IV. Actions and initiatives to overcome obstacles
and to achieve the full and accelerated implementation of the
Beijing Platform for Action
48. In view of the evaluation of progress made
in the five years since the Fourth
World Conference on Women in implementing the Beijing Declaration
and Platform for Action, as contained in chapter II above, as
well as the current challenges affecting its full realization,
as outlined in chapter III above, Governments now recommit themselves
to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and also
commit themselves to further actions and initiatives to overcome
the obstacles and address the challenges. Governments, in taking
continued and additional steps to achieve the goals of the Platform,
recognize that all human rights Š civil, cultural, economic,
political and social, including the right to development Š
are universal indivisible, interdependent and interrelated,
and are essential for realizing gender equality, development
and peace in the twenty-first century.
49. Organizations of the United Nations system and the Bretton
Woods
institutions, as well as the World Trade Organization, other
international and
regional intergovernmental bodies, parliaments and civil society,
including the
private sector and NGOs, trade unions and other stakeholders,
are called upon to support government efforts and, where appropriate,
develop complementary
programmes of their own to achieve full and effective implementation
of the
Platform for Action..
50. Governments and intergovernmental organizations recognize
the contribution and complementary role of NGOs, with full respect
for their autonomy, in ensuring the effective implementation
of the Platform for Action, and should continue to strengthen
partnerships with NGOs, particularly women's organizations,
in contributing to the effective implementation and follow-up
of the Platform for Action.
51. Experience has shown that the goal of gender equality can
be fully achieved
only in the context of renewed relations among different stakeholders
at all levels. The full, effective participation of women on
the basis of equality in all spheres of society is necessary
to contribute to this goal.
52. Achieving gender equality and empowerment of women requires
redressing
inequalities between women and men and girls and boys and ensuring
their equal rights, responsibilities, opportunities and possibilities.
Gender equality implies that women's as well as men's needs,
interests, concerns, experiences and priorities are an integral
dimension of the design, implementation, national monitoring,
and follow-up and evaluation, including at the international
level, of all actions in all areas.
53. By adopting the Platform for Action, Governments and the
international
community agreed to a common development agenda with gender
equality and
women's empowerment as underlying principles. The efforts towards
ensuring
women's participation in development have expanded and need
to combine a focus on women's conditions and basic needs with
a holistic approach based on equal rights and partnerships,
promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental
freedoms. Policies and programmes should be formulated to achieve
the goal of people-centred sustainable development, secure livelihoods
and adequate social protection measures, including safety nets,
strengthened support systems for families, equal access to and
control over financial and economic resources, and to eliminate
increasing and disproportionate poverty among women. All economic
policies and institutions as well as those responsible for resource
allocation should adopt a gender perspective to ensure that
development dividends are shared on equal grounds.
54. Recognizing the persistent and increasing burden of poverty
on women in
many countries, particularly in developing countries, it is
essential to continue from a gender perspective to review, modify
and implement integrated macro-economic and social policies
and programmes, including those related to structural adjustment
and external debt problems, to ensure universal and equitable
access to social services, in particular to education and affordable
quality health-care services and equal access to and control
over economic resources.
55. Increased efforts are needed to provide equal access to
education, health and social services and to ensure women's
and girls' rights to education and the
enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and
mental health and well-being throughout the life cycle, as well
as adequate, affordable and universally accessible health care
and services, including sexual and reproductive health, particularly
in the face of the HIV/AIDS pandemic; they are also necessary
with regard to the growing proportion of older women.
56. Given that a majority of the world's women are subsistence
producers and
users of environmental resources, there is a need to recognize
and integrate women's. knowledge and priorities in the conservation
and management of such resources to ensure their sustainability.
Programmes and infrastructures that are gender-sensitive are
needed in order to effectively respond to disaster and emergency
situations that threaten the environment, livelihood security,
as well as the management of the basic requirements of daily
life.
57. Sustaining the livelihoods of populations in States with
limited or scarce
resources, including small island developing States, is critically
dependent on the preservation and protection of the environment.
Women's customary knowledge, management and sustainable use
of biodiversity should be recognized.
