The Commission on the Status of Women
has met every year since 1948 to monitor progress made in
achieving universal human rights and equality for women.
Since the Fourth World Women Conference at Beijing in 1995,
it has monitored implementation of the Beijing Platform
for Action and the Beijing +5 Outcome Document.
At its 47th session held this year in New York, the Commission
identified two thematic issues. These were::
a) Global Media and the Impact of ICTs on women and girls
b) Human Rights and the Elimination of Violence against
Women and Girls.
EWD was represented by Dr Margaret Owen who decided to
focus on the issues of human rights and violence, while
keeping a watchful eye on deliberations on the role of the
global media which had a particular focus on the exploitation
of women through pornography, trafficking and negative stereotyping.
Supported by the UK Women’s National Commission,
Femnet (Africa region), the South Asian Widows’ Capacity
Building caucus and the Indian Guild of Service, EWD was
among twenty-seven NGOs whose statements on human rights
violations and violence were published on the UN
website.
Neither the Beijing Platform for Action nor the Outcome
Document of Beijing+5 makes specific references to widows,
although the issues of discrimination and poverty of widows
cut across all twelve critical areas of the Plan. Therefore
EWD is challenged to ensure that widows are not forgotten
in the Beijing Process. It does this by circulating statements,
briefings and information, and by speaking at the various
NGO fringe events as well as at NGO briefings and, where
invited, to the Delegates in plenary sessions.
Given the huge increases in the numbers of widows due to
armed conflict, AIDS, increases in child marriage and the
demographic tilt, and the soaring prevalence of gender-abuse
in unstable militarised post-conflict environments, EWD
is intent on raising awareness of this issue at the international
level. To this end it attends the CSW each year and seeks
to influence the texts of the final documents so that they
will include the discriminatory treatment of widows which
demands urgent redressing.
The Secretary-General’s Report on Violence to Women
(see UN website) focused mainly on trafficking; thus there
was little scope for amending the text on violence. In the
context of harmful traditional practices, the report mentioned
FGM and early and child marriage, but was silent on widowhood
rites and customs. EWD sought to have included in the final
texts a reference to degrading mourning and burial rites,
widow-inheritance, levirate and discrimination in inheritance.
It also wished to have added to existing indicators in statistical
collections the category of “marital status”.
Although the absence of any agreed conclusions represents
a significant setback to progress on implementation of the
Beijing Platform for Action, EWD was able to make some impact
at the meeting in other ways.
While progress on raising issues of widowhood may be slow,
this year’s 47th Session of the CSW, had more delegates,
especially from the Africa region, speaking of the violence
meted out to widows, in the context of disputes over inheritance,
land and property rights, in relation to AIDS and in the
context of armed conflict.
The text of the statement, 500 copies of which were issued
to NGOs and delegates in New York is as follows::
One invisible category of women, vulnerable to violence
across regions, cultures, religions and across class, caste
and age are widows. Yet the discourse on violence against
women has almost totally failed to recognise the broad spread,
high incidence and gravity of this type of gender violence,
perpetrated by family members and the community at large
and often conducted by States.
The Beijing Platform for Action makes no reference to widow-abuse,
and there has been a dearth of research on this hidden example
of violence to women. In many cultures it is common for
widows of all ages (and many widows are very young) to be
systematically physically, mentally and sexually abused
through arcane traditional practices as well as in the context
of inheritance, land and property disputes.
Mourning and Burial Rites forced on widows in some cultures
may be not only violently degrading and life-threatening,
especially in the context of the AIDS pandemic. In addition,
widows, especially older widows, may be vulnerable to accusations
of witchcraft resulting in physical violence leading to
maiming and agonising deaths. Witchcraft charges are often
made in the context of AIDS bereavement. Widows, without
male protection, are often victims of rape, yet this very
violence they have suffered is as a tool to further dishonour
them, exposing them to further stigma, leading to honour
killings.
Women widowed through war and ethnic cleansing, across
regions, face rape, sexual mutilation and torture, the deliberate
infection of the AIDS virus, sexual slavery and forced pregnancy.
The violence meted out to widows during armed conflict,
as refugees and internally displaced persons, often continues
long into the post-conflict period due to their poverty
and vulnerability to economic exploitation, trafficking
and prostitution, and the stigma of having been victims
of sexual crimes.
This violence to widows is exacerbated dur to their low
status culturally and legally, to their destitution, powerlessness
and lack of real access to the protections and remedies
of an independent justice system.
Given the huge increases in the numbers of widows of all
ages due to conflict, AIDS and the demographic tilt, it
is imperative now that actions are recommended to address
this hidden area of violence to women.
We invite the 47th meeting of the CSW to acknowledge this
area of gender violence by formulating appropriate recommendations
in the final documents. Also we ask that the status of widows
be prioritised as a further “emerging “ issue.
