008.
[343] Olivier De Schutter, ‘Large-scale land acquisitions and leases: A set of core principles and measures to address the human rights challenge,’ 11 June 2009.
[344] African Union Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa, Doc No. Assembly/AU/Decl.1(XIII) Rev.1, 2009.
[345] Nairobi Action Plan on Large Scale Land-Based Investments in Africa, as adopted by participants of the High Level Forum on Foreign Direct Investments in Land in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, 4-5 October 2011.
[346] WHO/UNICEF, ‘Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, Drinking Water: Equity, Safety and Sustainability,’ 2012.
[347] Ibid.
[348] United Nations, ‘The Millennium Development Goals Report,’ United Nations, New York, 2012. According to UN-Women, in Pakistan, putting water sources closer to the home was associated with increased time allocated to productive market work, and in Tanzania, girls’ school attendance was reported to be 25 per cent higher for girls from homes located 15 minutes or less from a water source than girls from homes one hour or more away. See: Remarks by Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, ‘Gender perspectives on water and food security,’ delivered at the Closing Plenary Session of the 2012 World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, 31 August 2012.
[349] United Nations Department of Public Information, ‘Fact Sheet: The Future We Want – Water and Sanitation,’ June 2012.
[350] UN Interagency Task Force on Gender and Water, ‘A Gender Perspective on Water Resources and Sanitation,’ Background Paper submitted to the Commission on Sustainable Development, Background Paper No. 2, UN Doc. DESA/DSD/2005/2, (2005).
[351] UN-Water, ‘Gender, Water and Sanitation: A Policy Brief,’ June 2006.
[352] UNFPA, ‘Gender Equality: Women’s Work and Economic Empowerment,’ available online at: [last accessed 13 November 2013].
[353] IFAD, ‘Desertification and Gender: Expanding Roles for Women to Restore Dryland Areas,’ 2010.
[354] Women’s Environment & Development Organization, ‘Untapped Connections: Gender, Water and Poverty: Key Issues, Government Commitments and Actions for Sustainable Development,’ 2003.
[355] UN-Water, ‘Gender, Water and Sanitation: A Policy Brief,’ June 2006.
[356] Ibid.
[357] Women’s Environment & Development Organization, ‘Untapped Connections: Gender, Water and Poverty: Key Issues, Government Commitments and Actions for Sustainable Development,’ 2003.
[358] UNDP, GWA, IRC, Cap-Net and GWP, ‘Resource Guide: Mainstreaming Gender in Water Management,’ Version 2.1 November 2006. In addition:
[e]asier access to fresh water would improve living conditions for girls who generally drop out of school and start working in the fields and fetching water at a very young age. Lack of access to water is an obstacle to their right to have access to formal education.
See: Erin Kelly, ‘Water and Women’s Empowerment: More Closely Tied Than You May Think,’ Women Thrive Worldwide, 4 September 2012. Reports indicate that about 1 in 10 school-age African girls will not attend school during menstruation or drop out at puberty because of the absence of clean and private sanitation facilities in schools.
[359] Catarina de Albuquerque, ‘Report of the independent expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation: Addendum - Mission to Egypt,’ UN Doc. A/HRC/15/31/Add.3, 5 July 2010. See also: Catarina de Albuquerque, UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, ‘Integrating non-discrimination and equality into the post-2015 development agenda for water, sanitation and hygiene,’ UN Doc. A/67/270, 8 August 2012.
[360] In the case of Greece, the United Nations Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, Mr. Cephas Lumina highlighted after a recent mission to Greece that some of the rights guaranteed under international human rights law, and “particularly socio-economic rights,” are “under threat or being undermined by the harsh pro-cyclical policies (austerity, labour reforms, liberalization and privatization) that the Government has been constrained to implement since May 2010 in return for a bailout ….” See: End of mission statement by United Nations Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, Mr. Cephas Lumina, on his mission to Greece, 22-26 April 2013, issued in Athens, 26 April 2013.
[361] Jane Lethbridge, ‘Impact of the Global Economic Crisis and Austerity Measures on Women,’ Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), May 2012.
[362] UN Interagency Task Force on Gender and Water, ‘A Gender Perspective on Water Resources and Sanitation,’ Background Paper submitted to the Commission on Sustainable Development, Background Paper No. 2, UN Doc. DESA/DSD/2005/2, (2005).
[363] UNDP, GWA, IRC, Cap-Net and GWP, ‘Resource Guide: Mainstreaming Gender in Water Management,’ Version 2.1 November 2006.
[364] Women’s Environment & Development Organization, ‘Untapped Connections: Gender, Water and Poverty: Key Issues, Government Commitments and Actions for Sustainable Development,’ 2003.
[365] UNDP, GWA, IRC, Cap-Net and GWP, ‘Resource Guide: Mainstreaming Gender in Water Management,’ Version 2.1 November 2006. See also: Catarina de Albuquerque and Virginia Roaf, ‘On the Rights Track: Good practices in realising the rights to water and sanitation,’ 2012.
[366] See: Frances Raday (Chair of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice), ‘Gender Pension Gap: Background Paper for Report to the Human Rights Council,’ 2013 (on file with author).
[367] Heidi Hartmann (President, Institute for Women’s Policy Research), ‘Gender Implications of the Financial Crisis in the United States,’ presented at an event on the gender implications of the global financial crisis, co-sponsored by the Heinrich Böll Foundation North America, the Center of Concern, and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), 22 April 2009.
[368] Ibid.
[369] Ibid.
[370] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 27, Older women and protection of their human rights (Forty-seventh session, 2010), U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/27 (2010).
[371] Ibid.