58. Political will and commitment at all levels are crucial
to ensure mainstreaming of a gender perspective in the adoption
and implementation of comprehensive and action-oriented policies
in all areas. Policy commitments are essential for further developing
the necessary framework which ensures women's equal access to
and control over economic and financial resources, training,
services and institutions as well as their participation in
decision-making and management. Policy-making processes require
the partnership of women and men at all levels. Men and boys
should also be actively involved and encouraged in all efforts
to achieve the goals of the Platform for Action and its implementation.
59. Violence against women and girls is a major obstacle to
the achievement of the objectives of gender equality, development
and peace. Violence against women both violates and impairs
or nullifies the enjoyment by women of their human rights and
fundamental freedoms. Gender-based violence, such as battering
and other domestic violence, sexual abuse, sexual slavery and
exploitation, international trafficking in women and children,
forced prostitution and sexual harassment, as well as violence
against women resulting from cultural prejudice, racism and
racial discrimination, xenophobia, pornography, ethnic cleansing,
armed conflict, foreign occupation, religious and anti-religious
extremism and terrorism are incompatible with the dignity and
worth of the human person and must be combated and eliminated.
60. Women play a critical role in the family. The family is
the basic unit of society and is a strong force for social cohesion
and integration and, as such, should be strengthened. The inadequate
support to women and insufficient protection and support to
their respective families affect society as a whole and undermine
efforts to achieve gender equality. In different cultural, political
and social systems, various forms of the family exist and the
rights, capabilities and responsibilities of family members
must be respected. Women's social and economic contributions
to the welfare of the family and the social significance of
maternity and paternity continue to be inadequately addressed.
Motherhood and fatherhood and the role of parents and legal
guardians in the family and in the upbringing of children and
the importance of all family members to the family's well-being
are also acknowledged and must not be a basis for discrimination.
Women also continue to bear a disproportionate share of the
household responsibilities and the care of children, the sick
and the elderly. Such imbalance needs to be consistently addressed
through appropriate policies and programmes, in particular those
geared towards education,
and through legislation where appropriate. In order to achieve
full partnership, both in public and private spheres, both women
and men must be enabled to reconcile and share equally work
responsibilities and family responsibilities.
61. Strong national machineries for the advancement of women
and promotion of gender equality require political commitment
at the highest level and all necessary.human and financial resources
to initiate, recommend and facilitate the development, adoption
and monitoring of policies, legislation, programmes and capacity-building
for the empowerment of women and to act as catalysts for open
public dialogue on gender equality as a societal goal. This
would enable them to promote the advancement of women and mainstream
a gender perspective in policy and programmes in all areas,
to play an advocacy role and to ensure equal access to all institutions
and resources, as well as enhanced capacity-building for women
in all sectors. Reforms to meet the challenges of the changing
world are essential to ensure women's equal access to institutions
and organizations. Institutional and conceptual changes are
a strategic and important aspect of creating an enabling environment
for the implementation of the Platform for Action.
62. Programme support to enhance women™s opportunities,
potentials and
activities need to have a dual focus: on the one hand, programmes
aimed at meeting the basic as well as the specific needs of
women for capacity-building,
organizational development and empowerment, and on the other,
gender
mainstreaming in all programme formulation and implementation
activities. It is
particularly important to expand into new areas of programming
to advance gender equality in response to current challenges.
63. Girls and women of all ages with any form of disability
are generally among
the more vulnerable and marginalized of society. There is therefore
need to take into account and to address their concerns in all
policy-making and programming. Special measures are needed at
all levels to integrate them into the mainstream of development.
64. Effective and coordinated plans and programmes for the
full implementation of the Platform for Action require a clear
knowledge of the situation of women and girls, clear research-based
knowledge and data disaggregated by sex, short- and long-term
time-bound targets and measurable goals, and follow-up mechanisms
to assess progress. Efforts are needed to ensure capacity-building
for all actors involved in the achievement of these goals. Efforts
are also needed at the national level to increase transparency
and accountability.
65. The realization and the achievement of the goals of gender
equality,
development and peace need to be supported by the allocation
of necessary human, financial and material resources for specific
and targeted activities to ensure gender equality at the local,
national, regional and international levels as well as by enhanced
and increased international cooperation. Explicit attention
to these goals in the budgetary processes at the national, regional
and international levels is essential.
[Table
of Contents]
A. Actions to be taken at the national level
By Governments:
66. (a) Set and encourage the use of explicit short- and long-term
time-bound
targets or measurable goals, including, where appropriate, quotas,
to promote
progress towards gender balance, including women's equal access
to and full
participation on a basis of equality with men in all areas and
at all levels of public life, especially in decision- and policy-making
positions, in political parties and political activities, in
all government ministries and at key policy-making institutions,
as well as in local development bodies and authorities;.
