UIA - a non-governmental organization at UN level

United Nations review and policy events in 2015 promise progress for the human rights of women

By Jutta F. Bertram-Nothnagel

It is a truism that the world’s record on women’s human rights remains utterly mixed. Reasons for joy stand next to reasons for despair. With three major United Nations events,  – in the Commission on the Status of Women, in the Security Council and in the General Assembly  – , the year 2015 holds again new promise for women’s lives in dignity and freedom.

The adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action in 1995 brought, and continues to bring, much hope for the full protection of the rights of women. States recognized strategic objectives in twelve critical areas of concern and set out the actions to be taken by governments, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. The Commission on the Status of Women, a subsidiary body of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, reviews implementation, every five years with a comprehensive appraisal and all other years with a focus on particular areas of concern.  The Commission seeks to maintain and strengthen the commitment of States through additional ‘agreed conclusions’. The twenty-third special session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2000 has added further impetus.

At its 59^th session, 9-20 March 2015, the Commission on the Status of Women will undertake an in-depth review of the implementation of the now twenty-year old Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action and of the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, “including current challenges that affect the implementation of the Platform of Action and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women, as well as opportunities for strengthening gender equality and the empowerment of women in the post-2015 development agenda through the integration of a gender perspective;” (UN Doc. E/RES/2013/18). Governments are strongly encouraged “to collaborate with relevant stakeholders at all levels of preparations for the 2015 review so as to benefit from their experience and expertise.”

Since 1996, the UIA regularly attends the sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women, concentrating in particular on the elimination of laws that discriminate against women, on access to justice, on the participation of women in decision-making, on legal policies and institutional mechanisms to achieve equality, and on the protection of women human rights defenders. The rights of women in poverty and women in armed conflict and post-conflict situations demand especially urgent attention. All of these subjects are significant too in the United Nations’ agendas on peace and security and on sustainable development, as referred to further below and explained by several of the speakers at the UIA Bar Leaders’ Briefing at the United Nations on 30 May 2014. (See the reports by Romina Bossa Abiven in the Juriste 2014.2, p.37, and in the UIA News of August 2014.)

National bar associations are in a strong position to make important contributions to the Commission’s process in the areas of their expertise, by fostering awareness, offering information and assessment, consulting on governmental reports, proposing or rolling out initiatives, for instance on their country’s adherence to relevant regional and international treaties, and supporting solid national and international commitment and implementation of women’s human rights.

Information on the ‘Beijing+20’ review is available at http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw59-2015

Additional background can be found in the documents of many United Nations bodies and processes, especially the Human Rights Council, the human rights treaty bodies, the Third Committee of the General Assembly and the Security Council.  For example, at its last session, the General Assembly adopted a resolution that seeks to ensure the protection of women human rights defenders and sets out relevant measures for this objective (UN Doc. A/RES/68/181). National reports to the universal periodic review process of the Human Rights Council or to human rights treaty bodies are instructive about the situation in individual countries. The Human Rights Council’s Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice addresses within its mandate both thematic priorities and country situations. (For the methods of work of the Working Group see UN Doc. A/HRC/20/28.) General recommendation No.30 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women provides guidance on the rights of women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations (CEDAW/C/GC/30).  The General Recommendation actually consists of a long list of specific recommendations, including many, such as those on access to justice, where bar associations can be instrumental in follow-up.

The overall topic of General Recommendation No.30 by CEDAW overlaps with the topic of another important United Nations event set for next year:

In 2015, the United Nations Security Council will convene a High-level Review to assess progress in the implementation of its resolution1325 (2000) on women, peace and security. The High-level Review will also cover the follow-up resolutions 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013) and 2122 (2013).  Resolution 1325 pursues mainly two goals, the prevention and prosecution of violence against women in armed conflict and post-conflict situations, and the participation and inclusion of women in peace processes and post-conflict rebuilding. Resolution 1325 and the Council’s additional resolutions on women, peace and security are mutually reinforcing. Yet, sexual violence in armed conflict and post-conflict situations, quite typically exercised in its most brutal and devastating forms, persists as unimaginable outrage of inhumanity.  And after the failure of the last Geneva peace negotiations for Syria, one could not help but wonder about a better outcome, had the women leaders in the free opposition movement not been excluded from full and equal participation. (No lame excuses here. They were equipped with the necessary education, insight, passion and open-mindedness.)