[372] European Commission – Directorate-General for Justice, ‘The Gender Gap in Pensions in the EU,’ European Union, 2013. See also: Frances Raday (Chair of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice), ‘Gender Pension Gap: Background Paper for Report to the Human Rights Council,’ 2013 (on file with author).
[373] Ibid.
[374] World Bank, ‘Pensions: Overview,’ available at: [last accessed 13 September 2013].
[375] UNICEF/ILO, ‘Supporting workers with family responsibilities: connecting child development and the decent work agenda,’ UNICEF/ILO Working Paper presented at the Annual Ministerial Review of the High-Level Segment of Economic and Social Council, New York, 2–9 July 2012.
[376] UNICEF/ILO, ‘Supporting workers with family responsibilities: connecting child development and the decent work agenda,’ UNICEF/ILO Working Paper presented at the Annual Ministerial Review of the High-Level Segment of Economic and Social Council, New York, 2–9 July 2012. See also: Lou Tessier, Maya Stern Plaza, Christina Behrendt, Florence Bonnet and Emmanuelle St-Pierre Guilbault, ‘Social Protection Floors and gender equality: A brief overview,’ ESS (Extension of Social Security) Working Paper no. 37, International Labour Organization: Geneva, 2013.
[377] Lou Tessier, Maya Stern Plaza, Christina Behrendt, Florence Bonnet and Emmanuelle St-Pierre Guilbault, ‘Social Protection Floors and gender equality: A brief overview,’ ESS (Extension of Social Security) Working Paper no. 37, International Labour Organization: Geneva, 2013.
[378] Ibid., at pg. 4.
[379] ILO Bureau for Gender Equality, ‘Making the crisis recovery work for women!,’ International Labour Office, International Women’ s Day (8 March), 2011.
[380] World Bank, ‘Pensions in Crisis: Europe and Central Asia Regional Policy Note,’ 12 November 2009.
[381] Bernard Casey (Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick), ‘The implications of the economic crisis for pensions and pension policy in Europe,’ Global Social Policy, Vol. 12, No. 3, December, pp. 246-265. See also: David Natali, ‘Pensions after the financial and economic crisis:
a comparative analysis of recent reforms in Europe,’ Working Paper 2011.07, European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), Brussels, 2011.
[382] ILO Bureau for Gender Equality, ‘Making the crisis recovery work for women!,’ International Labour Office, International Women’s Day (8 March), 2011.
[383] Report of the Advisory Group chaired by Michelle Bachelet (aka Bachelet report), ‘Social protection floor for a fair and inclusive globalization,’ Convened by the ILO with the collaboration of the WHO, International Labour Organization: Geneva, 2011.
[384] Report of the Independent Expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, UN Doc. A/HRC/17/34, 17 March 2011.
[385] Jayati Ghosh, ‘Economic Crisis and Women’s Work: Exploring Progressive Strategies in a Rapidly Changing Global Environment,’ UN-Women, January 2013.
[386] As quoted from: Report of the Advisory Group chaired by Michelle Bachelet, ‘Social protection floor for a fair and inclusive globalization,’ Convened by the ILO with the collaboration of the WHO, International Labour Organization: Geneva, 2011.
[387] ILO R202 - Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), Recommendation concerning National Floors of Social Protection, Geneva, 101st ILC session, 14 June 2012.
[388] Ibid.
[389] Lou Tessier, Maya Stern Plaza, Christina Behrendt, Florence Bonnet and Emmanuelle St-Pierre Guilbault, ‘Social Protection Floors and gender equality: A brief overview,’ ESS (Extension of Social Security) Working Paper no. 37, International Labour Organization: Geneva, 2013.
[390] Ibid.
[391] A study of 130 developing countries shows that from 2008 to 2009, 120 countries increased spending by an average of 25 per cent over 2005 to 2007 levels. Only 10 countries reduced spending for the same time periods. See: Isabel Ortiz and Matthew Cummins (eds.) ‘A recovery for All: Rethinking socio-economic policies for children and poor households,’ New York: UNICEF, 2012.
[392] Jayati Ghosh, ‘Economic Crisis and Women’s Work: Exploring Progressive Strategies in a Rapidly Changing Global Environment,’ UN-Women, January 2013.
[393] Jane Lethbridge, ‘Impact of the Global Economic Crisis and Austerity Measures on Women,’ Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), May 2012.
[394] Ibid.
[395] See: Stephanie Seguino (Professor of Economics University of Vermont, USA), ‘Financing for Gender Equality: Reframing and Prioritizing Public Expenditures to Promote Gender Equality,’ UN-Women Policy Brief, January 2013. See also: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr , James Heintz & Stephanie Seguino, ‘Critical Perspectives on Financial and Economic Crises: Heterodox Macroeconomics Meets Feminist Economics,’ Feminist Economics, Volume 19, Number 3, 2013, pp. 4-31.
[396] France and Luxembourg, however, have introduced higher taxation for high income groups. See: Jane Lethbridge, ‘Impact of the Global Economic Crisis and Austerity Measures on Women,’ Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), May 2012.
[397] Center for Economic and Social Rights, ‘Fiscal Fallacies: 8 Myths about the “Age of Austerity”
And Human Rights Responses,’ Rights in Crisis Series Briefing Paper, July 2012. See also: ESCR-NET, Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), Center of Concern, Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), and the Center for Economic and Social Rights, ‘Bringing Human Rights to Bear in Times of Crisis: A human rights analysis of government responses to the economic crisis,’ Submission to the High-Level Segment of 13th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on the global economic and financial crises, 2010.
[398] See, for example: Ha-Joon Chang, ‘Austerity has never worked: It’s not just about the current economic environment. History shows that slashing budgets always leads to recession,’ The Guardian, 4 June 2012.