(b) Address the barriers faced by women, particularly by indigenous
and
other marginalized women, in accessing and participating in
politics and decision-making, including lack of training, women's
double burden of paid and unpaid work, negative societal attitudes
and stereotypes.
67. (a) Ensure policies that guarantee equal access to education
and elimination
of gender disparities in education, including vocational training,
science and
technology and completion of basic education for girls, especially
for those living in rural and deprived areas, and opportunities
for continuing education at all levels for all women and girls;
(b) Support the implementation of plans and programmes of action
to ensure
quality education and improved enrolment retention rates for
boys and girls and the elimination of gender discrimination
and gender stereotypes in educational curricula and materials,
as well as in the process of education;
(c) Accelerate action and strengthen political commitment to
close the
gender gap in primary and secondary education by 2005 and to
ensure free
compulsory and universal primary education for both girls and
boys by 2015, as advocated by several global conferences, and
eliminate policies that have been proven to worsen and perpetuate
the gap;
(d) Develop a gender-sensitive curriculum from kindergarten
to elementary
schools to vocational training and universities in order to
address gender
stereotyping as one of the root causes of segregation in working
life.
68. (a) Design and implement policies that promote and protect
women's
enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and create
an environment that does not tolerate violations of the rights
of women and girls;
(b) Create and maintain a non-discriminatory and gender-sensitive
legal
environment by reviewing legislation with the view to striving
to remove
discriminatory provisions as soon as possible, preferably by
2005, and eliminating legislative gaps that leave women and
girls without protection of their rights and without effective
recourse against gender-based discrimination;
(c) Ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination
against Women, limit the extent of any reservations to it, and
withdraw reservations that are contrary to the object and purpose
of the Convention or otherwise incompatible with international
treaty law;
(d) Consider signing and ratifying the Optional Protocol to
the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women;
(e) Consider signing and ratifying the Rome Statute of the
International
Criminal Court;
(f) Develop, review and implement laws and procedures to prohibit
and
eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and girls;
(g) Take measures, including programmes and policies, to ensure
that
maternity, motherhood and parenting and the role of women in
procreation are not used as a basis for discrimination nor restrict
the full participation of women in society;.
(h) Ensure that national legislative and administrative reform
processes,
including those linked to land reform, decentralization and
reorientation of the
economy, promote women's rights, particularly those of rural
women and women living in poverty, and take measures to promote
and implement those rights through women's equal access to and
control over economic resources, including land, property rights,
right to inheritance, credit and traditional saving schemes,
such as women's banks and cooperatives;
(i) Mainstream a gender perspective into national immigration
and asylum
policies, regulations and practices, as appropriate, in order
to promote and protect the rights of all women, including the
consideration of steps to recognize gender-related persecution
and violence when assessing grounds for granting refugee status
and asylum;
(j) Take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination
and violence
against women and girls by any person, organization or enterprise;
(k) Take necessary measures for the private sector and educational
establishments to facilitate and strengthen compliance with
non-discriminatory
legislation.
