Savitri Goonesekere
Expert Group Meeting on Adolescent Girls and their Rights Addis Ababa Ethiopia
13 - 17 October 1997
Savitri Goonesekere, Professor of Law,
University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
01. Introduction
Realizing the human rights of adolescent girls in terms of international standards and the Beijing
Platform For Action requires countries to internalize a value system. In this context, there is a
need to appreciate that there are negative connotations associated with the word `empowerment.'
The term often suggests non-accountable and irresponsible abuse of power, and an effort to
encourage a ruthless and aggressive individualism for one group which threatens the survival and
life chances of other groups in society. It is therefore important to clarify that international
standards and the Beijing Platform of Action are seeking to realize the human rights of adolescent
girls as part of an ongoing effort to realize human rights globally. This rights agenda is not an
issue of power, but rather involves a balancing of conflicting interests so as to ensure the well
being of adolescent girls in an environment where they receive maximum life chances irrespective
of sex and nationality or race. This is the message of the international Bill of Rights, the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979), (CEDAW),
and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989),(CRC).
The balancing of conflicting interests requires an appreciation that rights can be realized without an aggressive individualism that ignores family and community and isolates adolescents from their environment. The rights agenda must not be perceived within countries as non-communitarian, aggressive and threatening. The individual dignity and well being of girls must be seen as in the wider interests of the family and the community. Protecting their human rights then becomes a strategy for creating a community that respects the rights of all individuals and resolves its conflicts without violence.
The rights agenda of adolescent girls is now clearly defined in international human rights theory
and practice. There was at one time, a polarization between an ideology of civil and political
rights, and an ideology of social and economic rights. Prior to the Vienna Conference on Human
Rights in 1993, civil and political rights were perceived as the only justiciable rights recognized in
Anglo-American and European jurisprudence. The focus on civil and political rights in an
environment where there was no appreciation of social and economic rights was critiqued by
Asian and Eastern European countries, which used the non-recognition of these rights to
undervalue the agenda on human rights in general, and civil and political rights in particular.
Today, we have moved beyond this debate and there seems to be a general recognition at the
international and even regional level, that both aspects are part of the rights agenda and that they
indeed complement each other.
The idea that civil and political rights and social and economic rights complement each other is
reflected in multilateral treaties like CEDAW and CRC, and recent policy documents like the
Beijing Platform for Action. The recognition of this complementarity has also created a certain
shift away from the idea that realizing rights is an issue that exclusively concerns lawyers and
judges, and an acknowledgement that an agenda of rights requires commitments from a range of
actors and complex institutional supports. There is a new awareness that realizing rights through
effective law enforcement involves putting laws in place and also developing socio economic
policies that will create an effective environment for law enforcement. There seems to be a
further recognition that there is a critical need for advocacy and a solidarity effort on behalf of the
rights agenda amongst both the beneficiaries of rights, (such as women and children), and all other
sectors in the community. Increasingly we see advocacy on human rights being considered a
crucial aspect of law reform and public policy. Realizing the rights agenda of adolescent girls thus
requires an effort to realize their civil and political rights, as well as critical social and economic
rights, and effective advocacy at the national and international level.
Adolescent girls in most societies are perceived as women. There is consequently an interface between the agenda on women's rights and children's rights. Article 1 of CRC defines a child as a person below the age of 18 years unless majority is attained earlier. CEDAW contains a few isolated provisions that deal with adolescent girls.(1) Nevertheless, the realization of the rights of women in terms of that document has a bearing on the realization of the rights of adolescent girls under CRC.
It is equally important to recognize that though men are not mentioned as beneficiaries of rights in
CEDAW, the later Convention, CRC, is gender neutral in focusing on the realization of rights of
both girls and boys. However, the actual working out of the child rights agenda for boys will
require sensitivity and appreciation of likely conflict of interests with the rights agenda for girls.
In that context, the international standards set by CEDAW can be used to re-enforce and
strengthen a rights agenda for adolescent girls under CRC.