The UIA has paid close attention to the Security Council’s annual open debates on women, peace and security, especially to the 2013 debate on women, the rule of law and transitional justice in conflict-affected situations.  (For the meeting records see UN Doc. S/PV.7044 of 18 October 2013. Developments on the theme of this debate were presented at the UIA Briefing mentioned above.) Many of the preambular and operative paragraphs of the Security Council’s resolutions on women, peace and security seek to advance the rule of law, human rights and the cause of peace,  – statutory aims of the UIA.

In it most recent resolution 2122 of 18 October 2013, the Security Council expressed its deep concern “about persistent implementation deficits in the women, peace and security agenda, including in: protection from human rights abuses and violations; opportunities for women to exercise leadership; resources provided to address their needs and which help them exercise their rights; and the capacities and commitment of all actors involved in the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) and subsequent resolutions to advance women’s participation and protection.” The Security Council also expressed concern about “women’s exacerbated vulnerability in armed conflict and post-conflict situations particularly in relation to forced displacement, as a result of unequal citizenship rights, gender-based application of asylum laws, and obstacles to registering and accessing identity documents which occur in many situations”.  The Security Council recognized that “more must be done to ensure that transitional justice mechanisms address the full range of violations and abuses of women’s human rights, and the differentiated impacts on women and girls of these violations and abuses as well as forced displacement, enforced disappearances, and destruction of civilian infrastructure”.  The resolution highlights, among many other issues, the importance of funding to provide the full range of legal services to women affected by armed conflict and post-conflict situations.  Furthermore, reaffirming that “sustainable peace requires an integrated approach based on coherence between political, security, development, human rights, including gender equality, and rule of law and justice activities”, the resolution emphasized “the importance of the rule of law as one of the key elements of conflict prevention, peace keeping, conflict resolution and peacebuilding”. When establishing or renewing the mandates of United Nations missions, the Security Council intends “to include provisions to facilitate women’s full participation and protection in: election preparation and political processes, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs, security sector and judicial reforms, and wider post-conflict reconstruction processes”.  Again of particular interest to lawyers and lawyers’ organizations, the Council “[s]tresses the need for continued efforts to address obstacles in women’s access to justice . . . , including through gender-responsive legal, judicial and security sector reform and other mechanisms; . . . [c]alls upon Member States to comply with their relevant obligations to end . . . impunity and to thoroughly investigate and prosecute persons responsible for war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity or other serious violations of international humanitarian law; and further notes that the fight against impunity  for the most serious crimes of international concern against women and girls has been strengthened through the work of the International Criminal Court, ad hoc and mixed tribunals, as well as specialized chambers in national tribunals; [and] recalls in this regard applicable provisions of international law on the right to reparations for violations of individual rights”.

The resolution refers repeatedly and positively to relevant interaction and consultation with civil society.

In preparation for the High-level Review, resolution 2122 “encourages those Member States, regional organizations . . . and United Nations entities who have developed frameworks and plans to support the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) to start reviewing existing implementation plans and targets, and for Member States to assess and accelerate progress and prepare to formulate new targets  . . .” Here again, national bar associations may have the knowledge, interest and responsibility to propose to their governments specific new forward-looking targets or to offer relevant background on law-related implementation.

Under resolution 2122, the Secretary-General has been invited to commission for the High-level Review an independent global study on the implementation of resolution 1325 and to submit the result of the study within his annual report on the topic in 2015.

