Annex I(35) of the Beijing Declaration
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/08/29
35. Ensure women’s equal access to economic resources, including land, credit, science and technology, vocational training, information, communication and markets, as a means to further the advancement and empowerment of women and girls, including through the enhancement of their capacities to enjoy the benefits of equal access to these resources, inter alia, by means of international cooperation;
Beijing Declaration (1995)
For the equality of the sexes, one of the most desired things is the ability of women to have the equal access to the resources of the society. The Beijing Declaration lists a large number of the ways in which the rights of women are recognized and respected in accordance with a variety of international considerations about the meaning of resources.
Let’s take the example of the land, something crucially needed for the ability to have or own a house to make a home, to farm the land, and to take advantage of potential local resources. However, without a lack in this domain, many women can simply be left out in the proverbial cold because of this. In that, the main owners of the land throughout history have been the royal classes and, even more often, the males.
If we take the examples of North America, the main owners of the land were only to be the wealthy, the white, and the male. The land conferred even further wealth of course. This leaves the women of the continent in direr straits compared to the rest of the men because of the ownership of land by the wealthier men and the privileges, especially financial and social, leveraged over the women of the society.
Another is credit. If a woman or a collective of women do have access to the land, and if they want to found a business or a farm on the aforementioned land, then they will need to have some form of credit to be able to purchase the required upfront expenses of the farm or business, especially as most are not in any way independently wealthy.
Indeed, one of the next markers is important for this, as the education of women in science and technology continues to be a barrier to the fulfillment of women’s and girls’ potentials. The land and credit problem appears to be more of a problem for the women in the poorer areas of the world compared to the richer parts, where the rich countries have a problem with education and that means science and technology for the women.
Other factors for education applicable to the middle range of the income scale is vocational training, where the women of the world have the ability to access, at times, the vocational schools but neither the inclination nor the social permission and encouragement to enter into the traditionally male dominated fields. Also, the phrase “male dominated fields” used to mean all fields rather than science and technology and trades as now.
Then there is the issue of information provided to women to be able to know which fields or disciplines may be available to them in the light of restrictions or not, which can bea significant issue for many women the world over. The tother areas in need of equal access links much of the former points together with the equal access for women to communication networks and markets.
It can be in their respective nations. It can be in the obscure areas of the world. The point is the inclusion of women into these networks to have a fairer and more just chance, and evnetually equal, chance with the men in contrast to much of history in which the communications networks and markets were restricted for women, particularly poor women and women of color.
These, as noted, are parts of the advancement and the empowerment of women and girls. Through the implementation of measures to increase wome’s access in these areas, there could be a marked increase in the capability of women and girls to further achieve their potentials and then enjoy the equal access to the earned resources around the world, which will, in fact, require the long-term commitment of the international community for both coordination and cooperation.
–One can find similar statements in other documents, conventions, declarations and so on, with the subsequent statements of equality or women’s rights:
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
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