02. The Agenda of Rights for Adolescent Girls
The scope of the rights of adolescent girls must today be understood in terms of the provisions of
CRC. This international instrument has almost become customary rather than treaty based
international law, since all but two countries have ratified or acceded to it, and accepted its
normative framework on rights. There is now an international consensus on the meaning of child
rights, and we cannot speak of the human rights of adolescent girls without understanding the
CRC framework.
CRC refers to an adolescent girl's right to survival and development, protection from exploitation
and abuse, and her right to participate and express views on matters that concern her life, as her
capacity for making responsible choices evolves between the period of adolescence and
adulthood. In fleshing out this framework on rights we may have to refer to other international
standards such as the international Covenants in countries where these standards have been
ratified. As pointed out earlier, it is also critical to re-enforce and interpret these rights in terms
of the standards set by CEDAW. The re-enforcement may be on the basis that adolescent girls
are also women, and entitled to the rights set out in CEDAW. The complimentarity also arises
from the fact that the CRC framework on rights cannot be realized without eliminating gender
discrimination against girls. The international covenants are not very clearly oriented to the rights
of both children and women. It is CRC and CEDAW which develop the rights agenda specifically
in relation to women and children, and being able to use both in the case of adolescent girls, has
its advantages.
When Article 2 of CRC recognizes that adolescent girls like all children under 18 years, are
entitled to the above rights irrespective of gender, it surfaces the importance of countries working
towards elimination of gender discrimination from birth, rather than only during the period of
adolescence. Gender discrimination must be addressed as a critical issue if the survival and
development rights of adolescent girls and women are to be realized and they are to be given
equal life chances to live, acquire self esteem and grow and develop as human beings in their
community.
The family unit and the community must be reached so as to nurture a non-discriminatory social
environment conducive to the realization of rights of survival and development of these girls. The
provisions in CRC on the State Party's obligation to develop laws and policies on the duties and
responsibility of the nuclear family, the extended family and the community are therefore a critical
part of the agenda on realizing the survival and development rights of adolescent girls.
Strengthening the family through equitable allocation of resources for adult literacy and poverty
alleviation programmes are as important in realizing the rights of adolescent girls, as the
introduction of special laws and policies on survival and development targetted only to this
category. Ensuring that girls receive adequate health care through puberty and adolescence, and
access to education, requires the commitment of families and communities, particularly in market
economies where the State is pushing back its role in providing a supportive infra structure of
services. Health and education are therefore clear areas in which there must be holistic policy
planning and law reform to impact not merely on adolescent girls, but on the family which must
provide the environment of nurture and care. Consequently, pro-active policies such as
immunization against disease, or improving the nutritional status of girls in childhood and
adolescence, or providing special opportunities for girls in education to reduce the gender gap in
school participation, must be combined with programmes that also benefit the family. Focusing
only on survival and development of adolescent girls can lead to a situation where there is no
effort to address the deeper problem of discrimination against girl children from birth and the
contribution of the family and the community to the adolescent girls lack of self esteem.
A holistic approach that also targets the family, strengthens its capacity to care and nurture girls,
and addresses the need to eliminate discrimination against girls from birth, will have an impact on
realizing the other dimensions of their rights - i.e. protection and participation. It is adolescent
girls who are often exploited and abused physically and sexually in the family and the community.
It is this group which is also forced into situations where they have little or no chance to express
opinions or make responsible choices as they grow from childhood towards adult status. The
exploitation and denial of participation rights and respect for their identity and evolving maturity,
is often related to attitudes and practices on gender relations within the family and the community.
Adult women as well as men contribute to denial of the protection and participation rights of
adolescent girls. Strengthening the family's and community's capacity to appreciate the rights of
these girls to life chances will be a safety net against their abuse and exploitation, and denial of
participation rights.
Bringing in men to support an agenda of rights for adolescent girls and women must be a key
aspect of realizing the rights agenda that falls within the framework of survival, development,
protection and participation. Men are legislators, administrators, policy makers and largely
influence law enforcement. They often control decision making in the family which impacts on
the lives of adolescent girls. Targetting the family and community should be undertaken in a
context that emphasizes the importance of reaching the male population that constitutes a part of
both these social institutions.
