Older Women in the Global Human Rights Framework
Alan S. Gutterman
Experienced Business Advisor & Legal Counselor | Best-Selling Author | Working on Sustainable Impact Entrepreneurship
The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (“Convention”), which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979 and entered in force in 1981, is often described as an international bill of rights for women and girls and cited as an agenda for action by countries to guarantee the enjoyment of those rights.[1]?Adoption of the Convention was the culmination of three decades of work by the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which was formed in 1946 to monitor the situation of women and promote women’s rights, and the Convention has become the central and most comprehensive document among several declarations and conventions that have been finalized with the goal of advancing the human and civil rights of women.[2]?
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (“OHCHR”) has explained that the Convention “sets out, in legally binding form, internationally accepted principles on the rights of women which are applicable to all women in all fields” and noted that the “the prohibition of all forms of discrimination against women … cannot be satisfied merely by the enactment of gender- neutral laws” and that the Convention goes further by “demanding that women be accorded equal rights with men … [and] … prescribing the measures to be taken to ensure that women everywhere are able to enjoy the rights to which they are entitled”.[3]?The OHCHR noted other universal human rights instruments, such as the International Bill of Rights, have laid out a comprehensive set of rights to which all persons, including women, are entitled, but went on to point out that “despite the existence of other instruments, women still do not have equal rights with men”.[4]?Recognizing this problem, the Convention was adopted to “reinforce the provisions of existing international instruments designed to combat the continuing discrimination against women” by identifying and focusing on specific areas “where there has been notorious discrimination against women” including political rights, marriage and the family and employment”.[5]?
The OHCHR has explained that the Convention covers three dimensions of the situation of women: civil rights and the legal status of women (i.e., right to political participation, rights to non-discrimination in education, employment and economic and social activities, right to full equality in civil and business matters and equal rights and obligations of women and men in the context of marriage and family relations); human reproduction (i.e., maternity protection and child care, right to reproductive choice and right to advice on family planning); and the impact of cultural factors on gender relations (i.e., stereotypes, customs and norms which have created a multitude of legal, political and economic constraints on the advancement of women).[6] ?Several of the specific articles of the Convention have been described by UN Women, the UN entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women[7], as follows[8]:
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Article 5 Gender Stereotypes: Countries must work to change harmful gender stereotypes about women and girls and men and boys that perpetuate discrimination and limit opportunities for women and girls to achieve their full potential.
Article 6 Trafficking and Exploitation of Prostitution: Countries must end the exploitation of prostitution and trafficking in women and girls.
Article 7 Political and Public Life: Countries must eliminate discrimination against women and girls in political and public life.
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Article 10 Education: Countries must end discrimination against women and girls and ensure equal rights in education.
Article 11 Employment: Countries must eliminate discrimination against women in employment, including ensuring equal opportunities to choose one’s profession and receive equal pay for work of equal value.
Article 12 Health Care and Family Planning: Countries must guarantee equal access to health care and ensure women and girls are not discriminated against in health care and have access to services for family planning and reproductive health.
Article 13 Economic and Social Life: Countries must eliminate discrimination against women and girls in economic and social life.
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Article 15 Equality before the Law: Countries must guarantee women and girls equality with men and boys before the law, including equal access to legal counsel, services, and resources.
Article 16 Marriage and Family Life: Countries must eliminate discrimination against women in marriage and family relations. Countries must ensure that women have equal rights as men in their choice of whom to marry and whether to marry, and any matters relating to the birth, adoption, and raising of children. The marriage of a child has no legal effect and countries should take steps to set a minimum age for marriage.”
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Goal 5 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”) is achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, which have been described as not only fundamental human rights, but also a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.[9] ?The specific targets for Goal 5 are: ??
·??????5.1?End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
·??????5.2?Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
·??????5.3?Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
·??????5.4?Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies?and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
·??????5.5?Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life
·??????5.6?Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences
·??????5.A?Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws
·??????5.B?Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
·??????5.C?Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels
Gender equality has often been identified as a key enabler and accelerator for achieving all the SDGs.?For example, the following reinforcing linkages between SDG 5 and other SDGs have been identified and described by various sources[10]:?
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Progress has been made towards gender equality over the last decades (e.g., more girls are going to school, fewer girls are forced into early marriage, more women are serving in parliament and positions of leadership, and laws are being reformed to advance gender equality); however, much remains to be done as reports indicate that “discriminatory laws and social norms remain pervasive, women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political leadership, and?1 in 5 women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 report experiencing physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner within a 12-month period”.[11]?Not surprising, the Covid-19 pandemic significantly slowed progress relating to gender equality and women’s rights; for example, women were hit hard by the economic impacts of the pandemic and the pandemic also led to a dramatic increase in violence against women and girls.[12]?
