Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

Agathe and her two children cleaning the harvest of groundnuts produced from her 3 hectare plot. Credit: SADC-GMI

By Thokozani Dlamini
PRETORIA, South Africa, Mar 7 2024 (IPS)

International Women’s Day 2024 serves not only as a celebration of women’s achievements across different sectors but also as a reminder of the persistent obstacles hindering gender equality. In line with the 2024 theme, “Inspire Inclusion,” it is imperative for every individual and organization to actively engage in promoting inclusive environments. The adoption of such initiatives fosters safe and respectful spaces where women’s contributions are valued and celebrated.

This International Women’s Day, we shine a light on Agathe, a 25-year-old smallholder farmer from the outskirts of Kilimwandu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo who was introduced to farming at the tender age of 15.

Agathe epitomizes the diligence and resilience of women who are at the forefront of ensuring regional food security and driving socio-economic transformation.

Smallholder women farmers like Agathe make up an estimated 60-80% of the agricultural labour force in Africa, highlighting the significant reliance on their effort for the continent’s sustenance.

Tackling critical barriers, such as secure land ownership, access to finance, comprehensive training, and robust market connections, is fundamental. Such support would not only empower women farmers, increasing their productivity but would also contribute to heightened food security and improved household incomes

Batanayi Gwangwawa, SADC-GMI
It’s widely recognized that about 80% of the poorest people in the world live in rural areas, with agriculture being their primary means of livelihood. These farmers, mostly women, sustain their families by cultivating crops and rearing animals on small plots of land.

For millions of women, particularly in rural Southern Africa, Groundwater remains a lifeline, underscoring its importance not just for consumption, but as a critical resource for food production and community stability.

On a recent field visit to Kimpangu, the team from SADC-GMI gained firsthand insights into the pivotal role women play in agriculture and the myriad of challenges they confront, as related by Agathe herself.

Today, we honour Agathe and countless other women like her who are the unsung heroes of the agricultural sector, sustaining economies and nurturing communities with their toil and passion.

Agathe dedicates herself to the three-hectare plot of land entrusted to her by her family, nurturing groundnuts, and diverse crops to support herself and her two young children. “As a devoted mother, my day starts early ensuring that my two children have breakfast and well taken care of, after which I head to my farm. On the field, I invest approximately seven hours each day, toiling to ensure a stable livelihood for my family”, she continued.

Despite her dedication, the income she derives from her small-scale farm is insufficient to afford education expenses, leaving her children’s future uncertain.

“My story is exemplary of the challenges faced by numerous women farmers: I lack ownership of the land I farm, have no direct access to markets to sell my produce, and endure the absence of reliable transportation means” she highlighted as she was narrating her story.

This predicament is compounded by the lack of an alternative water source for irrigation, forcing her to depend solely on natural rainfall, which is increasingly unpredictable. Her resilience in the face of these adversities is a testament to the strength and tenacity of countless women who persist in smallholder agriculture under similar constraints.

Climate change threatens the already erratic rainfall that Agathe relies on, endangering her livelihood and regional food security.

This makes groundwater a more sustainable option for smallholder farmers like Agathe and Southern Africa region. SADC-GMI’s mandate is to promote the conjunctive use and management of surface and groundwater through developing water infrastructure and services, such as wells, and solar pumped irrigation systems.

Supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Cooperation in International Waters in Africa (CIWA) through the World Bank, SADC-GMI has been able to and continues to establish community groundwater supply schemes which are contributing to regional food security, access to potable water and climate resilience and adaptation for the vulnerable. Women became an integral part and main beneficiaries of these projects.

Ms. Batanayi Gwangwawa –Environmental and Social Management Specialist for SADC-GMI believes that as a collective we can reinforce the essential role of women by championing sustainable groundwater management, implementing policies and initiatives sensitive to gender needs, and enhancing women’s skills in agriculture.

She continues to say that tackling critical barriers, such as secure land ownership, access to finance, comprehensive training, and robust market connections, is fundamental. Such support would not only empower women farmers, increasing their productivity but would also contribute to heightened food security and improved household incomes.

Acknowledging the progress made in women’s empowerment is vital. However, it’s clear that gender parity, particularly in leadership and decision-making roles, remains an area where further effort is necessary.

In the groundwater sector, for example, the representation of women in decision-making positions is disproportionately low, with only one in five roles occupied by females.

This highlights the ongoing need to promote equal opportunities for women and create systemic changes that enable them to participate fully and equally in sectors that are essential for community development and resource management.

SADC-GMI is steadfast in advancing the implementation of its Gender Equality and Social Inclusion strategy (2021- 2025) , which is built on the fundamental goal of amplifying women’s participation across all our projects to maximize impact.

Empowerment of women is not just about equity—it’s about enabling them as powerful agents of socio-economic change, critical for the sustainable transformation of our communities.

 

Thokozani Dlamini is SADC-GMI Communication and Knowledge Management Specialist

Africa has recently displayed unapologetic intentionality about its rising emergence from a historically marginalized position in international politics. Credit: United Nations

By Stephanie Musho
NAIROBI, Mar 7 2024 (IPS)

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women will this month bring together government, civil society, and the private sector to strategize on the acceleration of gender equality, through strengthening institutions and financing from a gender perspective.

This comes a few months after a UN report indicated that it will take almost 300 years to attain gender equality. There is however renewed hope emanating from the efforts of African states – who just like women and girls around the world, have for years been working tirelessly to overhaul an unfair international system and bring down depressing statistics that have become synonymous with them.

Africa has recently displayed unapologetic intentionality about its rising emergence from a historically marginalized position in international politics.

African governments can bolster the acceleration of the attainment of gender equality through the mainstreaming of intersectional feminist values in their evolving yet gallant foreign policy positions

Recently, Egypt and Ethiopia joined South Africa as the only African countries in the BRICS – a geopolitical bloc set up to counter the political and economic dominance of the wealthier nations of North America and Western Europe.

In 2023, the African Union also successfully negotiated its permanent position as a member of the G20 – a leading intergovernmental platform on economic stability and cooperation. Collectively, the G20 controls more than 85% of global gross domestic product, around 75% of global exports, and about 80% of the world’s population.

In this sense, after a 7-year lobbying mission, Africa engineered an overdue shift from a tokenistic and extractive model of engagement that was in operation prior to its recent ascension to meaningful engagement at the decision-making table on a wide range of fiscal and economic issues.

This however remains the reality for women and gender minorities who are habitually included not to contribute to strategy formulation towards solving problems which they experience first-hand, but for the implementation of pre-determined activities often for the compliance with ‘standard form’ gender checklists for the sole purpose of fulfilling diversity quotas.

African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors have also been putting up a united front in global financial architecture reform efforts, towards new sources of development financing while deconstructing existing exploitative structures that have the continent in perpetual debt traps.

Parallels could be drawn with discriminatory labor practices and unequal pay, further compounded by unequal education opportunities and harmful traditional practices which push women and girls into vicious poverty and dependency cycles, ultimately cutting off their prospects of self-actualization.

African heads of state and government have reiterated the African position that calls for at least two permanent representative seats on the United Nations Security Council that is mandated to maintain international peace, globally.

Presently, Africa only holds temporary rotational membership despite decades of advocating for meaningful inclusion in this powerful decision-making UN organ. Albeit, given that historically the continent has been used as a battlefield for proxy wars by western states.

Moreover, African nations are increasingly taking up bold foreign policy positions. For example, South Africa recently brought Israel to the International Court of Justice for violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, against Palestinians in Gaza.

While it could take years for a final ruling from the Court – and with others arguing that the move was merely symbolic; preliminary orders which stopped short of a ceasefire were in favor of South Africa.

Not only does this set precedent in a longer judicial process as it contributes to the jurisprudence of international criminal law. It also establishes the rising influence of the BRICS member-African state in the global political landscape.

There is then opportunity for more African states to follow this lead on the over 110 active conflicts classified under international humanitarian law, towards accountability for violations occurring in wartime.

These have often been found to disproportionately affect women, girls and non-binary persons including by way of their sexual brutalization.

African governments can bolster the acceleration of the attainment of gender equality through the mainstreaming of intersectional feminist values in their evolving yet gallant foreign policy positions.

This is certain to encompass and integrate all their diversities and tailor suitable and sustainable interventions for their different contexts. Herein lies the promise of feminist foreign policy.

The same exclusive and abusive colonial structures that have for years sidelined the continent in global governance structures including international finance institutions, are the same ones upon which patriarchal structures are founded upon.

Hence, a cross-learning opportunity for civil society and the African bloc of states towards the pursuit of feminist foreign policy with sovereign states and multilateral organizations towards sustainable development. Without this, women, girls and gender minorities will continue suffering systemic inequalities that violate their human rights and freedoms for at least, three centuries.

Stephanie Musho is a human rights lawyer and a Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute. 

Takhmina Haidarova, Tajik advocate for the rights of women living with HIV.

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Mar 7 2024 (IPS)

Born and raised in a rural area in a traditional Tajik family, Takhmina Haidarova managed to finish high school with excellent grades and wanted to go to university.

“[But] it was compulsory for my family to give higher education to boys, and girls were trained to be housewives,” she says. Her dream of higher education was instead replaced by an arranged marriage to a cousin.

“I was strongly against this wedding, but my father decided for me and married me to him. I hadn’t even seen him before the wedding,” she tells IPS.

She became pregnant soon after the wedding, but her husband, who had worked in Russia before he wed her, left to return to his work there two months into the pregnancy. She gave birth to a daughter, who, however, died after falling ill a year later.

Haidarova was referred to doctors, who ran tests and discovered she had HIV.

“When I told my husband about it, it turned out he had known he had HIV for a long time and had hidden it from me,” she says.

Not long after, her husband returned to Tajikistan. He was seriously ill and was admitted to the hospital. When he died soon after, both his and Haidarova’s families found out they both had the disease, and the stigma and discrimination she has faced for many years since then began.

“None of my relatives communicated with me; they all avoided meeting with me,” she tells IPS. “Society in general refuses to recognize people with HIV,” she says.

But Haidarova decided to take a stand against it.

“When I found out I was HIV positive, my life changed dramatically. I lost my family support, my home, my health, and my sense of peace. It was very difficult and painful. But I decided that I would not let this virus define my life or the lives of other women.

“My husband died, and I started to work at an NGO while at the same time pursuing my higher education. Right from the start, I was open about my HIV status and never hid it,” she says.

“I started helping women with HIV because of my own experience of living with the virus. I know how difficult it is to deal with this diagnosis, especially when resources and support are limited,” she adds.

Today, Haidarova is a prominent advocate for the rights of women living with HIV (WLHIV) in Tajikistan, heading the Tajik Network of Women Living with HIV, based in the capital, Dushanbe. The organisation conducts information campaigns, organizes group sessions, and provides psychological and other support services to WLHIV.

“Starting an organization to support women with HIV was a natural step for me. Together with other women, we started to fight for our rights, for access to quality health care, for public education about HIV, and for support for those in the same situation. My goal is to make life easier for women and girls with HIV,” she says.

So far, she says, the work of her organization and others is making some progress. Through years of determined lobbying and cooperation with the government, official policy on HIV/AIDS has moved towards a greater recognition of the need to ensure rights for people living with HIV (PLHIV)—this is specifically set out in the country’s National HIV/AIDS Plan.

One of the most obvious signs of this, HIV advocates say, is a recent ruling by the Supreme Court.

Article 125 of Tajikistan’s Criminal Code currently criminalizes HIV transmission and exposure, carrying a two-year prison sentence, which rises to up to five years for transmission by someone aware of their status, and as much as ten years when committed against multiple people or a minor. Prosecutions can be brought against PLHIV on the basis of just a potential threat of HIV transmission. In some cases, this can be simply the fact that someone is HIV positive.

Women living with HIV make up 70 percent of all convictions under Article 125, according to UNAIDS.

“WLHIV are more often prosecuted [under Article 125]. As a rule, they do not have money for a lawyer [to defend themselves against the charge],” Larisa Alexandrova, an expert on HIV and human rights at the Centre for Human Rights, told IPS.

However, at the end of December last year, the Supreme Court issued a ruling on Article 125 under which the judicial system should in the future take into account other factors apart from simply HIV status, such as whether someone is on antiretroviral treatment and has an undetectable viral load, condom use, and if both parties are fully aware of the other’s HIV status.

Haidarova is optimistic that the ruling will bring positive change and believes it is an important first step towards decriminalizing the disease, which should help WLHIV.

But as some HIV activists in Tajikistan told IPS, what is written on law books is one thing, and what actually happens in practice is another.