This year’s annual report, UN Doc. S/2014/693 of 25 September 2014, will be before the Security Council at its next annual open debate on women, peace and security scheduled for 28 October 2014.  The debate is expected to focus on the effects of forced displacement, i.e. on the difficulties faced by both women refugees and internally displaced women.  The debate may also serve as an early barometer for the 2015 High-level Review. Most likely, the debate will be accessible over UN webcast.

With regard to the third United Nations event mentioned here, the build-up has been and continues to be particularly massive. The title of the event, the United Nations Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda, may only indirectly connote the relevance for women’s human rights, but the outlines for the outcome, as they have taken shape so far, show the significance for women quite directly.  As reflected in a draft resolution before the current session of the General Assembly, the Summit will be held 21-23 September 2015.

Various sets of preparations, most prominently those launched by the 2012 World Conference on Sustainable Development, will have to be shaped into a coherent and convincing program to achieve an effective post-2015 agenda. Only the contributions of the Open-ended Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (UN Doc. A/68/970 of 12 August 2014), or rather a few aspects of them, are highlighted here. (For more information concerning the Summit, this year’s report of the Secretary General on the implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development and of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, UN Doc. A/69/312 of 13 August 2014, can serve as a good starting point.  Additional background is for example available at http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org and at http://www.worldwewant2015.org)

The Sustainable Development Goals, as designed by the Open-ended Working Group in thirteen sessions over a nearly two-year period, are currently under further discussion in the Second Committee of the General Assembly (UN Doc. A/RES/68/309 of 12 September 2014). In light of the long negotiations in the Open-ended Working Group, the proposed Goals represent already a major achievement, even though they still appear relatively weak on the rule of law and on human-rights-based approaches. The shortcomings may seem puzzling. After all, human-rights-based approaches and the rule of law are widely recognized as highly effective means to catapult sustainable development forward. Yet they are also denigrated and opposed as platforms for foreign interference in domestic affairs. Despite this long-standing dispute and thanks to patient leadership by the Co-Chairs and strong advocacy by several States,  – maybe helped along too by a High-level Event of the General Assembly about “Contributions of Human Rights and the Rule of Law in the Post-2015 Development Agenda” (held on 9 and 10 June 2014)   –, the Open-ended Working Group at least reaffirmed the importance of human rights in the Introduction to the Goals and succeeded in adding Goal 16. The Goal pursues peaceful and inclusive societies, effective, inclusive and accountable institutions and the provision of access to justice. Targets under Goal 16 expressly include the promotion of the rule of law at the national and international level and the guarantee of equal access to justice for all. By 2030, legal identity is to be provided for all. Target 16.10 seeks to ensure public access to information and the protection of fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements. Target 16.b pursues the promotion and enforcement of non-discriminatory laws and policies for sustainable development. Goal 1 is to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. In this respect, target 1.4 would ensure, by 2030, that all men and women have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services. A similar target is set out without a date under Goal 5. This Goal specifically focuses on women and girls and intends to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. Target 5.1 puts it succinctly: “End all forms of discrimination against women and girls everywhere.” Women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life would be ensured under target 5.5. While a good number of the Goals overlap with the efforts under the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and under the Security Council resolutions on women, peace and security, some gaps are striking too:  Specific targets towards women’s equal participation in peace and post-conflict processes and towards the protection of women human rights defenders are sadly missing.

To support and further intensify the preparations towards the Summit during the first half of 2015, the current President of the General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Sam Kahamba Kutesa of Uganda, has scheduled several high-level thematic debates or events, including a high-level thematic debate on advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women in the post-2015 development agenda (March 2015). 

Will the three major UN policy and review events spotlighted in these UIA News really marshal the vision, ambition and determination needed to alleviate and even overcome the systematic problem of human rights violations against women? Strong doubt. Stronger hope.

Written in memory of Sameera Salih Ali Al-Nuaimy.

On her courage and fate: UN News Centre, 25 September 2014, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48841#

Jutta F. Bertram-Nothnagel

Director of the Relations with Intergovernmental Organizations

Union Internationale des Avocats

7 October 2014