"Advancing Women's Rights During Democratic Transitions" at WMD Assembly 2012 (Part 5)
Session on Advancing Women's Rights During Democratic Transitions, World Movement for Democracy, Lima, Peru, October 2012 Organizer: Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace http://www.learningpartnership.org/ During the Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) organized panel, speakers shared insights, experiences, and analyses on how best to include women and advance universal human rights during times of democratic transitions, drawing on experiences from the MENA and Latin America. They posited what the gendered outcomes of democratic transitions might look like, and discussed how the women's movement could weigh-in with significant bargaining power during times of transition. Although transitions may differ from one context to the next, compelling similarities can be drawn. For instance, co-opting transitions by conservative and anti-women religious groups appears to be a worldwide phenomenon, as we continue to see cases of compromising on women's right for the sake of national security. We have learned that often, democracies do not adopt gender equality agendas on their own. This issue is further exacerbated by an increasingly conservative political climate that views women as subordinate and relegates them to the private sphere. This is a new challenge in comparison to the late 1980s, when governments and international actors were more open to equality, human rights practices, and the full realization of women's rights. Panelists noted the challenge of recognizing the contributions to society made by the women's movement, and the tendency to write-off past successes as impositions by former dictators or first ladies. Speakers identified the post-Arab Spring as nothing short of a war on women, for example, in Tunisia, the mention of complementary gender roles in the new constitution and the introduction of female genital mutilation. Additionally, diversity and minority rights are under threat and so is the freedom of belief or non-belief, which must be included as a structural rather than a secondary element of democracy. Read more here: http://www.learningpartnership.org/iw... Moderator: Yakin Ertürk, Turkey (Former UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women; and Professor of Sociology, Middle East Technical University) Presenters: Middle East and North Africa: Lina Abou-Habib, Lebanon (Executive Director, Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action) Asma Khader, Jordan (General Coordinator, Sisterhood is Global Institute (SIGI/J); Secretary General, The Jordanian National Commission for Women; WMD Steering Committee Member) Amina Lemrini, Morocco (President, Morocco High Council for Audiovisual Communication; Founding Member, Moroccan Human Rights Organization; Founding Member, Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc) Latin America: Jacqueline Pitanguy, Brazil (Founder & Executive Director, Cidadania, Estudo, Pesquisa, Informação e Ação; WMD Steering Committee Member) Gloria Cano Legua, Peru (Executive Director, La Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos)