“There are laws on paper that guarantee human rights equality for people in marginalized communities, including women. But the public, the police and judiciary, and even wider society break these laws on a regular basis,” one HIV activist who works with marginalized communities in Tajikistan told IPS.

People living with HIV, especially women, routinely report discrimination in the healthcare sector. Haidarova says she is no stranger to such experiences.

“In 2019, doctors told me the baby I was carrying was dead, and I urgently needed to terminate the pregnancy, but the doctors at the polyclinic kept me in the hallway for two hours and eventually said they would not perform the procedure because I had HIV and they wanted to refer me to another facility. I eventually managed to call a doctor who knew me, and she came and performed the procedure herself.

“Then, when I gave birth to a child last year, when it was time for delivery, I came to the maternity hospital, and they took me from the general maternity ward to the isolation ward. None of the doctors would come to me, and I had to call a doctor I knew who was on vacation at the time and explain the situation. She came to deliver the baby herself.  We live in the 21st century, when medicine is so advanced, but despite all this, women’s rights are violated at vulnerable moments when they are powerless,” she said.

Takhmina Haidarova is hopeful that changes to the law that criminalize HIV exposure and transmission in Tajikistan will ensure women living with HIV are not unfairly targeted.

Meanwhile, in wider society, issues around stereotypes and prejudices about gender-based violence (GBV), in part related to religious beliefs among the majority Muslim population, deepen stigma and discrimination, she says, warning that these are having a dangerous impact on the spread of the disease.

“People who are at risk and in need of HIV information, counseling, and testing face barriers to accessing appropriate health care and services. Many of them fear discrimination and negative attitudes from doctors and other health care providers, so they prefer to go without the help they need,” she says.

Law enforcement is another area where WLHIV faces disproportionate discrimination. Activists say that many women living with HIV are victims of GBV but fear reporting the assault to the police or will often withdraw an allegation not just out of fear of finding themselves without economic support—the overwhelming majority of women in Tajikistan are economically dependent on their husbands—but also because of concerns that their HIV status may be disclosed.

Activists say that in some cases, when police attend incidents of GBV and find the woman involved is living with HIV, they will look to take action against her under Article 125 rather than investigate the assault.

The discrimination and stigma women and others living with HIV face is deterring them from accessing prevention, testing, and treatment services and impacting efforts to tackle the disease, activists say.

Tajikistan has over 15,000 people living with HIV, but the number of new HIV infections has increased by 20% over the past 10 years, and the percentage of new HIV cases among women has risen from 31% in 2011 to 36% in 2022, according to UNAIDS.

Haidarova says the government is committed to strengthening rights for people living with HIV, but that more needs to be done to educate people about it and protect vulnerable groups from discrimination.

As she is keen to stress, her own experience shows that stigma and discrimination around HIV can be overcome.

“My story is a painful one, but  everything is slowly getting better for me now. I started a family of love—my husband is HIV negative, and we have two beautiful, healthy children.

“I proved to my family that people with HIV can live a full life, be happy, start a family, and give birth to healthy children. When they found out I wasn’t dead and that everything was fine with me, they quietly began to communicate with me and invite me to their events. It took some time, but they understood that while HIV is scary, you can live with it,” she says.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Excerpt:

This feature is part of a series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

Credit: Equality Now, Tara Carey

By Antonia Kirkland and Bryna Subherwal
NEW YORK, Mar 7 2024 (IPS)

Women’s economic opportunities, rights, and well-being are being denied worldwide by sex-discriminatory laws and policies that curtail women’s access to employment, equal pay, property ownership, and inheritance.

Governments need to take urgent action to repeal or amend sex-discriminatory legislation that is hampering not only the socio-economic progress of women and their families but also of their countries.

The World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law 2024 report, released this week, finds that none of the 190 countries surveyed has achieved legal equality for women, not even in the wealthiest economies. Women have only 64% of the legal rights that men enjoy, and globally, they earn just 77 cents of each dollar a man earns.

Closing the gap could raise global gross domestic product (GDP) by over 20%, the report says. But at the current pace of reform, the UN estimates it will take until 2310 to remove discriminatory laws against women and close the gender gaps in legal protection.

Sex Discrimination in Economic Status Laws

The 68th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) provides an important opportunity to hold governments to account for their effectiveness in protecting and advancing women’s rights, including economic rights.

CSW is held annually in March at the UN in New York, and the theme for 2024 focuses on accelerating the achievement of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls through addressing poverty.

To shed further light on discriminatory laws that impinge on women’s economic choices and financial independence, a policy brief by Equality Now, Words & Deeds: Sex Discrimination in Economic Status Laws – 2024 Update, highlights examples of economic status laws that governments promptly need to reform or remove. These laws are found around the world – including in countries considered to be progressive. A few of the many examples are:

In Brazil, women are required by law to retire earlier than men.

• In Cameroon, a husband can legally administer and dispose of his wife’s property.

• In Chile, there is a legal presumption that a husband will have full control of all marital property, as well as any property owned by their wives.

In China, women are legally prohibited from engaging in certain trades, including any which the State specifies female workers “should avoid.”

• In Ireland, fathers can only access 2 weeks of paternity leave, considerably less than mothers. Although an improvement from the law prior to 2016, which stipulated that the mother had to die before a father could obtain benefits, all parents should be treated equally.

• In Madagascar, women are forbidden by law from undertaking any form of night work, except in family establishments.

• In Sri Lanka, a married woman is restricted from disposing of and dealing with property, such as land, without the written consent of her husband.

In Tunisia, laws exist that limit women’s inheritance rights and stipulate sons inherit twice as much as daughters.

Sex-discriminatory laws disadvantage women in many ways

By restricting women’s full economic and social participation, sex-discriminatory laws trap many in poverty and dependence, making them more vulnerable to exploitation and mistreatment by relatives, partners, employers, and the wider society.

Discriminatory family laws can limit women’s ability to consent to marriage and divorce, retain custody of their children following divorce, and access their fair share of wealth in matrimony and inheritance. For example, 43 countries do not grant widows the same inheritance rights as widowers, and 41 prevent daughters from inheriting the same proportion of assets as sons.

Equitable ownership promotes wealth creation and provides economic stability, but 77 countries have at least one constraint on women’s property rights.

In some countries, the law stipulates women must “obey” their husbands and/or male guardians. This puts them at greater risk of domestic abuse, including marital rape, and makes it harder to access justice when their human rights are violated.

A lack of constitutional equality also harms women. In the United States, the US Constitution does not explicitly prohibit discrimination against women. Supporters are calling for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to be incorporated, as this would effectively categorize sex as a “protected class” alongside race, religion, and national origin, giving women greater economic rights.

Impacting women’s career and earning potential

Occupational freedom is associated with better job opportunities, earning potential, and professional advancement. Yet 59 countries have laws preventing women from working in specific jobs, and 19 countries allow husbands to legally prevent their wives from working.

Stereotyped traditional gender roles can also leave women shouldering the burden of unpaid domestic labor. Childcare falls almost exclusively on mothers, with women performing 2.8x more unpaid care and domestic work than men. And only 55 countries have paid parental leave laws available to either parent.

Care responsibilities can prevent women from engaging in paid work, limit their career progression, and reduce their income. Additionally, it can make it harder for women to enter or re-enter the labor force, start or run a business, or access retirement funds.

All this contributes to women being overrepresented in insecure, low-paid, and unregulated jobs. It also fuels the gender pay gap, with women often earning less than men for equivalent work. Deplorably, 92 countries fail to guarantee equal pay for equal work. This inequity is compounded when women are denied equal access to pensions on the same basis as men.

Meanwhile, legal systems and social norms frequently undervalue non-financial contributions to family welfare. This is particularly common when marital assets are divided upon divorce oror death, as family laws in many countries only take account of monetary contributions by each spouse.

These obstacles are exacerbated when women’s reproductive rights are curtailed through measures such as abortion bans. Countries like France, which just this week enshrined guaranteed access to abortion in its Constitution, will be better able to leverage women’s economic participation by ensuring their right to bodily autonomy.

Investing in women’s rights benefits everyone

Economic and gender inequalities are intimately linked, and it’s not an exaggeration to say inequality kills. The relationship between gender inequality in the law and peace and economic prosperity is well documented.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused skyrocketing rates of unemployment and damaged the global economy. Although the shock reverberated across industries and communities, women bore the brunt. Preventing future global crises and recessions requires prioritizing changes now to achieve legal equality for women.

Investing in this isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s smart economically. Full legal equality would maximize economic participation by women, adding up to $28 trillion of wealth into the worldwide economy every year, McKinsey estimates.

Holding countries to account for advancing women’s rights

The CSW is a space for governments, civil society, UN bodies, and other stakeholders to discuss challenges and formulate strategies and policies that set best practice global standards on gender equality.

Part of this entails reviewing the implementation of commitments made by countries in various international agreements, such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which was agreed by 189 UN member states in 1995. The Platform for Action clearly outlines what governments must do to guarantee equality and non-discrimination under the law and promote women’s economic rights.

As governments come together once again at CSW, it’s time to tell them: unlock women’s potential by investing in legal equality. Governments need to address the whole ecosystem of laws and policies to ensure women are not concentrated in the lowest-paid or unregulated jobs and aren’t effectively forced to leave the workforce to take up (unpaid) care responsibilities. And once progressive laws – such as equal pay for equal work – are adopted, governments must robustly implement them.

Ending legal discrimination will enable women to flourish and communities to thrive, boosting global productivity and stimulating economic prosperity across all nations, and for the benefit of all.

Antonia Kirkland is Global Lead, Legal Equality & Access to Justice at Equality Now; Bryna K. Subherwal is Global Head of Advocacy Communications at Equality Now.

Equality Now is a feminist organization using the law to protect and promote the human rights of all women and girls. Since 1992, it’s international network of lawyers, activists, and supporters have held governments responsible for achieving legal equality and ending sexual exploitation, sexual violence, and harmful practices.

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Excerpt:

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

Women march for their rights on Mar. 8, 2023, in Brasília. Every International Women's Day, Brazilian women take to the streets in towns and cities to protest against sexism, racism and other factors of gender inequality. CREDIT: Lula Marques / Agência Brasil

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 6 2024 (IPS)

Brazil is beginning to test the effectiveness of a gender pay equality law passed in July 2023, a new attempt to reduce inequality for women in the world of work.

This Friday, Mar. 8, International Women’s Day, is the deadline for companies with more than 100 employees to publish their first half-yearly salary transparency reports, with comparative data on remuneration and the distribution of hierarchical functions between men and women, and between different ethnic groups, nationalities and ages."If you are a black woman, your chances of suffering inequality increase. Restrictions pile up for women who are black and poor from the outlying urban neighborhoods, who are over 40 years old and have had little to no education." -- Marilane Teixeira

To break down the inertia of gender inequality, the United Nations agency that promotes women’s rights, UN Women, decided that this year’s theme for International Women’s Day would be “‘Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”, which the global community has pledged to achieve by 2030.

The wage equality law “is a measure that just remains on paper, not a practical one,” said Hildete Pereira de Melo, an economist who has been studying gender inequality for more than 40 years and doubts the effectiveness of the new legislation.

Equal pay has been legally established in Brazil since 1943, when the Consolidation of Labor Laws was approved, but it is not enforced, she argued. Even in the courts, women accept any agreement as “the weaker party,” she told IPS in an interview in Rio de Janeiro.

Wage inequality is now punished

But now it is different: a penalty will be imposed on companies that do not publish their semi-annual report, a fine of up to 100 minimum wages, totaling 141,200 reais this year (28,500 dollars), argued Marilane Teixeira, a researcher at the Center for Trade Union and Labor Economics Studies (Cesit) of the University of Campinas.

With the reports from the companies and the data it obtains through other means, the Ministry of Labor and Employment will be able to publish the first results, with an overview of how the more than 50,000 large companies in Brazil deal with the issue of gender- and race-neutral wages.

Previously a company was subject to penalties in the case of “inequalities motivated by segregation,” identified through inspection by the authorities. But now there is a new requirement of a public report, Teixeira told IPS from Brasilia.

The new exposure of companies triggered widespread complaints and arguments that improper data would be revealed, but the report does not include “any stealth data, just averages and percentages of women employees and their positions” in the corporate hierarchy, she explained.

Reactions from businesspersons and repercussions in the media reflect “the impact of the measure” and the changes it will foment, said the economist, who helped the government draft the new law.

“It is a step forward and we hope that it sticks” and is effective, unlike many laws that remain only on paper, said Isabel Freitas, a social worker and technical advisor of the Feminist Center for Studies and Advice (Cfemea).

