UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women)

UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) Topic A: A New Marital Afghan Law - Violation of Women’s Rights Topic B: Impact of the Economic Cr...
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UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women)

Topic A: A New Marital Afghan Law - Violation of Women’s Rights Topic B: Impact of the Economic Crisis on Women Migrant Workers

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Dear delegates of UNIFEM, In OLINMUN 2010 we will be dealing with two major world issues, the “New Marital Afghan Law: Violation of Women’s Rights”, and “Impact of the Economic Crisis on Women’s Rights”. To reach a feasible resolution on the topics, the UNIFEM Committee needs your creativity, diplomacy and power of analysis, among other abilities. We encourage you to use them in the debates, confident that your high standards and maturity in discussing these topics will enhance the outcome of our committee. Welcome to the UNIFEM Committee of the Seventh Olinca Model United Nations 2010. Yours sincerely, Annelise García Chair Jimena Rubio

Cristina Valencia

Head of Committee

Moderator Luisa López Deputy Chair

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History of UNIFEM

UNIFEM is the Women's Fund at the United Nations, dedicated to advancing women’s rights and achieving gender equality. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programs and strategies that foster women's empowerment. UNIFEM works on the premise that it is the fundamental right of every woman to live a life free from discrimination and violence, and that gender equality is essential to achieving development and to building just societies. Established in 1976, UNIFEM has touched the lives of women and girls around the world. UNIFEM maintains strong ties to both women’s organizations and governments, linking them with the UN system to join national and international political action, and to create momentum for change. UNIFEM focuses its activities on one overarching goal: to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality. In support of this goal, UNIFEM works in the following thematic areas: •

Enhancing women’s economic security and rights,



Ending violence against women,



Reducing the prevalence of HIV and AIDS among women and girls, and



Advancing gender justice in democratic governance in stable and fragile states.

Active in all regions and at different levels, UNIFEM works with countries to formulate and implement laws and policies to eliminate discrimination and promote gender equality in such areas as land and inheritance rights, decent, secure work for women, and the ending of violence against women. UNIFEM also aims to transform institutions to make them more accountable to gender equality and women’s rights, to strengthen the capacity and voice of women’s rights advocates, and to change harmful and discriminatory practices in society.

Topic A: New Marital Afghan Law - Violation of Women’s Rights: 3

An Afghan bill allowing a husband to starve his wife if she refuses to have sexual relations with him has been published in the official gazette and become law. This new law, allows a man to rape his wife if she does not want to have sexual relations, and lets men refuse to feed wives who deny them sex. “As long as the husband is not traveling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night”, Article 132 of the law says. "Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband”. The law has been criticized by Western leaders who have troops fighting in Afghanistan, including U.S. President Barack Obama, who has called it “abhorrent”. Barack Obama and Gordon Brown joined an international chorus of condemnation when the British newspaper, “The Guardian” revealed that the earlier version of the law ‘legalized rape within marriage’, according to the UN. Historical background: Numerous human rights groups and a few Afghan politicians do not agree with this new law. Most say that President Hamid Karzai, who signed this “insane piece of legislation”, is taking steps back to the “dark days of the Taliban” simply to get reelected later this year. By signing it, he is being accused of courting the more conservative Shiite vote. Since the fall of their government, much in Afghanistan for women has improved. Millions of girls now attend school and many women own businesses. Of the 351 Afghani parliamentarians, 89 are women. But Afghanistan is still a very conservative country and this law simply undermines all those gains. It also directly contradicts the freedoms guaranteed in the Afghan constitution, and the international conventions signed to guarantee the rights of women in that country. Present Problem: The original law obliged Shia women to have sexual intercourse with their husbands every four days at a minimum, and it effectively condoned rape by removing the need for consent to sex within marriage. Western leaders and Afghan women's groups were united in condemning an apparent reversal of key freedoms won by women, after the fall of the Taliban.

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Now, an amended version of the same bill has passed quietly into law with the apparent approval of President Karzai. Women's groups say its new wording still violates the principle of equality that is enshrined in their constitution. It allows a man to withhold food from his wife if she refuses his sexual demands; a woman must get her husband's permission to work; and fathers and grandfathers are given exclusive custody of children. There have been lots of protestors that defend their point. "We think those who oppose this law in fact oppose the Koran. This law does not approve rape; it is rather about loyalty of wife to husband and husband to wife. Rape is what you can see in the West, where men don't feel responsibility for their wives and leave them to go with several men." said Nesa Naseri, counter protestor and a female student of Sharia Studies. "Whenever a man wants sex, we cannot refuse. It means a woman is a kind of property, to be used by the man in any way that he wants," said Fatima Husseini, 26, a female protestor. But there are people who agree with this new law. "We must trust Allah, instead of listening to the Western countries and the European countries who come here to meddle and interfere." said Sayed Sajat of the counter protestors. "We Afghans don't want a bunch of NATO commanders and foreign ministers telling us what to do," said Mohammed Hussein Jafaari, a cleric. Mariam Sajadi said "We don't want foreigners interfering in our lives. They are the enemy of Afghanistan." Its clauses about sex are aimed only to ensure men's sexual needs which were met within marriage, because Islam prohibits them “from seeking satisfaction with other women outside their marriage”..

