Mobilizing Institutional, Legal and Cultural Resources to Achieve Gender Equality

Bahá'í International Community’s Statement to the 52^nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women

New York
1 February 2008

The central role of girls and women in the developmentof families, communities and nations has been clearly established: women arethe first educators of the next generation; their education has a tremendousimpact on the family’s physical, social and economic well-being; their economicparticipation increases productivity and drives economic progress; theirpresence in public life has been associated with better governance and lowerlevels of corruption. No country, however, has yet achieved a full measure ofgender equality. While women bear the most direct costs of this persistent inequality,the progress of all facets of human society is hindered as half of the world’spopulation is held back from realizing its potential.

The last several decades have produced landmark documents elaborating the rights of women, calling for an end to allforms of discrimination against women, and outlining strategies to advancegender equality.[1] Thesystematic implementation of these measures will no doubt require a carefulre-thinking of budget priorities and processes. Financing this effort, however,is only part of the equation. As the Bahá'í International Community noted inits statement to the 51^st Commission on the Status of Women, amassive divide still separates the legal apparatus and the culture – embodiedin values and institutional norms – required to achieve gender equality.[2] A comprehensive approach to financing gender equality will need to address the constellation of cultural, institutional, and legal obstacles holding back theurgently needed progress of half of the world’s population.

From this perspective, we offer three measuresfor governments’ consideration: (a) the adoption of a long-term perspective toguide short and medium-term efforts to finance gender equality; (b) the use ofthe Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)to evaluate national budgets; and (c) the engagement of religious perspectivesand institutions.

Adoption of a long-term perspective. To articulate acoherent and compelling vision of gender equality, leaders will need to moveaway from a predominantly crisis-driven, reactive mode of operation. Alongsideshort-term goals, they will need to frame policies from a long-termperspective, unconstrained by the intellectual straightjacket of electioncycles. An exclusive focus on short-term goals too often falls prey to minimumstandards, narrow orientations and compromise positions. A long-termorientation, looking ahead one, two, or more generations, would allowgovernments to explore a wider range of policy and programmatic options and toconsider a diversity of contributions – including those from nongovernmental,business, academic and informal sectors.[3]

The first pillar of the long-term approach is aconsensus about the broader goals of development and the outcomes to beachieved. Governments will need to articulate the goals of gender equality interms of the well-being of society as a whole: its boys, girls, men, women; itspeace and security, health and well-being, economic progress, environmentalsustainability, and its institutions of governance. The second pillar of thelong-term approach involves the measurement of progress towards stated goals. Evenin instances where a country may be sensitive to the gender dimension, it oftenlacks the monitoring tools and systems to gauge the impact of its policies on girlsand women. As such, the development of indicators will be essential to determinethe effectiveness of financing initiatives. Given the diversity of national andlocal contexts, one-size-fits-all indicators will not be feasible – each regionwill need to develop tools most appropriate to its circumstances. The Bahá'íInternational Community looks forward to participating in discussions aboutthis important initiative.

Aligning national budgets with human rights standards

Our second recommendation to governments concerns measures to bring national budgets into compliance with international human rights standards. Far from being value neutral, a government’sbudget reflects the values of the country – whom it values, whose work itvalues, and what it rewards.[4]While budgets are not typically formulated with a gender perspective, theproliferation of Gender Budget Initiatives suggests that these worlds are graduallycoming together to bring budgeting processes in line with state obligationsunder the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination AgainstWomen (CEDAW). This type of gender analysis helps to identify genderinequalities in budget processes, allocations, and outcomes; and assesses states’responsibilities to address these inequalities. [5]For the rights-based approach to be effective, however, it must take intoaccount not only women but rather their entire life cycle – from birth to childhoodand youth – as discrimination begins andcompounds in these early stages.

