Improving UN Performance for Gender Equality
In June, the United Nations General Assembly asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to prepare a second concept note detailing the range of institutional options for improving the UN’s performance in gender-related activities. This timely request gives an opportunity for the Secretariat to assess its own performance as to the success and failure in meeting memberstates’ expectation, and the UN’s capacity to meet global commitment to the Millennium Development Goals and the implementation of the Security Council Relolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. What lies behind this General Assembly’s request for a second concept paper was a disagreement among memberstates over the “UN Gender Architechture” recommendation of the 2006 High Level panel on System-wide Coherence, heavily lobbied by NGOs, which proposed a new UN entity on gender to be led by an Under-Secretary-General level post on gender and women’s rights. The Joint Coordinating Committee of the Group of 77 and Non-Aligned Movement, China and India do not support the creation of this new entity and high-level post proposal. I could not agree more with them. I see no need to spend our limited global resources in creating a new bureaucratic structure when the existing ones are already doing quite a good job. And in addition, in my judgement, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its Committee are also doing an excellent job in monitoring the implementation of the treaties on women’s rights and the reviewing of country’s reports. As far as the UN leadership in this matter is concerned, the Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, himself, and Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, have done their best to move the World’s action towards gender equality, and at the same time, have tried to improve UN capacities in assisting memberstates to fill their needs and the identified gaps. The UN Secretariat already has many competent senior level staff to work on this gender issues such as Ms. Rachel Mayanja, Assistant Secretary-General, Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, and Ms. Carolyn Hannan, Director, Division on the Advancement of women. These existing UN offices should be strengthened with more resources to increase their capacities to assist memberstates as and when needed. The responsibility for achieving gender equality really lies within the countries themselves.
Filed under Gender Issues, United Nations | Comment (0)Feminization of HIV/AIDS
The feminization of HIV epidemics has been steadily on the increase globally. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, 75 per cent of young people infected by the disease are females. Experts cite the lack of information on how female adolescents can protect themselves from HIV/AIDS, and sexual coercion and violence, and lack of sex and health education as major problems. The International Women’s Tribune Centre’s Women Ink Program is doing an excellent job in raising an awareness on this issue globally. This month, the issue of a monthly e-mail bulletin issue #77 is focused on the intersection between gender and HIV/AIDS. A book on “You, Your Life, Your Dreams and “Get the Facts”, a flipchart are printed for adolescents are produced by the Family Care International. The book on HIV and AIDS, edited by Alice Welbourne and Joanna Hoare, gives useful information on the analysis of the key challenge by HIV/AIDS on gender perspective in Cambodia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Papua New Guinea, the positive action by HIV positive women themselves, and community support. Gender Equality & HIV and AIDS: A Challenge for Education Sector, edited by Sheila Aikman, Elaine Unterhaiter & Tania Boler, to be released in August, will help those working on gender issue and HIV/AIDS in the field of education. The book gives new guide on the education of boys against violence against girls, and on teachers against sexual abuse of girls.
