Women empowerment in the Middle east - Реферат

Introduction According to Dr. Jamal A. Badawin «the status which women reached during the present era was not achieved due to the kindness of men or due to natural progress. It was rather achieved through a long struggle and sacrifice on womans part and only when society needed her contribution and work, more especial!; during the two world wars, and due to the escalation of technological change.» Despite many international agreements affirming their human rights, women in the Middle East region are still much more likely than men to be poor and illiterate. They usually have less access than men to medical care, property ownership, credit, training and employment. They are far less likely than men to be politically active and far more likely to be victims of domestic violence. Poor health can force many households into poverty and destitution, and the growing AIDS pandemic has only exacerbated the situation. Women are disproportionately affected by health problems, both directly - from exposure to pollutants, household wastes, unsafe sex and gender-based violence - and indirectly as caregivers. Caring for ailing family members adds an additional burden to women’s already heavy workload inside and outside the household. There is a strong link between women’s underemployment and low returns on labor, especially since most employed women are part of the informal economy. This exposes poor women to greater financial risks, lower standards of human development and limited access to resources from social institutions. Latest studies have shown that women in Middle East countries face many of the same constraints as their rural counterparts. They are affected by low socio-economic status, lack of property rights, environmental degradation and limited health and educational resources. Rapid urbanization also leads to increased unemployment and underemployment in urban areas, expanding the informal sector and intensifying the shortage of urban social services, which can no longer meet the needs of a growing population. We know that now the roles that men and women play in society are not biologically determined - they are socially determined, changing and changeable. Although they may be justified as being required by culture or religion, these roles vary widely by locality and change over time. In the subsequent decades womens rights again became an important issue in the English speaking world. By the 1960s the movement was called «feminism» or «womens liberation.» Reformers wanted the same pay as men, equal rights in law, and the freedom to plan their families or not have children at all. Their efforts were met with mixed results. Anyway, problem of women empowerment needs to be studied, and first of all, we need to find out the present international status of woman. 1. United Nation’s view 1.1 The Commission on the Status of Women United Nations commitments to the advancement of women began with the signing of the UN Charter in San Francisco in 1945. Of the 160 signatories, only four were women - Minerva Bernardino (Dominican Republic), Virginia Gildersleeve (United States), Bertha Lutz (Brazil) and Wu Yi-Fang (China) - but they succeeded in inscribing women’s rights in the founding document of the United Nations, which reaffirms in its preamble «faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of Nations large and small». The Commission on the Status of Women first met at Lake Success, New York, in February 1947. At that session, all of the 15 government representatives were women - giving the Commission the unique character it was going to maintain throughout its history by gathering a majority of women delegates. From its inception, the Commission also forged a close relationship with nongovernmental organizations. Several international women’s organizations addressed the Commission at the first session, and from then on, non-governmental organizations in consultative status with ECOSOC were invited to participate as observers. From the beginning the Commission members also built close working relationships with the international human rights treaty bodies, the Commission on Human Rights, the Social Commission and the Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, and specialized agencies such as UNESCO and UNICEF. During the period 1946-1962, the Commission focused its attention on promoting womens rights and equality by setting standards and formulating international conventions aiming at changing discriminatory legislation and fostering global awareness of women’s issues. However, the codification of the legal rights of women needed to be supported by data and analysis of the extent to which discrimination against women existed, not only in law but also in practice. The Commission made women’s political rights a high priority in the early years of its work. In 1945, only 25 of the original 51 United Nations Mem