 

In a Jul. 30, 2023 demonstration, black women in Rio de Janeiro protest against racism, violence and inequalities of which they are the main victims. CREDIT: Tania Rêgo / Agência Brasil

 

Legislative advances

Her positive assessment is based on the “two novelties”: the requirement of the half-yearly report, which constitutes a “public transparency tool” and fosters equality, and the fine imposed on companies that do not comply, of three percent of the total wages and salaries paid by the company.

But the law has limits. It only applies to companies with more than one hundred employees, which means its effect does not reach the small and micro businesses that provide 70 percent of formal sector jobs nor the informal ones that account for about 40 percent of the total number of workers. And the fine cannot exceed the equivalent of 100 minimum wages.

It does not benefit, for example, domestic workers, who number six million in Brazil, mainly black women, who suffer the worst discrimination, Freitas lamented.

But the law is “one more step” that could help in the fight against “the basket of inequalities” affecting Brazilian society, especially women, she told IPS by telephone from Brasilia.

“If you are a black woman, your chances of suffering inequality increase. Restrictions pile up for women who are black and poor from the outlying urban neighborhoods, who are over 40 years old and have had little to no education,” she said.

Inequality suffered by women is not just a matter of wages. They are concentrated in lower paid activities, such as domestic work, basic education and the poorest paid parts of the health care system.

The scarce representation of women at all levels of power is a major obstacle. There are only 91 women in a lower house of 513 deputies and 15 women senators out of a total of 81. In other words, they make up only 17.8 percent of the current Congress (2023-2026) dominated by conservative legislators.

One of the main causes of these inequalities is the sexual division of labor, which assigns to women practically all the work of social reproduction and care tasks, the three interviewees concurred.

A meeting of women ministers of the current Brazilian government with 42 female mayors of large towns and cities to discuss women’s participation in politics and the Brazilian economy. CREDIT: Ministry of Health

 

Cultural hurdles

Added to this is a cultural heritage that uses promotion evaluation criteria that favor male workers, said Teixeira.

When it comes to promotions, companies generally take into account activities “that exclude women, such as weekend courses, trips and dinners with clients,” which are unfeasible for those who have to take care of the house, the children and sick members of the family, she said.

“In Brazil 42 percent of women are solely homemakers, and the other half who are in the labor market are also homemakers,” said Pereira de Melo.

The basic solution to the tangle of factors leading to inequality against women are full-time basic education schools and day care centers providing care for 10 hours a day, with universal coverage for all children in order to neutralize disadvantages for women in the workplace, she said.

The ideal would be full-time school for adolescents as well, but it should be available at least in the first stage, until students are 14 or 15 years old and the absolute need for maternal care is reduced, she said.

In addition, a broad cultural transformation of society would be necessary, especially in relation to the role of women, but culture is something that changes very slowly, she acknowledged.

Initiatives on several fronts are underway in Brazil to drive these changes.

On Mar. 5 the   launched, for example, the campaign “Justice for all women”, to highlight women’s rights in general, including girls, adolescents, pregnant and disabled women, and to promote a gender perspective in all the country’s courts.

Violence against women, reflected in the increase in rape, domestic violence and femicides – gender-related murders of girls and women – is currently a priority of the campaign and the judicial system.

The Articulação das Mulheres Negras do Brasil (Network of Black Women of Brazil) is working to coordinate the action of 45 organizations distributed throughout the country that in the month of March this year are planning 140 demonstrations.

For November 2025, it is preparing a “March against racism, violence and for the good life”, a national mobilization that will culminate in Brasilia, repeating the first march of its kind that took place in 2015, with about 100,000 participants, to demand the rights of 49 million women, that is, a quarter of Brazil’s population of 203 million.

It is a global struggle. “The global economy is based on the systematic exploitation of women,” concludes a study by Oxfam, a confederation of 21 social organizations around the world.

According to its data, women earn only 51 percent of what men earn, as they are concentrated in precarious and poorly paid jobs.

Related Articles

• Black Women, the Most Oppressed and Exploited in Brazil

Excerpt:

This feature is part of a series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

By External Source
Mar 6 2024 (IPS-Partners)

 

On March 8th, we celebrate International Women’s Day.

A day to honour the resilience, achievements, and potential of women worldwide.

The world faces crises—geopolitical conflicts, poverty, and climate change.

These exacerbate the global plight of women everywhere.

Furthermore, the global economic and financial systems perpetuate gender inequality.

Less than 50% of working-age women are in the global labour force.

Women spend about three times as many hours on unpaid domestic work as men.

Globally, women in the paid workforce earn 20% less than men on average.

In some countries, this gap jumps to 35%.

More than half of women in the workforce are in the informal economy, often vulnerable in precarious situations.

Unpaid care work by women accounts for over 40% of GDP if valued.

If current trends continue, more than 342 million women and girls could be living in extreme poverty by 2030.

Ironically, there’s a powerful solution: investing in women.

Recognizing women’s rights as an investment issue is critical for creating transformative solutions.

Investing in women enables them to escape a systemic cycle of poverty and truly thrive.

An additional $360 billion is needed per year to achieve gender equality.

But closing gender gaps in employment could boost GDP per capita by 20 per cent.

Closing gaps in care and expanding services with decent jobs could spark almost 300 million jobs by 2035.

This International Women’s Day let’s champion gender equality. “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress.”

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), briefs reporters at UN Headquarters.

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 6 2024 (IPS)

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini asked the UN General Assembly to urge member states to support the organization’s mandate during this period of unprecedented crisis for the region and the agency. He also called for member states to facilitate a “long-overdue political process” for the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. Only then, in this context, should UNRWA be allowed to transition.

He was speaking at an informal session of the General Assembly on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). This was convened to discuss the ongoing situation with UNRWA’s capacity as a humanitarian and human development agency in Gaza.

Despite its existence for 75 years, UNRWA’s presence was always intended to be temporary. “It is a stain on our collective conscience that for 75 years, UNRWA has had to fill a vacuum left by the lack of a political solution and genuine peace,” said Lazzarini.

The ongoing hostilities in the Gaza Strip and the resulting destruction of UNRWA facilities, which have disrupted humanitarian services in the region, have led to calls to seek alternatives that can deliver on the scale of the agency or to raise concern about whether other agencies can deliver the necessary humanitarian aid.

“UNRWA is facing a deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations and ultimately end them,” said Lazzarini.

Lazzarini argued that dismantling UNRWA during the current crisis would be shortsighted, given that the agency was designed to provide public services such as education and primary healthcare in a region without state authority. “The notion that the Agency can be dismantled without violating a host of human rights and jeopardizing international peace and security is naïve at best,” he said.

Speaking at a press briefing that same day, Lazzarini told reporters, “We can only feel that the worst is yet to come.” He remarked that since January, aid delivery to Gaza has decreased by 50 percent. Since then, famine has become all but inevitable.

Remarking on the dual investigations into UNRWA’s operations, Lazzarini stated that the investigations were necessary as an accountability measure. These investigations were announced after it was revealed that he had terminated the contracts of 12 staff members who were allegedly involved in the October 7 attacks. Lazzarini added that the “swift decision” to terminate the contracts, as well as the investigations, would likely reflect the agency’s ability to follow through on recommendations from a risk management review.

Lazzarini admitted, however, that he had not anticipated the swift action that 16 donor countries took to suspend their funding in the wake of the allegations, which he revealed were conveyed to him in an oral manner.  “I have no regret,” he said, referring to his response to the allegations, “but to be honest, I did not expect that… over the weekend, 16 countries would take that decision.”

The UNRWA chief also indicated that most donor countries would consider resuming their support. For those donor countries, the pressure to pull support came from domestic or public opinion that seems divided over UNRWA rather than foreign policy considerations.

There is some promise that UNRWA will continue to deliver on its mandate with the help of donor states, as was seen with the European Commission’s decision to continue funding the agency, starting with a pledge of 50 million euros. However, this will only go partway into filling the gap of 450 million USD left by the 16 donor countries. Lazzarini warned that without additional funding, the agency would be in “uncharted territory” and would have “serious implications for global peace and security.”

The atrocities that were committed on and since October 7 have only resulted in increasing devastation and tragedy. The international community, as embodied by the General Assembly on Monday, seems largely united in their calls for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and for the safe release of all hostages.

Yet the ongoing hostilities in the region have prevented the UN and its agencies from fulfilling their mandate to safely provide critical emergency aid. Five months on, there is a seeming lack of forward momentum within the Security Council to deliver a ceasefire resolution. UNRWA has been contending with compounding existential questions about its survival as an agency from hostile forces in the Gaza Strip and beyond who call for its dissolution.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Dana Abed
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Mar 6 2024 (IPS)

Marking International Women’s Day as a mere day of celebration is to strip it of its true meaning, a stab in the back of the generations of feminists who fought to make it a cornerstone for gender justice.

This day is a call to action, a collective demand for substantive change. It must insist on our deepest reflection about how the patriarchy creeps into every aspect of our lives, including into the policies that govern our macroeconomics.

Beyond the flowers and tokenism of celebrating International Women’s Day lies a stark reality, which is the persistent struggle that women face within the confines of a neoliberal economic system. Recent statistics paint a grim picture of the dwindling financial flows that aim to advance gender justice.

According to the latest data, rich governments allocate only 4% of their Official Development Assistance to programs that have “gender equality” centered as their principle objective, with less and less of those funds going directly to the local feminist movements at the forefront of the fight towards gender justice.

There is a continuing alarming trend of governments privatizing public services and cutting away social protection. Along with their dwindling support for feminist and women’s rights organizations, this poses a direct threat to the lives and well-being of women, girls, and non-binary individuals.

The capitalist system is perfectly geared to funnel all the money into men’s pockets. Globally, men own $105 trillion more wealth than women. This is equivalent to four times the size of the entire US economy. The regional differences also showcase how women from the majority world are the most impacted under these exploitative neoliberal systems.

Women make up 75% of the global workforce, particularly in essential health care services, yet it would take 1,200 years for a female worker in the health and social sector to earn what a CEO in the biggest Fortune 100 companies earns on average in one year.

Meanwhile, of course, the sheer amount of unpaid care work that falls upon women’s shoulders hinder their engagement in paid work, and education, among many other spheres. Compared to men, who spend on average around 90 minutes a day on unpaid care work, women spend three times that, on average 4.5 hours.

Our governments around the world urgently need to build a feminist economy and invest in national care systems to address the disproportionate responsibility for care work done by women and girls and ensure access to public services and living wages for carers.

The system we live under is engineered by colonialism, run by capitalism, and supported by the patriarchy. And when those three actors conspire together, it is women in all their diversities, especially women of color who pay the highest prices.

On this International Women’s Day, we demand concrete actions to dismantle and reconfigure the economic structures that are perpetuating gender-based inequalities. It is time to pivot our advocacy towards three crucial asks that can drive substantive change.

First and foremost, international financing institutions and governments must shift power to centre feminist movements and promote the advancement of gender justice. We can do that by decolonizing aid and unconditionally supporting local grassroots feminist and queer movements.

Their voices, often marginalized, deserve amplified recognition and unwavering backing. Funding for these movements needs to be flexible and sustainable to ensure their continued leadership.

Secondly, we need a gender-transformative approach to how we fund the crucial areas of social protection and public services. These are incredibly important in the struggle for women’s equality.

The implementation of progressive taxation, including a substantial wealth tax, is key to funding universal public services that cater specifically to the needs of women, girls, and gender non-binary individuals. This would be a game-changer.

Lastly, we need to guarantee living wages and protection across all sectors, particularly in the care economy. This too is a non-negotiable. This entails introducing fair taxes, including wealth taxes on those who made fortunes on the backs of the rest of us, and legislate them in favor of fair compensation for care work, prioritizing the well-being of communities within and beyond professional spheres.

This International Women’s Day, let us rally for these essential shifts, advocating not only for a day of celebration but one of tangible and equitable progress, too.

Dana Abed, Oxfam, Lebanon’s Influencing Lead in Beirut

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

By Shihana Mohamed
NEW YORK, Mar 6 2024 (IPS)

Recently “Days of Our Lives” star Arianne Zucker sued former co-executive producer Albert Alarr, accusing him of sexual harassment on the set of the long-running daytime show.

The complaint, filed 7th February 2024 in California Superior Court, alleges Alarr repeatedly subjected Zucker and other “Days” employees to “severe and pervasive harassment and discrimination, including sexual harassment, based upon their female gender.”

Since the #MeToo movement began in 2017, workplace sexual harassment has received a great deal of media attention, but attention towards the diversity of the women victimized by sexual harassment is greatly lacking.

Sexual harassment survivors most often sourced in #MeToo-related stories by the media are wealthy white (Caucasian) women who made complaints against senior male executives in the entertainment industry or in politics—think of high profile coverage of Harvey Weinstein’s long history of sexual assault and harassment of women, including actresses Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd, Angelina Jolie, and Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as the news about Gretchen Carlson’s sexual harassment claim against Fox News.