Some country experiences and current realties in realizing the rights agenda for women and
adolescent girls illustrates the importance of recognizing the interface between gender
discrimination and creating life chances for adolescent girls. These experiences also indicate the
need for holistic law reform and policy planning, and an appreciation of the dynamics of realizing
rights in the context of family, community and male attitudes. It is not possible to work towards
realizing the rights of adolescent girls as envisaged in CRC and CEDAW without taking a stand
against negative cultural practices and addressing the wider problem of gender discrimination.
The inter-connected nature of rights demands that legal sanctions are combined with supportive
socio-economic policies. It is crucial to reach families and communities in which these girls live.
The rights agenda of adolescent girls like any other, involves repealing laws that place constraints
on rights and putting into place, enabling laws that confer, recognize and respect those rights.
Legal sanctions must be introduced against infringement of rights. Nevertheless, experience in
the last few decades indicates that putting the law in place and imposing sanctions is the beginning
rather than the culmination of a process of realizing rights. A State that puts enabling laws in
place in conformity with international human rights standards that they have ratified must also
prioritise effective law enforcement by introducing connected policies that support law
enforcement. This involves adoption of social and economic measures on education and health as
well as resource allocation for such measures and for law enforcement systems. This is crucial for
creating the necessary environment for realizing a rights agenda.
It is also necessary to recognize that the different aspects of rights are not independent of each
other, but interconnected. For instance, realizing the rights of adolescent girls to protection from
exploitation and abuse is inherently connected with giving them greater life chances by
recognizing their development rights and their participation rights to express opinions and make
choices. Survival could also be threatened when protection rights are violated. Thus a sexually
exploited girl will be denied participation rights when she is forced into prostitution by her family,
and the abuse she faces will involve a denial of her protection rights. Her very survival and right
to life may be threatened in forced back street abortion, in her exposure to HIV Aids and
reproductive tract infections associated with prostitution.
In most countries, realizing the rights agenda means giving life chances to girls. It is such
initiatives that can strengthen the capacity of girls to be independent, provide a sense of dignity
and self esteem, and cushion them against the risk of exploitation and abuse.
03. The Rights Agenda and the Rights Context: Some Experiences
The common experiences of countries with different social and economic conditions in regard to
problems of child labour, sexual exploitation, reproductive health and education supports the
comments made in the earlier section.
The recent international focus on the problems of child labour and child sexual exploitation in
developing countries has resulted in closer scrutiny of policy approaches to these problems at the
national level. Practically all countries with a few exceptions, do have laws on minimum age of
entry into the labour force, minimum ages of capacity to marry, and legal sanctions against sexual
exploitation and abuse. Nevertheless adolescent girls in particular are forced into prostitution and
health threatening and exploitative domestic service, with long working hours in conditions of
near slavery. The reality is that these countries do not have complimentary compulsory education
laws, which require girls to attend school upto the same minimum age set for marriage and labour.
Rarely have governments put in place accompanying affirmative action education policies that
give adolescent girls access to schools. When compulsory education policies are put in place, the
focus is on primary education. Since there is no opportunity to acquire professional skills and no
prospect of upward social and economic mobility through education, low income families, or
families constrained by rigid social practices have no incentive to send their daughters to school.
Thus, in countries like India and Pakistan, where minimum age of marriage and labour are
regulated by law from the early part of this century, child marriage and child labour amongst
adolescent girls continue to be serious social problems. In a country like Thailand, where only
primary education was compulsory until very recently, school drop out rates for girls has been
higher than for boys. These girls are forced into prostitution or exploitative child labour as a
strategy of family survival.
The ensuing denial of development rights re-enforces gender discrimination, and the low self
esteem of these girls created by a cultural environment that often does not promote equal life
chances for both sexes. There is also a connected denial of survival rights through the negative
impact of early marriage and forced prostitution on reproductive health. Women sex workers in
South and South Asia, and child brides die in child birth, or because of reproductive tract
infections, or HIV Aids. South Asia is a continent that is familiar with the practice of female
infanticide and female foeticide. There is evidence of this phenomenon particularly in India. A
girl child who survives infanticide and foeticide, and grows into puberty and adolescence,
nevertheless faces risks of survival because of the risks to their reproductive health in early
marriage and sex work.