[399] Brad Plumer, ‘IMF: Austerity is much worse for the economy than we thought,’ The Washington Post, 12 October 2012.
[400] The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has stated that “deliberately retrogressive measures … would require the most careful consideration and would need to be fully justified by reference to the totality of the rights provided for in the Covenant and in the context of the full use of the maximum available resources.” Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 3, The nature of States parties’ obligations (Fifth session, 1990), U.N. Doc. E/1991/23, annex III at 86 (1991).
[401] As quoted in: Programme on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (PWESCR), ‘Global Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Women: A Human Rights Perspective,’ 2011.
[402] Jayati Ghosh, ‘Economic Crisis and Women’s Work: Exploring Progressive Strategies in a Rapidly Changing Global Environment,’ UN-Women, January 2013.
[403] Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, ‘Safeguarding human rights in times of economic crisis,’ November 2013. See also: Report of the independent expert (Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona) on the question of human rights and extreme poverty (on the impact of the current global financial crisis on people living in extreme poverty and the enjoyment of their human rights), UN Doc. A/64/279, 11 August 2009.
[404] BBC News, ‘EU austerity drive country by country,’ 21 May 2012.
[405] European Women’s Lobby, ‘The price of austerity - The impact on women’s rights and gender equality in Europe,’ October 2012.
[406] Jane Lethbridge, ‘Impact of the Global Economic Crisis and Austerity Measures on Women,’ Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), May 2012.
[407] Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), ‘The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Women’s Well-Being and Empowerment,’ Publication series: Women’s Economic Empowerment, Sida: 2 December 2010. In fact, the United Kingdom has seen the highest level of women’s unemployment in 25 years. See: Jane Lethbridge, ‘Impact of the Global Economic Crisis and Austerity Measures on Women,’ Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), May 2012.
[408] International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global Employment Trends for Women,’ International Labour Organization: Geneva, December 2012.
[409] European Women’s Lobby, ‘The price of austerity - The impact on women’s rights and gender equality in Europe,’ October 2012.
[410] Trades Union Congress (TUC), ‘Bearing the brunt, leading the response: Women and
the global economic crisis,’ March 2011.
[411] European Women’s Lobby, ‘The price of austerity - The impact on women’s rights and gender equality in Europe,’ October 2012.
[412] Ibid. See also: Jane Lethbridge, ‘Impact of the Global Economic Crisis and Austerity Measures on Women,’ Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), May 2012.
[413] Ursula Barry and Pauline Conroy, ‘Ireland in Crisis 2008-2012: Women, austerity and inequality,’ National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) and Think Tank on Social Change (TASC), School of Social Justice, University College Dublin, Ireland, October 2012.
[414] SAPs include, for example: currency devaluation, price deregulation, privatization, export-led growth strategies, and the removal of subsidies on public services, for example in the areas of education, food, water and sanitation, and health services. See: Bharati Sadasivam, ‘The Impact of Structural Adjustment on Women: A Governance and Human Rights Agenda,’ Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 3, 1997, pp. 630-665.
[415] Ibid.
[416] Maya Sethi, ‘What contribution does feminist economics make to the understanding of gender equality?,’ thesis submitted at the Gender Institute, London School of Economics, March 2011.
[417] See: ‘Achieving Equity for Women: Policy Alternatives for the New Administration Symposium Report,’ A policy research symposium co-sponsored by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and Wellesley Centers for Women, Washington D.C., 2 April 2009.
[418] Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, ‘La actual crisis financiera internacional y sus efectos en América Latina y el Caribe,’ Santiago, Chile, 2009. See also: Norma Sanchís & Alma Espino, ‘The Impacts of the Crisis on Women in Latin America,’ Brief 1 of the 2010 series edition: 2010 Updates: Impacts Of The Crisis On Women’s Rights: Sub Regional Perspectives, AWID, 2010.
[419] ECLAC/ILO, ‘Countercyclical policies for a sustained recovery in employment,’ The employment situation in Latin America and the Caribbean, Issue No. 5, June 2011.
[420] Speech by Michelle Bachelet, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, at the economics symposium “Critical Perspectives on Financial and Economic Crises: Why Gender Matters,” held in New York from 21-22 January 2013. UN-Women has also said that “A crucial point that is often overlooked is that public programmes and interventions in the labour market to provide social protection are not just welfare measures—they are important counter-cyclical buffers that reduce or prevent downturns and enable faster recovery.” See: Jayati Ghosh, ‘Economic Crisis and Women’s Work: Exploring Progressive Strategies in a Rapidly Changing Global Environment,’ UN-Women, January 2013.
[421] ILO Bureau for Gender Equality, ‘Making the crisis recovery work for women!,’ International Labour Office, International Women’s Day (8 March), 2011.
[422] Ibid.
[423] Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), ‘The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Women’s Well-Being and Empowerment,’ Publication series: Women’s Economic Empowerment, Sida: 2 December 2010.
[424] Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), ‘The reactions of the Governments of the Americas to the international crisis: follow-up to policy measures adopted up to
31 December 2011,’ April 2012. Some scholars have in particular highlighted that: “We cannot accept the double-standard of counter-cyclical measures for rich countries and pro-cyclical measures for poor countries, or, Keynesian economics for rich countries and neo-liberal economics for poor countries.” See: Statement by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr (Graduate Program in International Affairs, The New School), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009. See also: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr , James Heintz & Stephanie Seguino, ‘Critical Perspectives on Financial and Economic Crises: Heterodox Macroeconomics Meets Feminist Economics,’ Feminist Economics, Volume 19, Number 3, 2013, pp. 4-31.
