Extract from a message to opening plenary of the 2001 conference by Mrs Graça Machel
....My continent Africa has many widows, of all ages, in all conditions and degrees of poverty, isolation and need. In my own country Mozambique, the civil war left a legacy of hundreds and thousands of widows and fatherless children. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has devastated family life across the continent leaving uncountable numbers of orphans and placing an additional burden on older women, many of them widows, who have to take on the care of sick and dying children and grandchildren in need.
These brave and resilient women symbolise a situation which cuts across culture, religion and nationality.
CEDAW Article 3: The Development and Advancement of Women
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, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men.
Question
1. Do existing laws, practices, and administrative policies ensure the full development and advancement of women? Do women have the same access as men, in law and in fact, to the political process, social services, health and medical care, education, literacy development programmes, employment, ownership of property, and social welfare?
CEDAW Article 14: Rural Women
1. States Parties shall take into account the particular problems faced by rural women and the significant roles which they play in the economic survival of their families, including their work I the non-monetized sectors of the economy and shall take all appropriate measure to ensure the application of the provisions of the Convention to women in rural areas.
2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas in order to ensure, on the basis of equality of men and women, that they participate in and benefit from rural development . . .
(following this 8 specific rights are detailed - WRI)
Questions
2. In rural areas, are married, widowed, divorced, non-married, and childless women treated differently from each other?
20. Can women hold title to land? Does women’s title to land derive from their husbands or fathers or brothers or uncles or nephews?