ABSTRACT
Writing on the rights and statues of women is a
formidable task. The subject, one of the most debated in the field of human
rights is a vast one but still has an incomplete picture. The most perplexing
aspect of this task is the approach and more particularly how to delimit what
should be the proper scope of the subject.
In all spheres of social interaction, the rights
of women have been undermined. This is because of years of men’s oppression and
exploitation which have repressed women’s creative abilities. The emphasis in
the study of the statues of women has shifted in the few decades. Early
writings revolved around women’s traditional roles and centered on their
position in the family. During the 1970s however, academic literature moved
away from studying women in the family toward examining their activities
outside the domestic setting and investigating their place in social, economic
and political relations.
This
research article is to serve as a
documentary source for the important international instruments dealing with the
rights of women. It also tries to highlight the provision of a context for and
a perspective on the documentary presented in order to help begin to make
preliminary assessment of or at least encourage women to think further about
some of the issues associated with their internationally recognized rights.
Several
good reasons can be stated for studying the rights of women from the legal
perspective. For one, it is an area in which as already stated, rapid and
substantial change has taken place within quite recent years. The arena of
women’s rights provide an ideal laboratory for examining the way various
supreme courts as interpreters of the fundamental law of their land, both
initiate and respond to social change. The role played by legal argument in the
process, the role of changing societal norms and even the role of political
pressures, can all be explored by analysis; for there is value in knowing what
is the standing law, especially on important questions of public policy.
Knowledge of an existing law is an essential prerequisite for deciding which
law will be most suitable concerning the rights of women.
INTRODUCTION :
This article has been structured to present a documentary
source for the important international and domestic instruments dealing with
the rights of women.
Human rights are by nature applicable to all
persons. However, women suffer from deprivations that have no bearing on either
their social contributions or their capabilities, deprivations that show
disregard for rights recognizable as inherent to everyone. Accordingly, the
international community concluded that it was both just and proper to create
certain human rights instruments that bear uniquely on women. Thus women are
accorded protection under relevant national and international human rights
instruments. Also, relevant international documents under scrutiny have
outlined other rights apart from those stated in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (UDHR), such as the right to vote in all elections and to be
eligible for elections to all publicly elected bodies, to implementation
thereof and to take part in non-governmental organizations and associations
concerned with the public life of nation-states.
The persons involved with framing the instruments
guaranteeing human rights were quite informed on the fact that women would have
to play active roles in fashioning whatever equality they want to enjoy, and
that women’s political empowerment would be an indispensable instrumental goal
on the social road to gender equality in all respects. Conversely, the international instruments
presenting the categories of rights characterized by social, economic and
cultural factors relating to matters of employment and social order, utilize as
their major anchor the opinion that genuine equality between the sexes can be
achieved only if no one is forced into predetermined roles on account of
his/her sex.
Women’s status in most societies, outlines a
system of operation. However, a few works exist which acknowledge the very
potential contributions of internationally recognized instruments establishing
rights for women. The basis of this instruments is to reform national and
international structures that defined
and promote gender discrimination. It is not uncommon to discover that many of the
people in the struggle for equality among the gender had little or no knowledge
of this rights. The changes achieved in women’s status have been extremely
uneven. Whether in economy, education, government or international
organizations, there is no major field of activity and no country in which
women have attained equality with men. Throughout the world, women are still
disproportionately represented. They remain a small minority at the centre of
political power. Yet, the silent revolution is slowly gaining strength. Women
are more educated, more active economically, more successful politically than
they were a few decades ago. Now, there is an undercurrent of confidence and
co-operation among them that is new to the world and has great promise.
Global interest in human rights increased remarkably
in the last decade. The adoption of the UDHR provided a framework within which
international covenants and conventions came into force. International NGOs
provided against infringements of these rights and proposed satisfactory
mechanisms through which the protection of basic human rights could be
pursued. However, greater interest does
not necessarily mean greater protection, for the rights to be protected are
themselves in dispute. Their enforcement depends on states which by ratifying
various treaties accept certain limitations upon their sovereignty. States have
traditionally been unwilling to subject themselves to external control as
imposed by international law.
Women are said to be equal to men in all affairs
of society. The meaning of equality sadly has been misunderstood. The idea that
women’s rights should be exactly the same as those of men is far from becoming
a reality. The
twentieth century witnessed the emergence of rights of women to franchise.
Women’ rights movements sprang up and developed tremendously around the world.
The activities now cover all civil and political rights of the women, such as
their right to choice of citizenship after marriage, right to equal pay and
equal fob opportunity, right to vote and be voted for, and the right to be
eligible to public offices.
Moving into the twenty-first century, the drive
for women’s rights has accelerated and taken a global momentum. Since the
global conference on women issues held in Mexico City, the campaign for
equality between women and men has witnessed significant changes and undeniable
advances. Not only have governments adopted legislations that promote equal
opportunities, treatments and rights, but women have now entered into the
labour market in unprecedented numbers, pursuing a greater role at all levels
of public life.