69. (a) As a matter of priority, review and revise legislation,
were appropriate,
with a view to introducing effective legislation, including
on violence against
women, and take other necessary measures to ensure that all
women and girls are protected against all forms of physical,
psychological and sexual violence, and are provided recourse
to justice;
(b) Prosecute the perpetrators of all forms of violence against
women and
girls and sentence them appropriately, and introduce actions
aimed at helping and motivating perpetrators to break the cycle
of violence and take measures to provide avenues for redress
to victims;
(c) Treat all forms of violence against women and girls of
all ages as a
criminal offence punishable by law, including violence based
on all forms of
discrimination;
(d) Establish legislation and/or strengthen appropriate mechanisms
to handle
criminal matters relating to all forms of domestic violence,
including marital rape
and sexual abuse of women and girls, and ensure that such cases
are brought to
justice swiftly;
(e) Develop, adopt and fully implement laws and other measures,
as
appropriate, such as policies and educational programmes, to
eradicate harmful
customary or traditional practices, including female genital
mutilation, early and
forced marriage and so-called honour crimes, which are violations
of the human
rights of women and girls and obstacles to the full enjoyment
by women of their
human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to intensify efforts,
in cooperation
with local women's groups, to raise collective and individual
awareness on how
these harmful traditional or customary practices violate women's
human rights;
(f) Continue to undertake research to develop a better understanding
of the
root causes of all forms of violence against women in order
to design programmes and take measures towards eliminating those
forms of violence;
(g) Take measures to address through policies and programmes,
racism and
racially motivated violence against women and girls;
(h) Take concrete steps, as a priority and with their full
and voluntary
participation, to address the impact of violence on indigenous
women in order to implement appropriate, effective programmes
and services to eliminate all forms of violence;
(i) Promote women's and girls'mental well-being, integrate
mental health
services into primary health-care systems, develop gender-sensitive
supportive
programmes and train health workers to recognize gender-based
violence and
provide care for girls and women of all ages who have experienced
any form of
violence;
(j) Adopt and promote a holistic approach to respond to all
forms of
violence and abuse against girls and women of all ages, including
girls and women with disabilities, as well as vulnerable and
marginalized women and girls in order to address their diverse
needs, including education, provision of appropriate health
care and services and basic social services;
(k) Approve and promote a holistic approach to combat violence
against
women during all their life cycle and circumstances.
70. (a) Take appropriate measures to address the root factors,
including external factors, that encourage trafficking in women
and girls for prostitution and other forms of commercialized
sex, forced marriages and forced labour in order to eliminate
trafficking in women, including by strengthening existing legislations
with a view to providing better protection of the rights of
women and girls and to punishing the perpetrators, through both
criminal and civil measures;
(b) Devise, enforce and strengthen effective measures to combat
and
eliminate all forms of trafficking in women and girls through
a comprehensive anti-trafficking strategy consisting of, inter
alia, legislative measures, prevention
campaigns, information exchange, assistance and protection for
and reintegration of the victims and prosecution of all the
offenders involved, including intermediaries;
(c) Consider preventing, within the legal framework and in
accordance with
national policies, victims of trafficking, in particular women
and girls, from being
prosecuted for their illegal entry or residence, taking into
account that they are
victims of exploitation;
(d) Consider setting up or strengthening a national coordinating
mechanism,
for example, a national rapporteur or an inter-agency body,
with the participation of civil society, including non-governmental
organizations, to encourage the exchange of information and
to report on data, root causes, factors and trends in violence
against women, in particular trafficking;
(e) Provide protection and support to women and their respective
families
and develop and strengthen policies to support family security.
71. (a) Consider adopting, where appropriate, national legislation
consistent with the Convention on Biological Diversity [14]
to protect the knowledge, innovations and practices of women
in indigenous and local communities relating to traditional
medicines, biodiversity and indigenous technologies;
(b) Adapt environmental and agricultural policies and mechanisms,
when
necessary, to incorporate a gender perspective, and in cooperation
with civil society, support farmers, particularly women farmers
and those living in rural areas, with education and training
programmes.
72. (a) Adopt policies and implement measures to address, on
a prioritized basis, the gender aspects of emerging and continued
health challenges, such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and
other diseases having a disproportionate impact on women's health,
including those resulting in the highest mortality and morbidity
rates;
(b) Ensure that the reduction of maternal morbidity and mortality
is a health
sector priority and that women have ready access to essential
obstetric care, well-equipped and adequately staffed maternal
health-care services, skilled attendance at delivery, emergency
obstetric care, effective referral and transport to higher levels
of care when necessary, post-partum care and family planning
in order to, inter alia, promote safe motherhood, and give priority
attention to measures to prevent, detect and treat breast, cervical
and ovarian cancer and osteoporosis, and sexually transmitted
infections, including HIV/AIDS;
(c) Take measures to meet the unmet needs in good quality family
planning
services and in contraception, namely regarding the existing
gap in services,
supplies and use;
(d) Collect and disseminate updated and reliable data on mortality
and
morbidity of women and conduct further research regarding how
social and
economic factors affect the health of girls and women of all ages,
as well as research about the provision of health-care services
to girls and women and the patterns of use of such services and
the value of disease prevention and health promotion programmes
for women;
(e) Ensure universal and equal access for women and men throughout
the
life-cycle, to social services related to health care, including
education, clean water and safe sanitation, nutrition, food
security and health education programmes;
(f) Ensure the provision of safe working conditions for health-care
workers;
(g) Adopt, enact, review and revise, where necessary or appropriate,
and
implement health legislation, policies and programmes, in consultation
with
women's organizations and other actors of civil society, and
allocate the necessary budgetary resources to ensure the highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health, so that all
women have full and equal access to comprehensive, high-quality
and affordable health care, information, education and services
throughout their life cycle; reflect the new demands for service
and care by women and girls as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic
and new knowledge about women's needs for specific mental and
occupation health programmes and for the ageing process; and
protect and promote human rights by ensuring that all health
services and workers conform to ethical, professional and gender-sensitive
standards in the delivery of women's health services, including
by establishing or strengthening, as appropriate, regulatory
and enforcement mechanisms;.
