nternational Human Rights Day
Human Rights And Conflicts

Today, some of the most serious threats to international peace and security are armed conflicts that arise, not among nations, but among warring factions within a State. Although situations of internal violence, they often spill over borders, endangering the security of other States and resulting in complex humanitarian emergencies. The human rights abuses prevalent in internal conflicts are now among the most atrocious in the world. In 1996, there were 19 ongoing situations of internal violence around the world in which 1,000 people or more were killed. These so-called "high-intensity conflicts" cumulatively led to between 6.5 million and 8.5 million deaths. In the same year, there were also 40 "low-intensity conflicts", each causing between 100 and 1,000 deaths. Another 2 million deaths can be added to these figures if one includes situations of internal violence that had de-escalated in 1996.

Tortures

The number of conflict-related deaths is only a small indication of the tremendous amount of suffering, displacement and devastation caused by conflicts. Assaults on the fundamental right to life are widespread — massacres, indiscriminate attacks on civilians, executions of prisoners, starvation of entire populations. Torture is common in internal conflicts, as are measures restricting people’s freedom of movement — forcible relocations, mass expulsions, denial of the right to seek asylum or the right to return to one’s home. Women and girls are raped by soldiers and forced into prostitution, and children are abducted to serve as soldiers.

Tens of thousands of people detained in connection with conflicts "disappear" each year, usually killed and buried in secret, leaving their families with the torment of not knowing their fate. Thousands of other are arbitrarily imprisoned and never brought to trial or, if they are, are subject to grossly unfair procedures. Homes, schools and hospitals are deliberately destroyed. Relief convoys, which try to assist civilians by providing humanitarian aid, are attacked.

The denial of fundamental rights relating to employment, housing, food or the respect for cultural life and large-scale discrimination and exclusion from the decision-making processes of society are the root causes of many grave crises today.

Armed conflicts clearly illustrate the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights. The collapse of infrastructure and civic institutions undermines the range of civil, economic, political and social rights. The rights to adequate health, housing, education, freedom of movement and expression, privacy and fair trial are only some of the fundamental rights and freedoms affected when hospitals and schools are closed, water and sanitation polluted, local administrations unable to function, and police and judicial systems shattered or corrupted. Government institutions often become increasingly militarized, with the armed forces assuming civilian policing functions and military courts trying civilians. Prolonged conflicts also affect rural areas; crops are destroyed, crippling productivity in subsistence farming and agriculture and leading to chronic food shortages, malnutrition and famines. Ill health and poverty are often the most devastating long-term consequences of conflicts.

Transition to Peace

The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights affirmed the crucial connection between international peace and security and the rule of law and human rights, placing them all within the larger context of democratization and development. The need to reinforce these vital links has been highlighted by the sharp increase in bloody conflicts and man-made calamities in this decade.

The United Nations is increasingly combining efforts to prevent or end conflicts with measures aimed at reducing human rights abuses in situations of internal violence. Special emphasis is placed on ensuring the protection of minorities, strengthening democratic institutions, realizing the right to development and securing universal respect for human rights. Preventing massive human rights violations from arising, responding to violations before they escalate into conflicts and controlling and resolving conflicts before they escalate further are central concerns of preventive action. In the context of preventive action and peacemaking, the Security Council and the Secretary-General, in carrying out his "good offices", are also assisted by the Department of Political Affairs (DPA).

Recognizing that human rights violations are frequently the root causes of conflict and humanitarian crises, the United Nations is making efforts towards strengthening its early warning capacity and response to conflicts by integrating human rights monitoring into peacekeeping operations, thus enhancing its ability to deal with allegations of human rights violations. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is developing close contacts with the United Nations departments, offices and programmes responsible for peacekeeping and for humanitarian assistance, in particular the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), DPA, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The human rights programme is performing a crucial role not only in the United Nations early warning system, but also in post-conflict reconstruction, building mutual confidence and helping to re-establish a climate of understanding. The international community has recognized that protecting human rights in the aftermath of conflicts cannot be isolated from how the conflict is brought to an end. Experience in assisting countries in transition to democracy has shown how important the inclusion of human rights provisions in peace or transitional agreements can be.

(Human Rights Today)

Need To Eliminate Gender Disparity

By Khilendra Basnyat

IN MANY countries, women’s participation in planning and decision-making process of social, economic and political aspects is still minimal. For this reason, gender and development approach has brought some issues related to social roles and responsibilities of women and men and their access to control over resources. In this context, participatory processes are largely based on collective learning as well as shared ownership of knowledge.

Gloomy

Still women in Asia find themselves at a crossroad. Most long-term trends in demography, education and employment opportunities, if sustained by supportive policies and gender sensitive crisis management, are likely to reduce gender dispartities, the outlook in the short to medium-term is gloomy.

