Celebrations marked the 30th anniversary of the adoption of a UN convention abolishing discrimination against females, reports Reem Leila On 16 December the National Council for Women (NCW), representatives of national and international organisations, along with the UN and UNICEF legislative bodies marked the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The convention is an international human rights accord devoted to achieving gender equality, and that when implemented effectively on a national level provides a plan of action against discrimination. Over the past 30 years countries across the world have ratified the treaty, including Egypt in 1981, and are thus obliged under international law to respect, protect and fulfil women's human rights. An address delivered by Farkhonda Hassan, NCW secretary-general, on behalf of Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, head of the council, highlighted Mrs Mubarak's congratulations to Egypt and all other parties to the convention for recognising the importance of ending discrimination against women, but reminded them that it was vital that there continues to be a strong commitment to gender equality as a fundamental human right. "The last 30 years have witnessed great advances in terms of awareness of women's rights, commitments to advancing women's status, and improvements in the everyday lives of many women all over the country as well as worldwide," Hassan said on behalf of Mrs Mubarak. "Nationally, progress has been made in education, life expectancy, labour force participation, and property and inheritance rights." The global commitment to women's rights is epitomised by the near universal ratification of CEDAW. Erma Manoncourt, UNICEF representative, said the treaty, which has been ratified by 186 UN member states, remains the essential international tool for achieving women's human rights. In essence, "CEDAW can be considered as the movement to justice. It is about meeting demand and making choices. It constitutes a legal basis for appeal and provides leverages for long-due change, but also articulates rights that benefit both women and the whole community," Manoncourt said. On the global stage, women's status in many countries has witnessed great improvement throughout the past three decades. The number of women participating in the political sphere has increased. "There are currently women presidents, prime ministers, heads of international corporations and NGOs as well as UN agencies and multi-lateral organisations," Manoncourt said. "Women's contributions in the workforce and global attention to female illiteracy have increased. This is in addition to the tremendous escalation in the number of young women and girls who have access to education." Egypt exemplifies some of the changes taking place during the past three decades. A brief analysis reveals that definite progress, while not complete, has been made towards achieving gender equality. Working together as committed national partners and other government ministries and institutions, more rights for Egyptian women have been realised. Hassan said the NCW had successfully amended Article 62 of the constitution to increase women's participation in parliament, plus an electoral law amendment and a quota to ensure the participation of 64 women in the parliamentary elections scheduled in November 2010. This is in addition to an increase in the number of women judges. Government efforts have succeeded in amending nationality and child laws. The establishment of a family court, family insurance fund and the Child Help hot line have all improved the status of women. "Women need no longer suffer from protracted court cases seeking divorce or alimony either for her or her children. In case of a delay -- which is now rare -- the family fund of the Nasser Social Bank provides her with a certain amount of money every month to enable a woman to support her family and children," Hassan said. The NCW also established a media watch to monitor public discourse/images concerning women. This is in addition to the NCW's ombudsman office and equal opportunities units in all governmental ministries "which have helped in solving thousands of problems which women were suffering from," Hassan stated. The continuous efforts of the NCW also helped adopt gender budgeting as part of the country's national budget," she added. Though much has been achieved, progress is not everywhere, nor at the same pace or level. Despite the achievements, there are still obstacles ahead which could impede full development for women. Both Hassan and Manoncourt agree that some laws are still discriminatory and underlying assumptions about women have not yet been tackled. Remarkable changes have been made in laws and formal gender equality is in place but attention needs to be directed towards enforcement and eliminating gender stereotypes. There also remains a gap between private and public sectors. "Traditional and conservative social frameworks still exist that discourage women's participation in the political sphere and impede the provision of needed family support to allow women to combine professional ambition with their domestic roles," Hassan said. "The conditions of women may be changing but not their status. Poverty and the need to satisfy basic needs, especially for poor women and female heads of households, remain a challenge. It is still common that women are not seen as active participants in development but rather as beneficiaries." Manoncourt said in Egypt there are five action plans that might help the NCW and accelerate the ongoing work for women's rights. The council, according to Manoncourt, must be proactive in designing a communication strategy for the CEDAW campaign that is tailored to grassroots women, as well as use the CEDAW as a programming tool to guide development projects. "Continuing policy level dialogue calling for the elimination of all forms of discrimination and advocating a strategy and action plan on violence against women are a must," Manoncourt added. Participants agreed that gender equity, in all spheres -- economic, political and social -- are absolutely essential to allow Egypt and other countries to reach their full development potential. The world is on a quest to make gender equality a way of life even in the remotest corner of the global village.