By contrast, countries that have put in place education policies that give access to school to
adolescent girls, find that the age of marriage is postponed, and there are less school drop outs
among girls who stay longer in the education system. Sri Lanka, the State of Kerala in India, and
Malaysia have experienced this change over the years.
This is not to suggest that education policies are a single solution to the problems of exploitation
of adolescent girls in labour and their sexual exploitation in the family and community. However,
it is clear that regulatory controls on sexual exploitation, early marriage and child labour, which
reflect norms that are compatible with international standards, can be enforced only in an
environment where there are supportive social and economic policies that provide alternative life
chances for women and adolescent girls and strengthens their own capacity for self protection.
Violation and infringement of the protection rights of girls can be considered a general problem of
gender discrimination and a particular problem that impacts on adolescent girls. All over the
world, even in societies where socio economic policies on education and health have been put in
place, adolescent girls face risk of physical and sexual abuse and harassment in the family and the
community. The problem of teenage pregnancies, incest, and abandonment of young girls who
have suffered sexual violence is common to both developing and developed countries. This
violence is often generated by adults, but there is also violence by boys against girls. These
problems require a different response of victim support and severe sanctions against infringement
of the right to protection. It is important that this violence should be perceived as a serious
infringement of human rights rather than `domestic violence' or violence that is a tolerable
manifestation of different cultural traditions. The latter approach trivialises the violence, and
promotes the gender discriminatory perception that the use of violence against young girls is a
dimension of family privacy and male adolescence that must not be questioned in the interests of
social stability and interpersonal relations between individuals.
It is therefore critical that national criminal laws should respond with severity in imposing
sanctions against this conduct, removing this from the area of a civil dispute that can be settled
amicably within the family and community. Several countries in Asia such as India, Bangladesh
and Sri Lanka have strengthened their penal laws against such violence, even setting prescribed
minimum sentences. The minimum age of statutory rape when a sexual assault is considered rape
irrespective of a girls consent has been raised to 16 years. There have been many instances when
the courts have responded, and imposed convictions and penal sentences.(2) Weaknesses even in
these countries in the actual enforcement of the law is often due to a different range of problems
and the lack of allocation of financial resources to the police and law enforcement agencies for
training, criminal investigation and prosecution. Malaysia provides an example of a country that
strengthened its laws on rape and violence against women and accompanied this with resources
for training of law enforcement officials and an infra structure of support for investigation and
prosecution.(3) Sri Lanka has recently set up special women and children's bureaus in police
stations to handle cases of violence, and training of police for investigations and prosecutions is
being given some priority. In the past, the police focused exclusively on a family dispute
settlement approach which encouraged women to tolerate the violence, since complaints to the
police usually involved adult women. This has often led to further violence and even death of the
complainant.
Adolescent girls face greater problems than even women in situations of violence because they
have less access to law enforcement authorities to make a formal complaint. When they do so,
they face the risk of violence in police custody. Several leading cases in South Asia demonstrate
this reality.(4) The fundamental right to life and protection against torture guaranteed by the
Constitution is now being used in India and Sri Lanka to make the police and government officials
liable for custodial violence. Rape laws have been strengthened in several countries so as to
impose severe sanctions, for custodial violence and even place the burden of proving consent to
sexual intercourse, on the accused.(5) Girls who are victims of violence need even more support
than adult women through counselling free legal aid and provision of shelters. These facilities are
inadequate in most Asian countries.
Negative cultural practices that legitimize gender discrimination, denial of life chances and
perpetration of violence is a problem that impacts adversely on adolescent girls in many societies.