(h) Eliminate discrimination against all women and girls in
access to health
information, education and health care and health services;
(i) Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental
and social
well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,
in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its
functions and processes. Reproductive health therefore implies
that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life
and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom
to decide if, when and how often to do so. Implicit in this
last condition is the right of men and women to be informed
and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable
methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other
methods of their choice for regulation of fertility which are
not against the law, and the right of access to appropriate
health-care services that will enable women to go safely through
pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance
of having a healthy infant. In line with the above definition
of reproductive health, reproductive health care is defined
as the constellation of methods, techniques and services that
contribute to reproductive health and well-being by preventing
and solving reproductive health problems. It also includes sexual
health, the purpose of which is the enhancement of life and
personal relations, and not merely counselling and care related
to reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases;
(j) Bearing in mind the above definition, reproductive rights
embrace certain
human rights that are already recognized in national laws, international
human rights documents and other consensus documents. These
rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples
and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number,
spacing and timing of their children and to have the information
and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard
of sexual and reproductive health. It also includes their right
to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination,
coercion and violence, as expressed in human rights documents.
In the exercise of this right, they should take into account
the needs of their living and future children and their responsibilities
towards the community. The promotion of the responsible exercise
of these rights for all people should be the fundamental basis
for government- and community-supported policies and programmes
in the
area of reproductive health, including family planning. As part
of their commitment, full attention should be given to the promotion
of mutually respectful and equitable gender relations and particularly
to meeting the educational and service needs of adolescents
to enable them to deal in a positive and responsible way with
their sexuality. Reproductive health eludes many of the world's
people because of such factors as inadequate levels of knowledge
about human sexuality and inappropriate or poor-quality reproductive
health information and services; the prevalence of high-
risk sexual behaviour; discriminatory social practices; negative
attitudes towards women and girls; and the limited power many
women and girls have over their sexual and reproductive lives.
Adolescents are particularly vulnerable because of their lack
of information and access to relevant services in most countries.
Older women and men have distinct reproductive and sexual health
issues which are often inadequately addressed;
(k) The human rights of women include their right to have control
over and
decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality,
including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion,
discrimination and violence. Equal relationships between women
and men in matters of sexual relations and
reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the
person, require mutual.respect, consent and shared responsibility
for sexual behaviour and its
consequences;
(l) Design and implement programmes to encourage and enable
men to
adopt safe and responsible sexual and reproductive behaviour,
and to effectively use methods to prevent unwanted pregnancies
and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS;
(m) Take all appropriate measures to eliminate harmful, medically
unnecessary or coercive medical interventions as well as inappropriate
medication and overmedication of women and ensure that all women
are properly informed of their options, including likely benefits
and potential side effects, by properly trained personnel;
(n) Adopt measures to ensure non-discrimination against and
respect for the
privacy of those living with HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted
infections,
including women and young people, so that they are not denied
the information
needed to prevent further transmission of HIV/AIDS and sexually
transmitted
diseases and are able to access treatment and care services
without fear of
stigmatization, discrimination or violence;
(o) In the light of paragraph 8.25 of the Programme of Action
of the
International Conference on Population and Development, which
states:
ihIn no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family
planning,
all Governments and relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations are urged to strengthen their commitment to women's
health, to
deal with the health impact of unsafe abortion [20]
as a major public health
concern and to reduce the recourse to abortion through expanded
and improved family-planning services. Prevention of unwanted
pregnancies must always be given the highest priority and every
attempt should be made to eliminate the need for abortion. Women
who have unwanted pregnancies should have ready access to reliable
information and compassionate counselling. Any measures or changes
related to abortion within the health system can only be determined
at the national or local level according to the national legislative
process. In circumstances where abortion is not against the
law, such abortion should be safe. In all cases, women should
have access to quality services for the management of complications
arising from abortion. Post-abortion counselling, education
and family-planning services should be offered promptly, which
will also help to avoid repeat abortions.
