International IDEA joins the rest of the world in celebrating women on International Women’s Day 2012 with the theme, Making Democracy Deliver on Women’s Empowerment.
For IDEA, women’s empowerment is essential for democracy building and therefore, the question is, is democracy delivering on women’s empowerment? Why must we insist on democracy delivering on women’s empowerment?
Across the world, women’s long journey to empowerment still remains an uphill climb. It involves struggles on all fronts over rights, recognition, participation, representation and influence. There is no doubt that there has been some progress, but each step has been achieved despite difficult obstacles and resistance. It is tempting to ask, “when will we finally arrive there”? – at a gender equal society where women and men, boys and girls have equal rights, life prospects and opportunities and the power and influence to shape their own lives and contribute to society.
The Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), ratified by 186 UN Member States sets out a comprehensive agenda for ending discrimination against women and girls. CEDAW recognises that due to historic discrimination, women do not start on an equal footing to men and therefore holistic empowerment strategies are needed to eliminate discrimination against women.
Furthermore, women had reason to expect change after the adoption of the landmark governmental agreement at the 1995 conference in Beijing which sets targets to transform and empower women worldwide. It is evident that there is no shortage of agreements and declarations, what is missing is the political will to translate these commitments into strategic actions that can deliver on women’s empowerment.
One major issue that persists in countries at different stages of democracy building is the continued absence or low presence of women’s voice in positions of power and decision making at all levels. With the understanding that democracy consists of popular control over public decision making, political equality in exercising that control, principles of deliberative democracy, human rights and civil liberties, well-functioning democracies should be incubators for women’s empowerment. We need to be alert to situations where democratization entails the transfer of power from one group of predominantly male political elites to another. This trend undermines women’s empowerment.
Read more about International IDEA's work here.
International IDEA joins the rest of the world in celebrating women on International Women’s Day 2012 with the theme, Making Democracy Deliver on Women’s Empowerment.
For IDEA, women’s empowerment is essential for democracy building and therefore, the question is, is democracy delivering on women’s empowerment? Why must we insist on democracy delivering on women’s empowerment?
Across the world, women’s long journey to empowerment still remains an uphill climb. It involves struggles on all fronts over rights, recognition, participation, representation and influence. There is no doubt that there has been some progress, but each step has been achieved despite difficult obstacles and resistance. It is tempting to ask, “when will we finally arrive there”? – at a gender equal society where women and men, boys and girls have equal rights, life prospects and opportunities and the power and influence to shape their own lives and contribute to society.
The Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), ratified by 186 UN Member States sets out a comprehensive agenda for ending discrimination against women and girls. CEDAW recognises that due to historic discrimination, women do not start on an equal footing to men and therefore holistic empowerment strategies are needed to eliminate discrimination against women.
Furthermore, women had reason to expect change after the adoption of the landmark governmental agreement at the 1995 conference in Beijing which sets targets to transform and empower women worldwide. It is evident that there is no shortage of agreements and declarations, what is missing is the political will to translate these commitments into strategic actions that can deliver on women’s empowerment.
One major issue that persists in countries at different stages of democracy building is the continued absence or low presence of women’s voice in positions of power and decision making at all levels. With the understanding that democracy consists of popular control over public decision making, political equality in exercising that control, principles of deliberative democracy, human rights and civil liberties, well-functioning democracies should be incubators for women’s empowerment. We need to be alert to situations where democratization entails the transfer of power from one group of predominantly male political elites to another. This trend undermines women’s empowerment.
Read more about International IDEA's work here.