Paragraphs 106(o)-(q) 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): 2018/11/01
Strategic objective C.1.
Increase women’s access throughout life cycle to appropriate, affordable and quality health care, information and related services
Actions to be taken
106. By Governments, in collaboration with non-governmental organizations and employers’ and workers’ organizations and with the support of international institutions:
o. Ensure that girls and women of all ages with any form of disability receive supportive services;
p. Formulate special policies, design programmes and enact the legislation necessary to alleviate and eliminate environmental and occupational health hazards associated with work in the home, in the workplace and elsewhere with attention to pregnant and lactating women;
q. Integrate mental health services into primary health-care systems or other appropriate levels, develop supportive programmes and train primary health workers to recognize and care for girls and women of all ages who have experienced any form of violence especially domestic violence, sexual abuse or other abuse resulting from armed and non-armed conflict;
Beijing Declaration (1995)
Paragraph 106 sections (o), (p), and (q) speak to the specifics of other vulnerable populations around the world. These include those with disabilities. The women who are workers and live with physical disabilities or mental handicaps will require more support and public services.
The solutions to these personal-professional problems are almost never singular and, often, multivariate with the need to take into account the feelings of the individual. It is difficult, as the person may not consent to certain interventions.
It seems well within their rights to reject provisions attempting to be foisted on them. But also, we can see the services running downstream from the “special policies…programmes…[and] legislation.” Therefore, we can look to the second section for some guidance on some specific metrics.
These can help with the various health hazards seen on the job, in terms of prevention and precautionary measures. Having worked on construction sites for years, these are important to bear in mind, as any day on a construction site can go from routine to terrible with minor to major injuries on one or more workers including deaths.
This is the issues of some jobs. Women dominate some other ones, where, certainly, physical injury is a serious possibility, e.g., a housecleaner who slips and falls in the tub and then cracks vertebrae. Now, this woman has a host of problems, probably for life.
Now, there should be an additional sensitivity for the more vulnerable populations of women as women, which includes both pregnant and lactating women.
Finally, the integration of mental health services, e.g., counselling, can be important for the maintenance of the overall health and wellbeing of the individual women in the workplace. It can improve the care of the individual worker but also, probably, be preventative in terms of negative mental health consequences on the job.
Indeed, as covered in the SIG human rights call, these issues for women are plural, historical and ongoing; these are serious problems for the health and wellbeing of the individual women in conflict and non-conflict zones with rates as high as 1 in 3 women within their lifetime, according to the World Health Organization. Things can change, but only with robust, long-term work – and the institutions that have propped abusers are crumbling and, similarly, with social conventions and norms.
So it goes.
–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.
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
Copyright
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.
In-Sight Publishing 