However, these cases are neither relatable to the average American woman’s experience of workplace sexual harassment nor representative of the reality and the severity of sexual harassment as a widespread social problem.

In contrast, the women of color sexually assaulted by Weinstein, including Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o and Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek, did not receive the same media coverage or public response as white women who made similar allegations. The result is that the public perception of sexual harassment is predominantly associated with white women from middle- and upper-class identities.

This perception was mainly created by the media with its focus on stories of white women, in addition to the lack of diversity in the movement.

Approximately 81% of women have faced sexual harassment in their lives. Despite these high numbers, the overwhelming majority (99.8%) of people who experience sexual harassment at work never file formal charges. Women of color are more likely to experience sexual harassment, yet less likely to report it.

There’s a long way to go until women feel comfortable reporting sexual harassment in the workplace and feel confident in their employers that repercussions will occur.

Historically, the media stereotyped women of color and created a public perception that the impact of sexual harassment on them was not as severe as on white women. To some extent, this perception has to do with the historical context of how women of color endured through slavery, colonization, world wars and conflicts throughout history and how they were portrayed by the media.

During the period of slavery in America, white society overtly believed black women to be innately lustful beings. After the Philippine-American War, World War II, and the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the US occupation of Asian countries propelled local sex industries and sex trafficking rings to serve soldiers.

The media has repeatedly represented East Asian women in a harmful way through its exaggerated portrayal of the China Doll and Dragon Lady to further exoticize and dehumanize East Asian women, ensuring the dominance of the West. Latinas historically endured rape as part of European colonialization of Latin American countries by Spaniards.

The stereotypical depictions of hyper-sexual Latinas in the media suggest that Latinas have a higher tolerance for sexual advances in the workplace. Meanwhile, historically, white women were portrayed as models of self-respect, self-control, modesty, and even sexual purity.

Media stereotypes have a direct impact on cultural perceptions of women of color. This aspect is further aggravated by how the media objectifies women of color in TV shows, movies, and advertisements. These stereotypes tend to justify sexual harassment of women of color in real life.

Racial bias in the media attention on sexual harassment is very harmful to women of color and women from minority groups. The US media’s lack of committed reporting on sexual harassment cases of women of color contributes to the silencing of its existence as well as preventing from tackling it.

This biased, non-inclusive approach of the media creates an environment that is conducive to continuing sexual harassment of women of color. It also silences those affected women of color and discourages them from reporting sexual harassment or asking for support through any available mechanisms.

During the period from 2018 to 2021, women filed 78.2% of the 27,291 sexual harassment charges received by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Of the 1,945 sexual harassment charges filed concurrently with a race charge, 71.2% designated Black/African American and another 4.8% designated Asian as the relevant race. Data from the EEOC reflects that 56% of sexual harassment charges are filed by women of color; yet women of color only make 37 percent of women in the workforce.

According to the survey by the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) in 2022, overall, in the last 12 months, a staggering 74% of AAPI women personally experienced racism and/or discrimination, 38% experienced sexual harassment, and 12% reported experiencing gender and/or race-based physical violence.

There is also another factor why the media is paying more attention to white women through #MeToo movement. This is because white women (and men) are far better represented in the US media than women (and men) of color. For instance, the proportion of all journalists who are white men and white women is 52.12% and 31.04%, respectively.

The comparable figure for black men and black women, respectively, is 3.02% and 2.62%, while the overall figure for non-white men and women (i.e. Black, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian, Hawaiian Pacific Islanders and others), is 8.58% and 7.95%, respectively.

One in five people in the US is a woman of color (i.e. women who identify as non-white) as women of color were 20.3% of the US population in 2021. However, their stories are rarely told in the media while women of color are underrepresented in the media.

It is now more than thirty years since Kimberlé Crenshaw critiqued anti-discrimination law for its failure to recognize intersectionality, the compounding nature of race and gender subordination. Despite this, the US media still considers the issue of sexual harassment as an individualized problem of inappropriate behaviour rather than a systemic issue of inequalities of gender, race, and power.

This is why the media sees that the sexual harassment cases of white women survivors are more newsworthy than those of women of color.

The media should be part of the solution rather than a problem in addressing and preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. The combined influences of race and gender on sexual harassment should be identified and addressed immediately by the media with greater attention to the experiences of women of color and women from minority groups.

The media has the power to implement changes in whose stories are told. The US media should demonstrate a conscious and continued effort to provide equal representation in covering sexual harassment cases that is inclusive of all types of survivors, including women of color.

Shihana Mohamed is one of the Coordinators of the United Nations Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion and a Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project and Equality Now on Advancing the Rights of Women and Girls.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shihana-mohamed-68556b15/

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Mar 6 2024 (IPS)

Viable, popular national economic alternatives require conditions to help build and sustain them. An independent, accountable government can ensure supportive institutions, including laws.

National economies
For the Global South, globalisation has often meant renewed foreign domination. While dating back to the age of empire, foreign domination is less evident in post-colonial times, making it more difficult to organise against it.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

National sovereignty and independence are necessary to develop and sustain viable popular economic alternatives. This requires addressing contemporary realities. Some unexpected opportunities may even emerge from the new challenges faced.

Cooperation among significant national social forces must be maintained for an alternative to be popular and sustainable. Negotiating, preserving, strengthening and ‘updating’ such collaboration is necessary to advance popular national interests.

This becomes challenging when those involved are not on a level playing field. After all, we live in a world dominated by powerful private interests, typically working through corporations, with transnational ones being the most influential.

Most people know that such domination is exercised via economic assets. But it has increasingly also involved control of the main means of communication. Global public discourses have thus been reshaped, even in multilateral institutions.

Thus, for example, the unrepresentative corporate-dominated Davos World Economic Forum sets agendas for multilateral conferences in the interest of the ‘lords of the universe’. More than seventy heads of government and state attended the last Davos event, many more than the UN General Debate.

Can developing alternative means of communication better shape our discourses, as our interests rarely coincide with those effectively in control?

Rule by law
Katarina Pistor has shown how law is hardly neutral but instead crucial to capitalism’s functioning. Thus, setting and enforcing rules privileges the interests shaping them.

Law is made by the powerful to legitimise their interests and practices, e.g., by enforcing contracts, property rights, etc. The legal framework defines how we operate, what is considered legal and illegal, and what is licit and illicit.

The African Union-Economic Commission for Africa study, chaired by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, recognised that many illicit practices are not illegal. Such massive illicit financial outflows characterise most of the Global South.

Such haemorrhage has worsened in recent decades as developing countries competed to attract foreign investments. In recent decades, they opened their capital accounts, believing economists who claimed finance would then flow ‘downhill’ into them. Instead, it flows ‘uphill’ from ‘capital-poor’ to ‘capital-rich’ nations.

Finance has transformed economies and communities in recent decades. The growing influence of such interests has increasingly constrained national monetary and financial authorities’ ability to manage interest and exchange rates.

Hence, only governments and multilateral financial institutions can create arrangements enabling preferential access to concessional finance. Inclusion and accountability can help ensure governments better serve the public interest.

Taxation
The Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation recommended a minimum universal corporate income tax rate of 25%.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen later proposed 21%, the current US rate, to minimise political opposition in Washington. However, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson cut this to 15% at the G7 meeting he hosted.

The OECD-G20 Inclusive Framework for Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) seems to share the OECD view that such tax revenue be distributed by the country of sale, not production.

Developing countries lose out as they generally produce much more than they can afford to consume. With foreign advice shaping developing countries’ policies, their tax rates and revenue shares of output have fallen for decades. Hence, indebted nations believe they have to cut government spending.

Unsurprisingly, most developing countries have supported the African group’s resolution to make the UN the sole legitimate body for international tax cooperation, thus undermining the Inclusive Framework’s pretensions.

Trade liberalisation bias
Trade liberalisation is a double-edged sword. It can enhance exports to earn more foreign exchange but also destroys economic capacities, e.g., for industrialisation and food security.

Rich countries – including the US, the world’s biggest agricultural exporter – have sustained food production with government support using protection and subsidies. But while such subsidies are allowed, developing countries have been stopped from using tariffs for food security.

The US subsidises maize production for corn oil to make bioethanol. Corn syrup and chicken feed also get subsidised in the process. Consequently, US chicken exports have wiped out many poultry farmers worldwide.

Food prices increased sharply for some months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Jayati Ghosh showed these food price spikes were mainly due to speculation and price manipulation rather than wartime supply disruptions.

Futures markets once reduced commodity price fluctuations but have had significant disruptive effects more recently. This is mainly due to the changed nature of commodity spot, futures and options markets, especially with massive programmed financial speculation using algorithms and artificial intelligence.

* Edited remarks to the World People’s Economic Forum at the World Social Forum in Kathmandu on February 18, 2024.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Syeda Shehrbano Naqvi, saved a woman falsely accused of blasphemy. Credit: ASP Shehrbano Naqvi

By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Mar 6 2024 (IPS)

Since the start of the year, there has been very little to celebrate for Pakistanis. Disrupted social media, escalating electricity, fuel, and food prices, and newly-held elections mired in controversy. But then, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Syeda Shehrbano Naqvi, did something that brightened the days of despair.

The 31-year-old’s courageous overture and foresight in the face of a potentially explosive situation have given Pakistan a reason to stand among the countries on this year’s Women’s Day with pride.

Naqvi rescued a woman, wearing a dress with Arabic calligraphy, from a frenzied mob from Lahore’s Ichhra Bazaar late last month (Sunday, February 25), who mistook it for verses from the Holy Quran and accused her of having committed blasphemy.

“There must be approximately 150–200 people by the time I reached the spot where this incident took place, around 1.45 pm,” said the police officer, talking to IPS over the phone from Lahore. She spoke to the mob with authority: “You should trust us [police],” she was heard shouting to the crowd on a video clip gone viral. Prior to her arrival, police from nearby police stations had also arrived to manage the situation.

“We had to act swiftly and get her out, as an angry mob in a close space can mean the situation getting out of control quickly,” she told IPS.

A black abayaa (a loose-fitted, long-sleeved robe worn by Muslim women) was arranged for the woman to cover her dress, which had ignited the sentiments in the first place, and her face completely covered to protect her identity when she was led out and whisked away in the police vehicle.

Following this incident, Manto, a clothing shop that uses a lot of calligraphic verses by poets and writers, put this notice on its social media pages. Credit: Manto

 

With permission from Masood Lohar, founder of the Clifton Urban Forest, who put up these AI-generated illustrations on his Facebook page. Credit: Masood Lohar/Facebook

 

Credit: Masood Lohar/Facebook

Naqvi knew exactly how to handle the situation, having dealt with similar situations in the past. But she admitted that the “five-minute walk to the police van was not without danger, despite the police forming a circle around us.”

Before the police arrived, videos posted on social media show a visibly terrified woman standing in the far corner of a restaurant with her hands covering half of her face.

The restaurant owner put his shutter down and locked it from inside to protect the woman, while others tried to calm the angry mob, who threatened to set the place on fire if the woman was not handed to them.

“Pakistanis spend so much of their time reading the Quran and reciting from it; then how can the simplest Arabic writing be mistaken for a holy verse?” asked Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, an Islamabad-based physicist and author, referring to rote learning of the holy book by majority Pakistanis. “This episode reveals that the ability to read a foreign language without understanding it achieves nothing.”

“Fighting pressure, numbers, and situations, you upheld both humanity and law; I thank you, and we are very proud of you,” said a press statement issued from the newly-elected chief minister of Punjab province, Maryam Nawaz’s office, commending officer Naqvi.

“Shehrbano Naqvi has set a new standard for the police force,” said young Pakistani activist Ammar Ali Jan, secretary general of the left-wing socialist party, Haqooq-e-Khalq Party.

“This is the way to stand up to a mob; it’s never happened before and it will set an example for others to take similar action,” he said, especially if she’s rewarded.

The Punjab police chief has recommended Naqvi for the Quaid-i-Azam Police Medal for her gallantry.

Jan said the incident should be looked at through a gender lens. “It has highlighted the need for more educated and qualified women to be inducted into the state apparatus.”

However, for many, what happened after the rescue has left a bad aftertaste.

ASP Shehrbano Naqvi put aside her own safety and came to the rescue of a woman falsely accused of blasphemy. Her bravery has been recognized and some of the people involved are now under investigation. Credit: ASP Shehrbano Naqvi

Conceding the policewoman put up a brave act and prevented it from getting ugly, Farah Zia, director of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan asked: “Why was the rescued woman, under the same police watch, forced to seek forgiveness and declare herself to belong to the majority Sunni Muslim sect and thus can never think of doing anything to harm the sentiments of her fellow Muslims? Does it mean those belonging to minority faiths or sects can be expected to?”