American block: American countries are against this new law considering that it is totally abhorrent. The USA president tried to talk it over with the Afghanistan president, but he answered “We Afghans don’t want a bunch of NATO commanders and foreign ministers telling

us what to do.” America is doing its best to make the Afghan society be more equal and they are doing very well so far, but they still need to work on it.

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USA: "Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband”. The law has been criticized by Western leaders with troops fighting in Afghanistan, including U.S. President Barack Obama, who called it “abhorrent”. CANADA: "This is a very clear attack on women -- it even allows rape; 116 of our soldiers have died to change things in Afghanistan. How can the government say our soldiers died to protect the rights of women when Hamid Karzai had this law adopted?" he said (Prime Minister Stephen Harper).. European block: Europe has been considered the continent with the most countries legalizing equality between men and women; almost all of the nations accept women in every activity. Their laws are the same for everybody in Europe and this fact makes it the most civilized continent in the world. UNITED KINGDOM: "I made it absolutely clear to the president that we could not tolerate that situation. You cannot have British troops fighting, and in some cases dying, to save a democracy where that democracy is infringing human rights”, said Gordon Brown (Prime Minister). Arabic block: Afghanistan needs to improve on lots of things to reach an equal society. As we all know, nations like this do not accept the fact that women can be and are also as intelligent as men. In general, countries like these are not developed in this aspect. China kills new-born girls because they consider that boys will do better in the future. Sadly, the entirety of these countries needs to work a lot with the premise of equality in their societies. AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands' sexual demands, despite international outrage over an earlier version of the legislation which President Hamid Karzai had promised to review. He also said this: “We Afghans don’t want a bunch of NATO commanders and foreign ministers telling us what to do.”

Although Karzai appeared to back down, activists say the revised version of the 6

law still contains repressive measures and contradicts the Afghan constitution and international treaties signed by the country, but its president doesn’t care and pays no attention to this. SOURCES: • http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1170175/New-Afghan-lawdoes-allow-marital-rape--lets-men-refuse-feed-wives-deny-sex-sayscleric.html#ixzz0cd61QHyu • http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30371&Cr=Afghan&Cr1 • http://www.al-islam.org/laws/ • http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30014515/ • http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8204207.stm • http://www.islamicaweb.com/forums/news-media/12062-afghan-law-legalizingrape-marriage-prompts-outcry.html • http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/14/afghanistan-womens-rights-rape • http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/02/new-afghan-law-might-legalize-rape/ • http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=3613 • http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/31/hamid-karzai-afghanistan-law • http://www.hrw.org/es/news/2009/08/13/afghanistan-law-curbing-women-s-rightstakes-effect

Topic B: Impact of the Economic Crisis on Women Migrant Workers Historical Background: When the Wall Street stock market crashed in October 1929, the world economy was plunged into the Great Depression. By the winter of 1932, America was in the depths of the greatest economic depression in its history. The number of unemployed people reached upwards of 13 million. Many people lived in primitive conditions close to famine.

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That happened 81 years ago, but the recent economic and financial crisis has engulfed the world once more. Banks have collapsed, stock prices have slumped and there has been an unprecedented decline in economic activity. The crisis began in 2007, in the wake of financial and real estate speculation in the United States, but it came after a long period of international financial instability, trade imbalances and several local or regional crises. By late 2008, the crisis had spread to many countries. Governments responded with massive emergency measures, but the crisis continued to spread and large numbers of workers have been laid off all over the world. Many see the crisis as an opportunity for renewed regulation and democratic re-structuring of the global economy. But solutions are complicated by the depth of the crisis, by the lack of strong global institutions, and by overlapping crises in the environment, natural resources and global trade. Since the 1929 crash, there have been not only economic problems but also a generalized cultural and social disruption, both of which have been affecting women and their development all around the world.

