Beijing Platform for Action. Paragraph 147(m)

by admin July 17, 2020

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Strategic objective E.5.

Provide protection, assistance and training to refugee women, other displaced women in need of international protection and internally displaced women

Actions to be taken

147. By Governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and other institutions involved in providing protection, assistance and training to refugee women, other displaced women in need of international protection and internally displaced women, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Programme, as appropriate:

m. Raise public awareness of the contribution made by refugee women to their countries of resettlement, promote understanding of their human rights and of their needs and abilities and encourage mutual understanding and acceptance through educational programmes promoting cross-cultural and interracial harmony;

Beijing Declaration (1995)

Paragraph 147 of the Beijing Declaration deals with the levels of the Member States of the United Nations and the various INGOs, NGOs, and other relevant organizations protecting women in vulnerable contexts as refugees or displaced persons. As has been noted throughout the Beijing Declaration with rather convincing and straightforward reasoning, the ability of the displaced women and refugee women of the world to garner supports requires a significant level of collaboration on the part of international partners.

However, the first recognition within this comes from a knowledge and acknowledgment of the issues facing displaced and refugee women. In section (m), the foci are precisely this form of awareness raising of the women who are caught in this context of the apparently permanent precarity. As has been noted by ReliefWeb, 21 million women and girls are displaced persons.

Two-thirds of those 21 million are from Africa and the Middle East. In other words, the areas of the world least equipped in terms of resources and infrastructure are dealing with the worst forms of displacement for women and girls. UNHCR reported that the coronavirus leaves the women and girls who are refugees or displaced persons more at risk for domestic violence.

The Assistant High Commissioner for Protection at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, Gillian Triggs, said, “We need to pay urgent attention to the protection of refugee, displaced and stateless women and girls at the time of this pandemic. They are among those most at-risk. Doors should not be left open for abusers and no help spared for women surviving abuse and violence.”

With limitations in movement, decreased income for individuals already at limitations in financial freedom, and confinement, potentially, these women and girls can be left in a dire situation with abuse as a consequence. These are some of the serious aspects of the rights issues in the world today. On the one hand, the lack of dealing with it; on the other hand, the root of the “lack of dealing with it” found in the minimal awareness of a displaced population the size of about 60% of Canada.

Triggs stated, “To preserve lives and secure rights, Governments, together with humanitarian actors, must ensure that rising risks of violence for displaced and stateless women are taken into account in the design of national COVID-19 prevention, response and recovery plans.”

If we look at the paragraph above, 147, we can note the common sentiment and conceptual referent points of the “Governments,” in both the Triggs statement, recently, and the Beijing Declaration from 1995. In either case, we have the common ideational references. Those ideas as points of contact for the furtherance of a discussion on a variety of important subject matter.

When it comes to some of the foundational documents, listed below, and covered in this series, these represent the more concise and comprehensive statements on the points of reference, the points of contact, on women’s rights around the world. In this case, not only “Governments,” but the intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.

As we deal with these specific points of reference, you can see the points of statistical facts and other areas of common contact to make the human rights points. In the fundamentals here, it is the raising of public awareness about refugee women and displaced women. One means by which to raise the public and positive profile of the individuals within the countries of resettlement is to highlight the positive contributions of the refugee women.

Another is to universalize the idea of the human rights of the individuals within the populations, as knowledge of and respect for human rights are not universally considered a set item. Many prefer religious law. Others prefer no law. Still others, they may prefer something more akin to laws in favour of only the powered and privileged. It’s all statistical.

With this sort of awareness, there can be an “understanding [too]… of their needs and abilities” to improve the harmony of the relations between the already settlemd majority and the resettling refugee women and displaced women.

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(Updated 2020-07-07, only use the updated listing, please) Not all nations, organizations, societies, or individuals accept the proposals of the United Nations; one can find similar statements in other documents, conventions, declarations and so on, with the subsequent statements of equality or women’s rights, and the important days and campaigns devoted to the rights of women and girls too:

Documents

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
Some general declarations (not individual Declaration or set of them but announcement) included the UN Decade for Women (1976-1985).
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979) and the Optional Protocol (1999).
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the optional protocol (1993).
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), Five-year review of progress (2000), 10-year review in 2005, the 15-year review in 2010, and the 20-year review in 2015.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), and the UN Security Council additional resolutions on women, peace and security: 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), and 2467 (2019).
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
UN Women’s strategic plan, 2018–2021

Strategic Aims

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, emphasis on the entirety of the goals with a strong focus on Goal 5
2015 agenda with 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (169 targets for the end to poverty, combatting inequalities, and so on, by 2030). The SDGs were preceded by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 2000 to 2015.
The Spotlight Initiative as another important piece of work, as a joint venture between the European Union and the United Nations.

Celebratory Days