Zia said it sent a signal that the government and the state are helpless and weak in the face of violent mobs.

The apology video, showing the woman sitting in between two bearded men who also put words in her mouth during the recording, was shot at the police station, but Naqvi insisted it had nothing to do with the police.

“It was decided between those nominated by the mob and the woman’s family that she would apologize,” clarified Naqvi and that the job of the police was just to “ensure law and order is maintained; there is no loss of life and no material damage.”

However, she added: “It is pertinent to remember that this incident either could have become a trauma in the life of the woman or we could have helped by placating the issue in a manner that puts an end to any further conversation that would ensue in the future. We decided to do the latter, despite criticism from various quarters. Given certain realities of our society, she now has a better chance of living a normal, healthy, and happy life,” pointed out Naqvi.

“The progressives among us may not like the tactical approach employed,” said Jan, referring to the apology coerced from the accused woman, but he explained: “The threat is real and potent, especially for someone who is marked.” He further added that the balance of forces in society is tipped in favour of extremists.

Hoodbhoy said the incident was reflective of an education system that “feeds religious fanaticism,” because of which Pakistani society and even its educated class have turned extremist.

“No longer can illiteracy alone be held responsible. The hyper-religiosity promoted through state institutions and the toxic education in our schools are not getting us admiration anywhere. Instead, it is producing a wild, uncontrollable population. Even our friends now fear us,” he lamented.

“Who in his right mind—apart from dedicated mountaineers—would want to vacation in a country where the population is ready to burst into flames at the slightest provocation?” he warned.

Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan but as has often happened in the past, even before the case goes to trial, the accused is lynched.

According to the data collected by the Centre of Social Justice Pakistan, at least 329 people were allegedly accused of blasphemy in the year 2023.

“This is merely a list of cases reported in the press; the number can be higher than that,” Peter Jacob, executive director of CSJP, told IPS. Seven people were killed extrajudicially in 2023, he said.

At least 2,449 people have been accused of committing blasphemy between 1987 and 2023 and 95 people were killed extrajudicially between 1994 and 2023. No one has ever been punished except Mumtaz Qadri, who assassinated Punjab governor Salman Taseer in 2011.

Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC), applauded the policewoman for showing immense courage in the face of such incidents; he said many others had buckled under similar circumstances in the past.

“She put her life in danger to save this woman and she should be commended for that,” he told IPS.

With “every political party and every political leader agreeing the law is misused and the accusations are false and have led to deadly consequences,” Jan said they need to come up with a grand national strategy.

“Begin by punishing those who falsely accuse others of blasphemy.”

Ashrafi wholeheartedly endorsed this. “Make it the test case,” demanded the PUC head, so that such incidents do not happen again.” He said all those who instigated this incident should be tried under the state’s anti-terrorist law.

Since the filing of this story, the Lahore police have lodged a First Information Report (FIR) against dozens of alleged miscreants so that the process of investigation can begin.

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Excerpt:

This feature is part of a series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

Official photograph captured during the proceedings of the 8th Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) convened in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Credit: CELAC

By Mario Lubetkin
SANTIAGO, Mar 5 2024 (IPS)

The regional commitment to fight hunger and malnutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean has made significant progress thanks to the update of the Food Security, Nutrition and Hunger Eradication Plan of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) for the period 2024-2030, known as the CELAC FNS Plan.

This update was approved and ratified during the VIII Summit of Heads of State and Government of CELAC, held on March 1 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

This commitment evidence Latin America and the Caribbean’s significant contribution to accelerating the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals, aimed at achieving societies free of hunger, poverty, and inequality in the region.

Our latest estimates show that, in 2022, 6.5 percent of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean suffered from hunger; this represented 2.4 million fewer people than in 2021. But the situation remains critical; hunger continues to affect 43.2 million people in the region

Our latest estimates show that, in 2022, 6.5 percent of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean suffered from hunger; this represented 2.4 million fewer people than in 2021. But the situation remains critical; hunger continues to affect 43.2 million people in the region.

Likewise, limited access to resources and services, poverty, the aftermath of the pandemic, and conflicts as well as climate-related disasters, among other factors, are affecting the ecosystems on which food production and the livelihoods of farming communities depend and threaten efforts to ensure food security, nutrition and the sustainability of agrifood systems.

In this scenario, the CELAC FNS Plan 2024-2030 is a concrete initiative, reflected in a unanimous response from more than thirty countries, which, at a ministerial level, agreed to update this document to address the challenge of hunger and food insecurity in the region.

The new plan -developed in coordination with the Pro-Tempore Presidency, currently led by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the thirty-three CELAC countries, included broad participation and analysis with technical assistance from FAO, ECLAC, IICA, and ALADI- has become a benchmark for other regions of the world. Its implementation represents a milestone example of the consensus and political commitment of Latin America and the Caribbean.

This plan, structured into four pillars, includes a conceptual basis to guide the countries concerning legal frameworks, sustainable production, access to healthy diets, and agrifood systems resilient to climate change.

2024 could represent a decisive year for Latin America and the Caribbean to make progress in combating hunger and malnutrition and achieving more resilient and sustainable production systems. During 2023, we have consolidated a deep process of alliances, consensus, and dialogue that will soon be part of the FAO Regional Conference.

We are in the final stretch of preparation for our Regional Conference to be held in March in Georgetown, Guyana, where we will facilitate exchanges and discussions that will be essential to guide FAO’s technical cooperation in the design and implementation of plans and projects tailored to the needs of the countries, and in line with the priorities defined by governments at the highest political level.

In this regard, the reflections and resolutions arising from the updating and subsequent approval of the new CELAC FNS Plan also represent a significant contribution to the FAO Regional Conference.

The preparation of the Regional Conference includes an extensive consultation process involving different stakeholders, such as the private sector, academia, civil society, and parliamentary groups; and of course, the participation of government officials from the thirty-three FAO Member Countries; as well as the presence of Heads of State and Ministers of Agriculture and other sectors committed to the search for more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems.

We hope that the results of the Conference, translated into FAO’s mandate, will be consolidated as a tangible response. The success of these efforts will depend on the collaboration of all to make the hope of a world without hunger a reality.

Excerpt:

Mario Lubetkin is FAO Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean for Latin America and the Caribbean

Credit: ESCAP/Cindy Liu

By Cai Cai, Jonathan Wong, Channe Lindstrøm Oguzhan, Elena Mayer-Besting, Christina Morrison and Darshni Nagaria
BANGKOK, Thailand, Mar 5 2024 (IPS)

Ponny Lim runs a thriving aquaculture enterprise in Cambodia, growing her business with the support of a United Nations programme that guarantees loans to women entrepreneurs who are beyond microfinance but not yet ready for corporate finance.

Working in a largely male dominated sector, Ponny has used this additional capital to take her products to other markets, and is also now supporting other women in her community to tackle gender bias and run their own businesses.

Ponny’s example reminds us on this International Women’s Day that investing in women is not only a moral imperative to achieving a more just and equal world, but an economic necessity, crucial to fostering sustainable, inclusive and prosperous economies.

In Asia and the Pacific, an estimated $4.5 trillion would be added to the region’s GDP by tackling gender disparities in economic opportunities. Yet, globally, it is estimated that more than 1 billion women either do not use or lack access to the financial system.

This has far-reaching consequences for the well-being of women, not only impeding their ability to pay for household expenses and recover from economic shocks, but also constraining opportunities for women seeking to start and grow their own businesses.

While the role of women’s entrepreneurship in driving economic growth, job creation and innovation is well established, a $300 billion annual gap in financing has been identified for formal women-owned small and medium businesses. An estimated 70 per cent of women-owned MSMEs are either financially underserved or unserved.

Research by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on a wide range of indicators related to women’s financial inclusion, asset control and ownership, financial resilience and entrepreneurship reveals a host of challenges faced by women and a resultant gender gap.

Where data is available, the upcoming report “Financial Resilience, Inclusion and Entrepreneurship: Is Asia and the Pacific close to Gender Parity?” shows that in most countries in the region, women have lower levels of bank account ownership, access to credit and access to pensions. Women also experience higher levels of stress related to their financial situation and women-owned MSMEs lack adequate access to financial services.

These gaps result from and contribute to entrenched discriminatory norms and practices that continue to hamper the use of financial services among women. Common obstacles include limited household decision-making power, time poverty and career interruption due to a higher burden of care responsibilities, lower incomes and lower participation in formal employment among women, digital exclusion, transportation barriers, a lack of demand driven financial products and discriminatory lending practices.

Notably, the broader structural challenge of women’s limited asset ownership and control, which is often both the result of financial inclusion and economic success and a prerequisite for access to finance and economic opportunities, is a significant obstacle that must be overcome to achieve women’s meaningful financial inclusion and economic participation in the region.

The fact remains that women are more likely than men to be living in poor households in the Asia-Pacific region, with deep-rooted discriminatory social norms preventing women from realizing their full potential. Women perform more than four times as much unpaid care and domestic work, which is one of the primary reasons why the female labour force participation rate continues to decline, to 44 per cent today from 52 per cent in 1995, and still well below the world average of 47 per cent.

Barriers to women’s integration into the labour market and overrepresentation in less profitable sectors of the economy are closely linked to women’s financial exclusion, which both contributes to and is perpetuated by women’s concentration in the informal sector and precarious forms of employment, without the assurance of social protection.

Yet financial inclusion alone will not automatically reduce poverty or promote economic empowerment or financial resilience, nor will it eliminate structural inequalities faced by women. However, it is a vital tool which can contribute to enabling women to manage financial risks, attain financial independence, overcome traditional roles assigned to them, increase their incomes, accumulate assets, pursue entrepreneurial aspirations and grow their businesses.

Gender-intentional approaches and active collaboration between policymakers, businesses, financial service providers and civil society stakeholders is key to ensuring that financial inclusion leads to positive outcomes for all women, provide equal rights to asset ownership and inheritance, improve financial resilience and create a conducive environment for women’s entrepreneurship.

Our work at ESCAP includes the Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme, funded by Global Affairs Canada. The project has been building momentum for the movement to create an enabling ecosystem for women entrepreneurs across the region and close the gap in access to finance.

Since 2018, the programme has unlocked more than $89.7 million in capital for women-owned and led businesses, and directly supported more than 176,000 women entrepreneurs.

This type of activity highlights the fact that when women have equal access to economic opportunities, education, healthcare, work and representation in political and economic decision-making processes they can drive strong and inclusive economic growth.

And when we value the unpaid care and domestic work carried out by women and girls and invest in the care economy, we see how the multiplier effects uplift entire communities, improving the health, education and well-being of future generations.

The transformative effect of women’s empowerment is also evident in fostering more resilient and solidarity-based communities and societies. Women’s unique perspectives and leadership are essential in sustainably managing natural resources and crafting effective climate change solutions. Their engagement ensures that development initiatives are equitable and reach those most in need.

The path ahead is clear: In order to accelerate gender equality and women’s empowerment we must end poverty in all its forms. We must strengthen institutions. And we must be intentional at every juncture to provide sufficient financial resources to integrate a wholesome gender perspective throughout the implementation of our policies and programmes.

• Cai Cai is Chief of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Section, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
• Jonathan Wong is Chief of Innovation, Enterprise and Investment Section, ESCAP
• Channe Lindstrøm Oguzhan is Social Affairs Officer, ESCAP
• Elena Mayer-Besting is Programme Management Officer, ESCAP
• Christina Morrison is Consultant (Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme), ESCAP
• Darshni Nagaria is Consultant (Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme), ESCAP

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Excerpt:

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

By Azza Karam
NEW YORK, Mar 5 2024 (IPS)

One of the most fascinating aspects of International Women’s Day is an odd subtext. That this is all about and (only) for women. Really? Since when are the realities of one part of humanity – the part that gives birth to the rest by the way – only relevant to that one part?

Would we ever think that if we had an international man’s day (which would be practically every day of the years of our lives) is all about and only for men? No, we would not.

What international women’s day is, is an opportunity to see the world through the eyes of those who have been systematically, systemically and deliberately, marginalized, silenced, scorned – and sometimes violently hated. But it is also an opportunity to celebrate the resilience, the determination, and the remarkable rebirth, survival, and yes, the relief, if not the joy, of thriving.

Look deep into the eyes of the girls and women of DRC, CAR, Ukraine, Russia, Ethiopia, Eretria, Palestine, Israel, Afghanistan, of the Indigenous peoples in North America, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand – and countless other survivors of violence, in every corner of today’s world. Those are the eyes into the spirit of this earth.

International women’s day is but one of the 365 days of a year, to, perhaps, ponder the fact that our very earth is referred to, in many languages, in feminine terms.

