C
Chibibar
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-03-05-discriminatory-laws_N.htm?csp=YahooModule_News
I can totally see this. What can U.N. do if these people don't repeal their laws?? that is a lot of country and some of them are oil rich. Can't Sanction them all
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Five years after a U.N. conference called for the revocation of laws that discriminate on the basis of gender, a new report released Friday highlights 36 countries that still have laws that treat women as second-class citizens.
The international human rights organization Equality Now, which prepared the report, said the countries it highlighted represent just a sample of nations that have failed to repeal discriminatory laws against women regarding marriage, economic and personal status, and violent acts including rape.
The report was released on the sidelines of a two-week conference by the Commission on the Status of Women to review progress on implementing goals to achieve equality for women adopted by 189 countries at a historic conference in Beijing in 1995.
The Platform for Action adopted in Beijing includes a pledge to "revoke any remaining laws that discriminate on the basis of sex." At a U.N. conference in 2000 to review progress toward implementing the Beijing platform, governments not only reaffirmed the pledge to revoke discriminatory laws but agreed to do so "as soon as possible, preferably by 2005."
Equality Now's Executive Director Taina Bien-Aime expressed her "profound concern over the blatant failure of governments to honor the commitments they have made" to revoke discriminatory laws against women by the 2005 target date.
"A government that allows discriminatory laws to remain in force endorses and absolutely perpetuates gender-based inequality, which in turn leads to violence against women," she said.
The report found it alarming that many countries, including Algeria, Israel, Japan, Mali, Sudan, Tanzania, and Yemen, have been unwilling to repeal laws that grant women secondary status within marriage. These laws include providing for unequal rights in marriage and divorce, prescribing male guardianship over women, permitting polygamy, and requiring wives to be obedient.
In Singapore, for example, the law allows a man to rape his wife if she is aged 13 or over, and in Iraq, the law requires a woman to get the approval of her male guardian or husband to obtain a passport, Bien-Aime said. In Israel, religious law prevents a woman from getting a divorce unless her husband gives his approval, and in Saudi Arabia women are still banned from driving, among other restrictions.
The report expressed concern that in many countries amendments to discriminatory laws have been partial, incomplete or merely cosmetic, resulting in little change to legally advance women.
For example, it said, Syria amended its "honor killing" law in 2009, but failed to put such killings on a par with other murders by allowing a mere two-year minimum sentence for offenders. Although India's domestic violence law of 2006 gives women the option to bring a civil case for marital rape, India continues to exempt marital rape from its criminal law, it said.
The report cites the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act for setting different requirements for mothers and fathers in seeking citizenship of their children born out of wedlock overseas, and a Japanese law setting different ages when men and women can marry and requiring a woman to wait six months from her divorce before remarrying.
The report does welcome the progress made by more than half the 52 countries highlighted in its two previous reports in either partially or fully repealing or amending discriminatory laws.
Among those countries are Algeria, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, France, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lesotho, Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland, Romania, Serbia, South Korea, Switzerland, Tonga, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela.
But Bien-Aime found it disturbing that new discriminatory laws continue to be enacted by some countries. She cited Afghanistan's 2009 Shia Personal Status Law that declares the man head of the household and curtails a woman's freedom of movement among other restrictions.
Equality Now, which works to protect and promote the rights of women and girls around the world, called for renewed global action to pressure world leaders and their lawmakers to repeal discriminatory laws.
I can totally see this. What can U.N. do if these people don't repeal their laws?? that is a lot of country and some of them are oil rich. Can't Sanction them all
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Five years after a U.N. conference called for the revocation of laws that discriminate on the basis of gender, a new report released Friday highlights 36 countries that still have laws that treat women as second-class citizens.
The international human rights organization Equality Now, which prepared the report, said the countries it highlighted represent just a sample of nations that have failed to repeal discriminatory laws against women regarding marriage, economic and personal status, and violent acts including rape.
The report was released on the sidelines of a two-week conference by the Commission on the Status of Women to review progress on implementing goals to achieve equality for women adopted by 189 countries at a historic conference in Beijing in 1995.
The Platform for Action adopted in Beijing includes a pledge to "revoke any remaining laws that discriminate on the basis of sex." At a U.N. conference in 2000 to review progress toward implementing the Beijing platform, governments not only reaffirmed the pledge to revoke discriminatory laws but agreed to do so "as soon as possible, preferably by 2005."
Equality Now's Executive Director Taina Bien-Aime expressed her "profound concern over the blatant failure of governments to honor the commitments they have made" to revoke discriminatory laws against women by the 2005 target date.
"A government that allows discriminatory laws to remain in force endorses and absolutely perpetuates gender-based inequality, which in turn leads to violence against women," she said.
The report found it alarming that many countries, including Algeria, Israel, Japan, Mali, Sudan, Tanzania, and Yemen, have been unwilling to repeal laws that grant women secondary status within marriage. These laws include providing for unequal rights in marriage and divorce, prescribing male guardianship over women, permitting polygamy, and requiring wives to be obedient.
In Singapore, for example, the law allows a man to rape his wife if she is aged 13 or over, and in Iraq, the law requires a woman to get the approval of her male guardian or husband to obtain a passport, Bien-Aime said. In Israel, religious law prevents a woman from getting a divorce unless her husband gives his approval, and in Saudi Arabia women are still banned from driving, among other restrictions.
The report expressed concern that in many countries amendments to discriminatory laws have been partial, incomplete or merely cosmetic, resulting in little change to legally advance women.
For example, it said, Syria amended its "honor killing" law in 2009, but failed to put such killings on a par with other murders by allowing a mere two-year minimum sentence for offenders. Although India's domestic violence law of 2006 gives women the option to bring a civil case for marital rape, India continues to exempt marital rape from its criminal law, it said.
The report cites the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act for setting different requirements for mothers and fathers in seeking citizenship of their children born out of wedlock overseas, and a Japanese law setting different ages when men and women can marry and requiring a woman to wait six months from her divorce before remarrying.
The report does welcome the progress made by more than half the 52 countries highlighted in its two previous reports in either partially or fully repealing or amending discriminatory laws.
Among those countries are Algeria, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, France, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lesotho, Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland, Romania, Serbia, South Korea, Switzerland, Tonga, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela.
But Bien-Aime found it disturbing that new discriminatory laws continue to be enacted by some countries. She cited Afghanistan's 2009 Shia Personal Status Law that declares the man head of the household and curtails a woman's freedom of movement among other restrictions.
Equality Now, which works to protect and promote the rights of women and girls around the world, called for renewed global action to pressure world leaders and their lawmakers to repeal discriminatory laws.
