Paragraph 58(l)-(n) of the Beijing Platform for Action. Chapter IV. A. Women and Poverty
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/09/27
Strategic objective A.1.
Review, adopt and maintain macroeconomic policies and development strategies that address the needs and efforts of women in poverty
Actions to be taken
58. By Governments:
l. Introduce measures to integrate or reintegrate women living in poverty and socially marginalized women into productive employment and the economic mainstream; ensure that internally displaced women have full access to economic opportunities and that the qualifications and skills of immigrant and refugee women are recognized;
m. Enable women to obtain affordable housing and access to land by, among other things, removing all obstacles to access, with special emphasis on meeting the needs of women, especially those living in poverty and female heads of household;
n. Formulate and implement policies and programmes that enhance the access of women agricultural and fisheries producers (including subsistence farmers and producers, especially in rural areas) to financial, technical, extension and marketing services; provide access to and control of land, appropriate infrastructure and technology in order to increase women’s incomes and promote household food security, especially in rural areas and, where appropriate, encourage the development of producer-owned, market-based cooperatives;
Beijing Declaration (1995)
Sections (l), (m), and (n) are interesting. (l) looks at the means by which to create better conditions for women living in poverty. These are, often, the socially marginalized women too. It is a context where the chance to move up in the socioeconomic system is lowered simply for the fact of being a woman.
Furthermore, there is the issue of being displaced, as per some of the other articles’ discussions. These can be migrant and refugee women. It states the need to look for the implementation of the human rights of women regardless of their status in life in terms of the economic opportunities for them.
(m) is look at the rights to land and housing. The problems for those who would like to get some land, buy or build a house, and live a life of ease and reasonable comfort, especially in an advanced industrial economy. Here we can see the obstacles for women starkly, there are simply too few provisions for the rights of women here – which can show in even one of the simplest considerations of the lack of economic independence opportunities provided to women in so many contexts of the world.
Women are, continually, denied the right to an education or discouraged, even shamed, from working to get an advanced education. This form of discrimination creates educational deficits and workforce barriers for women. Herein, we can note the long-term consequences for women. Fewer finances, less independence, and the inability to buy land and own a home. It can indirect driving the direct lacks of women for land and housing apart from the men in their lives.
The policies and programmes stated should, as stated in some recent articles, work within the context of also encouraging and increasing the access of women into the agricultural and fishing markets. With the “appropriate infrastructure and technology,” women’s incomes can increase alongside the food security of the home.
All in all: the basic sentiment for improved access for women in these domains of housing, land, and other resources do not automatically imply but permit the possibility for the economic advancement and empowerment of women. But programs and policies with an emphasis on this form of empowerment can be powerful drivers for the equality of women with men.
It is important, timely, and still relevant almost a quarter century since its being written. The emphases and programs set for the time when some were just being born and may now even be graduating college are relevant to those who are also simply being born now. The cycle of deprivation is certainly less and conditions, depending on the area of consideration, have improved, but because some things have improved somewhat does not imply the automatic solving of other problems or the non-creation of others. We live in a time of radical changes, which may be needing even more rapid changes in the economic, social, and political structures around us – to respect rights of all and produce the potential for a viable and sustainable future for all.
–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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