[425] Jayati Ghosh, ‘Economic Crisis and Women’s Work: Exploring Progressive Strategies in a Rapidly Changing Global Environment,’ UN-Women, January 2013.
[426] Ibid.
[427] Ibid.
[428] Ibid.
[429] Ibid.
[430] Statement by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr (Graduate Program in International Affairs, The New School), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009. See also: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr , James Heintz & Stephanie Seguino, ‘Critical Perspectives on Financial and Economic Crises: Heterodox Macroeconomics Meets Feminist Economics,’ Feminist Economics, Volume 19, Number 3, 2013, pp. 4-31.
[431] Jayati Ghosh, ‘Economic Crisis and Women’s Work: Exploring Progressive Strategies in a Rapidly Changing Global Environment,’ UN-Women, January 2013.
[432] UNAIDS, ‘Impact of the global economic crisis on women, girls and gender equality,’ Discussion paper, August 2012.
[433] Centre for Gender Equality Iceland, ‘Gender Equality in Iceland,’ January 2012. See also: The Government of Iceland, ‘25th National Report on the implementation of the 1961 European Social Charter,’ on Articles 1, 15 and 18 for the period 01/01/2007-31/12/2010, Report registered by the Secretariat on 8 October 2012.
[434] UNAIDS, ‘Impact of the global economic crisis on women, girls and gender equality,’ Discussion paper, August 2012.
[435] Ibid.
[436] Statement by Stephanie Seguino (University of Vermont), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009. See also: Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), ‘The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Women’s Well-Being and Empowerment,’ Publication series: Women’s Economic Empowerment, Sida: 2 December 2010. See also: Natalie Raaber & Diana Aguiar, ‘Feminist critiques, policy alternatives and calls for systemic change to an economy in crisis,’ Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), 2012. See also: Cecilia Alemany, Graciela Dede, Natalie Raaber, and Anne Schoenstein, ‘Cross–Regional Analysis on the Impact of the Crisis on Women and Women’s Rights,’ AWID, 2009. See also: Nerea Craviotto, ‘The Impact of the global economic crisis on women and women’s human rights across regions,’ AWID, 2010.
[437] This has been recognized as a good practice by the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice. See: Report of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice, Addendum: Mission to Morocco,’ UN Doc. A/HRC/20/28/Add.1, 19 June 2012.
[438] Naoko Otobe, ‘Global economic crisis, gender and employment: The impact and policy response,’ Employment Sector: Employment Working Paper No. 74, International Labour Organization: Geneva, 2011. See also: International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global economic crisis, gender and work: Key policy challenges and options,’ Global Jobs Pact Policy Briefs, Brief No. 15, 2011.
[439] Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. res. 217A (III), U.N. Doc A/810 at 71 (1948).
[440] Emphasis added. Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, adopted by United National General Assembly, resolution60/147, UN Doc. A/RES/60/147 (21 March 2005), at Art. 11(b) .
[441] Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, G.A. res. 34/180, 34 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 46) at 193, U.N. Doc. A/34/46, entered into force 3 September 1981.
[442] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, G.A. res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force March 23, 1976.
[443] Ibid. See also: Varun Gauri and Daniel M. Brinks, Courting social justice: judicial enforcement of social and economic rights in the developing world, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
[444] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 3, The nature of States parties’ obligations (Fifth session, 1990), U.N. Doc. E/1991/23, annex III at 86 (1991).
[445] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 9, The domestic application of the Covenant (Nineteenth session, 1998), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/1998/24 (1998).
[446] Ibid.
[447] Ibid.
[448] Ibid.
[449] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 3, The nature of States parties’ obligations (Fifth session, 1990), U.N. Doc. E/1991/23, annex III at 86 (1991).
[450] Several cases addressing women’s economic and social rights have also been brought before regional human rights mechanisms. For more information, please see the ESCR-Net’s Caselaw database, available online at: [last accessed 15 December 2013].
[451] F. H. Zwaan-de Vries v. the Netherlands, Communication No. 182/1984 (9 April 1987), U.N. Doc. Supp. No. 40 (A/42/40) at 160 (1987).
[452] Ibid.
[453] Graciela Ato del Avellanal v. Peru, Communication No. 202/1986, U.N. Doc. Supp. No. 40 (A/44/40) at 196 (1988). Regional human rights bodies have also taken similar cases. For example, in the case of Maria Eugenia Morales de Sierra v. Guatemala (2000) the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights addressed the issue of married women’s equal property rights, with the petitioner challenging the Guatemalan Civil Code. In Guatemala at the time, the Civil Code conferred upon the husband the power to represent the marital union and empowered the husband to administer marital property. The Commission found, however, that those provisions were in contravention of the obligations of Guatemala under the American Convention on Human Rights. See: María Eugenia Morales de Sierra v. Guatemala, Case 11.625, Report No. 4/00, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.111 Doc. 20 rev. at 929 (2000).
[454] Ibid. The Human Rights Committee also decided in the case of LMR v. Argentina (2011), a case in which the petitioner, a young woman with permanent mental impairment, was refused an abortion by a hospital despite a Court order authorizing that the abortion could take place. In this case, the Human Rights Committee found a violation of the right to be free from torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment on the basis that the petitioner was subjected to physical and mental suffering which was made especially serious by the victim’s status as a young woman with a disability. The Committee also held that the facts constituted arbitrary interference into the petitioner’s private life, and that she did not have access to an effective remedy as guaranteed to her under the Covenant. LMR v. Argentina, Communication No. 1608/2007, UN Doc. CCPR/C/101/D/1608/2007 (28 April 2011).