The rights-based approach is not withoutprecedent. A number of countries have successfully empowered women politically,boosted their rate of participation in the labor force, and helped tofacilitate a balance between work and family life.[6] Governments would be well served by examining closely the practices of thosecountries which have achieved a measure of success with these seeminglyintractable problems. Norway, which the United Nations Development Programme has ranked highest on the Gender-related development index and the Gender empowerment measure, may serveas a useful example. An analysis of effective gender-specific policies and thelegal, institutional, and culture obstacles to the adoption of such policies inother counties would help to formulate policy recommendations on the basis ofconcrete examples.

Engaging religionand religious leaders

Too often, policy makers have beenresistant to addressing the cultural and religious dimensions of attitudes governingthe treatment of women – fearing the potentially divisive nature of such anundertaking or lacking knowledge about whom to address and how to proceed. Yetthe achievement of gender equality has been painstakingly slow preciselybecause questions about the roles and responsibilities of women challenge someof the most deeply entrenched human attitudes. Given the tremendous capacity ofreligion to influence the masses - both to inspire and to vilify - governmentscannot afford to turn a blind eye.

In the absence of a sustained dialogue between governments and religions, religiousextremism flourishes. Fuelled at various times by poverty, instability, thesocio-economic changes accompanying globalization and access to informationtechnologies, radical religious voices have exerted tremendous influence onpolitics and public policy. Among the casualties of this development has beenthe role of women in public life as evidenced, in some parts of the world, by areturn to narrowly defined notions of a woman’s place in the family, thecommunity, and the world. The decrease in funding for woman’s rights has beenpartly attributed to these social and cultural shifts. Complicating mattersfurther is the fact that many states continue to hide behind cultural andreligious reservations to international treaties concerning the rights of women.Today - nearly sixty years after adoption of the Universal Declaration of HumanRights and 26 years after CEDAW entered into force - governments can no longerignore religious practices anddoctrines that stand in flagrant violation of international human rightsstandards. These must be subject to examination and scrutiny.

Despitethis challenging reality, religious organizations constitute some of theoldest, far-reaching networks in the world. In many conflict-torn countries,they are the only surviving institutions. In the areas of health, environment,debt relief and humanitarian support, it is religious organizations that havebeen at the forefront of efforts to reach neglected areas and to influencegovernment policy. Furthermore, given the tremendous weight of religion andculture in shaping perceptions about the role of women in society, religiousorganizations and constituencies will need to be meaningfully engaged inefforts to further the gender equality agenda. While at first, the language offinance and economics appears incompatible with that of ethics and values(common to religions), both governments and religious organizations need tobecome familiar with each other’s rationale and perspectives - recognizing thatthese concern the same reality. An equitable economic system is not possiblewithout agreement about underlying values; and notions of ethics and valuesdivorced from economic conditions will not be realized.

By adoptinga long-term perspective, working to align national budgets with human rightsobligations, and engaging with religions, governments can mobilize theinstitutional, cultural and legal resources that facilitate efforts to financegender equality. It must be borne in mind, however, that the advancement ofwomen is not a privilege, a technical exercise, or a magic bullet. It is partof a broader exercise of creating an ordered society in which relationshipsbetween men and women, parents and children, employees and employers, thegovernors and the governed adhere to principles of justice and emulate thehighest aspirations of humankind.

[1] The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination Against Women, The Beijing Platform for Action, the SecurityCouncil Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security along with the MillenniumDevelopment Goals have provided a vision and concrete plans for action.

[2] Bahá'í International Community. (2006). Beyond Legal Reforms: Culture and Capacityin the Eradication of Violence Against Women and Girls. New York.

[3] Given that it takes approximately 17 years for anindividual to complete secondary education and approximately 20 years tocomplete higher education, a long-term perspective can more fully take intoaccount and seek to shape the educational resources of a nation.

[4] Budlender, D. (ed.) (1996). The Women’s Budget, Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA), Cape Town.

[5] Elson, Diane. (2006). Budgeting for Women’s Rights: Monitoring Government Budgets forCompliance with CEDAW. United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM): New York.

[6] Hausmann, Ricardo, Laura D. Tyson, and Saadia Zahidi.(2007). The Global Gender Gap Report 2007.World Economic Forum: Davos, Switzerland.

BIC Document# 08-0201