'Give women their due'
 

BY MANEL Abeysekera

Men and women are equal in terms of human rights and this is recognised by Sri Lanka's constitution. There are no "women's issues" until women are discriminated against and marginalised in society.

In a traditional patriarchal society as in Sri Lanka, though women, are more than half the population, they are not given their due equal place as participants in policy and decision making at any level and least of all at the national level; this results not only in the violation of their human right to be party to decisions which impact on them but also in the policy making and decision making being imbalanced without the input of women's approach to them and their talents and their energies not being brought to bear on them.

While there has been agitation at national level for many years in several countries this denial of women's human rights has been the focus of the United Nations since 1975, when it held the 1st world conference on women which has been followed by 5 others, all of which have been attended by Sri Lanka - with the 6th held at the UN.

The Secretary General, in his report to this "Beijing + 10" Conference, in reviewing developments since Beijing in 1995, states that the position of women has worsened, and lays the blame on governments for not fulfilling their Beijing pledges.

But I think that we must all share the blame. Take Sri Lanka; sadly, the state that had the first woman Head of Government, Madame Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who delivered the keynote address at the first conference, has yet to take the necessary steps to correct this injustice to women.

Sri Lanka is signatory to and has ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW 1979) as early as 1981.

Although Sri Lanka has not translated CEDAW into national legislation, we have had the Women's Charter of Sri Lanka based on it since 1993 and we have established institutions such as the Women's Bureau, the Women's Ministry and the Presidential National Committee on Women to implement the Women's Charter of Sri Lanka to enhance the position of women.

Yet, policies are hardly or never referred to them for engendering as a matter of course and not only when there is a women's component in them, because we do not seem to recognise the fact that women must be included in the planning, decision making and implementation of policy, whether it be in the public or private sector and also be beneficiaries of them together with the men.

Recently, we witnessed the sorry spectacle of the Domestic Violence Bill being shelved and, though there was much support for it in Parliament, despite the Bill being gender neutral/fair, there were some ignorant and insensitive views expressed against it, part of the problem is that such Bills which impact on society are not made available to civil society for observations to be registered.

In fact our Sri Lanka Women's Conference has written to the Minister of Justice and Judicial Reform requesting a copy of the Bill as well as appealing to him to do justice to his office by providing an opportunity to civil society to know the texts of such bills through media publicity, giving sufficient time for comment as happened in the past through "White Papers" of them which were available to the public. This is not only a human right but also essential for participatory democracy and transparency.

To give two glaring examples of gender insensitivity of policy makers at the highest level is the fact that there was not a single woman in the Constitutional Council, despite the National Committee on Women having requested all political party leaders, prior to the 17th amendment to the constitution which resulted in it, that there be a "Critical mass" of women in it. Again, where are the women in the peace process despite UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1366?

This unfortunate situation prevails in spite of representations made by women to the highest levels.

I am glad to note from press reports that our President, at this year's celebration of International Women's Day at President's House, was quoted as having said that women's support was essential to take the peace process forward, yet nothing has changed since the peace process was started.

While I am glad to learn that there are several more women in the Peace Secretariat, I regret that still there are no women among the peace negotiators. So there is an urgent need to match words with action.

Then again, the President in quoted as bemoaning the fact that women are hardly in decision making positions and in the governing process and calling for leadership training programmes to this end.

May I ask what leadership training programmes men participated in before monopolising leadership? We are as competent as the men and what is required is for the government to take interventionist action and provide the necessary mechanisms to facilitate bringing women to the fore instead of only men being appointed to government commissions and committees.

If traditionally women are regarded as the hind legs of the elephant which enables it to carry huge burdens but cannot determine the direction it want to go, I think it is about time we changed this concept for the sake not only of more than half our population but also for the progress of Sri Lanka, even if we cannot do anything for the elephant! So please let us be realistic and get on with giving women their rightful place at every level of society.

Fresh nomination have to be made to the Constitutional Council and I hope that this time, not only lawyers but a happy mix of gender, knowledge, wisdom and integrity will find its place into the Council.

In the handling of the tsunami disaster, not surprisingly, there was no engendering of relief measures. One cannot blame the CNO for this lapse because of the magnitude and urgency of its task which it fulfilled extremely well in trying circumstances and because considering the gender aspect is, alas, hardly a habit in Sri Lanka.

We need to make it a habit, as otherwise the energies, talents and approaches of more than half the population will not be harnessed in the CNO's task which has now devolved on TAFOR and TAFREN.

We need to synthesise the respective gender psyches into one human psyche for human rights to be exercised and enjoyed by both men and women for the benefit of all.

Therefore, it is time and timely too in the challenging national task before us to restore a Sri Lanka battered by the tsunami to a higher level in terms of human living and human rights of all her citizens, to act to correct this situation.

We therefore earnestly and urgently request the Government to establish a strong Gender Unit in the planning arm of the Finance Ministry to ensure that all policies, especially those that are tsunami rehabilitation related, are looked at together with the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Social Welfare from the aspect of gender balance with regard to policy content, especially with regard to land alienation by the Government if this has not been made gender fair, let this be a start allocation of funds, implementation and participation as well as monitoring.

We sincerely hope that, even at this late point of time, it will be done lest it be too late for Sri Lanka to move forward in a shared gender partnership and leadership of human rights for all.

Let us engender lest we be endangered!