[455] Ms. A. T. v. Hungary, Communication No.: 2/2003, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/32/D/2/2003 (2005).
[456] Ibid.
[457] Fatma Yildirim (deceased) v. Austria, Communication No. 6/2005, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/39/D/6/2005 (1 October 2007).
[458] ^[pic]ahide Goekce (deceased) v. Austria, Communication No. 5/2005, UN Doc. CEDAW Şahide Goekce (deceased) v. Austria, Communication No. 5/2005, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/39/D/5/2005 (6 August 2007).
[459] Karen Tayag Vertido v. The Philippines, Communication No. 18/2008, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/46/D/18/2008 (22 September 2010).
[460] Isatou Jallow v. Bulgaria, Communication No. 32/2011, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/52/D/32/2011 (28 August 2012).
[461] V.K. v. Bulgaria, Communication No. 20/2008, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/49/D/20/2008 (17 August 2011).
[462] V.P.P. v. Bulgaria, Communication No. 31/2011, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/53/D/31/2011 (24 November 2012).
[463] Cecilia Kell v. Canada, Communication No. 19/2008, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/51/D/19/2008 (26 April 2012).
[464] Ibid.
[465] Ibid.
[466] Ibid.
[467] R.K.B. v. Turkey, Communication No. 28/2010, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/51/D/28/2010 (13 April 2012).
[468] Ibid.
[469] Ibid.
[470] Ibid. The Committee also ordered that the State party provide for appropriate and regular training on the Convention, its Optional Protocol and its general recommendations for judges, lawyers and law enforcement personnel in a gender-sensitive manner, so as to ensure that stereotypical prejudices and values do not affect decision-making.
[471] UN-Women, ‘Gender-Responsive Budgeting,’ available at: [last accessed 15 September 2013].
[472] Stephanie Seguino (Professor of Economics University of Vermont, USA), ‘Financing for Gender Equality: Reframing and Prioritizing Public Expenditures to Promote Gender Equality,’ UN-Women Policy Brief, January 2013. See also: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr , James Heintz & Stephanie Seguino, ‘Critical Perspectives on Financial and Economic Crises: Heterodox Macroeconomics Meets Feminist Economics,’ Feminist Economics, Volume 19, Number 3, 2013, pp. 4-31.
[473] Statement by Elizabeth A. Eilor, ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009.
[474] Debbie Budlender, ‘Budgeting to Fulfill International Gender Commitments,’ UNIFEM, 2004.
[475] Debbie Budlender and Guy Hewitt, ‘Gender Budgets Make More Cents: Country Studies and Good Practice,’ the Commonwealth Secretariat, August 2002. See also: Debbie Budlender, ‘Budgeting to Fulfill International Gender Commitments,’ UNIFEM, 2004.
[476] European Parliament’s Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, ‘The multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020 from a gender equality perspective,’ 2012
[477] Deepti Bhatnagar and Ankita Dewan at the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) and Magüi Moreno Torres and Parameeta Kanungo at the World Bank, ‘Women’s Budget Initiative: South Africa,’ Washington D.C., date unspecified.
[478] Statement by Shamika Sirimanne (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), ‘Emerging issue: The gender perspectives of the Financial Crisis,’ Interactive Expert Panel, Commission on the Status of Women, Fifty-third session, New York, 2-13 March 2009.
[479] The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean, ‘The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Women in the Caribbean,’ UN Doc No. LC/CAR/L.243, 18 December 2009. See also: International Women’s Rights Action Watch, ‘Equality and Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Guide to Implementation and Monitoring Under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,’ University of Minnesota: 2004.
[480] The World Bank, ‘The World Bank Gender and Development Policy Framework – A Guidance Note,’ available at: [last accessed 15 September 2013]. See also: Nasreen Khundker, ‘A Gentle Touch? Gender and the World Bank: A Critical
Assessment,’ paper for Heinrich Böll Foundation event on the WB gender mainstreaming seminar, 13 January 2004.
[481] Ibid.
[482] African Development Bank, ‘Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: an Updated Gender Plan of Action (UGPOA) 2009 – 2011.’
[483] Asian Development Bank, ‘Policy on Gender and Development,’ June 2003.
[484] Inter-American Development Bank, ‘Operational Policy on Gender Equality in Development,’ 2010. See also: Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and Gender Action, ‘Gender Justice: A Citizen’s Guide to Gender Accountability at International Financial Institutions,’ Heinrich Böll Foundation, 2007.
[485] Ibid.
[486] Ibid.
[487] Gender Action, ‘Gender, IFIs & Accountability Mechanisms,’ 2010.
[488] For example, on 10 December 2013 over 300 human rights organizations co-signed the ‘Human Rights for All Post-2015 Statement, available at: [last accessed 18 December 2013].
[489] For example, ActionAid International, ‘Righting the MDGs: Contexts and Opportunities for a Post-2015 Development Framework,’ October 2012.
[490] For example, Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), ‘Getting At The Roots: Reintegrating Human Rights & Gender Equality In Post-2015 Development Agenda,’ paper submitted by AWID to the UNICEF/UN Women Global Thematic Consultation on the post-2015 agenda ‘Addressing Inequalities,’ October 2012.
[491] For example, WWF, ‘Post-2015 Global Goals,’ available at: [last accessed 5 August 2013]. See also: WWF contribution to the UN online consultation on Environmental Sustainability and the post-2015 development agenda, ‘Environmental sustainability and human rights,’ publication date unspecified.
[492] Emphasis added. ‘Human Rights for All Post-2015,’ available at: [last accessed 21 August 2013].
