Paragraph 91 of the Beijing Platform for Action. Chapter IV. C. Women and Health
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/10/21
91. In many countries, especially developing countries, in particular the least developed countries, a decrease in public health spending and, in some cases, structural adjustment, contribute to the deterioration of public health systems. In addition, privatization of health-care systems without appropriate guarantees of universal access to affordable health care further reduces health-care availability. This situation not only directly affects the health of girls and women, but also places disproportionate responsibilities on women, whose multiple roles, including their roles within the family and the community, are often not acknowledged; hence they do not receive the necessary social, psychological and economic support.
Beijing Declaration (1995)
The lives of the world’s citizens are precarious and increasingly to some extent due to climate change exacerbating wars, conflicts, droughts, and, therefore, migrancy patterns. A significant portion of the world’s population is living in a set of conditions best seen as precarious as a result.
Terms including the global precariat have been proposed by some leading thinkers. Those least able to handle these problems, especially in the health systems, are the developing nations of the world.
The structural adjustments of the past decades, circa 1995, were disastrous in the transitions for women. Why? Because women were not considered in the formulations of the restructurings and, thus, bore the inadvertent or inattentive brunt of the negative consequences. This is the result of a void or lack of a gendered lens on even economic issues.
The privatization of the health-care systems works against the general welfare movements for a universal access to healthcare. The privatization, in part, assumes a form of zero-sum thinking – common to conservatisms – rather than the greater than the sum thinking with the orientation of universal access to healthcare.
A healthier population can work better and longer with fewer needs for time off. It creates a more robust economy for the health and wellness of the citizenry, and the health and wealth of the particular nation-state.
Those, of course, and as with structural adjustment programs, with the disproportionate family and other duties – the unpaid economy or societal workload – remains with more women compared to the men.
The lack of proper economic, social, and psychological supports leaves women far worse off than the men. This simply reflects an iterative function in the operations of the international systems for decades.
Women lack the supports and suffer worse outcomes in a variety of ways, whether for the negligence of a gendered perspective or the simple non-provision for the needs of women. Ironically, this occurs in contexts where men view themselves as the providers and protectors of women.
–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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