CEDAW: Article 11(1)(e)(f)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/07/24
Article 11 1. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights, in particular:(e) The right to social security, particularly in cases of retirement, unemployment, sickness, invalidity and old age and other incapacity to work, as well as the right to paid leave;(f) The right to protection of health and to safety in working conditions, including the safeguarding of the function of reproduction.
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979)The equality of the sexes comes in a number of packages and representations. Some of those show in the ways in which individuals can further their own economic well-being if they are women or help with the advancement of their families as a whole if they are men.
In the case of Article 11(1)(e) of the CEDAW or the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the basic rights stipulated point to the right for social security. A form of the economic net to help those vulnerable in times of harm or advanced age in life.
For example, if one looks at the cases of retirement, people will need some extra income, hopefully, saved up, for the new stages of life; those times of later life that come with further injury proneness, lessened capacity in strength and endurance in physical, mental, and emotional life.
The other case listed is unemployment. If an individual cannot maintain a job, and if that person becomes unemployed for significant amounts of time, it is important to bear in mind their fundamental need as a human being for work.
Without work, many people tend to go off the rails and fall in not only lacking a job but also the will to continue to search for a job. These are the people of the world in need of a leg up in terms of unemployment insurance.
Then there are those who are sick and need to take some time off work. For those individuals who have been overworked, stressed, burdened by life, or who simply came down with an old, there is an intrinsic compassion for them and, therefore, the need to be able to have them work from a place of strength for recovery.
The ability to take some time off is an important part of that compassion for them – to be able to recoup, recover, and continue to contribute to the mainstream of the society.
Then there are the invalid. Those are the, unfortunately, set of citizens of societies who have been left without many livelihoods in their life.This could be due to injury. It could come from old age. It may emerge from a progressive deteriorative disease. The general reduction in the well-being of people comes from the various ways in which the universe wants to conspire to harm us – or have us harm ourselves.
Other things, as noted, may be old age or simply an injury from work. These are the basic categories of persons who will need, likely, some form of social security in their lives, for their health and well-being until death or for a temporary period while begin to gain their selves back.
People tend to want to work. They can be lazy, but, in general, people want to contribute in ways meaningful to them to the community and society around them.
This amounts to a theory of the intrinsic motivation of people but, on the other hand, or on top of that, there are the motivations that come from the family and the society. It is akin to the difference between the average man and the average woman in terms of their want of a child and a family.
For the men, they often recount social and family pressure as their reason; for women, they tend to refer to innate reasons.
It is in this context that we see the development of a social set of mores for the better well-being and construction of civilizations. But also, in the area of work, I note an intrinsic need for people to devote themselves to some work and then also having the additional motivations, but those externally placed on people and manifested in a myriad of ways for them.
One of the rights stipulated is the right to paid leave. Whether a father or a mother, or a person who racked up enough time, they deserve the right to paid leave from work on the job. They deserve and reserve the identical right as anyone else in a civilized society to have some time off work, which, in historical perspective, is not an old thing.
It is a new phenomenon, where in historic times people were simply taken advantage of in one way or another. The exciting thing about these rights is the newfound flexibility this provides for men and women to become more fully realized human beings as not only working beings, but also creative and mutually parenting beings; it gives a whole new light on the human condition and capacities.
Article 11(1)(f) speaks to a few more rights: protection of health and to safety in working conditions. In terms of the protection of health, if someone works in construction for an extended period of time, this becomes an important part of their protection of their health and well-being as a consideration.
Most construction workers, as males with a masculine identity, do not care about their health and do not want to show discomfort or pain out of fear of seeming not like a real man or simply a wimp. These a real, valid concerns from within the world of work there.
Plus, it can make the already highly stressful and toxic environment even more so and wasteful on everyone’s time if men’s feelings are continually consulted. The men hate that guy.
But the right to a safe working environment is still there for the men and the construction workers in general if they so desire it.Furthermore, this does not only have to be in the wold of construction work; it can be in the arena of the protection of health in any part of work that may induce mental health problems or other threats to health. A broad-based statement on the right to the protection of your own, and your colleagues’, health.
Connected or directly linked with this, the right to safety in working conditions. With reflection o the previous construction example, the safety of the working conditions there become especially salient because of the fundamental basis for living a decent life is not only for some of the least skilled to have work but also to work in conditions that can maintain their livelihood.
It is within this context that we can then develop the realization that equality is not only a high cause for only the most knowledgeable and privileged, but also for those who have been given the least opportunities and capacities in life in a number of domains.
Everyone deserves the right to a decent life that is both safe and healthy.–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 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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