[493] Ellen Dorsey, Mayra Gómez, Bret Thiele, and Paul Nelson, ‘Falling Short of Our Goals: Transforming the Millennium Development Goals into Millennium Development Rights,’ Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol. 28, No. 4, December 2010, pp. 516-522.
[494] ‘Statement by 17 Special Procedures mandate-holders of the Human Rights Council on the Post-2015 development agenda,’ 21 May 2013.
[495] Ibid.
[496] Ibid.
[497] Open letter by Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on ‘Human Rights in the Post-2015 Agenda,’ addressed to permanent representatives of UN Member States in New York and Geneva, 6 June 2013.
[498] Council of the European Union General Affairs Council meeting on the Overarching Post 2015 Agenda - Council Conclusions, 25 June 2013.
[499] On 25 and 26 June 2013, the Vienna+20 CSO Conference of more than 140 persons
from various Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) around the world gathered at Vienna on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights and its Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action issued on 25 June 1993. The Vienna+20 CSO Declaration, adopted in Vienna on June 26, 2013, available at: [last accessed 14 September 2013].
[500] Ibid.
[501] Ibid.
[502] Mark Tran, ‘Human rights could be faultline in post-2015 development agenda: UK development secretary says too much emphasis on human rights in future development goals might block progress,’ The Guardian, 21 November 2012.
[503] Ibid.
[504] See: Center for Women's Global Leadership, ‘Feminist Reflections: UNs High Level Panel Report on Post-2015 Development Agenda,’ 2013. See also: Diane Elson and Radhika Balakrishnan, ‘The Post-2015 Development Framework and the Realization of Women’s Rights and Social Justice,’ 2012.
[505] UN-Women, ‘A Transformative Stand-Alone Goal on Achieving Gender Equality, Women’s Rights and Women’s Empowerment: Imperatives and Key Components,’ paper prepared in the context of the post-2015 sustainable development framework and the sustainable development goals, June 2013.
[506] Ibid.
[507] They should also raise awareness about women’s economic and social rights amongst key audiences, including law and policy makers; judges, lawyers and legal advocates; law enforcement authorities and administrative personnel; gender ministries; traditional, religious and customary leaders; and those engaged in development activities.
[508] Subtitled ‘Equality Means Business,’ the Principles emphasize the business case for corporate action to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment and are informed by real-life business practices and input gathered from across the globe. The Women’s Empowerment Principles seek to point the way to best practice by elaborating the gender dimension of corporate responsibility, the UN Global Compact, and business’ role in sustainable development. As well as being a useful guide for business, the Principles seek to inform other stakeholders, including governments, in their engagement with business. See:
[509] Please note that this is not meant to be a comprehensive listing. For more information and further detail, please consult the citations provided for each of the General Recommendations.
[510] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 3, Education and public information campaigns (Sixth session, 1987), U.N. Doc. A/42/38 at 78 (1987).
[511] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 5, Temporary special measures (Seventh session, 1988), U.N. Doc. A/43/38 at 109 (1988).
[512] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 6, Effective national machinery and publicity (Seventh session, 1988), U.N. Doc. A/43/38 at 110 (1988).
[513] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 9, Statistical data concerning the situation of women (Eighth session, 1989) , U.N. Doc. A/44/38 at 73 (1990).
[514] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 13, Equal remuneration for work of equal value (Eighth session, 1989), U.N. Doc. A/44/38 at 76 (1990).
[515] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 13, Equal remuneration for work of equal value (Eighth session, 1989), U.N. Doc. A/44/38 at 76 (1990).
[516] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 15, Avoidance of discrimination against women in national strategies for the prevention and control of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), (Ninth session, 1990), U.N. Doc. A/45/38 at 81 (1990).
[517] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 16, Unpaid women workers in rural and urban family enterprises (Tenth session, 1991), U.N. Doc. A/46/38 at 1 (1993).
[518] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 17, Measurement and quantification of the unremunerated domestic activities of women and their recognition in the gross national product (Tenth session, 1991), U.N. Doc. A/46/38 at 2 (1993).
[519] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 18, Disabled women (Tenth session, 1991), U.N. Doc. A/46/38 at 3 (1993).
[520] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 19, Violence against women (Eleventh session, 1992), U.N. Doc. A/47/38 at 1 (1993).
[521] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 21, Equality in marriage and family relations (Thirteenth session, 1992), U.N. Doc. A/49/38 at 1 (1994).
[522] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 24, Women and Health (Twentieth session, 1999), U.N. Doc. A/54/38 at 5 (1999).
[523] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 25, Temporary special measures (Thirtieth session, 2004), reprinted in Compilation of General Comments and General Recommendations Adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies, U.N. Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.7 at 282 (2004).
[524] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 26, Women Migrant Workers (Forty-second session, 2008), U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/2009/WP.1/R (2008).
[525] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 27, Older women and protection of their human rights (Forty-seventh session, 2010), U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/27 (2010).
[526] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 28, The Core Obligations of States Parties under Article 2 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Forty-seventh session, 2010), U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/28 (2010).
[527] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 29, Economic consequences of marriage, family relations and their dissolution (Fifty-fourth session, 2013), U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/29 (2013).
[528] Please note that this is not meant to be a comprehensive listing. For more information and further detail, please consult the citations provided for each of the General Comments.
[529] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 4, The right to adequate housing (Sixth session, 1991), U.N. Doc. E/1992/23, annex III at 114 (1991).
[530] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 5, Persons with disabilities (Eleventh session, 1994), U.N. Doc E/1995/22 at 19 (1995).
[531] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General comment No. 6, The economic, social and cultural rights of older persons (Thirteenth session, 1995), U.N. Doc. E/1996/22 at 20 (1996).
