Paragraph 29 of the Beijing Platform for Action, Chapter II: Global Framework
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/09/13
29. Women play a critical role in the family. The family is the basic unit of society and as such should be strengthened. It is entitled to receive comprehensive protection and support. In different cultural, political and social systems, various forms of the family exist. The rights, capabilities and responsibilities of family members must be respected. Women make a great contribution to the welfare of the family and to the development of society, which is still not recognized or considered in its full importance. The social significance of maternity, motherhood and the role of parents in the family and in the upbringing of children should be acknowledged. The upbringing of children requires shared responsibility of parents, women and men and society as a whole. Maternity, motherhood, parenting and the role of women in procreation must not be a basis for discrimination nor restrict the full participation of women in society. Recognition should also be given to the important role often played by women in many countries in caring for other members of their family.
Beijing Declaration (1995)
Women, whether by pressure from culture or individual choice, have remained integral parts of the “basic unit of society.” It is, in this sense, where I see the admixture of scales in the consideration of human identity. The base unit as the individual and the basic group unit as the family; individualism and collectivism do not, by necessity, stand at odds with one another.
That is, the nature of the relationship is one of mutually positive feedback, ideally. The family deserves “comprehensive protection and support.” These are the bases for respect of the fundamental unit in the society, as there is a basic consideration of its integrity and contribution to the structure of the nation. There is also the recognition of the family as a cross-cultural phenomenon. The family as a universal.
The rights and concomitant responsibilities – something of which most already agree on, as these are two sides to the same coin – of the members of the fundamental group unit should be respected. Women have been great guardians and caretakers of families for a long time. In fact, this has been a fundamental force in the protection and maintenance of human societies around the world.
There was even an acknowledgment of the fundamental work of women in the family, and there general lack of full acknowledgment. The paragraph directs attention to the importance of maternity, motherhood, and parenthood in the work of upbringing of the next generation, who themselves will, for the most part, become the guardians and custodians of the family unit – that basic group unit of human societies.
For the protection and proper upbringing of the young, there needs to be work to incorporate the young and their needs into the vision of the society, which comes through the work of the family. The rights and responsibilities come through these considerations of human rights, women’s rights, and the family life of the members of societies.
The important aspect of the document comes not only from the recognition of the role of women needing to be recognized in family life but also the rights of women not being infringed upon for reasons of maternity, motherhood, and so on. The full participation of women in society should not be taking place anywhere. And the discrimination based on maternity or motherhood should, similarly, be condemned as immoral.
Because women have been undertaking the herculena task of bearing children while taking on familial and, now, professional duties. To not support members of society in their efforts to contribute more fully and to live more full lives is abhorrent, women deserve better. Men do, too. The role of men in families lies with the role of women, where the intedependence can provide the basis for free people living lives professionally and familially.
–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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