Beijing Declaration (1995): Annex I(13)-(15)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/08/24
13. Women’s empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society, including participation in the decision-making process and access to power, are fundamental for the achievement of equality, development and peace;
14. Women’s rights are human rights;
15. Equal rights, opportunities and access to resources, equal sharing of responsibilities for the family by men and women, and a harmonious partnership between them are critical to their well-being and that of their families as well as to the consolidation of democracy;
Beijing Declaration (1995)
Beijing Declaration (1995) in Annex I(13) to Annex I(15) state the need for women’s equality in the society at all levels as well as the recognition of women’s rights – first, foremost, and fundamentally – as human rights.
Annex I(13) speaks to the need to empower women through a variety of mechanism throughout the society. The purpose is to include women in not only the decision-making processes but also the power centers of the nation as well. Traditionally, the power for women has been, more or less, kept to the home and some of the financial decisions of the home with the power brokers of the civic life, political institutions, and the economic lives of the citizenry.
For the full participation of women in the society, there will need to be significant changes to the structures and systems, and many times sets of minor changes, to have women more fully included into the operations of the nation. As seen highly progressively in the country of Iceland, we can note the greatest level of gender equality for several years now, where women have been kept more and more and encouraged more and more into those institutions of the influence of the nation-state while also adapting the structures and systems of the society themselves.
Take, for example, the efforts in many countries to encourage men to be more involved fathers, if they wish to be fathers, and the further work to have women have access to various benefits of parental leave and flexible work pay, and so on, to be able to pursue their dreams and family life, if the woman so wants it.
It is an important reflection of a set of international norms changing in some bold examples that, if successful enough, may inspire more and more nations for not only moral but also economic reasons to pursue greater equality of women with men in the society. These become “fundamental for the achievement of equality, development and peace.”
Annex I(14) states in no uncertain terms and with optimization of the message’s concision: “women’s rights are human rights.” Indeed, they are; they should have been the whole time. In fact, I think the only impediment has been a historical precedent of women considered less than men rather than the international rights documents’ equality stipulations themselves.
Annex I(15) is the final one for consideration in this article with the reiteration of equal rights but also an emphasis on opportunity and resource access. Women have been for a long time, and still in many nations, kept inside of the home and away from the workplace and made mostly or completely – and in lucky cases only partially – dependent on the men in their lives.
It is an important note of the financial coercion and enforced subordination through things like enforced heterosexual monogamy in the history of women, where it is the women’s movements – globally speaking – have been the force to bring women more into the fore of the conversation about finances, about being in education, regarding the acquisition of resources, and the inclusion of them at all levels of the economic future of the society.
These moves are progressive in that neither men nor women become fully dependent on one another and more egalitarian marriages, if people want to get married, come forward; oftentimes, in a historical setting, women have been subject to enforced heterosexual monogamy out of tradition, financial lack of access, religious fundamentalism, and the work to keep women as simply incubators of life and not as independent beings with thoughts of their own: and wants, desires, and needs and dreams.
The inclusion of not only women but also men into the fundamental group unit of the world found in the family is something regarding responsibilities, duties, obligations, and, yes, rights of the parents. Men have a role; women have a role, or roles rather. Those of which are to be chosen by the individual women and man, disregarding sexual orientation or gender identity.
The moderately inaccurate language speaks to the broader forms of family life seen in some of the more inclusive areas of the society. As we can see, the stipulation leans into an axiology evaluation – a value judgment – as to the rightness of the partnership or not. In that, we can see the well-being of the individuals and the family – the fundamental individual unit and group unit in the globe, respectively – are intimately twinned with one another.
These become fundamental considerations for the solidifying of the democratic processes with the inclusion of women and men on an equal playing field. Democratic values are tied with the rights of women, of the equality of the sexes or genders.
–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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