Filed under Gender Issues, World Affairs | Comment (0)Illusion of Virginity
In France, people are debating over Islam and Virginity. They focus on the virginity repair operation provided by private clinics for a price of around $3000 per one semicircular cut plus 10 dissolving stitches. Young Muslim girls living in Europe are customers of the hymenoplasty service to restor their hymen before the wedding night. This “illusion of virginity” is important for the girls, who want to be married in a Muslim tradition, because Muslim men have a traditional expectation of “breaking the bride’s hymen” at first intercourse of the wedding night. After one such operation, a girl said that virginity is more important to her than life. To be married, Muslim girl has to go to the extreme of getting a “Certificates of Virginity” to proof to friends and families, especially the groom’s family. When done properly by a qualified cosmetic surgeons, hymen replacement cannot be detected and produce the expected vaginal bleeding on the wedding night. This effort by Muslim girls to recapture their virginity is sociological significant in the modern life of big cities, not only in Europe and North America, but also in other Islamic mediteranean countries where girls have freedom of movement and sexal encounter at early ages. But the marriage rituals are based on an archaic tradition of treating the female body (not the male body) as sexual object. Muslim societies do not expect the men to be a “virgin” on Wedding day. This kind of debate is long overdued, not just in France, but a in all Muslim states that have officially opted for a democratic, egalitarian society. There is a contradiction between what the states advocate in the economic and social field at the various United Nations gatherings, and the decisions made in the sexual- rights and reproductive health. The demand for Muslim women to put on veil or to be a virgin on the wedding night represents the denial of the economic dimension and human right to self-determination of the women. Right now there are several court cases in France on this issue of virginity repair operation. Several marriages had be annulled after the groom found out that the bride went through hymenoplasty operation. The debate in the French Parliament touches on subjects such as the ground for dissolution of a marriage, equality of the sexes, and the intrusion of religion into modern daily life. Muslim women have to liberate themselves from the “Virginity Myth” first before they could think of achieving the United Nations Millennium development goal of gender equality.
Filed under Gender Issues, United Nations | Comment (0)Cartoons on Hilary’s Campaign
People’s perception is very important for candidates running for political office in a national election. Bad media images can result in loosing an election or nomination to political offices. Thus, the national and international press have a huge influence in creating positive or negative images of candidates. Political cartoonists and caricaturists have a lot of power in Internet and digital age. I have looked through some of the political cartoons on Hilary Clinton, campaigning for the Democrat Party nomination for the next President of the United States. Most of the cartoons on and about her did not give a positive image of her to the public. Just to give an example from the collection in Daryl Cagle”s International Cartoon Index. One cartoon shows Hilary planting seeds for questions.
The other cartoons show her being under fire
and in passing memories.
Other negative catoons, showing her holding a dog on-leach to bite Barak Obama.
The worse is the one of Bill Clinton having his hand under her skirt.
In contrast, I don’t see many cartoons of Barak Obama doing something funny with his wife Michelle. Both men and women have to struggle when they run for political office. Barak Obama has negative cartoons about being a “Black “ candidate, although I don’t think of him as representing “Black Americans” because he is half-white. He is a multi-racial/cultural person. In the same way, I don’t think Hilary represents American women. She does not even have any experience similar to majority of American women. Her experience is that of an elite graduate from a prestigious Wellesley University. She has a successful lawyer career, and a wife of President Bill Clinton. Last year in my Blog on Political Wives and Daughters, I said that if Hililary wins the election she is following the traditional woman’ s route - gaining political power through the prestige and network connections of the husband, or the father. Some people says that she has broken a glass-ceiling for other American women in politics. A role model. I don’t think she is a role model to other American women who struggle for achievement based on her own political connections and network. She is a role model only to other ambitious wives of male politicians. I have to admit that many people don’t want to see “women in national and international leadership positions”, but I don’t think Hilary gets negative press because of being a woman running for election. She has image problem because of peculiarity of her behavior, her marital connection to President Bill Clinton, and what she did when she was the “First Lady”.
Macho Stereotype Behavior
The return to power of Silvio Berlusconi as head of the Italian Government is not the occasion for women to celebrate. For many years, I have been following his macho behavior, his stereotype remarks on women, and his jokes on female prostitutes as a part of my “men study”, the other side of the coin of the “women study”. Berlusconi has failed miserably, both as owner of media establishment and as a government leader, in the promotion of a balanced and non-stereotype portrayal of women in the media and society as a follow-up action to the Beijing Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women, which his country, Italy, had voted for in 1995. His appointment of four women into the cabinet is fine but he based his selection of them on their good looks. He recently criticized the Spanish government as “being too pink” because Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has appointed more women than men in the Spanish cabinet, and has actively promoted a policy of gender equality. Berlusconi’s sexist comment upset both women and men, not only in Spain, but also in many countries, who are trying to make some changes towards gender equality. Italian women should confront him on this kind of unacceptable macho behavior since it was them that elected this kind of a man to lead the country.