It is in this area that cultural relativism has to be rejected so as to promote the universal
international standards on non-discrimination and respect for core human rights. No cultural
practice that encourages forced marriage, sexual exploitation, denial of health and education
rights, and illegal detention and torture, should be justifiable by reference to varying cultural
traditions. Ratification of international norms if it means anything, must involve a recognition of a
State party's obligation to internalize those standards in law and policy, and admit the need for
international and national scrutiny and accountability. Many countries that have ratified
international treaties like CEDAW and CRC have entered reservations that permit them to deviate
from the international norms. The current approach of the monitoring committees of CEDAW
and CRC that requires State Party's to revisit the reservations and withdraw them must be
sustained so that there can be continued pressure for universalism. It is only in this way that a
consistent normative and policy approach can be developed at the national level. That consistency
is sometimes lacking today because of cultural relativist approaches. For instance, in Pakistan, the
Hudood Ordinances have replaced the concept of Statutory rape derived from the English
criminal law.(6) This concept generally applies in the subcontinent of India and Sri Lanka, and is a
legal protection for adolescent girls. Sexual intercourse with a girl under sixteen years therefore
constitutes rape, irrespective of consent. However in Pakistan, the Hudood Ordinances suggest
that a girl of any age becomes an offender in consenting to sexual intercourse with a male.
Occupational health represents an area where we see how the protection rights of adolescent girls
in countries of South and South East Asia continue to be denied. The movement towards market
economic policies has created a great pressure for industrialization. Many industries employ a
large number of female workers in the adolescent age group of 15 to 18 years. The occupational
health hazards and the sexual harassment these workers face has been documented in research.(7)
Yet, these girls have not been considered a vulnerable group that requires special legal protection
and policy intervention that provide adequate social security, welfare benefits and relief against
violence and sexual harassment in the workplace. Even when occupational health and sexual
harassment laws are in place, law enforcement is weak, and these girls do not get the benefit of
the available legal protection. It is these girls who also have to confront the special problems of
strict abortion laws.
With more young women going out to work away from their homes in developing economies,
young girls face higher risk of sexual abuse. On the other hand, there is also greater opportunity
for consensual pre-marital sex, in the case of girls between the ages of 16-18 years. However,
while many countries such as those in South Asia have accepted that the age of discretion for
decision making, and the age of sexual consent is 16 years (the age recognized in the definition of
statutory rape), they have strict abortion laws and do not give access to family planning through
counselling or State hospital programmes. Consequently, girls who have pre-marital sex, or who
are victims of rape or incest, cannot terminate a teenage pregnancy in any circumstances. They
are forced to use primitive abortifacients or run the risk of back street abortions. Forced
termination of pregnancy is also a dimension of sexual slavery and forced prostitution in countries
of both South and South East Asia. Yet neither governments nor NGO's have been able to
support an agenda to reform the strict abortion laws, even to permit termination of pregnancy to
save the life of the mother. An exception would be India and China, where medical termination of
pregnancy has been liberalized as a demographic measure.
CRC and CEDAW have not yet been used to rationalize abortion laws not on the basis of a right,
but on the basis of a health and protection issue. A recent effort in Sri Lanka, to introduce
legislation that would permit strictly controlled medical termination of pregnancy in the event of
rape, incest and grave foetal defects, failed when the articles on abortion were withdrawn from
draft legislation when it was placed as a bill for discussion in parliament. The Minister concerned
promised to `decriminalize' abortion by introducing changes in health legislation. However, the
opinions of legislators expressed in parliament indicated both lack of sensitivity to the woman's
predicament, and the popular misunderstanding that regulated termination of pregnancy would
lead to abuse, and encourage a permissive attitude to `instant' abortions.(8) The problems of
maternal death from back street abortion continues to impact on the health status of young
women, some of whom are themselves adolescents and children.