In consider reviewing laws containing punitive measures against
women who have undergone illegal abortions;
(p) Promote and improve comprehensive gender-specific tobacco
prevention
and control strategies for all women, particularly adolescent
girls and pregnant
women, which would include education, prevention and cessation
programmes and services, and the reduction of people's exposure
to environmental tobacco smoke. and support the development
of the World Health Organization international framework convention
for tobacco control;
(q) Promote or improve information programmes and measures
including
treatment for the elimination of the increasing substance abuse
among women and adolescent girls, including information campaigns
about the risks to health and other consequences and its impact
on families.
73. (a) Mainstream a gender perspective into key macroeconomic
and social
development policies and national development programmes;
(b) Incorporate a gender perspective into the design, development,
adoption
and execution of all budgetary processes, as appropriate, in
order to promote
equitable, effective and appropriate resource allocation and
establish adequate
budgetary allocations to support gender equality and development
programmes that enhance women™s empowerment and develop
the necessary analytical and methodological tools and mechanisms
for monitoring and evaluation;
(c) Increase, as appropriate, and effectively utilize financial
and other
resources in the social sector, particularly in education and
health, to achieve gender equality and women™s empowerment
as a central strategy for addressing development and poverty
eradication;
(d) Strive to reduce the disproportionate presence of women living
in
poverty, in particular rural women, by implementing national poverty
eradication programmes with a focus on a gender perspective and
the empowerment of women, including short- and long-term goals.
74. (a) Undertake socio-economic policies that promote sustainable
development and support and ensure poverty eradication programmes,
especially for women, by, inter alia, providing skills training,
equal access to and control over resources, finance, credit,
including microcredit, information and technology, and equal
access to markets to benefit women of all ages, in particular
those living in poverty and marginalized women, including rural
women, indigenous women and female-headed households;
(b) Create and ensure access to social protection systems,
taking into account
the specific needs of all women living in poverty, demographic
changes and changes in society, to provide safeguards against
the uncertainties and changes in conditions of work associated
with globalization, and strive to ensure that new, flexible
and emerging forms of work are adequately covered by social
protection;
(c) Continue to review, modify and implement macroeconomic
and social
policies and programmes, inter alia, through an analysis from
a gender perspective of those related to structural adjustment
and external debt problems, in order to ensure women's equal
access to resources and universal access to basic social services.
75. Facilitate employment for women through, inter alia, promotion
of adequate
social protection, simplification of administrative procedures,
removal of fiscal
obstacles, where appropriate, and other measures, such as access
to risk capital, credit schemes, microcredit and other funding,
facilitating the establishment of microenterprises and small
and medium-sized enterprises..
76. (a) Establish or reinforce existing institutional mechanisms
at all levels to
work with national machineries to strengthen societal support
for gender equality, in cooperation with civil society, particularly
women's NGOs;
(b) Take action at the highest levels for the continued advancement
of
women, in particular by strengthening national machineries to
mainstream the
gender perspective to accelerate the empowerment of women in
all areas and to ensure commitment to gender equality policies;
(c) Provide national machineries with the necessary human and
financial
resources, including through exploring innovative funding schemes,
so that gender mainstreaming is integrated into all policies,
programmes and projects;
(d) Consider establishing effective commissions or other institutions
to
promote equal opportunities;
(e) Strengthen efforts to fully implement national action plans
developed for
the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and, when
necessary, adjust or develop national plans for the future;
(f) Ensure that the design of all government information policies
and
strategies is gender-sensitive.
77. (a) Provide national statistical offices with institutional
and financial support
in order to collect, compile and disseminate data disaggregated
by sex, age and other factors, as appropriate, in formats that
are accessible to the public and to policy makers for, inter
alia, gender-based analysis, monitoring and impact assessment,
and support new work to develop statistics and indicators, especially
in areas where information is particularly lacking;
(b) Regularly compile and publish crime statistics, and monitor
trends in law
enforcement concerning violations of the rights of women and
girls to increase
awareness in order to develop more effective policies;
(c) Develop national capacity to undertake policy-oriented
and gender-
related research and impact studies by universities and national
research/training institutes to enable gender-specific knowledge-based
policy-making.