Gender inequalities that occur throughout the lifespan, often based on deep-rooted cultural and social norms, are often exacerbated in old age and cause many older women to be exposed to a range of discrimination including unfair resource allocation, maltreatment, neglect and limited access to basic services.[13]?Older women living in rural areas or urban slums are particularly at risk and “often suffer a severe lack of basic resources for subsistence, income security, access to health care, information on and enjoyment of their entitlements and rights”.[14] ?The CEDAW has noted that other problems experienced by older women in many countries include the lack of telecommunication skills, access to adequate housing, social services and the Internet, loneliness and isolation.[15]?The CEDAW also observed that older women are often tragically subjected to discrimination and neglect because they are no longer considered useful in their productive and reproductive roles, especially if they are widowed or divorced, and are perceived to be nothing more than a burden on their families and the communities in which they live.[16]
The CEDAW has also noted: “Older women are not a homogeneous group. ?They have a great diversity of experience, knowledge, ability and skills; however, their economic and social situation is dependent on a range of demographic, political, environmental, cultural, social, individual and family factors.”[17] ?To that point, older women, like all women, are subject to a lengthy list of possible bases for intersectional discrimination including “ethnicity/race, indigenous or minority status, color, socioeconomic status and/or caste, language, religion or belief, political opinion, national origin, marital and/or maternal status, age, urban/rural location, health status, disability, property ownership, being lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex, illiteracy, trafficking of women, armed conflict, seeking asylum, being a refugee, internal displacement, statelessness, migration, heading households, widowhood, living with HIV/AIDS, deprivation of liberty, being in prostitution, geographical remoteness and stigmatization of women fighting for their rights, including human rights defenders.”[18]
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The CEDAW has also recognized that “[t]he contribution of older women in public and private life as leaders in their communities, entrepreneurs, caregivers, advisers, mediators, among other roles, is invaluable”.[19]?As such, the CEDAW argued vigorously for the recognition by States that “older women are an important resource to society” and they “have the obligation to take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to eliminate discrimination against older women … [and] … ensure that older women participate fully and effectively in the political, social, economic, cultural and civil life, and any other field in their societies”.[20]
As noted above, older women are entitled to all of the rights enshrined in the Convention, which are applicable to all stages of a woman’s life, and the CEDAW argued that full development and advancement of women, including the enjoyment of human rights by older women, can only be achieved through a “life-cycle approach that recognizes and addresses the different stages of women’s lives ?from childhood through adolescence, adulthood and old age?“, since the cumulative impact of those stages is so readily apparent when assessing the lives and needs of older women from a human rights perspective.[21]??This means that States should adopt gender-sensitive and age-specific policies and measures to ensure gender equality and equal access to opportunities and resources (e.g., education, health care, participation in the paid workforce, access to financial and other productive resources, rights to ownership of property and rights to participate in political and decision-making processes) for girls and young women in all aspects of economic and social life so that they enter their later years more economically secure and in better health.?
The CEDAW noted that, as a practical matter, age discrimination was still tolerated and accepted at the individual, institutional and policy levels in many countries and few countries have legislation prohibiting discrimination based on age.[22]?In this regard, the CEDAW urged States “to repeal or amend existing laws, regulations and customs that discriminate against older women, and ensure that legislation proscribes discrimination on the grounds of age and sex”.[23] ?The CEDAW has acknowledged that age is one of the grounds on which women may suffer multiple forms of discrimination and that the Convention “is an important tool for addressing the specific issue of the human rights of older women”.[24]?However, the general principles in the Convention needed to be supplemented by policies and measures that take into account the specific needs of older women and the unique challenges they face in realizing their human rights.?In order to support legal reform and policy formulation that specifically takes into account the situation of older women, including those living in rural areas, areas of conflict, belonging to minority groups, and within disabilities, the CEDAW called for improvements in the collect, analysis and dissemination of data disaggregated by age and sex focusing on issues including poverty, illiteracy, violence, unpaid work, migration, access to health care, housing, social and economic benefits and employment.[25]
A little over a decade after the CEDAW issued its extensive proclamation on protecting the human rights of older women, the UN Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of All Human Rights by Older Persons took up the subject once again in her July 2021 report to the UN General Assembly.[26] ??She began by noting that “[o]lder age is a complex concept … [that] … carries different meanings and significance depending on the context and the purpose for which one seeks to define it” and that “while many international studies use chronological age related to retirement and pension eligibility as a threshold for old age”, there is substantial diversity among “older women” and the lives and experiences of women in their 50s (and often regarded as “older”) are “undoubtedly different compared with women in the oldest age groups”.?The Independent Expert also pointed out that “[w]omen’s experiences of ageing are closely linked to the diverse economic, social and health realities in which they live”, which means that “[a] life-course approach taking into account gender-differentiated opportunities, resources and choices over the lifespan is therefore best suited to examine inequalities and discrimination affecting women in older age”.[27]
For further discussion, see my new book on Ageism and Older Women.
