---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 21:05:47 -0700
From: Carol McRoberts <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [wa-afr] Fw: [women-csd] UNFPA: Report Paints Grim Picture For
    World's Women


Subject: [women-csd] UNFPA: Report Paints Grim Picture For World's Women


> >
> UNFPA: Report Paints Grim Picture For World's Women
>
>      United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Nafis Sadik
> today
> released the annual State of World Population 2000 report. The report,
"Lives
> Together, Worlds Apart: Men and Women in a Time of Change," paints a grim
> picture
> for women around the world, who frequently endure discrimination and
violence.
>
>      According to the report, systematic discrimination against women and
> girls
> around the world causes great suffering for both women and men, thwarting
> efforts
> to reduce poverty, stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, control population growth
and
> improve health (UNFPA release, 20 Sep). Key issues covered by the report
> include
> reproductive health care, gender-based violence and domestic abuse, and
> women's
> rights to privacy, freedom from sexual violence and voluntary choice in
> marriage
> and childbearing (UNFPA release II, 20 Sep).
>      "This year's State of World Population report has a very simple
message,"
> said Sadik. "It could be summed up as 'The price of inequality is too high
to
> pay.'" Sadik noted that the broad base of evidence collected for the
report
> "shows that in countries all over the world, gender inequality,
discrimination
> and violence are holding back not only women but men, not only families
but
> communities and whole nations."
>      "This is a massive global violation of human rights," she stressed,
> adding
> that in the era of globalization, "gender equality and empowerment are
taking
> their rightful place in the discussion about human rights and human
security"
> (UNFPA release III, 20 Sep).
>
> Violence, Rights Violations, Health Problems Rife
>      According to the report, each year the world's women have 80 million
> unwanted
> pregnancies, undergo 20 million unsafe abortions, suffer millions of
beatings
> and rapes, are often killed at birth because of their gender and are
sometimes
> murdered in so-called "honor killings" (Sue Leeman, Associated Press, 20
Sep).
>
>      In Bangladesh, violence against women is the worst in the world, with
47%
> of all women violently assaulted by their male partners. In India, 40% of
> women
> suffer violence, followed by 29% in Canada, 22% in the United States and
20%
> in South Africa (Reuters/ABCNews.com, 20 Sep).
>      The report points out that sexual violence is an expensive problem
for
> countries as it results in direct costs from health care, missed work,
legal
> help and law enforcement and shelter, and takes away one in five healthy
years
> for women between the ages of 15 and 44 in the industrialized world (UNFPA
> release
> II, 20 Sep).
>      In developing countries, only 53% of births are attended by medical
> professionals
> while almost 30% -- some 38 million each year -- receive no medical care
after
> giving birth (AP). Complications from pregnancy kill one in every 48
pregnant
> women in the developing world (Times of India, 20 Sep). Unsafe abortions
cause
> the deaths of 78,000 women annually and suffering for millions more (AP).
In
> Argentina, unsafe abortion is the cause of more than a third of maternal
> deaths
> among adolescents (Roxana Fernandez, Buenos Aires El Clarin, 20 Sep, UN
Wire
> translation).
>      At least 60 million girls are "missing," mostly in Asia, as a result
of
> infanticide or sex-selective abortions, the report found, while an
additional
> 5,000 are murdered each year, most in the Middle East, by their own
families
> in honor killings (AP). Some women killed in honor killings are murdered
for
> having been raped (Times of India).
>      The report also stresses that the spread of HIV/AIDS is linked to
social
> as well as physical gender inequality. In Africa, HIV-positive women
outnumber
> men by 2 million, a figure linked to women's lack of the right to control
> their
> own bodies.
>
> Economic Discrimination Costs Society
>      Discrimination often obstructs economic participation for women,
obscures
> more productive alternatives for them and fails to support women's
> responsibilities
> and burdens, as women's economic participation is frequently in the
informal
> sector. In Kenya, for example, a separate study found that giving women
> farmers
> the same social and economic supports as men increased yields by more than
> 20%.
>
>      In addition, although women live longer than men, their unequal
> representation
> in economic spheres means that they are offered less support through
public
> pension schemes.
>
> Report Offers Hope For Change
>      However, despite these grim findings, the report asserts that there
is
> hope for change. The 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
> Discrimination
> against Women constitutes a first step (UNFPA release II, 20 Sep).
>      The report cites Sri Lanka as a model of the benefits of investing in
> women,
> noting that public health improvements have reduced maternal mortality,
> socioeconomic
> factors have improved girls' valuations in the family structure and
increased
> investments in girls' education have led to economic gains (Inter Press
> Service/Terra
> Viva, 20 Sep).
>      The report concludes the challenge now lies in mobilizing changes in
the
> power structures motivating the relationships between men and women --
changes
> "no less sweeping than other changes already underway in urbanization,
> globalization
> and governance" (UNFPA release II, 20 Sep).
>
>
>
>
>
>


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