Our earth is our very survival. Even, if and when, some of us succeed in living in Mars or on the moon, the majority of us will still need this earth to bear us, as it has borne our ancestors, and as it continues to, in spite of the deliberate destructions we levy against it, from each household, community, nation and region, in every corner of the world.

Our earth sustains nuclear tests which shred its very fibers from deep inside it. Even as it revolts in floods and roars back through erupting volcanoes, our earth still sustains the unending destructions of war, the piling up of human and other life forms, buried in it – and burned on it.

Our earth carries us and nurtures us on its oceans and seas and rivers, many of which we have choked with our human detritus which is killing the very same remarkable ecosystems that keep our waters clean, and help the air to heal.

Our earth tries to keep its own lungs functioning through the trees and oceans which are staying connected to one another, and to life itself, in ways many of us have no idea about. Every grain of sand, dew drop, branch, leaf, cloud – all feminine.

Come to think of it, our earth is being treated by humans, as so many girls and women are still being treated: taken advantage of, beaten, (ab)used, considered replaceable or profitable (or both), and when they excel, they are resented, including by some of their own kind.

We dare not speak of the woman-on-woman violence, right? That is not done, not even by the most stalwart of our feminist leaders. All the while this is happening though, poetry, prizes, even laws, are being enacted to ‘save’, commemorate, and ‘honour’ earth.

All faith traditions actually have a secret embedded within them: that that which is feminine, always rises again, to love, as it serves and gives birth, and to fight for the very possibility of life itself. As we commemorate this day, we would do well to remember that it is not about girls and women per se, it is about the power of the feminine that is earth itself.

None of us is born to be alone forever. We need one another. In fact, we are completely dependent on one another.

Our earth demands justice for life itself to be sustained. International women’s day is every human’s day, every life on this planet day, every living thing day, every star in the cosmos of creation day.

Can we honour that?

Azza Karam is a member of the UN SG’s High Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism, and is the founding President & CEO of Lead Integrity, an International Management Consulting business, focused on creating a Roster, and making available, the expertise of women inspired by diverse faiths and serving in all professions, committed to leadership, integrity and competence.

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Excerpt:

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 5 2024 (IPS)

The UN Ethics Office, established in 2006, has promoted an organizational culture in the world body, including integrity, professionalism, respect for diversity and protection for whistle-blowers.

But the UN Pension Fund, whose assets amount to a staggering $88.3 billion, is accused of firing four of its staffers, including senior investment officers, for challenging the wisdom of the Fund’s investment policies.

The firings have been criticized by two Staff Unions representing over 60,000 UN staffers worldwide.

In a letter to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the President of the Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations, (CCISUA) Nathalie Meynet says the Unions are alarmed to learn about the recent dismissal of four senior investment officers, “with indications that more staff may be terminated.”

“As you know, during the tenure of the previous Representative of the Secretary-General (in the Pension Fund), a group of senior investment managers decided to blow the whistle on what the Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) later found to be a “toxic work environment”. They first raised their concerns with their direct management.”

Feeling that the matter was not given the level of attention required, they also met with the Staff Union. Some, but not all, of those who are being dismissed, met with the US and Japan’s Permanent Missions.

This undoubtedly, the letter said, had an impact in terms of changing the leadership of The Office of Investment Management (OIM).

Subsequently these staff members were investigated, and their emails and WhatsApp messages scrutinized by OIOS, on the following charges:

• Meeting with the US and Japan’s missions, or being aware that some of the staff in the group were meeting with those missions, and that sensitive information would be disclosed.

• Raising concerns with the Staff Union and disclosing sensitive information.

“We are dismayed that staff should be formally disciplined for having raised alarm with their staff representatives. We are also very concerned that the Organisation has failed to uphold the Secretary-General’s Bulletin 2017/2/Rev.1 on Protection against retaliation for reporting misconduct and for cooperating with duly authorized audits or investigations,” the letter pointed out.

Under Section 4, such actions are permitted when the use of internal mechanisms is not possible because of either inaction, fear of retaliation or concealing of evidence. “We are further worried that your actions, in firing so many OIM staff at once and in preventing staff from raising genuine concerns, creates an unacceptable risk to the management of Pension Fund assets”.

The UN Principles for Responsible Investment states: “Effective whistleblowing mechanisms are a key feature of good governance and anti-corruption systems, as well as being reflective of a healthy corporate culture. They can help support companies to mitigate the risks associated with unethical or illegal conduct, which if left unchallenged can lead to significant corporate failures and loss of value.”

“We therefore ask that you reconsider your decision to terminate the Pension Fund’s senior investment officers on grounds of whistleblowing. “

At the time of going to press, the Pension Fund did not respond to our request for comments.

Meanwhile, in a letter to colleagues, Laura Johnson, Executive Secretary and Pablo Gonzalez Silva, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Staff Union of the UN Office at Geneva, share their concerns “regarding the recent firings of senior investment officers in the Pension Fund’s Office of Investment Management”.

As spelled in the letter sent by the staff union federation, CCISUA, to the Secretary-General, “these staff were fired for blowing the whistle. Their performance as investment managers is not in question”, the letter pointed out.

“We believe that these firings: go against the UN’s policy on whistleblower protection; lead to the loss of significant accumulated experience; and create a climate of fear among the pension fund’s investment managers that prevents them from voicing their own perspective on how investment policy is implemented.”

“The last point is especially important. The fund’s experienced investment managers must be able to voice their opinion, particularly when these contradict those of the head of the Office of Investment Management, a political appointment, known as the Representative of the Secretary-General. We strongly support this letter and will be discussing with other staff unions what further steps we can take.”

According to the Code of Conduct, the UN’s protection against retaliation policy is to ensure that the Organization functions in an open, transparent and fair manner and enhances protection for those who report misconduct (any violation of the Organization’s rules and regulations by staff members), wrongdoing (by any person that is harmful to the interests, operation or governance of the United Nations), or cooperate with duly authorized audits and investigations.

The reports and cooperation are considered “protected activities” under the policy. “In order to receive protection, any report should be made as soon as possible, in good faith and not later than six years since you became aware of the original misconduct.”

To be considered a protected activity, a report of misconduct must include information or evidence to support a reasonable belief that misconduct occurred. Under very specific and limited conditions, protection against retaliation may be extended to individuals who report misconduct through external mechanisms.

“Retaliation means any direct or indirect detrimental action that adversely affects your employment or working conditions, where such action has been recommended, threatened or taken for the purpose of punishing, intimidating or injuring you because you engaged in a protected activity. You must submit a request for protection to the Ethics Office within six months of becoming aware of the retaliation”.

Meanwhile, the Representative of the Secretary-General for the investment of the assets of the Fund (RSG), Pedro Guazo, reported on the progress made by the Office of Investment Management (OIM).

He informed the Board that as of 31 December 2023, the portfolio was valued at USD 88.18 billion, compared to USD 77.92 billion as of 31 December 2022. The Fund has been performing well with a real rate of return of 4.8 per cent over the 15-year long-term period ending December 31, 2023, and 5.2 per cent as of January 31, 2024, which is above the required minimum of real rate of return 3.5 per cent, according to the Pension Fund.

“It has also exceeded the market benchmark for the short-term (3 years) by 50 basis points as of December 31, 2023, and by 30 basis points as of January 31, 2024. In addition, the Fund demonstrated a 5-year return (2018-2022) of 4.2 per cent, outperforming both the global median of 3.3 per cent and the peer median of 2.7 per cent. The Fund’s assets-to-liabilities ratio, also known as the funding ratio, is greater than 110 per cent, indicating strong financial health,” the Fund said.

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Abigail Hernández (left) appears at a press conference with journalist Wendy Quintero, a member of Independent Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua at the headquarters of the Nicaragua Nunca Más Rights Collective. CREDIT: José Mendieta / IPS

By José Mendieta
MANAGUA, Mar 5 2024 (IPS)

Almost six years after the outbreak of the April 2018 protests, there are no signs left in Nicaragua of the violence that reigned in those days. There is no graffiti on walls or banners with demands or opinions against the leftist regime that has ruled the country since 2007.

Nor are there newspapers or opinion programs or debates on radio and television, let alone press conferences or public rallies."The Ortega and Murillo regime's repressive mechanisms have escalated to dramatic and unimaginable levels. A simple opinion issued on social networks or a criticism of the regime could land you in jail or exile." -- Martha Irene Sánchez

The city of Managua, the capital, is always bustling and active, with markets and shopping malls open at all hours; traffic is usually disorderly and police patrols roam the streets and avenues at all times.

At noon every day, on all radio and television stations, the tired, quiet voice of Vice President Rosario Murillo is heard giving the government’s news, social achievements and propaganda messages such as phrases of love and praise to God.

The program, which has no specific name, is broadcast from Channel 4, the historical property of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), the ruling party, to which the other state media are linked. The private media outlets controlled by the presidential family are also connected, together with dozens of radio stations and portals on social networks.

It first emerged in 2007 as “a message from comrade Rosario, from the Communication and Citizenship Council of the People’s President.”

“Here we are, on Valentine’s Day, with love, friendship, and for us, love and peace, because it is with love and in peace that we can walk ahead, move forward, building the future of all, a fraternal future,” she said on Feb. 13.

Murillo has been Nicaragua’s vice president since she was appointed in 2016 by her husband, President Daniel Ortega, the veteran former guerrilla who has been in office since November 2006.

Murillo is also the regime’s spokesperson and the only authorized voice, among the population of 6.7 million inhabitants of this Central American country, who can speak publicly and freely about anything. No one else can do so.

Freedom of expression in Nicaragua is one of the most repressed and abused rights, said journalist Abigail Hernández, director of the Galería News platform.

Journalist and former political prisoner Lucía Pineda Úbau, together with Martha Sánchez, take part in a protest by Nicaraguan journalists exiled in Costa Rica. CREDIT: José Mendieta / IPS

Her opinion, tellingly sent via an encrypted messaging application, is based on experience: three years’ exile.

“The media and journalists are a good thermometer for measuring the quality of freedom of expression,” Hernández told IPS.

“When we have less and less access to sources of information, when they limit us from reporting from the streets, when we can’t take photos or videos freely, when we can’t do our work inside the country, it reveals that there is no freedom of expression,” she said.

She is part of a generation of 242 journalists who have had to go into exile since the 2018 protests, which began against Social Security reforms and ended in a bloodbath provoked by military and police forces, with more than 355 civilian deaths, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

Journalist Martha Irene Sánchez, director of the República 18 platform, holds similar views, also expressed from exile.

“The scenarios for exercising freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Nicaragua have not improved since 2018; on the contrary, we are encountering more and more hostility,” she told IPS.

She is also a member of Independent Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua (PCIN), a union organization that emerged after the protests and all of whose members went into exile.

“The Ortega and Murillo regime’s repressive mechanisms have escalated to dramatic and unimaginable levels. A simple opinion issued on social networks or a criticism of the regime could land you in jail or exile,” Sánchez said.

A forum for the presentation of the report on freedom of expression and press freedom in Nicaragua, released in September 2023 in San José, Costa Rica. The panel included journalists from Nicaragua from the Connectas platform, including FLED director Guillermo Medrano, (second-right). CREDIT: José Mendieta / IPS

She cited the example of Victor Ticay, a local journalist in Nandaime, a municipality in the northwestern department of Granada, who went out one day to cover a procession during the Catholic Holy Week of 2023.

The event had not been authorized by the police, whose agents interrupted the religious ceremony and Ticay filmed the parishioners running away from the patrol cars through the streets of the town.

He was arrested, charged with treason and spreading false news and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Guillermo Medrano, director of the Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy (FLED), explained to IPS that between 2020 and 2021, the Nicaraguan regime passed a series of laws criminalizing the practice of journalism and freedom of expression.

A study that FLED released in September 2023 in San José, Costa Rica, a country bordering Nicaragua and the center of the country’s exile community, documented 1329 press freedom violations, mostly perpetrated by state agents in the 2018-2023 five-year period.

The actions were taken against 338 Nicaraguan journalists and 78 media outlets, between April 2018 and April 2023.

They included the police intervention of several media outlets such as 100% Noticias, Confidencial, Trinchera de la Noticia, Radio Darío and La Prensa, the last newspaper circulating in Nicaragua until August 2022.

According to Medrano, the Special Law on Cybercrime, passed in October 2020, provides for prison sentences for the use of information “which in normal democracies should be freely accessible to citizens and the public.”

In theory, the main objective of this legislation is the prevention, investigation, prosecution and punishment of crimes committed by means of information and communication technologies to the detriment of natural or legal persons.