One of the major achievements of the past decade
has been the support by a number of countries for the 1979 UN CEDAW which
legally binds governments to achieve equal rights for women in all fields. For
hundreds of years, women have been considered in the light of homemakers.
Nevertheless, today it is unrealistic to define women in terms of marriage and
family without giving a thought to the individual woman with legal rights,
economic resources and responsibilities to herself, as well as to others.
EQUALITY OF RIGHTS FOR MEN AND
WOMEN
It is noteworthy that human beings devise a
multitude of ways to distinguish themselves from others. A set of
characteristics example, racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistics and religious
differences unify persons into groups as well as separate them from one
another. Within such groups, considerations as various as gender, age,
education, family, even friendship are often used to accent the differences
between persons. This distinction which culminates in the separation of persons
living in the same society, provides the framework from which the idea of human
rights must be evaluated.
The notion of human rights is both important and
obscure because to some extent, it mitigates this seemingly natural tendency to
accentuate the many differences between others and ourselves. The idea of human
rights is especially important in the face of pressure to put these differences
at the service of the inclination to dominate or degrade others at times simply
because they are different.
Trying to understand what we have in common with
others who are in so many ways quite distinct from us is a profound task. Yet,
when insignificant differences provide reasons to disregard the humanity of
others, human and constitutional rights offer the strongest constraint against
doing so.
Equality is a “general principle of elementary
justice applicable to all human rights. This means that whatever level may be
reached in the realization of those rights in a particular Country or territory
should apply to every individual residing there without discrimination of any
kind”.
The UN is committed to achieving equality of
rights. Equality for women may stand to mean the realization of rights denied
as a result of institutional instruments are devoted in their entirety to
promotion an protection of the principle of equality of men and women. The UN
for once proclaims in its charter that it shall place restrictions on men and
women as to their eligibility to participate in either its principal or subsidiary
organs. Furthermore, the U N had member-states to pledge to take joint and
singular action in cooperation with the body in order to achieve the aim of
realizing fundamental freedoms “for all without distinction as to race, sex,
language or religion.
In 1989, on the 4th of May, ECOSOC
noted that the General Assembly having endorsed the Nairobi Forward – Looking
Strategies for the Advancement of Women, steady progress was being made in
achieving de jure equality between the sexes, but showed concern that progress
in other regions is infact slow. Recognizing that equality for women is closely
linked with their economic independence and noting that various affirmative
action policies can accelerate the eradication of discrimination against women;
the Council urged Governments to give high priority to measures and temporary
affirmative action programmes that will more rapidly bring about equality in
women’s economic participation.
Today, though the principle of equality of men and
women has won almost universal acceptance, full equality between the genders is
far from being realized in practice. The Copenhagen World Conference defined
equality as meaning both legal equality and elimination of de jure
discrimination as well as also the equality of rights, responsibilities and
opportunities for the participation of women in development both as
beneficiaries and as active agents. For women in particular, equality means the
realization of rights that have been deprived as a result of cultural,
institutional, behavioural and
attitudinal discrimination. Equality is important for development and global
inequities perpetuate themselves and increase tensions for all types.
The establishment of a human and progressive
society reposes on the concept expressed in the strategies that women’s
advancement in any one area cannot be achieved without corresponding set
standards and effected legally binding treaties to protect women’s rights. The
struggle to achieve equality for women requires an overall shift in perception.
Too often, women’s rights are perceived as a social question rather than an
issue of human rights. Fortunately, traditional human rights organizations have
included women’s rights in their agendas and compilations covering studies,
legal briefs and statistics are being precluded.
The obligation to eliminate discrimination against
women and to ensure equality with men is assured in many nation-states. This
does not negate the fact that the major policies endorsed in several nations
admit that women have rights to pursue their material, physical and spiritual
wellbeing in conditions of freedom and dignity – as well as economic security.
The declarations made in the numerous conventions
held by the various organizations have as their thrust the development that the
underlying themes, in several respects, reflect a general urge to ensure the
protection of the rights of women as well as the endorsement in practice of
these rights. While the UN is not the fist intergovernmental body to deal with
questions relating to the status of women, its charter which is the most
important agreement making reference to women is the first international
instruments to mention equal rights of women and men in specific terms.
The term ‘women’s rights has three different
usages. First, it refers to women’s rights to be treated equally with men.
Secondly the term can refer to women’s rights to be treated unequally from men;
in other words, favoured or protected by law. And lastly, women’s rights can
refer to rights that are common to all citizen but affect women in particularly
strong ways, or affect women for reasons that are biologically rather than
legal. Women’s rights as a distinct area from human rights, evolved since World
War II, to express the global community’s commitment to the outlawing of
sex-based discrimination. Women by definition should be accorded protection
under relevant domestic, regional and global human rights instruments.
By
: Godwin Luba
Pen Name :
Godycreative
Contact :
lubacade@gmail.com