Gender bias persists in Asia, Literacy and schooling gaps between man and woman are still large in South Asia. In fact, the interaction of gender biased indicators of welfare, capability, work, participation and earning reflects the centrality of women’s education for economic growth.

Social inequality is rooted in women’s lack of economic power. They are disadvantaged in the process of maintaining their livehood. In reality, the reluctance to see women’s work in the family as economic activities rather than a natural or rural responsibility has developed a process of eking out a living.

After the gender movement of the Beijing conference, disparity continues to elude the vast majority of women although some constitutional and administrative provisions have been adopted in this regard.

Nepal is a country where men outlive women unlike in many other countries. The life expectancy of men is estimated at 57.6 while that for female it is 55%. This is a testimony that gender discrimination is a reality. Nepalese women are discriminated despite great efforts for equality.

Although Nepalese women have been empowered in paper, they have not been wholly translated into a way of life. Only a few women are in the decision-making capacity which shows that male domination has continued as usual.

It is illegal to establish classification by race, colour, religion, national origin and sex, except when it is a bonafide occupational classification. For long, Nepalese women have been discriminated against by being refused for executive and other higher level positions. In teaching profession, they have been compensated less than men for the same partisans and have been promoted more slowly or not at all.

In recent times, the government is interpreting bonafide occupational classification strictly and are nullyfying laws and regulations that disqualify business necessity. Accordingly, women are now being employed in positions such as army and police officials.

No doubt, women’s participation in bureaucracy and politics has increased in the past few years. However, only a few of them have reached the decision-making position. Although the percentage of women bureaucrats increased to eight per cent from five per cent some years ago, their percentage in the higher level has declined now.

The constitutional provision for the allocation of five per cent of the candidacy for women in the parliamentary elections by each political party has opened the door of political recognition of women. However, political parties find difficulties in identifying proper women candidates in order to fill in allocating the relatively ‘easy-to-win’ constituencies to women in elections. Rather they are asked to contest from ‘hard-to-win’ constituencies. what is more, the liberal provision for stipulating a minimum quota in local government bodies to be filled by women has opened up possibilities of altering the positions of decision-making institutions.

There has been a provision of thirty-six thousand reserved seats for women candidates into legislative assemblies, known as village or municipal councils, of local governments. It is undoubtedly the government’s recognition to initiate efforts in order to rectify gender discrimination in political as well as government institutions.

In fact, the fundamental rights guaranteed to women under the constitution and the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, to which Nepal is a signatory, are usually violated. Consequently, women, especially the poor and weak, are exposed to various kinds of social diviations, including domestic violence, forced pregnancies and marginalisation of opportunities.

Equal participation of women in diverse development activities of the country at par with men is essential if the country’s prosperity is to be achieved within a short time. To keep half the population in isolation and seek national progress and prosperity is virtually impossible. Time and again women have been relegated to the background in the conservative and male dominated society of ours. Apart from this, there is a general tendency to give more attention to sons rather than daughters. Such a prejudice from infancy and childhood onwards creates psychological handicap in females.

Wome’s programmes play the same role as affirmitive action programmes in order to increase employment and promotion, especially in middle and high grades. Just like minority group members, women complain of "tokenism" and employers lack of energy in getting equal employment opportunities. Just in the case of minority groups, their job competitors complian of reverse discrimination.

To quote a United Nations’ report, "systematic gender discrimination pervades women’s existence in Nepal, crosscutting boundaries of class, caste, ethnicity and resulting in the concentrated impact of poverty on women in every social and economic sectors of Nepal".

The World Bank policy paper 1994, on "Enhancing Women’s Participation in Economic Development" agrees that improving women’s productivity in economic development can contribute to growth, efficiency and poverty reduction everywhere. This paper is based on the Gender and Development (GAD) approach which emphasises gender relations in the family and in the community rather than in women in isolation.

The GAD model for eliminating gender inequality to empower Nepalese women can be justified in terms of the social and cultural context of the Nepalese society with its excessive patriarchal based social structure and extended family system which restrict women to make independent decision and to come out from family compound without the permission of their guardians or superiors.

In recent times, things have changed to some extent; however, that is not enough, only by guaranteeing rights does not set everything right. It is, in fact, the implementation aspect that must be given proper consideration. Also, the women must be able to assert their rights to the fullest possible extent.

Pragmatic

In order to shun gender discrimination, it is not enought to change the letter of the law. Rather one must change the spirit. Legal literacy with human rights components can go a long way towards enabling women to change the spirit of the laws, exercise their rights and play a significant role in the transformation of attitude and social values. Otherwise, it discourages women from various development activities. The Beijing monitoring campaign must internationalise the gender problem and formulate pragmatic strategies for the new millenium.