Notes?
[1] Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women New York, 18 December 1979 (OHCHR).
[2] Id.?Twelve years before the Convention was adopted, in November 1967, the General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and five years the UN Secretary General asked the UN Commission on the Status of Women to request the views of Member States regarding the form and content of a possible international instrument on the human rights of women.?Over the following years, the Commission worked on drafting a convention on the elimination of discrimination against women, work that was encouraged by the adoption of a Plan of Action at the 1975 World Conference of the International Women's Year which called for a "convention on the elimination of discrimination against women, with effective procedures for its implementation".?In 1977, following submission to it of a draft instrument, the General Assembly appointed a special working group to finalize the draft and present it to the General Assembly for consideration, which eventually led to adoption of the Convention by the General Assembly in 1979.?Fact Sheet No. 22: Discrimination against Women: The Convention and the Committee (OHCHR).
[4] The OHCHR declared: “In virtually all societies and spheres of activity women are subject to inequalities in law and in fact. ?This situation is both caused and exacerbated by the existence of discrimination in the family, in the community and in the workplace. ?While causes and consequences may vary from country to country, discrimination against women is widespread. ?It is perpetuated by the survival of stereotypes and of traditional cultural and religious practices and beliefs detrimental to women.”?Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[8] Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) for Youth (UN WOMEN).?For full text and further commentary with respect to each of the articles, see Fact Sheet No. 22: Discrimination against Women: The Convention and the Committee (OHCHR).
[9] Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 5), United Nations Western Europe (unric.org).?For further discussion of SDGs, see A. Gutterman, Sustainability Standards and Instruments (New York: Business Expert Press, 2021), 51-62 and A. Gutterman, “SDG-Related Reporting” in Sustainability Reporting and Communications (New York: Business Expert Press, 2021), 77-103.
[10] Policy Brief: Achieve Gender Equality to Deliver the SDGs, SDG Knowledge Hub (IISD) (citing Turning Promises into Action: Gender Equality in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN Women (2018)).
[11] Id.
[12] Id.
[13] UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: General recommendation No. 27 on older women and protection of their human rights, CEDAW/C/GC/27 (December 16, 2010), Paragraph 11.
[14] Id. at Paragraph 12.
[15] Id.
[16] Id. at Paragraph 14.
[17] Id. at Paragraph 8.?The CEDAW also noted: “Concrete forms of discrimination against older women may differ considerably under various socio-economic circumstances and in various sociocultural environments, depending on the equality of opportunities and choices regarding education, employment, health, family and private life.”?Id. at Paragraph 12.?See also Identity, definitions and demographics of disability (The Center for an Accessible Society) (noting the dangers of discussing the disabled population or its needs as a homogeneous group and calling for “more refined data … to assess the needs for medical and health care, vocational rehabilitation and employment assistance, supports for living in the community, and assistive technology).
[18] UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: General recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19 (2017), CEDAW/C/GC/35, Paragraph 21.
[19] UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: General recommendation No. 27 on older women and protection of their human rights, CEDAW/C/GC/27 (December 16, 2010), Paragraph 8.
[20] Id. at Paragraph 29.
[21] Id. at Paragraph 15.?According to the CEDAW, “States parties have an obligation to ensure the full development and advancement of women throughout their life cycle in times of both peace and conflict, as well as in the event of any man-made and/or natural disaster.”?Id. at Paragraph 30.
[22] Id.
[23] Id. at Paragraph 31.
[24] See Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/57/38, Part One, chap. I, decision 26/III, and chap. VII, paras. 430-436) (as cited in UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: General recommendation No. 27 on older women and protection of their human rights, CEDAW/C/GC/27 (December 16, 2010), Paragraph 2).
[25] UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: General recommendation No. 27 on older women and protection of their human rights, CEDAW/C/GC/27 (December 16, 2010), Paragraph 32.
[26] Report of the Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of All Human Rights by Older Persons, A/76/157 (July 16, 2021).?It is important to take note of the Independent Expert’s explanation that her use of the term “gender” in her report referred to “socially constructed identities, attributes and roles of persons attached to biological differences based on sex and which often result in hierarchical relationships and unequal distribution of power” and that “[w]hile in many societies ‘gender’ has been constructed around perceived differences between men and women, [she] recognizes that gender identities and expressions are wider than this binary order”.?Id. at Paragraph 9 (citing also Report of the Independent Expert on Protection against Violence and Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, A/HRC/47/27 (June 3, 2021), Paragraph 16 (“in cultural traditions, and sometimes also in law, genders … do not correspond with the male/female binary”)).?For further discussion, see A. Gutterman, Ageism and Intersectionality: Older Persons as Members of Other Vulnerable Groups (Oakland CA: Older Persons’ Rights Project, 2022).
[27] Id. at Paragraph 8.
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