The press freedom advocate also pointed out that the Ortega-Murillo administration, which controls all state institutions and branches of power, as well as the security forces, established the Law for the Defense of the Rights of the People to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-Determination for Peace, effective since Dec. 22, 2020.

This law gives discretion to judges and prosecutors in terms of the crime of “treason”, which orders the banishment and denationalization of the accused, as well as life imprisonment through a reform of the penal system.

More than 180 people have already been prosecuted under these laws and at least 22 journalists were stripped of their citizenship and banished in 2023.

“Under these laws, freedom of speech and the press has become a high-risk constitutional right for those who exercise it within Nicaragua,” Medrano denounced.

A report by the regional organization Voces del Sur says that Nicaragua ended 2023 with new forms of repression and threats to press freedom applied through banishment, confiscations, illegal detentions and harassment and surveillance of the families of journalists working in exile.

The outlook, the report warns, is of greater silence about social issues.

Nicaraguan journalists conduct interviews under risk of persecution or criminalization, denounced several reporters in San José, Costa Rica, in August 2023. CREDIT: José Mendieta / IPS

According to the report, between 2018 and the end of 2022, 54 media outlets disappeared, including 31 radio stations, 15 television channels and eight print media outlets. Of that total, 16 media outlets were confiscated, including La Prensa, the country’s main daily newspaper.

“Sources, even under conditions of anonymity, are harder and harder to find, and the saddest thing is that the State, through its officials, continues to be the main victimizer of citizens’ rights of expression and journalists’ press rights,” Medrano complained.

The non-governmental Human Rights Collective Nicaragua Nunca Más, made up of human rights defenders and activists in exile, states that the Ortega-Murillo administration “has carried out an unprecedented attack on freedom of expression in this country.”

The organization reports that of 28 resolutions of precautionary measures for journalists in Latin America, which have been issued since 2018 by the IACHR on freedom of expression, 15 have been issued for Nicaragua.

However, it says that “none of the precautionary measures” have been complied with by the State and, on the contrary, harassment against the targets has increased.

“And that reveals to us the seriousness of the problem of a small country with disproportionate and unacceptable restrictions on fundamental freedoms,” said one of the agency’s advocates, on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

These complaints find no responses within Nicaragua, because with the exception of Murillo, no one is authorized to answer, but can simply repeat the official discourse: “Nicaragua lives in peace and security.”

By Anis Chowdhury
SYDNEY, Mar 4 2024 (IPS)

Israeli troops opened fire targeting the Palestinians, gathered around food aid trucks, killing at least 112 and injuring hundreds on 29 February. The massacre happened, about a month after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures for Israel to refrain from all acts under the Genocide convention. Ironically Israel was supposed to report to the Court, within one month, of all measures taken in line with its order. Israel has been emboldened by a beholden US.

Anis Chowdhury

Beholden US
The US rejected the South Africa’s genocide case against Israel before the ICJ as “counterproductive, meritless and without any evidence”. It continued to “believe that allegations of genocide are unfounded” even after the ICJ provisional orders and noted that the court did not call for a ceasefire.

President Joe Biden did not condemn the shootings, but said Washington was checking “two competing versions” of the killings. He only feared that the event would complicate the on-going efforts to broker a hostage exchange deal and a temporary so-called humanitarian pause. So, the US asked only for a clarification from the Israeli government while the rest of the world demanded an independent inquiry.

Unsurprisingly, Israel initially pinned “the blame on the crowd”, crushed and trampled in a stampede when aid trucks arrived; then the IDF inquiry found no wrongdoing by its soldiers “felt threatened” when hundreds of Palestinians approached them. It did not care to say how an army, equipped with most advanced weapons, could be threatened by hungry unarmed Palestinians, requiring indiscriminate firing.

Three days later, the US Vice-President, Kamala Harris, called for an immediate ceasefire. She called out Israel for not doing enough to ease a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

However, hypocritically, she ignored that it is her country that is allowing this to happen. The US repeatedly blocked all ceasefire attempts at the United Nations, continues to supply deadly weapons and unconditionally finance Israel’s war. It has urged the ICJ not to issue a ruling calling for Israel’s immediate withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories.

Worse, Kamala Harris now “urges” Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal even when Israel declined to send its negotiators to Cairo for the latest round of ceasefire talks, claiming without evidence that Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar has no intention of reaching an agreement and plans to escalate violence over Ramadan.

Hypocrisy galore
As the US provides diplomatic cover and signs blank cheques for Israel, Israel continues to block aid deliveries to Gaza. It knows very well that US calls for opening more entry points and accelerating aid deliveries are just lip-service.

The US and its Western allies were quick to defund the UNRWA, responding to unfounded Israeli allegations against it. This was despite repeated warnings by the United Nations and humanitarian organisations about the impending famine and on-going humanitarian disasters, and ICJ’s provisional order for all parties to take all measures to prevent plausible genocidal acts.

Having allowed this humanitarian catastrophe to occur, Harris now says, “People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane and our common humanity compels us to act”. This act now merely involves air dropping of food, simply a public relations move.

Dave Harden, former USAID director to the West Bank, told Al Jazeera “The airdrops are symbolic and designed in ways to appease the domestic base”.

Scott Paul, who leads Oxfam’s US government advocacy work, said on X, “Oxfam does not support US airdrops to Gaza, which would mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior US officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza”.

While Palestinians in Gaza have been pushed to the absolute brink, dropping a paltry, symbolic amount of aid into Gaza is deeply degrading to Palestinians. As Dave Harden said, “Really what needs to happen is more crossings [opening] and more trucks going in every day… The US has the ability to compel Israel to open up more aid and by not doing that we’re putting our assets and our people at risks and potentially creating more chaos in Gaza”.

Mahjoob Zweiri, the director of the Gulf Study Centre in Doha, agrees. He asked, “Why not send food in through Karem Abu Salem? There are 2,000 trucks waiting to get into Gaza” at border crossings, while food and medicines pile up for months past their expiry dates.

The number of trucks decreased by 40% since the ICJ ruling, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Israel continues killings
Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,523 Palestinians in Gaza in the month after the ICJ ordered Israel to prevent genocide. An average of 120 Palestinians were killed every day. At least 5,250 Palestinians were injured in Israeli attacks.

Since ICJ’s call for ensuring humanitarian aid deliveries, Israel successfully maimed UNRWA. It banned the UN rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza and moved to boot out UNRWA from buildings on state lands. It stopped renewing visas to aid workers providing vital humanitarian support to Gaza. Israel claims, without evidence, that many of the humanitarian organisations have a hostile political agenda.

“The stark absence of humanitarian space and lack of supplies we’re witnessing in Gaza is truly horrific,” says Lisa Macheiner, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) project coordinator in Gaza.

“If people are not killed by bombs, they are suffering from food and water deprivation and dying from lack of medical care”, as Israel is using “humanitarian aid as a strategic weapon”.

Anis Chowdhury is Adjunct Professor, School of Business, Western Sydney University. He held senior United Nations positions in the area of Economic and Social Affairs in New York and Bangkok.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Joseph Chamie
NEW YORK, Mar 4 2024 (IPS)

A minority of the world‘s population appears to be misogynistic and continues to oppose efforts to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls. The misogynistic minority cannot be permitted to undermine gender equality policies supported by large majorities of the public worldwide.

National surveys across different regions of the world find large majorities of the public supporting gender equality and saying it is very important for women in their country to have the same rights as men.

The majorities supporting gender equality vary from highs of 90 percent or more in countries such as Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom to lows of approximately 55 percent in Kenya, Russia and South Korea (Figure 1).

Source: Pew Research Center.

Among the misogynistic minority too many consider women as inferior to men, treat them as their personal property, deny them control over their lives and bodies, restrict their political, social and economic rights, and too often ridicule, intimidate and physically abuse them.

The misogynists also generally dismiss the fundamental principles of the equality of men and women enshrined in international documents, treaties, declarations and instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Misogynists also tend to oppose the gender equality laws and policies that are incorporated in many regional treaties and national instruments.

The current struggle for gender equality follows a lengthy history of oppression of women through men’s use of authority, law, physical force and violence. In many societies around the world, women and girls have been unjustly held back from achieving full equality and enjoying their basic human rights.

In nearly all societies in the past women were under the control of their fathers and husbands and held back from making personal decisions and achieving equality with men.

In general, women had few options or choices for supporting themselves outside of marriage and were wed or forced to marry typically at relatively young ages with the primary aims being to provide sexual relations, bear children and maintain or work in a family household.

It was only until around the beginning of the 20th century did countries begin passing legislation ensuring women the right to vote and stand for election. The first country to permit women to vote was New Zealand in 1893. About a decade later, it was followed by Australia, Finland, Denmark and Iceland.

A couple of decades later, women were granted the right to vote in the United States and the United Kingdom. Approximately a century later, the most recent countries allowing women to participate in elections are Bhutan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

By around the middle of the 20th century, more than half of all countries had granted women the right to vote, although some initially had restrictions for women of certain backgrounds based on age, education, marital status or race. Today none of the world’s nearly 200 countries bar women from voting because of their sex (Figure 2).

Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Various organizations have compiled rankings and indexes indicating the standing of countries on gender equality and the rights and well-being of women. Among the countries with some of the highest ratings on gender equality and the basic rights of women are Denmark, Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden.

In contrast, some of the countries with the lowest ratings on women’s rights and equality also typically suffer from civil conflict, which undermines efforts aimed at gender equality and the well-being of women. Among those countries are Afghanistan, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Particularly noteworthy is the dire situation of gender equality in Afghanistan. It is the only country in the world with bans on female education and employment.

Sociocultural factors, traditional practices and beliefs in Afghanistan have contributed to the country’s dire situation of gender equality in both education and employment. Girls are banned from attending secondary school and women’s employment is all but prohibited with the exceptions being in the areas of health and education.

In addition to differences among countries, significant differences in gender equality and the status of women can also vary within countries. In the United States, for example, some of the states that have attained the highest levels on women’s well-being, health and safety are Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts, while at the other end of the ranking are Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Although women make up 50 percent of the world’s population of 8 billion, their representation among governments and participation in politics is considerably less. At all levels of decision-making and policy formulation, especially in the areas of defense and the economy, women are underrepresented.

The education of girls and women is widely recognized to be one of the world’s best investments, providing a basic foundation for a lifetime of learning and advancing and empowering girls and women. Worldwide the rates of school enrollment at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels are getting closer to equal for girls and boys (Figure 3).

Source: Global Gender Gap Report.

About two-thirds of all countries have reached gender parity in primary school enrollment. However, the completion rates in many developing countries are lower for girls than boys. In addition, globally an estimated 129 million girls, 32 million at the primary level and 97 million at the secondary level, are not in school.

At the tertiary educational level, women’s enrolment has increased considerably with female students outnumbering male students. However, female students are heavily enrolled in the arts, social science and humanities rather than undertaking science, technology, engineering and math degrees.

With respect to participation in the formal labor force, a considerable gender gap exists with the rates for men and women being approximately 75 and 50 percent, respectively. However, most of the work done by women outside the formal labor force globally is unpaid.

The level of female participation in the labor force varies considerably across regions. While in most regions more than half of all women aged 15-64 years participate in the labor market, only a quarter or less do so in the regions of South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa.

Women are also more likely to spend double the amount of time than men caregiving, tackling domestic chores and doing housework. Among children aged 5 to 14 years, girls also spend considerably more time than boys on unpaid household chores.

Another major development that has influenced gender equality considerably was the introduction of women’s modern methods of contraception beginning in the 1960s. Those methods, especially oral contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices and implants, permitted women to choose the number, timing and spacing of their births.

That ability in turn reduced the fear of unintended pregnancy, reduced the incidence of abortion and provided women with the control over their reproductive lives similar to those of men. Women’s control over their reproduction also permitted them to pursue higher education, careers, employment, recreation, travel, decide on life styles and participate more fully in society.

Notable progress on the equality of women and men has been made during the recent past. However, the world is not on track to realize Goal 5 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030.

At the current rate of progress, it is estimated that it will take hundreds of decades to achieve gender equality, in particular closing gaps in legal protection and removing discriminatory laws. Reducing that lengthy time frame will require making investments in policies and programs aimed at accelerating the progress.

In addition to those investments, the basic rights of women need to be protected and enforced. Practices that oppress women need to be removed and the personal decisions and life choices of women recognized and promoted.

Also, importantly, the attitudes, objections and behavior of the world’s misogynist minority cannot be permitted to undermine gender equality policies called for and supported by large majorities of the public worldwide.

Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division and author of numerous publications on population issues, including his recent book, “Population Levels, Trends, and Differentials“.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

By Lysa John
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Mar 4 2024 (IPS)

Investing in inclusion requires more than electing and initiating women leaders. It requires a coordinated effort to change mindsets and systematically increase investments. This will allow feminist leaders, individually and collectively, to fully exercise their agency and counter targeted attacks on their safety and legitimacy.