Present situation Women bear a disproportionate burden of the world’s poverty. Statistics indicate that women are more likely than men to be poor and at risk of starving because of the systematic discrimination they face in education, health care, employment and control of assets. Poverty implications are widespread for women, leaving many without even basic rights such as access to clean drinking water, sanitation, medical care and decent employment. Being poor can also mean they have little protection from violence and have no role in decision making. According to some estimates, women represent 70 percent of the world’s poor. They are often paid less than men for their work, with the average wage gap in

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2008 being 17 percent. Women face persistent discrimination when they apply for credit for business or self-employment, and are often concentrated in insecure, unsafe and low-wage work. Eight out of ten women workers are considered to be in vulnerable employment in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, with global economic changes taking a huge toll on their livelihoods. The current financial crisis is likely to affect women particularly severely. In many developing countries where women work in export-led factories, or in countries where migrant women workers are the backbone of service industries, women’s jobs have taken the greatest hit. The International Labor Organization estimates that the economic downturn could lead to 22 million more unemployed women in 2010, jeopardizing the gains made in the last few decades in women’s empowerment. In many countries, however, the impact goes far beyond the loss of formal jobs, since the majority of women tend to work in the informal sector, for example as domestics in cities, and do not show up in official unemployment numbers. Economic policies and institutions still mostly fail to take gender disparities into account, from tax and budget systems to trade regimes. And with too few seats at the tables where economic decisions are made, women themselves have limited opportunities to influence policy. Block Countries Asian Block China China's economy is huge and is expanding rapidly. In the last 30 years the rate of Chinese economic growth has been almost miraculous, averaging 8% growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per annum. The economy has grown more than 10 times during that period, with Chinese GDP reaching 3.42 trillion US dollars by 2007. In Purchasing Power Parity GDP, China already has the biggest economy after the United States. Most analysts project China to become the largest economy in the world this century using all measures of GDP. 9

Japan Thanks to low tax rates, plenty of economic freedom, and a system dominated by the private sector, Japan's economy is the second largest economy in the world and the largest in Asia, based on real GDP, market exchange rates, and nominal

GDP.

Japan uses planned development of science and technology, and has a strong work culture, which benefits the country as a whole. It also emphasizes good relationships between the industrial sector and the national government. Underlying the beliefs of many cultures is an assumption that, beyond biology, women and men possess essentially different capacities and functions. Understanding this assumption helps make sense of the perpetuation and even institutionalization

of

male/female

differences

with

regard

to

behavior

expectations, position within the family, legal rights, public status, education, and types of work. While this most often results in the subordination of women’s position in society vis-à-vis men, it sometimes can be a source of women’s special strength. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, serious challenges to accepted beliefs about gender were mounted in both Japan and China. Although concerns about women’s position had been expressed earlier, the concept of women’s liberation became a major motivating force within the era’s nationalist, reform, and revolution movements. Male nationalists initiated the discussion by arguing that an improvement in the status of women was essential to their country’s acceptance by other technologically advanced nations. A core of educated women in both Japan and China joined the call by speaking and writing in public for the first time. Conservative nationalists and traditionalists in Japan and China at different times reacted by mounting long campaigns against any change in gender roles. Ultimately female activists were labeled unseemly, unfeminine, and too western. India

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The economy of India is as diverse as it is large, with a number of major sectors including manufacturing industries, agriculture, textiles and handicrafts, and services. Agriculture is a major component of the Indian economy, as over 66% of

the

Indian

population

earns

its

livelihood

from

this

area.

However, the service sector is greatly expanding and has started to assume an increasingly important role. The fact that the Indian speaking population in India is growing day by day means that India has become a hub of outsourcing activities for some of the major economies of the world including the United Kingdom and the United States. Outsourcing to India has been primarily in the areas

of

technical

support

and

customer

services.

In general, the Indian economy is controlled by the government, and there remains a great disparity between the rich and the poor. Ranked by the exchange rate of the United States Dollar, the Indian economy is the twelfth largest in the world. Since times immemorial, worth of the work done or services rendered by women has not been recognized. India is a multifaceted society where no generalization could apply to the entire nation's various regional, religious, social, and economic groups. Nevertheless, certain broad circumstances in which Indian women live affect the ways they participate in the economy. Indian society is extremely hierarchical with virtually everyone ranked relative to others according to their caste (or caste-like group), class, wealth, and power. This ranking even exists in areas where it is not openly acknowledged, such as certain business settings. Though specific customs vary from region to region within the country, there are different standards of behavior for men and women that carry over into the work environment. Women are expected to be chaste and especially modest in all actions that may constrain their ability to perform in the workplace on an equal basis with men. European block United Kingdom

