GENEVA - Without substantive gender equality, women and girls, comprising about half of the world's population, cannot realise their right to development, a UN expert warned today.
"Gender equality is a cross-cutting foundational human right that must not fluctuate with changes in the political climate," said Surya Deva, the Special Rapporteur on the right to development.
Despite progress made over the years, women and girls continue to face various forms of discrimination in both private and public spheres due to discriminatory laws, patriarchal norms and structural barriers. Women enjoy less than two thirds of the legal rights available to men. The age of retirement for women is lower than that of men in 62 economies. Women spend 2.5 times more hours than men on unpaid domestic work. Women and girls are also disproportionately affected by poverty, austerity measures, climate change, conflicts, new technologies and unilateral sanctions.
In his report to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council, Deva outlined how achieving gender equality for girls and women would lead to the realisation of their right to development, and how realising this right would result in gender equality.
"States, international organisations, policymakers, businesses and other actors should pay attention to the mutually reinforcing nexus between gender equality and the right to development," the expert said. "As the international community is commemorating the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, it is hight time to take decisive actions to achieve gender equality for all."
The Special Rapporteur stressed that women and girls should not be seen as recipients of empowerment by others. "When they are enabled as agents of change, women and girls contribute to creating a more inclusive, peaceful and sustainable world," he said.
Various aspects of the right to development can create enabling conditions for women and girls to become change-makers. "The right to development is a transformative human right because it seeks to address various injustices. This transformative potential of the right to development should be leveraged to address the root causes of gender inequality," Deva said.
In the report, the expert highlighted how five illustrative aspects of the right to development could be employed to achieve substantive gender equality, specifically the collective dimension, active, free and meaningful participation, fair distribution, intersectionality, and international cooperation.
"Active, free and meaningful participation of women and girls in decision-making at every level can be a powerful antidote to the discrimination, exclusion and violence which they experience in both the private and public spheres," the Special Rapporteur said.