[532] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 7, Forced evictions, and the right to adequate housing (Sixteenth session, 1997), U.N. Doc. E/1998/22, annex IV at 113 (1997).
[533] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 12, Right to adequate food (Twentieth session, 1999), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/1999/5 (1999).
[534] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 13, The right to education (Twenty-first session, 1999), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/1999/10 (1999).
[535] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 14, The right to the highest attainable standard of health (Twenty-second session, 2000), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2000/4 (2000).
[536] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 15, The right to water (Twenty-ninth session, 2003), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2002/11 (2002).
[537] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 16, Article 3: the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (Thirty- fourth session, 2005), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/2005/3 (2005).
[538] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 18, Article 6: the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights (Thirty-fifth session, 2006), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/GC/18 (2006).
[539] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 19, The right to social security (art. 9) (Thirty-ninth session, 2007), U.N. Doc. E/C.12/GC/19 (2008).
[540] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 20, Non-Discrimination in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 2, para. 2) U.N. Doc. E/C.12/GC/20 (2009).
-----------------------
Summary of Global Trends
The Millennium Development Goals include as an explicit Goal the attainment of universal primary education. While literacy rates among adults and youths are on the rise and gender gaps are narrowing, some 57 million children continue to remain out of school. However, this number has dropped significantly since 2000, when 102 million children were estimated to be out of school. The United Nations estimates that today, 123 million youth ages 15-24 lack basic reading and writing skills, and 61 per cent are young women and girls.
__
Source:
UN Department of Public Information MDGs Factsheet, ‘Goal 2 – Achieve Universal Primary Education,’ September 2013.
Summary of Global Trends
The economic crisis has had major ramifications on the right to work globally, and the International Labor Organization has noted a host of negative consequences in this area, including increased unemployment, reduced wages and working hours, reduction in social security benefits, and reduced de jure rights (such as loosening restrictions on termination of employment). At the same time, there has also been a general decline in collective bargaining. For women, the ILO points to worsening gender gaps in the labor market, and highlights that the crisis destroyed 13 million jobs for women, with projections showing no significant reduction in women’s unemployment expected even by 2017. The period of the crisis has also seen a reversal in the historically higher employment growth rates for women, again with no projected return to the earlier trend even by 2017.
___
Sources:
David Tajgman, Catherine Saget, Natan Elkin and Eric Gravel, ‘Rights at work in times of crisis: Trends at the country level in terms of compliance with international labour standards,’ ILO Employment Sector, Employment Working Paper No. 101, 2011.
International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘Global Employment Trends for Women,’ International Labour Organization: Geneva, December 2012.
Summary of Global Trends
When women have greater access to resources and information, they tend to have fewer children, and to space out the births of their children. The total fertility rate, or the number of children that would be born to a woman if she were to live to the end of her childbearing years and bear children in accordance with current age-specific fertility rates, varies significantly by country as well as by region. Countries in Sub-saharan Africa and the Middle East have some of the highest fertility rates in the world (for example, 7.6 in Niger and 4.3 in Yemen), while developed countries have some of the lowest (for example, 1.5 in Switzerland and 1.6 in Canada). Globally, an estimated 287,000 maternal deaths occurred in 2010, a decline of 47 per cent since 1990.
In terms of maternal benefits, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social affairs, in 2009, some 141 out of 167 countries (or 85 per cent) provided at 12-week paid maternity leave. However, only about half meet the higher standard of 14 weeks set out by ILO Convention No. 183. On childcare, at least in high income countries, UNICEF has noted that “today’s rising generation is the first in which a majority are spending a large part of early childhood in some form of out-of-home child care.” Approximately 80 per cent of the 3-6 year olds in high income countries are in some kind of early childhood education or child care. In the United States, 50 per cent of children under the age of one are in child care for an average of 28 hours a week. However, very few countries offer universal child care benefits. Even more importantly, when child care services are made available they must be of high quality to support a child’s healthy cognitive and social development.
___
Sources:
UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank, ‘Trends in Maternal Mortality:1990-2010,’ 2012.
The World Bank, ‘Fertility rate, total (births per woman),’ available online at: [last accessed 12 December 2013].
UNICEF, ‘The Child Care Transition,’ 2008.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, ‘The World's Women 2010: Trends and Statistics,’ UN Doc. ST/ESA/STAT/SER.K/19, United Nations, New York, 2010.
Summary of Global Trends
Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, and by the year 2030, that percentage is estimated to increase to 81 per cent. Some have argued that the trend of mass urbanization has had a devastating impact on the right to adequate housing, as a result of urban renewal projects and investments which every year forcibly evict hundreds of thousands of poor men, women, and children from their homes in order to pave the way for the development of the next ‘world class city’ or mega-event.
In 2012, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing (Raquel Rolnik) released a report on the human rights implications of private housing finance systems, noting a general trend away from publicly supported housing initiatives. In her report, the Special Rapporteur highlights that “Evidence indicates that housing policies based exclusively on facilitating access to credit for homeownership are incompatible with the full realization of the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty, failing to supply habitable, affordable and well-located housing solutions accessible to the poor.” Of course, the US sub-prime mortgage crisis is widely believed to have caused the financial crisis and subsequent global recession that began in 2008. What is less well known is that women were disproportionately targeted for risky loans via sub-prime lending, illustrating the gender bias in housing finance.
___
Sources:
Human Rights Advocates, ‘Mega-Events, Urban Development, and Human Rights: The Duty to Prevent and Protect Against Evictions and Ensure the Right to Adequate Housing,’ 2012.
Report by the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, Raquel Rolnik, ‘The Right to Adequate Housing,’ UN Doc. A/67/286, 10 August 2012.
