Nigerian Women Since The Beijing Conference [1995]
Battle for Equality among African Women since the Beijing Conference in 1995
The role of African women have somewhat changed after the Beijing Conference which was held in Beijing, China in 1995. It was attended by 165 delegates from different countries . But, there are still many challenges that they are trying to resolve by what they learned from the global conference that aims to transform the lives of all women from all parts of the world. That was the Fourth World Conference on Women that has the primary target of uplifting the lives of African women through reformation policy implementation. The international conference also aims to examine the progress of women lives in different countries, as well as ready to help them to overcome any obstacles that come along their way. Undoubtedly, for the last 30 years, there have been already positive signs of reformation among women all over the world. The United Nations Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women Rachel Mayanja told the 10-year review of the Beijing conference, in New York in March. In the same way, she also mentioned that there have been plans to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), a UN protocol, as well as the development of new policies and guidelines and creation of networks of gender experts all through the globe.
(http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol19no2/192_pg06.htm )
Furthermore, over the span of 30 years since the First world Conference held, it has been noticeable that women have not yet gone a long way to improve their roles in the society. There are still several countries who do not recognize World Conference for Women in Beijing, China. But, this has been changed after the 1995 World Conference; particularly, African women, they have become noticeable on their best effort to make significant contributions to the African government over the past few years. They become more active in taking part in any political issues and activities recently. Perhaps, this is stem from the continental political body which is the African Union (AU) that took a major contribution in promoting gender equality in Africa. As a matter of fact, in 2003, there were five women and five men elected as AU commissioners. A year after, Ms. Gertrude Mongella was chosen to lead the AU’s Pan-African Parliament, where 25 percent of members. Are women. Not only that, there is another AU body, the African Peer Review Mechanism, which oversees standards for good governance, which also headed by an African woman in the person of Ms. Marie-Angélique Savané.
(http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol19no2/192_pg06.htm
)
Obviously,
African women have
been successful the promotion of agreements that paved the way for the
advancement of their
human rights in the African regions. In addition, it had reported 51 of the
53 AU member countries had ratified CEDAW, which was adopted in 1979 by the UN
General Assembly and often represented as the international
bill of rights for women. At the same time, in 2003 activists succeeded in
persuading their heads of state to adopt a protocol on the rights of women.
Nevertheless, despite the efforts and achievements of African women, they
still encounter
primary challenges and hindrances towards their main goals. The good
example of these challenges is how to eliminate poverty conditions of many
families in the region, especially those
children who were born in severe
poverty, and are not privilege to acquire a
formal education in school setting. Also, there are still issues on the
income and power of control between African men and women. Still, there are
large numbers of women who are rejected for employment and proper education.
These are the very reasons that there are still enormous number of African
women who suffer poverty and unemployment. (http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol19no2/192_pg06.htm
)
Nonetheless, the 1995 conference implemented the Beijing Platform of Action that may apply to the areas that women are most in need in the society. These areas include the women's poor economic conditions, health care, abuse and violence, education and inequality of human rights in the society. Though, it has been observed that these areas are very slew in terms of improvement. And so, Ms. Hassan recommended that the Beijing platform should be used as a tools to push through the immediate implementation of gender-sensitive policies that will greatly change the roles of women in the society at large. She also added that they do not want any promises but a prompt actions against many issues over women. For many African women, the Beijing platform and the various international instruments their governments have signed have yet to translate into positive changes in their daily lives. They remain at the bottom of the social hierarchy, with poor access to land, credit, health and education. While some of the agreements that African governments have ratified enshrine property and inheritance rights, in most countries women are denied those very rights.
(http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol19no2/192_pg06.htm )
Reference:
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol19no2/192_pg06.htm
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