Filed under Gender Issues, World Affairs | Comment (0)A Recipe For Romance
Singapore is the only country in the World that I know of that has a government policy to promote romance in a big way. Commercial airline joins in the action by advertising “Singapore girls “ as sexy and alluring, the best way to fly”. “Not enough romance” is identified as the country’s problem – causing the falling down of the country’s birth rate, which already is, the lowest in the World. For more than two decades, the Government has made efforts to achieve its’ plan for population growth. When I was working with the United Nations Population Fund, a Singaporean friend said, “Don’t come to Singapore if you are for birth control, for you will not be welcome there”. I was surprised, then, that there could be a government program to promote romance. But she explained to me that her government, worried about decline in birth rate, has a pro-natalist national policy – to find ways to get educated young girls to produce more children. For years, the government have been making a lot of efforts backed up by budgetary resources to organize campaign to encourage marriage. Incentives are given to couples that have more than two children. Places have been set-up where young girls and boys can meet and mingle, and also has organized social occasion such as tea – dances or parties for them. Seth Mydans, journalist of the International Herald Tribune, recently wrote that Singapore government appears to succeed at managing everything - except dating. After all the years of trying, Singapore girls continue to be “too” career-minded, wanting to stay single. They would rather have achievements in work and job than a successful family life. Achievement-oriented girls do not want to be burdened by having a double-workload, especially when most Asian men do not pitch-in to do domestic work and child- rearing. Now polytechnic and higher education institutes have joined in to help the government by setting up training courses to teach young boys and girls on the subjects of romance, love and sex – the modern mating ritual - to be fruitful and multiply. This kind of intervention by government in affairs of the hearts and in the citizen’s sex-life is interesting! Rather funny, when one comes to think of it. I can’t help but wonder, who would be considered “qualify” to teach such a course on love and romance? The old fashion Confucian, autocratic male bureaucrats, or their counter-part, single career-minded women, who themselves do not know how to fall in love, marry or have children? I wish the students good luck in this endeavor, performing their citizen’s duty of making babies for the future of the country.
Filed under Funny, Gender Issues | Comment (0)Polygamy’s Children
I feel sorry for the 436 Texan children who were separated from their polygamist parents earlier this month, for they are the real victims in this raiding of the polygamists compound. Their mothers themselves are victims, as young brides given by their religious leader in a polygamist marriage to much older men. The women are brainwashed to believe in the superiority of the men as preached by the leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both mothers and children need a re-education program on human rights, citizen’s rights and self-reliance to get out of their blind religious faith which they follow the preaching of an American man, Joseph Smith Jr. from his sudden divine revelations in 1830 when he wanted to take young girls as his new wives. The West Texas incidence reminds me of what Christopher Hitchen said in his book “God is not Great” that religion poisons everything. He has a chapter on “Is Religion Child Abuse?”. To which my answer is yes, as in the recent case, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints has abused the 436 children and their mothers. They are just a small example of millions of children around the world who are psychologically maimed by various religious teachings. Hitchen is right in calling this kind religious practice upon the unformed and undefended minds of the young as a moral terrorism.
Women Outnumber Men in Spanish Government
I want to congratulate the Prime Minister of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for making the world record by the appointment in his government of more women than men (9 women-8 men). By this last week action, he has broken the world and also his country’s record in the appointment of Carme Chacon, a 37 year-old woman to head the Ministry of Defense. The Prime Minister has also announced, when re-elected for the second term, that the “equality between men and women” is one of the chief goals of his government. Prime Minister Zapatero can also be proud that Ines Alberdi, a respected Spanish sociologist, has just been appointed last week at the United Nations as the new Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). The combined work of his action and Ms. Alberdi’s new work with other men and women in leadership role in the Spanish Government will tremendously help us around the world to accelerate the achievement of the goal of gender equality. Spain has given a very good example to all governments on how to lead in taking a common action on the UN Millennium Development Goal of gender equality, beginning with having “gender parity” in appointments to the highest level of the government.