Carol Necole Brown, ‘Women and Subprime Lending: An Essay Advocating Self-Regulation of the Mortgage Lending Industry,’ Indiana Law Review, Vol. 43, 2010, pp. 1217-1227.
Summary of Global Trends
While global per capita food production has risen to unprecedented levels, hunger remains a pervasive reality, with an estimated 842 million people in the world today who do not have enough to eat. The World Food Programme has highlighted that in many parts of the world, women are more likely to go hungry than men. In some countries, tradition dictates that women eat last (after all the male family members and children have been fed) and in times of crisis women are generally the first to sacrifice their food consumption.
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) highlights that overall “progress in reducing the proportion of hungry people in the world has been tragically slow,” and projections indicate that by 2050, a 70 per cent increase in current food production will be necessary to meet the expanding demand for food. The combined effected of climate change, desertification, rising energy prices and the practice of large scale land acquisition (or land-grabbing) also place increased stress on global food security.
___
Sources:
World Food Programme (WFP), ‘Focus on Women’ available online at: [last accessed 12 December 2013].
World Food Programme (WFP), ‘10 Facts About Women And Hunger’ available online at: [last accessed 12 December 2013].
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), ‘2012 Global Hunger Index,’ 2012.
Summary of Global Trends
The World Bank has highlighted that many countries have changed their land and property laws to guarantee women’s equal property and inheritance rights. Most Latin American nations, for example, have removed discriminatory clauses in codes applying to family and inheritance. Similar movements to reform legislation have occurred in Africa and Asia. However, not all progress has been uniform and even when legal equality exists there is too often an implementation gap in the area of land and property rights when it comes to women.
In recent years, secure rights to land have been made even more critical for women because globally land resources are increasingly contested. Land-grabbing, or the practice of large scale land acquisition, has at times resulted in farmers being kicked off of their land, making it in particular more difficult for women whose rights to land are often already insecure. In addition, in some countries, land degradation as a result of desertification and climate change has drastically changed the availability of fertile land for farming, a trend which is only predicted to worsen in the future. Biofuel production has also led to greater competition for fertile land and in particular places increased pressures on marginal lands, often the very same lands which are allocated to women for farming. Because of these combined land pressures researchers have foretold that women’s land rights are likely to become increasingly important over time.
___
Sources:
The World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), The Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook, Module 4, October 2008, pp. 125-171.
Bina Agarwal, ‘Gender and Land Rights Revisited: Exploring New Prospects via the State, Family and Market,’ Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 3, Issue 1-2, January 2003, pp. 184–224. See also: UN-Women/OHCHR, ‘Realizing women’s rights to land and other productive resources,’ 2013.
Summary of Global Trends
The United Nations highlights that 1.2 billion people, almost one-fifth of the world’s population, live in areas of physical water scarcity with another 500 million people approaching this situation. 1.6 billion people, or almost one quarter of the world’s population, face economic water shortage. Demand for freshwater is only expected to increase under the combined pressures of climate change, population growth. The UN predicts that demand to grow at about 64 billion cubic meters a year, with competition for water forecasted to increase in almost all countries.
According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD): “[l]ack of access to water is … a serious constraint that has grown dramatically in recent years due to the privatization of water services, poor service delivery and increasing population.” The effects of increased population, rural to urban migration, climate change, privatization, environmental degradation, desertification, as well as industrial and agricultural pressures, today combine and result in a situation wherein approximately one in three people experiences some kind of water scarcity, either for physical or economic reasons. Among them, women are some of the most direly affected, due to entrenched patterns of gender discrimination and unequal access to resources. At the household level, water is necessary not only for drinking, but also for food production and preparation, care of domestic animals, personal hygiene, care of the sick, cleaning, washing and waste disposal. According to UN-Water, in most societies women have primary responsibility for management of household water supply, sanitation and health.
___
Sources:
UN-Water, ‘Statistics and graphs: Water Use,’ available online at: hyvìh?
fOJQJhyvìhW?5?OJQJ\?hyvìha[Ü5?>*[pic]OJQJ\?hyvìh?
f5?>*[pic]OJQJ\?hyvìha[ÜOJQJhyvìh›OJQJ!jhyvìhÚ\,0JhyvìhÚ\,OJQJhyvìhÚ\,CJ$OJQJaJ$0hyvìhÚ\,5?B*CJ$OJPJQJ^JaJ$ph6_‘'hyvìhÚ\,5?CJ$OJPJQJ^JaJ$hyvìhÚ\,;?CJ$OJQJaJ$" [pic] [last accessed 12 December 2013].
United Nations, ‘Water Scarcity,’ available online at: [last accessed 12 December 2013].
IFAD, ‘Desertification and Gender: Expanding Roles for Women to Restore Dryland Areas,’ 2010.
UN-Water, ‘Gender, Water and Sanitation: A Policy Brief,’ June 2006.
Summary of Global Trends
Using the ILO’s definition of social security as income security plus availability of medical care, it is estimated that only about 20 per cent of the world’s working-age population (and their families) have effective access to comprehensive social protection. Although a larger percentage of the world’s population has access to health-care services, nearly one-third has no access to any health facilities or services at all. Even in developing countries with high economic growth the ILO reports that “increasing numbers of workers – most often women – have less than secure employment, such as casual labour, home work and self-employment, lacking social security coverage.” The ILO highlights that poverty in old age and the worldwide pattern of pension coverage have strong gender dimensions, and that “a significant
gender gap shows up everywhere.”
___
Source:
International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘World Social Security Report 2010/11: Providing coverage in times of crisis and beyond,’ 2010.
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