Paragraphs 99 and 100 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): 2018/10/26
99. Sexual and gender-based violence, including physical and psychological abuse, trafficking in women and girls, and other forms of abuse and sexual exploitation place girls and women at high risk of physical and mental trauma, disease and unwanted pregnancy. Such situations often deter women from using health and other services.
100. Mental disorders related to marginalization, powerlessness and poverty, along with overwork and stress and the growing incidence of domestic violence as well as substance abuse, are among other health issues of growing concern to women. Women throughout the world, especially young women, are increasing their use of tobacco with serious effects on their health and that of their children. Occupational health issues are also growing in importance, as a large number of women work in low-paid jobs in either the formal or the informal labour market under tedious and unhealthy conditions, and the number is rising. Cancers of the breast and cervix and other cancers of the reproductive system, as well as infertility affect growing numbers of women and may be preventable, or curable, if detected early.
Beijing Declaration (1995)
Paragraphs 99 and 100 are important, together, in a number of ways. These include the ways in which sex and gender are combined here for the broad-based gendered perspective (full-scale definition of gender).
A gender-based perspective can, potentially, summarize the enhancement of the international conversation brought to bear by the Beijing Declaration. It provides a means by which to critically analyze the sex or gender differentials in the international scene, where females are discriminated against via sex or women are subject to bias due to gender.
The forms of violence against women as women is a broad conversation but is one of the most prominent social global problems in the present day. Climate change is a mostly human-made product, often called “man-made”; in fact, the largest man-made, in a literal sense, problem is, probably, violence against women and the biggest human-made issue is climate change or global warming with nuclear potential catastrophe as a close second (and potentially shorter term) issue.
But the violence against women can come with the psychological, mental-emotional, forms of trauma. These wreak havoc on the minds and bodies of girls and women who have been subject to them.
This also raises questions about our true commitment to the health and wellness of women and girls when we lack sufficient care and concern for the problems faced by women and girls, including unwanted pregnancy.
Next, we come to the psychological problems connected to the sociological inequalities faced by women. If we look at the list, we have marginalization, powerlessness, poverty, overwork, stress, domestic violence, and substance abuse. How many would bet these amount to interrelated phenomena for the mental illness faced by women?
Indeed, imagine any set in the combinatorics of the factors and then the short- and long-term effects on the life of an individual woman. It is something with a serious need to be covered in some manner. Simply by having this presentation over two decades ago, this is a start.
Something not entirely obvious, in its severity (not in its reality), is the occupational set of hazards for women. Those health issues on the job. Women dominate, by a huge margin, the low-wage, temporary, and precariat work of the world.
Many of the alternative tedious and unhealthy jobs. These jobs without benefits may fail to provide adequate finances or coverage, if available, for the women to pursue some healthcare. As mentioned at the end of the paragraphs, the ability to detect some of these cancers or dis-eases early can result in extensive injury or deatyh of the woman. This is the point of a gendered analysis, of the importance of some aspects of intersectional analysis bolstered by both individualist and collectivist sentiments.
–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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