Filed under Gender Issues | Comment (0)Half Of Humankind
I hate to go on and on repeating the old saying that women are not a “special interest group” but are half of humankind. The results of the UN-organized four World Conferences on Women, Equality, Development and Peace, from 1976-1995 had confirmed this is the approach we should take. I am disappointed that in recent discussions with delegates and non-governmental organization representatives who attended this year’s Commission on the Status of Women on the subject of new proposal for strengthening gender equality architecture. They see gender equality and advancement of women as “specific group” issue. As part of UN reform, delegates proposed a set-up of a “special entity” in the UN Secretariat for promotion of action on gender equality and advancement of women. For me, this kind of proposal is the equivalent to creating of a larger “ghetto” to deal with crossed-cutting issue which should be “mainstreamed and integrated” with other political, economic and social development activities. Taking this “Special Group” approach is against the Beijing Platform for Action that was approved by the General Assembly in 1995. Just to get more funds to support gender-specific bureaucratic entity is short- sighted and waste of limited financial resource in the long run. Recent UN evaluation study of “national machinery” for women’s advancement found that “special unit” set up for women’s advancement in government bureaucratic structure is not an effective way to achieve the goal of gender equality. The UN should take lessons from these past mistakes and decentralize the gender equality issues instead of centralized them. Coordination of varies gender structures in the UN system can be done at an already-existed Executive Board for Coordination and its High-level Committee on Programme and Management. A lot of work also need to be done through Human Resource Action Plan of the UN Secretariat to increase the number of women through recruitment and promotion of women at senior political and administrative level to achieve the 50/50 target, set up over a decade ago. For years now, there has been no achievement beyond 36/37 per cent for
women in the Professional and higher categories of staff in the UN. Secretariat. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at this year March 8 Commemoration of International Women’s Day that he was convinced that in women, the world has at its disposal the most significant, and yet largely untapped potential for development and peace. With the help of Deputy-Secretary General Asha-Rose Migiro, he could provide leadership to take immediate action, speed up the drive for “gender parity” in the UN, and for “mainstreaming gender equality” in activities of organs and bodies of the United Nations System.
Buying and Selling Sex in 2008
The Governor Spitzer of NY recent resignation from office because of “getting caught in buying sex from a prostitute” has brought the issue of “buying and selling sex” to a global discussion again. This time, there is a bit of a difference, though. Discussions in Internet and other media are more balanced — from the buyer and seller’s perspectives. Stephen Dubner, author of the best selling book “Freakonomics” gave us a call girl’s view of the Spittzer Affair. He, himself, is interested in the economics of prostitution. I recommend that he should also make a study on the economics of “traditional” marriages, which I consider to be another form of “prostitution” (bride price, groom price, dowry system, marriage go-between price etc). If there is an exchange of money, land, cattle, or any other material goods for sex, I call it “prostitution”. I agree with George Carlin’s comment that sex is the only thing that is legal to give but illegal to sell and we should go to the root of the problem instead of swimming on the surface. If we legalize “marriage”, we should also legalize “prostitution” because both are dealing with the buying and selling of sex. And also why should “virtue” be given to what we buy or sell? Sweden and New Zealand are two countries that are ahead in reforming laws to decriminalize prostitution. The law should also protect the rights of sex-workers and wives in traditional marriage, provide health care for prevention and cure of sexually transmitted diseases, make it a legal offense for pimps that profit from sex-industries, and punish parents that sell children to the “traditional” marriage markets. Criminalization of prostitution has not proved successful in stopping prostitution. The focus should be on prohibition of exploiting girl and boy children in sex-trade industry, prostitution or “traditional” marriage arrangement.
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