Beijing Platform for Action, Chapter II: Global Framework – Paragraph 28
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/09/13
28. Moreover, 10 years after the Nairobi Conference, equality between women and men has still not been achieved. On average, women represent a mere 10 per cent of all elected legislators world wide and in most national and international administrative structures, both public and private, they remain underrepresented. The United Nations is no exception. Fifty years after its creation, the United Nations is continuing to deny itself the benefits of women’s leadership by their underrepresentation at decision-making levels within the Secretariat and the specialized agencies.
Beijing Declaration (1995)
The Beijing Declaration emphasizes the equality of women with men in a number of domains, with some of the recent ones discussed around excessive military expenditures harming potential financing of social programs and the integral role of women in peace and security around the world.
Paragraph 28 speaks to the reflection of an important conference based on the development and implementation of solutions to gender inequality with a tone of lament: “equality between women and men has still not been achieved.” Of the elected legislators around the world, women only represent about 10 percent of them circa 1995 with, probably, some modest but insufficient movements forward to the furtherance of equality.
This representation, or relative lack thereof, can be seen in the “national and international administrative structures” too. Women remain underrepresented in a number of important domains through the countries of the world and their respective administrative positions. By the way, the intriguing aspect of the statement is the specification of not only public, as one would typically expect, but also private administrative structures. This remains both surprising and not surprising.
Without taking advantage of the other half of the human population, we leave ourselves without the possibility of a larger talent pool for committed leaders and the diverse forms of leadership everyone brings to the table, to be able to tackle some of the large problems facing us. It is extraordinarily important to tackle the issues of the day, now. We did not target them as vigorously in the 20th century.
We can do better. As emphasized by the document, and worth repeating verbatim: “the United Nations is continuing to deny itself the benefits of women’s leadership by their underrepresentation at decision-making levels within the Secretariat and the specialized agencies.” The basic premise of gender equality amounts to an expansion of the Golden Rule into the area of sex and gender. Women deserve better treatment.
Indeed, and based on the preponderance of the evidence, more equality of the sexes in the society comes with a number of aforementioned benefits. It is, in this sense, that the questions remain around the means by which to optimize on the human capital options here; rather than, the explicit denial of the evidence and then selectively quoting evidence to try to disprove the mountain of evidence – as if calling a pebble a mountain.
This is the situation with denialism. We have less time and urgent needs based on the convergence of a number of problems in global society. The questions remain about the better and worse ways in which to bring about the fairer and more just society. One means is some of the suggestions in these international rights documents, and the associated conventions, declarations, and so on.
To bury our heads in the sand and deny ourselves of this great opportunity to capitalize on the other have of the human species seems both a travesty and a crime, the denial of the evidence as a sign of ignorance or insanity, and the criminal act in knowing one path can do far better for a set of peoples – most of us – and then choosing to reject it, which would harm the possible livelihoods of others in the future. It is not only the smart thing to do but also the right thing to do; so, we should get to it, and do it.
–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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