[Table
of Contents]
B. Further actions to be taken at the national level
By Governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations
and
other actors of civil society:
78. (a) Encourage the creation of training and legal literacy
programmes which
build and support the capacities of women's organizations to
advocate for women's and girls™ human rights and fundamental
freedoms;
(b) Encourage collaboration, where appropriate, among Governments,
NGOs, grass-roots organizations and traditional and community
leaders for the
promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental
freedoms of women and girls, the dignity and worth of the human
person and equal rights for women and men;
(c) Encourage cooperation between governmental authorities,
parliamentarians and other relevant authorities and women's
organizations,
including NGOs, as appropriate, in ensuring that legislation
is non-discriminatory;.
(d) Provide gender-sensitive training to all actors, including
police,
prosecutors and the judiciary, in dealing with victims of violence,
particularly
women and girls, including sexual violence.
79. (a) Adopt a holistic approach to women's physical and mental
health
throughout the life cycle, take further measures to redesign
health information,
services and training for health workers in order to make them
gender-sensitive, promote gender balance at all levels of the
health-care system, and reflect women's perspective and right
to privacy, confidentiality, voluntary and informed consent;
(b) Reinforce efforts to ensure universal access to high quality
primary
health care throughout the life cycle, including sexual and
reproductive health care, not later than 2015;
(c) Review and revise national policies, programmes and legislation
to
implement the key actions for the further implementation of
the Programme of
Action of the International Conference on Population and Development
adopted by the General Assembly at its twenty-first special
session, paying particular attention to achieving the specific
benchmarks to reduce maternal mortality, to increase the proportion
of births assisted by skilled attendants, to provide the widest
achievable range of safe and effective family planning and contraceptive
methods and reduce young people's risk of HIV/AIDS;
(d) Strengthen measures to improve the nutritional status of
all girls and
women, recognizing the effects of severe and moderate malnutrition,
the lifelong
implications of nutrition and the link between mother and child
health, by promoting and enhancing support for programmes to
reduce malnutrition, such as school meal programmes, mother-child-nutrition
programmes and micronutrient supplementation, giving special
attention to bridging the gender gap in nutrition;
(e) Review with the full participation of women and monitor
the impact of
health-sector reform initiatives on women's health and their
enjoyment of human
rights, in particular with regard to rural and urban health
service delivery to women living in poverty, and ensure that
reforms secure full and equal access to available, affordable
and high-quality health care and services for all women, taking
into account the diverse needs of women;
(f) Design and implement programmes with the full involvement
of
adolescents, as appropriate, to provide them with education,
information and
appropriate, specific, user-friendly and accessible services,
without discrimination, to address effectively their reproductive
and sexual health needs, taking into account their right to
privacy, confidentiality, respect and informed consent, and
the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents and legal
guardians to provide in a manner consistent with the evolving
capacities of the child appropriate direction and guidance in
the exercise by the child of the rights recognized in the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, [15]
in conformity with the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women and ensuring that in all actions concerning children,
the best interests of the child are a primary consideration.
These programmes should, inter alia, build adolescent girls'self-esteem
and help them take responsibility for their own lives; promote
gender equality and responsible sexualbehaviour; raise awareness
about, prevent and treat sexually transmitted infections, including
HIV/AIDS and sexual violence and abuse; and counsel adolescents
on avoiding unwanted and early pregnancies;
(g) Design and implement programmes to provide social services
and
support to pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers, in particular
to enable them to continue and complete their education;
(h) Give particular attention to developing and improving access
to improved
and new technologies and to safe and affordable drugs and treatments
to meet
women™s health needs, including cardio/pulmonary diseases,
hypertension,
osteoporosis, breast-, cervical- and ovarian cancer and family
planning and
contraceptive methods, for both women and men.
80. Develop and use frameworks, guidelines and other practical
tools and
indicators to accelerate gender mainstreaming, including gender-based
research, analytical tools and methodologies, training, case studies,
statistics and information.