The abortion issue as well as the other issues of violence, infringement of protection rights,
survival and development, connect with the important concept of participation rights now
enshrined in CRC. Countries that have ratified CRC tend to be able to internalize the agenda on
survival, development and protection rights much more easily that participation rights. There is a
tendency to consider this as an agenda that will foster aggressive individualism and a lack of social
responsibility among young people in the community. Nevertheless, the manner in which
adolescent girls are forced into prostitution, early marriage or labour, and denied life chances, and
their own inability to protect themselves from exploitation and abuse, suggests that participation
rights lie at the heart of child survival, development and protection. The connection needs to be
made and understood by governments NGO groups and other activists. Recognizing
participation rights through law reform and policy planning that admits the concept that an
adolescent girl has an identity, and does evolve from childhood to adulthood through a period of
adolescence, seems crucial for most countries. Unless girls are encouraged to acquire self esteem
and make responsible choices, they cannot evolve into responsible citizens who can contribute to
the wellbeing of their families and communities. It seems sterile to engage in programmes of adult
literacy, or give health messages to women, or provide them with opportunities for economic
advancement without addressing the need to nurture girls and adolescents differently. They must
be provided with both life chances and life skills to cope with a dramatically changing social and
economic context. It is because `women in development' policies have been pushed without
addressing the need to foster a parallel attitudinal change on identity and participation rights for
adolescent girls that women who now enter the work force particularly in Asia, are even more
harassed and exploited than those who were home-based workers.
05. Recommendations
The following recommendations are relevant to realizing the human right of adolescent girls :
National Level
(1) Access to education is a crucial strategy. This has proved to be so in Sri Lanka, the State of
Kerala, and certain East Asian countries that have allocated national resources without gender
bias, into education. Nevertheless, this is not adequate without parallel developments that focus
on the quality of education, and provide upward mobility for girls through the education system.
In countries such as Malaysia and Sri Lanka where girls have opportunity to move through
secondary to tertiary education, school drop out rates for girls are lower than for boys. The focus
on providing access only to primary education has not proved to be useful in many low income
countries.
The Education system must promote life skills and be participatory. Single sex schools are also
known to promote a greater sense of self esteem since stereotyping is often encouraged by
teachers themselves in mixed schools.
(2) The experience of countries that have provided access to secondary and higher education for
girls without an expansion of the economy to absorb the educated population suggests that
adequate priority has to be given to economic development. The experience of East Asians when
compared with South Asia suggests that economic development must be accompanied with
allocation of national resources to health and education. In a country like Sri Lanka where
economic growth has not accompanied educational opportunities, young women have been more
marginalized and are at the same risk of unemployment, exploitation and abuse. Educational
policies must therefore be linked to economic development policies so as to create employment
opportunities for girls who have received education and training.
(3) There is a great deal of evidence for most countries that denial of development and
participation rights fosters exploitation and abuse and therefore, encourages infringement of
protection rights. It is crucial that this dimension is appreciated when new laws and policies are
formulated to protect adolescent girls from violence, exploitation and abuse. Laws that punish
and impose sanctions against sexual violence, exploitative employment, and physical abuse must
be put in place. However they must be accompanied by socio and economic policies that provide
life chances and alternatives to girls, both as preventive measures and as measures of victim
rehabilitation.
(4) National resources must be provided for strengthening law enforcement, through police and
judicial training programmes and allocation of resources for developing an infrastructure of
services. There is a critical need for assisting victims of violence through an established
infrastructure of crisis centres, counselling and legal aid services and shelters. Government and
the NGO community as well as professional groups must share the responsibility for strengthening
law enforcement and providing support to victims, even if the major responsibility in the area of
law enforcement must be with governments. Community and family participation is crucial to
these efforts.
(5) Advocacy against gender discrimination must be a crucial aspect of promoting family and community solidarity on behalf of adolescent girls. Various types of media should be used to surface problems of exploitation of adolescent girls and give messages on the wider social importance and responsibility of protecting their rights.
Advocacy should be at various levels, reaching to family, community workers, bureaucrats, law
enforcement officials and various categories of health, education and legal professionals, and
religious leaders. Country experiences on these type of programmes are available and should be
shared. Adult literacy programmes should focus on aspects of discrimination and the importance
of developing life skills and providing life chances to adolescent girls.
These programmes should be addressed to both men and women in situations where they work
together on common problems or in the community. It is only in situations where they do not do
so, and women are therefore inhibited by the presence of men, that advocacy programmes should
be addressed only to women. There is an urgent need to mainstream these issues rather than run
the risk of marginalising them by addressing only exclusively female audiences.