A great deal of attention has been paid to the accomplishments of women in politics and society in recent years. Joan Carling, Francia Marquez, Maria Ressa, Amira Osman Hamed, and Narges Mohammadi have received global accolades for their vision and fearless activism.

Amid the pandemic, women leaders like Jacinda Ardern, Sanna Marin, Tsai Ing-Wen, and Angela Merkel outpaced their strongman counterparts by leading complex responses. During this period, the UN achieved gender parity in its senior leadership, including its national missions and peace operations, for the first time in history.

The leadership of women has been visible not just in institutions but also on the streets. Across the world, women human rights defenders have acted boldly for change despite severe restrictions. Movements such as #MeToo, #FreeSaudiWomen, #NiUnaMenos and #AbortoLegalYa are examples of women advancing systemic change for equality and justice. Women led peaceful demonstrations and civil disobedience actions as part of the Sudan uprising in 2018.

In 2022, the killing of Mahsa Amini sparked a large-scale and intersectional uprising for democracy. Across borders, Iranians demonstrated for ‘Women, Life, Freedom.’ They hit home the point our societies are incomplete if women are denied the right to participate in political, economic, and societal activities fully.

While the United States made headlines with its Supreme Court ruling restricting abortion rights in 2022, other countries like Ireland, San Marino, Colombia, and Mexico have turned the tide. They legalized abortion following years of struggling for their right to choose.

An uphill battle

Despite these achievements, there has been no respite in the attacks targeting women’s rights and their leadership. Civic space has never been worse since the launch of CIVICUS Monitor in 2018. 118 countries now face serious civic space restrictions. Only 2.1 percent of the world’s population lives in countries with open civic space. Intimidation, protest disruption, and detentions of protesters were the top violations documented in 2023.

These repressive strategies are extensively used to push back against women’s and LGBTQI+ people’s rights. Gender and sexuality remain at the centre of a culture war waged by a well-organised and funded international network of anti-rights forces leveraging these issues for political advantage.

South Korea’s national election in 2022 stands out as an example of how disinformation distorted the public and policy discourse against women’s rights. In his campaign, South Korea’s president-elect, Yoon Suk Yeol, actively legitimized the notion that moderate advances in gender equality were responsible for young men’s struggles in the current labour market. He pledged to abolish the Ministry for Gender Equality and Family and promised to increase punishments for the offence of making a false claim of sexual assault, a move likely aimed at making it harder for women to report real crimes.

But women are fighting back, in South Korea and elsewhere. Despite relentless anti-rights disinformation campaigns and owing to multi-year advocacy efforts, Indonesians passed a Sexual Violence Bill to criminalise forced marriage and sexual abuse and enhance protections for victims. In Spain, a new Law on the Guarantee of Sexual Freedom, based on the principle of consent, was passed to challenge widespread impunity for sexual and gender-based violence.

Women made up less than 34 percent of country negotiating teams at the COP27 climate conference, and only seven of the 110 world leaders were present. In response, gender equality was featured as a key theme during the COP28 climate conference last year.

A ‘Decision on Gender and Climate Change’, which lays the basis for future advancement of gender equality and women’s rights in future COP processes was adopted and 68 parties endorsed a Gender-Responsive Just Transitions & Climate Action Partnership, which includes a package of commitments on finance, data and equal opportunities.

Feminist leaders

In the recent past, several countries have elected or inaugurated their first-ever female political leaders. This includes Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan, Honduras’s Xiomara Castro, Slovenia’s Natasa Pirc Musar, and Peru’s Dina Boluarte. In Australia, a newly elected progressive government included a record number of women and brought the welcome promise of a U-turn on its predecessor’s policies of climate denial.

And yet, other contexts have provided a stark reminder that female leadership isn’t necessarily a victory for women, especially when feminist leadership principles aren’t at the fore. Examples include Hungary’s first female President, Katalin Novak, a close ally of authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and a staunch supporter of his anti-gender policies. Italy’s first woman Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has also, unfortunately, loudly touted anti-feminist values.

For generations, women have been subjected to rules they’ve had no role in making. Women’s movements all over the world have experienced the frustration of unsuccessfully calling for laws that benefit women. They have been struck down by the countries’ legislative bodies, made up mostly of men. Globally, women still have only three-quarters of the legal rights afforded to men. They continue to be grossly underrepresented in the places where decisions are made on issues that deeply affect them.

Invest in a feminist future

According to UN data, feminist organizations receive only 0.13% of official development assistance. Only five percent of government aid is focused on tackling violence against women and girls, with no country on track to eradicate intimate partner violence by 2030. If current trends continue, more than 340 million women and girls will still live in extreme poverty by 2030.

Close to one in four will experience moderate or severe food insecurity and as many as 236 million more women and girls will be food-insecure under a worst-case climate scenario. While progress has been made in girls’ education, women’s share of workplace management positions is estimated to remain below parity, even by 2050.

When CIVICUS interviewed Terry Ince from the CEDAW Committee of Trinidad and Tobago, she highlighted, “Women are running but not necessarily winning. To win, they would need financial and coordination support. It is not just about being in the room, but at the table, contributing, being listened to and having their ideas examined, pushed forward and implemented.”

There is a lot left to do to ensure greater representation at all levels. Only four women have been elected as president of the UN General Assembly in its 76-year history. The UN has never had a woman Secretary-General.

The 2024 International Women’s Day arrives with women heavily impacted by conflicts, crises, democratic erosion, and anti-rights regression. On the 8th of March, women will take to the streets in solidarity with those experiencing the brunt of regression. We collectively resist and take action and celebrate victories scored thanks to longstanding struggles.

The struggle for justice and progress will continue until we realize the dream of a healthier, safer and equitable world for all. To make this reality come true, we must invest in women and feminist future.

Lysa John is Secretary-General of CIVICUS, a global alliance of over 15,000 members working to strengthen citizen participation and defend civic freedoms. She has championed human rights and international mobilisation for over twenty-five years, starting her journey with grassroots organisations in India and subsequently spearheading trans-national campaigns for governance accountability. Her former roles include working as Global Campaign Director for Save the Children and Head of Outreach for the UN panel that drafted the blueprint for the Sustainable Development Goals. She can be reached through her LinkedIn page or X handle: @lysajohnSA.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

Children at a dried community borehole in Turkana, Kenya. Climate change, a subject of discussion at UNEA-6, has been blamed for droughts in the region. Credit: Maina Waruru/IPS

By Maina Waruru
NAIROBI, Mar 4 2024 (IPS)

The  Sixth United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA-6)  ended with delegates calling for firm actions to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss, and pollution.

The assembly also reaffirmed its call for “environmental multilateralism” in seeking solutions to the threats, noting that time was running out fast before the threats could besiege the planet and make life a bigger nightmare, especially for the underprivileged.

The concept has been part of the main messages amplified by United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Inger Andersen and part of its clarion call as well.

Also topping their calls is the plea for countries to remain on course in implementing the principles of the Paris Agreement, with many noting that the pact provided an ambitious roadmap to boldly ‘tame the climate crisis” by cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

While delegates at the five-day assembly at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, which ended on Friday, March 1, 2024, observed with satisfaction that efforts at curbing plastic pollution could soon become a reality, some expressed concern that a Ministerial Declaration issued at the end of the event was not explicit on the urgency of actions needed to end the plastic crisis, nor did it mention the legally binding agreement on ending plastic pollution.

The agreement is currently under negotiation, and parties meet in Montreal, Canada, in April, where a deal could be reached.

“We emphasize the importance of advancing integrated, science-based approaches, informed by the best available science and the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples as well as local communities, in order to strengthen resilience to current, emerging, and future challenges and promote global solidarity.”

United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Inger Andersen. Credit: UNEP

“We recall General Assembly resolution 76/300 of July 28, 2022, on the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment,” the five-page ministerial statement read.

The 21-point document issued at the closing of the event was also emphatic on the need for effective, inclusive, and sustainable multilateral actions to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, reaffirming “all the principles of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, as well as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals.”

The ministers of environment from 182 member states acknowledged the threats posed to sustainable development by global environmental challenges and crises, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, as well as desertification, land and soil degradation, drought, and deforestation.

The gathering passed a record 15 resolutions and two decisions, as proposed by various delegations, with some being hailed as very critical, while others were viewed as crucial and timely.

Raising the most curiosity is a resolution by Ukraine, calling for “environmental assistance and recovery in areas affected by armed conflicts,” which was endorsed despite being introduced on Thursday. The country is involved in armed conflict with Russia, and has been exposed to risks, including nuclear accidents, by the fighting.

On its part, Saudi Arabia sponsored one calling for “strengthening international efforts to combat desertification and land degradation, restore degraded land, promote land conservation and sustainable land management, contribute to land degradation neutrality and enhance drought resilience.”

Others included resolutions on considering environmental aspects of minerals and metals, the call for circularity of a resilient and low-carbon sugar cane agro-industry, promoting sustainable lifestyles, an appeal for action on sound management of chemicals and waste, action on highly hazardous pesticides fronted by Ethiopia, and a call for action on combating sand and dust storms by Iran.

“I am proud to say this was a successful Assembly, where we advanced on our core mandate: the legitimate human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, everywhere,” said Leila Benali, UNEA-6 President and the Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development of Morocco. “As governments, we need to push for more partnerships with stakeholders to implement these mandates. We need to continue to partner with civil society, continue to guide and empower our creative youth, and also with the private sector and philanthropies,” the minister added.

UNEA-6 elected Abdullah Bin Ali Amri as president to preside over UNEA-7. Credit: UNEA

Decisions arrived at the assembly are “most often” followed by actions and UNEP and member states will initiate actions based on the resolutions, assured Andersen, UNEP’s Executive Director.

At the same time, the assembly was told that more than a third of the world’s population is drowning in garbage, with over 2.7 billion people not having their waste collected, largely in the developing regions of the world.

Out of the number, 2 billion people are living in rural areas, while 700,000 of them are in urban areas, a new United Nations report launched at the assembly revealed.

The report, Turning rubbish into a resource: Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 (GWMO 2024)  revealed that an estimated 540 million metric tons of municipal solid waste, an equivalent of 27% of the global total waste, was not being collected, with only 36% and 37% of the refuse generated in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South Asia regions, respectively, being collected.

This was in sharp contrast to the situation in developed and upper-middle-income countries, where almost all of the waste was collected, at admirable rates of between 83% for the Caribbean, and 99% for North America. This is against a global average waste collection rate of 75%, the report, further revealed.

It predicts that the waste generated is set to grow in volume from 2.3 billion metric tons in 2023, to 3.8 billion metric tons by 2050, worsening the burden of managing it.

“In 2020, the global direct cost of waste management was estimated at USD 252 billion. When factoring in the hidden costs of pollution, poor health, and climate change from poor waste disposal practices, the cost rises to USD 361  billion,” it notes.

“Without urgent action on waste management, by 2050, this global annual cost could almost double to a staggering USD 640.3 billion,” it adds.

So far, no country in the world, including the developed ones, has managed to ‘decouple’ development from waste generation, with the two going hand-in-hand as they always have, noted lead author Zoë Lenkiewicz.

“We recommend that the world needs to integrate the principles of just transition and circularity to better manage waste. Note with concern that many countries need to build their national expertise in waste management,” she said.

At the same time, the global production and consumption of material resources have grown more than three times over the last 50 years, growing at an average of more than 2.3 percent a year, despite the increase being the main driver of the triple planetary crisis.

The consumption and use of the resources are largely driven by demand in upper-income countries, with the extraction and processing of material resources including fossil fuels, minerals, non-metallic minerals, and biomass accounting for over 55 percent of GHC emissions, and 40  percent of particulate matter health poisoning in the environment.

Their extraction and processing, including that of agricultural crops and forestry products, accounts for 90 percent of land-related biodiversity loss and water stress, and for a third of GHC, while the extraction and processing of fossil fuels, metals, and non-metallic minerals, including sand, gravel, and clay, account for 35 percent of global emissions.

Despite this, resource exploitation could increase by almost 60% from 2020 levels by 2060-from 100 to 160 billion metric tons—far exceeding what is required to meet essential human needs, according to the UNEP report,  Global Resources Outlook 2024 – Bend the trend: Pathways to a Liveable Planet as Resource Use Spikes tabled at the event.

Meanwhile, UNEA-6 has elected a new president to preside over UNEA-7, Abdullah Bin Ali Amri, Chairman of the Environment Authority of Oman, who takes over from Benali.

Over 5,600 people from 190 countries participated in the proceedings held between February 26 and March 1.

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