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The economy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain includes the economies of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Isle of Man and the Channel Isles are part of the British Isles and have offshore banking status. The Bank of England had cut interest rates to 1.0 per cent by the end of 2008, and that is expected to drop to 0.5 per cent for most of 2009 and 2010. England The economy of England is one of the world's most important economies, and is the largest in the United Kingdom. England is highly-industrialized and developed, with manufacturing, finance, IT, and pharmaceuticals playing major roles. England was the world's first industrialized nation. As England acquired colonies around the world, it became wealthy from the goods and products brought in from Canada, America, and Australia. Germany Germany is moderately populated with 231 persons living per sq km in 2004. The population consists of numbers of refugees from East European Union as well as immigrants from countries like Italy, Spain and Greece. Germany is ranked 19th in 177 countries of the world in terms of human development index. France France is ranked 20th in the world in terms of population with 60.424 million people residing there in mid 2004. According to data obtained from World Bank Indicators, national growth rate in France during 1997-2003 was 0.4% slightly less than that of high-income countries' groups as a whole. Italy Italy in 2007 had a population of 58 million and GDP (PPP) of $1.8 trillion. It is the tenth largest economy by purchasing power parity, and the seventh largest by

nominal

GDP.

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Italy’s history stretches back several thousand years BC to its links with Greece, and the subsequent development of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. For centuries, Rome was the effective center of the world, and its military and economy dominated Europe and Asia. The worldwide economic slowdown is likely to hit Italy hard, since it will be compounded by the country’s own internal problems including the national debt level, high taxation, rigid labor laws and the economic cost of an expensive pension system that will be magnified by a graying population. Spain The Spanish empire vied with the British for domination of the seas but failed to keep pace with the mercantile and industrial revolutions. It has come back from the Franco years to be a vibrant part of the European zone economy - yet dark clouds are gathering. This block is the one that has yielded more rights to women. American and Latin American Block United States The largest and still the most important market in the world, the United States of America’s economy is driven by consumers but is troubled by high debt levels. The United States of America (U.S. or U.S.A.) has the world’s largest economy. According to the CIA World Factbook, 2007 GDP is believed to be $13.84 trillion. This is three times the size of the next largest economy, Japan, which has a GDP of $4.4 trillion. US dominance has been eroded however by the creation of the European Union common market, which has an equivalent GDP of over $13 trillion, and by the rapid growth of the BRIC economies, in particular China, which is forecast to overtake the U.S. in size within 30 years. Canada

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Canada's economy is both mature and diverse, benefiting from an advanced services sector, an abundance of natural resources, sound management and free trade agreements. Despite their increased presence in the work force, most women still have primary responsibility for housework and family care. In the late 1970s men with an employed wife spent only about 1.4 hours a week more on household tasks than those whose wife was a full-time homemaker. Mexico While Mexico's economy is mature and generally fairly stable, there is a growing income gap between the rich and the poor. Political and social unrest will grow if this disparity is not addressed. Mexico has one of the largest economies in the world, holding the twelfth position in the global list as measured by nominal gross domestic product. In Latin America, Mexico has the highest per-capita income level. In the international arena, the exchange rates of the Mexican Peso are high as well, and Mexico has the highest purchasing power parity of any country in Latin America. Mexico also happens to be the only Latin American member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In a recent study, Goldman Sachs predicted that Mexico will be a leader in the world economy by 2050, along with China, Japan, U.S., Brazil and India. Brazil Brazil Economy is the world's 70th freest economy. The total population was 178.7 millions according to the World Bank report in the year 2004 in contrast to the 541 millions in the Latin American and Caribbean nations. The density of population per square Kilometer was 21 in the year 2003.

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Undoubtedly the 1980s was not the best decade for Brazil. The economy underwent a deep recession with high levels of inflation and serious consequences for wages, employment and the daily life of the population. The country retained one of the largest external debts of any Third-World country, with deeply harmful social costs for all the population (increased poverty, dangerous health conditions, swelling shanty towns, and the growth of prostitution, illiteracy and urban and rural violence). In consequence, the conditions for the reproduction of the workforce have deteriorated and undergone major changes. Falls in wage levels have reduced the quality of life for the population requiring them to seek out new survival strategies. If it is clear that the Brazilian external debt, with its associated consequences of internal indebtedness, penalizes men and women, it is equally clear that it is women who are most affected by the lack of adequate public services and by the general crisis of reproduction. This being the case, this essay seeks to describe some of the changes which have occurred in the work and living conditions of women, particularly in the urban sector, and to outline some of the strategies invented by women to confront the current social situation Sources of information and research • http://www.unifem.org/about/ • http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=901 • http://www.unifem.org/gender_issues/women_poverty_economics/ • http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/usa/walldepressi onrev1.shtml • http://www.globalpolicy.org/world-economic-crisis.html • http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/ • http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/essay-04.html •

http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/Women-Employment.html

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