UN Agency for Women Moves One Step
Closer to Reality. [National Union of Public and General Employees, Canada] A
high-level panel on United Nations reform has recommended to the Secretary-General that
the world body created its first full-fledged agency for women. "We are heartened
that the panel, appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier this year, has reached
the conclusion that women’s rights and development have always received substandard
treatment in the United Nations system," says Stephen Lewis, the UN envoy for AIDS
who has been advocating such a move. In a statement issued by his office, Lewis called the
proposal for the new agency to advance empowerment and gender equality "an inspired
and entirely welcome remedy." "If implemented and funded as recommended, the new
organization will begin to correct over six decades of UN neglect and indifference toward
women," he added. The panel's recommendation goes next to the UN General Assembly.
Member states’ decisions on three critical elements will determine whether the agency
is created and becomes a turning point in the life of the UN and the lives of women.
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- Early Marriage Causes Harm
To Women. [The Conservative Voice] Many countries set a lower minimum age of
marriage for females than for males. There are number of females for insisting that girls
not be married until they reach sufficient age to to make an informed choice. The first is
as a matter of basic human right, no person should under take such a momentous act without
full knowledge of its import, and no child can understand the full social and physical
import, and no child can understand the full social and physical import of marriage. While
marriage is almost universal for both men and women, men retain much greater power. A
recognition of women's lack of power in marriage decisions is important from another
perspective. Statistics show that majority of the girls in Asia, in Africa and in Latin
America married by the age of 14. According to the progress of Nation reports, in 6 of the
21 sub-Saharan African countries surveyed, the average age of marriage was less than 18.
In Bangladesh, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Yeman more than half of the young women interviewed
were married by the time they were 16 years old. The highly gender discrimination Hindu
marriage law permitted the marriage of a very young girls and a very old man.
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Women's
Health Experts Call for Safe Abortions, Contraception. [The Associated Press] Women
worldwide need better health care, including access to contraception and safe abortions,
to curb more than 500,000 pregnancy-related deaths each year, health experts said Monday.
Maternal mortality primarily hits the poor in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle
East, but studies show that nearly three-quarters of deaths could be avoided, said the
London-based International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics in its report on
women's health that comes out every three years. "The global record in preventing
these deaths is a disaster," Dorothy Shaw, the federation's president elect, said at
a conference of 8,000 maternal health experts from 130 countries. "One woman
somewhere in the world dies every minute from a cause related to pregnancy and childbirth,
mostly in developing countries," Shaw told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.
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- UN Wants
Greater Efforts to Prevent AIDS Among Women, Children in Asia-Pacific. [The
Associated Press] The United Nations on Monday called for greater efforts to prevent
and treat AIDS among pregnant women and newborns in the Asia-Pacific region, where some
930,000 more people became infected last year. The call for better integration of HIV
treatment and maternal health services was made at the opening of the first Asia-Pacific
Joint Forum, a five-day conference of officials, health professionals, NGOs and HIV
patients from 22 countries. The challenge is to prevent the disease and improve nutrition
"to provide a holistic package of services for mothers and their children," said
Richard Bridle, UNICEF deputy regional director for Asia and the Pacific. Delegates at the
conference are expected to agree on a framework for stronger links between maternal and
child health, family planning, sexual health and counseling and testing for HIV, the virus
that causes AIDS, as well as other sexually transmitted infections. According to U.N.
figures, the estimated number of HIV-positive women in the Asia-Pacific region increased
by 16% to over 2 million between 2001 and 2004. Globally, the increase was 8%.
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Women's
World is Far from Equal. [Globe and Mail, Canada] Nordic Europe is the
guiding light for gender equality in the world, topping a global list of 115 countries and
laying claim to the world's best maternity leave, the best political participation rates
and an education system in which women now outnumber men. The World Economic Forum's
Global Gender Gap Report 2006 named Sweden as the world's most progressive country when it
comes to quality of the sexes, followed by Norway, Finland and Iceland. Ranking the
countries according to economic participation and opportunity, education, political
empowerment and health and survival, Canada came in 13th and the United States ranked
29th. The small Middle East nation of Yemen came last in the global list. The United
States “lags behind many European nations” and also falls behind Canada, mainly
due to its average score on political empowerment.
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