81. (a) Provide equal opportunities and favourable conditions
for women of all
ages and backgrounds on equal terms with men by encouraging
their entry into
politics and their participation at all levels;
(b) Encourage the nomination of more women candidates, including,
inter
alia, through political parties, quotas or measurable goals
or other appropriate means for election to parliaments and other
legislative structures, to increase their share and contribution
in the formulation of public policy;
(c) Develop and maintain consultative processes and mechanisms,
in
partnership with women™s organizations, including NGOs
and community groups, to ensure that all women, with particular
attention to those who face particular barriers to their participation
in public life, are fully involved in and informed about decisions
that impact their lives.
82. (a) Promote and protect the rights of women workers and
take action to
remove structural and legal barriers as well as stereotypical
attitudes to gender
equality at work, addressing, inter alia, gender bias in recruitment;
working
conditions; occupational segregation and harassment; discrimination
in social
protection benefits; women™s occupational health and safety;
unequal career
opportunities and inadequate sharing, by men, of family responsibilities;
(b) Promote programmes to enable women and men to reconcile
their work
and family responsibilities and to encourage men and to share
equally with women household and child-care responsibilities;
(c) Develop or strengthen policies and programmes to support
the multiple
roles of women in contributing to the welfare of the family
in its various forms,
which acknowledge the social significance of maternity and motherhood,
parenting, the role of parents and legal guardians in the upbringing
of children and caring for other family members. Such policies
and programmes should also promote sharedresponsibility of parents,
women and men and society as a whole in this regard;
(d) Design, implement and promote family friendly policies
and services,
including affordable, accessible and quality care services for
children and other
dependants, parental and other leave schemes and campaigns to
sensitize public opinion and other relevant actors on equal
sharing of employment and family responsibilities between women
and men;.
(e) Develop policies and programmes to enhance the employability
of
women and their access to quality jobs, through improving access
to formal, non-formal and vocational training, lifelong learning
and retraining, long-distance education, including in information
and communications technology and entrepreneurial skills, particularly
in developing countries, to support women's empowerment in the
different stages of their lives;
(f) Take action to increase women's participation and to bring
about a
balanced representation of women and men in all sectors and
occupations in the labour market, inter alia, by encouraging
the creation or expansion of institutional networks to support
the career development and promotion of women;
(g) Develop and/or strengthen programmes and policies to support
women
entrepreneurs, including those engaged in new enterprises, through
access to
information, training, including vocational training, new technologies,
networks,
credit and financial services;
(h) Initiate positive steps to promote equal pay for equal
work or work of
equal value and to diminish differentials in incomes between
women and men;
(i) Encourage and support the education of girls in science,
mathematics,
new technologies, including information technologies, and technical
subjects, and encourage women, including through career advising,
to seek employment in high-growth and high-wage sectors and
jobs;
(j) Develop policies and implement programmes, particularly
for men and
boys, on changing stereotypical attitudes and behaviours concerning
gender roles and responsibilities to promote gender equality
and positive attitudes and behaviour;
(k) Strengthen gender-awareness campaigns and gender equality
training
among women and men, girls and boys to eliminate the persistence
of harmful
stereotypes;
(l) Analyse and respond, as necessary, to the major reasons
why men and
women may be affected differently by the process of job creation
and retrenchment associated with economic transition and structural
transformation of the economy, including globalization;
(m) Promote gender-sensitivity and social responsibility of
the private sector,
inter alia, through the management of work time and dissemination
of gender-
sensitive information and advocacy campaign.
83. (a) Strengthen or establish, where appropriate national
collaborative and
regular reporting mechanisms, with the participation of NGOs,
especially women™s organizations, to monitor progress on
the implementation of national policies, programmes and benchmarks
for achieving gender equality;
(b) Support the work of NGOs and community-based organizations
in
helping disadvantaged women, in particular rural women, in gaining
access to
financial institutions in establishing businesses and other
sustainable means of
livelihood;
(c) Take measures to enable all older women to be actively
engaged in all
aspects of life, as well as to assume a variety of roles in
communities, public life and decision-making, and develop and
implement policies and programmes to ensure.their full enjoyment
of human rights and quality of life, as well as to address their
needs, with a view to contributing to the realization of a society
for all ages;
(d) Design and implement policies and programmes to fully address
specific
needs of women and girls with disabilities, to ensure their
equal access to education at all levels, including technical
and vocational training and adequate rehabilitation programmes,
to health care and services and employment opportunities, to
protect and promote their human rights and, where appropriate,
to eliminate existing inequalities between women and men with
disabilities.
