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U.N. report: Women's unequal treatment hurts economies

Worldwide abuse 'a massive violation of human rights'

women
 

In this story:

Pocketbook factors

Grim statistics

Abuse breeds additional miseries

Nations agree

Improvements noted

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



By Jonathan D. Austin
CNN.com Writer

UNITED NATIONS -- Women throughout the world continue to be the victims of violence, sexual exploitation and discrimination -- at a considerable cost to their countries' economies, according to a United Nations report.

The report, issued by the U.N. Population Fund, notes that conditions for women have improved since 1994, when 179 countries met and pledged to do more for their female citizens.

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But Stan Bernstein, a senior research adviser with the fund, said the continuing discrimination against women constitutes "a massive violation of human rights that takes various forms around the globe."

The annual report, which was released Wednesday, is an attempt to underscore "what the costs of inequality are, what has kept it in place in the past, and what's being done to address it now," Bernstein said.

Pocketbook factors

Bernstein said the report includes economic data because "sometimes people don't pay attention to misery until it hits them in the pocketbook. So we felt we had to report on both sides."

According the report, titled "State of the World Population 2000," a 1 percent increase in female secondary schooling results in a 0.3 percent increase in economic growth.

If you use Pakistan as an example, that estimate means the increased investment in education would have upped the country's economic growth by $262 million in 1999, excluding inflation, which was estimated at 6 percent.

Grim statistics

The report also tries to show the link between abuse, illness, early deaths, abortions and degradation. According to its data:

graphic

  • One in three women will experience violence during her lifetime -- most often at the hands of people she knows.

  • Two million girls under age 15 are forced into the sex trade each year.

  • Complications from pregnancy and childbirth kill 500,000 women each year.

  • Stillbirths or newborn deaths total an estimated 8 million yearly, with the lack of obstetric care cited as the primary cause.

  • About a third of all pregnancies each year -- 80 million -- are unintended or unwanted.

  • An estimated 50 million abortions occur each year, 20 million of which are unsafe, resulting in 78,000 maternal deaths. The report says a quarter of those unsafe procedures are to girls between the ages 15 and 19.

    Abuse breeds additional miseries

    "Abused women tend not to use family planning services ... for fear of reprisal from husbands," the report states, citing a Ghana study in which "close to half of all women and 43 percent of men said a man was justified in beating his wife if she used contraceptives without his expressed consent."

    Likewise, abused women who participated in focus groups in Peru and Mexico said they did not discuss birth control with their husbands, fearing a violent reaction.

    The resistance to contraception, the report said, "takes a tremendous toll, both physical and emotional, and causes immense damage to a woman's reproductive health." Unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, frequent high-risk pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases are among the results.

    Nations agree

    The miseries surveyed in the report have "direct consequences for the lives of women, for the lives of men, for the quality of their partnerships, for the development of their communities, and the development of their countries," Bernstein said.

    The report refers to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt. At that conference, 179 countries agreed to increase domestic allocations to health care, including reproductive health, and agreed to share technical data from successful programs.

    In a 1999 review of the conference goals, representatives from those countries agreed that empowering women and meeting their education and health needs were necessary, according to the report.

    "The countries included many of these goals for reproductive health, for women's empowerment, for reduction of women's mortality and HIV/AIDS deaths," Bernstein said.

    Improvements noted

    The report cites changes in legal or administrative codes that have since improved conditions for women, including:

  • The ban of female genital mutilation in eight African nations.

  • The adding of sexual and reproductive rights and gender equity to the new Venezuelan constitution.

  • The approved sale of low-dosage oral contraceptives in Japan.

  • Legislation to increase access to reproductive health services in Mexico and Peru.

    The report also cites advancements in Cambodia, which enacted comprehensive abortion legislation; in Ecuador, which is discussing the addition of sexual and reproductive rights to its constitution; and in Albania, Burkina Faso, Fiji, Madagascar, Poland and the Sudan, all of which adopted measures to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex.

    "The world has moved these topics to the center of the international development agenda," Bernstein said. "This is a time of extraordinary opportunity, and we have to rise to the occasion.

    "We know what needs to be done, and we need to commit ourselves to do the action," he said. "There are not going to be too many second chances."



    RELATED STORIES:
    U.N. conference calls for AIDS programs, domestic violence laws to protect women
    June 10, 2000
    U.N. women's conference drafts health, economic statement
    June 10, 2000
    AIDS, poverty, sexual trafficking raise concern at U.N. women's conference
    June 7, 2000
    Women at Jerusalem's Western Wall meet resistance to equal prayer rights won in court
    June 4, 2000
    Afghanistan: Still No Place for the Ladies
    May 29, 2000
    U.S. Senate urged to pass women's rights treaty
    March 5, 2000
    Kuwaiti legislature says 'no' to women's vote
    November 30, 1999
    'Torture, plain and simple': Amnesty International reports abuse in women's prisons
    March 4, 1999
    Human rights organizations slam China report on women's rights
    February 3, 1999

    RELATED SITES:
    The State of World Population 2000
    UNIFEM
    United Nations
      • International Women's Day
      • WomenWatch/Regional and country information
      • Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
    Human Rights Watch
      • Women's Rights Under Attack at U.N.
      • Women's Human Rights
    Strategic Action Issue Area: African Women's Rights
    Africa: Women Issues
    Human Rights in China
    Amnesty International On-line
      • Beijing + 5: No going back on women's human rights
    Jewish Women's Resources In Israel
    Women's Rights Chronology


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