(6) Girls and boys themselves, should be reached in school, and in advocacy programmes on
adolescent rights and responsibilities which connect with the immediate social problems faced by
girls in this group in each country. Such programmes can also help to prevent the phenomenon of
child to child violence.
(7) The institutional mechanisms for handling problems and violation of the human rights of
adolescent girls should be re-examined. In many countries parallel institutions address different
problems, and agencies such as a Human Rights Commissions or Ombudspersons deal with rights
violations. In order to foster inter-related responses and action in problem areas, the model of the
`child abuse team' used in Singapore and Brunei could be re-examined in responding to abuse of
adolescent girls. These teams are inter-disciplinary and inter-departmental, and they work
together in responding to the particular problem of child abuse at a community level. Countries
with written Constitutions which recognize gender equality and protection against torture should
share experiences. This can strengthen their capacity to use constitutional remedies on
infringement of the rights of equality and protection against torture to promote accountability on
the part of State actors in respecting human rights.
Regional and International
Regional responses must re-enforce the international standards rather than undermine them.
Internalization of problems and comparative analysis highlights the capacity for scrutiny, and
prevents particular governments from being over defensive in regard to the situation in their own
country. This is seen in the concerted national and regional responses that have been promoted
on internationalized issues such as child labour, trafficking, sexual exploitation and war crimes.
There is a consistent danger that regionalism will encourage relativism approaches and foster an
erosion of the universalism represented in international standards. CRC and CEDAW have been
ratified with a massive lobbying effort and represents an effort to promote universalism. There
has even been some recent initiative by the monitoring committees of CEDAW and CRC to
promote the withdrawal of reservations.
Sharing common experiences in the region in responding to the problem of adolescence in areas
of law reform policy formulation and institution building can be a creative exercise. This shared
experience can be extended particularly to promote the capacity of the bureaucracy and
professionals to respond to these problems. However, regional co-operation must be within the
international agenda and the normative framework of CRC and CEDAW rather than through the
adoption of different regional instruments. This is particularly important if governments are to be
strengthened so as to acquire the political will to intervene in regard to cultural practices that
place all the rights of adolescent girls at risk. International and regional co-operation by NGO
and governments on a common agenda can help to build resistance to fundamentalist religious and
ethnic agendas that show no respect for international norms on human rights.
1. Endnotes
1. CEDAW Art. 10(f) [education of girls] Art 16(2) [minimum age of marriage for girls and registration of marriage].
2. Asian and Pacific Women's Resource and Action Series : Law, Asian and Pacific Development Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1993); Penal Code Amendment Act Sri Lanka (1995); Oppression Against Women and Children Ordinance Bangladesh (1995)
3. Schuler M. ed. Freedom From Violence. UNIFEM New York (1992).
4. Mathura Rape Case India [Rape of 16 year old, a case which was a catalyst for extensive reform of the law on rape, cited in Asian and Pacific Women's Resource and Action Series : Law op.cit p 32, and Kirti Singh, Obstacles to Women's Rights in India in Cook Rebecca ed. Human Rights of Women, University of Pennsylvania Press, USA 1994, 375 at 390; Krishanthi Krishnaswami Case Sri Lanka [Rape and murder in custody in conflict areas of the North].
5. Penal Code India as amended (1983), Evidence Act India, as amended 1983; Penal Code Amendment Sri Lanka (1995) and Constitution Article 11 [freedom from torture] and Kumarasena v S I. Sriyantha (1994) (unreported) where the police have been considered to have infringed this fundamental right.
6. Hudood Ordinances (1979) Pakistan
7. Heyzer N ed. Daughters in Industry, Asian And Pacific Development Centre, Kuala Lumpur (1988); Hossein H and Others `No Better Option ? Industrial Women Workers in Bangladesh,' University Press Ltd. Dhaka (1990).
8. Withdrawal of provision on abortion. Penal Code Amendment Bill, Sri Lanka (1995).