CHALLENGES OF BEIJING 1995 WOMEN CONFERENCE TO WOMEN IN AFRICA: NIGERIA IN PERSPECTIVE
Introduction
According to N. Bofu-Tawamba the world has witnessed tremendous changes in regard to women’s rights and gender parity since the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in September 1995. Trying to examine the aforementioned, one may want to ask the question – In what ways have the world significantly changed in regard to the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality since the conference in Huairou?; did such changes relegate or enhance the challenges of gender disparity between men and women?; what were the implications of the conference on women especially in regards to the implementation of its agreement and what challenges did the Beijing conference cause African women? Of course, providing answers to these questions would help us comprehend the cause and effect of the Beijing conference.
Undoubtedly, the Beijing conference resulted in a remarkable global event that informed an agreed compass to gender equality. In fact, the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) which was adopted by government delegates from 189 countries has remained a reference point for governments and for women’s movements alike today. More than fifty thousand participants who were present in the conference turned the event into the largest conference ever in the history of the United Nations (UN). And while twenty-seven thousand women participants took part of the Forum of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO Forum), the conference itself witnessed the presence of five thousand delegates, four thousand women representatives from NGOs and three thousand two hundred journalists.
The conference served as an opportunity for women to pool together their concerns, sufferings, hopes, aspirations and demands from different divides in such a comprehensive manner. Interestingly, the conference’s overarching aim was to review the strategies drawn up at the Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi in respect of their global execution and also to work out a plan of action for expediting their realisation. Twelve key issues were comprehensively discussed in the conference and these bordered on the eradication of poverty among women; education and training of women; quality health for women and many others formed the basis of the conference. In the end of the conference, the agreements reached become a set of guiding principles to be incorporated into the national laws of the 189 government present at the conference.
However, twenty years after the conference in Beijing, African women have continued to witness the intense effects of gender biasness in areas such as education, religion, tradition, and most importantly, politics. Thus, it is in a bid to examine the aforementioned challenges faced by African women in the light of the agreement of the world conference in 1995 that this article becomes relevant.
Understanding women’s issues prior and after the Beijing conference
With the emergence of the United Nations (UN) in 1945, the advancement of women’s rights became very important for international development. Prior to the advent of the UN, the guidelines for the advancement of women in International Development Cooperation of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, adopted in 1994 gave an idea of how the Foundation wishes to contribute to improving the status of women in developing countries. The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation assisted the processof preparation for the fourth World Conference on Women with a number of activities. It also contributed immensely by proposing strategies which were incorporated in the Platform for Action. Also, within the framework of its development cooperation, networks of women’s organizations and women from among the partner organizations of the Foundation were supported in organizing regional conferences in West Africa and many other countries in Latin America and Asia.
The platform for Action of the Beijing conference stood as the primary document that contains series of actions whose aim are to get rid of discrimination against women. In a bid to incorporate the interests of women in the Draft Platform, five preparatory regional conferences were held and these brought together representatives of governments and a large number of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). While the preparation was ongoing, different women groups organised series of workshops in order to birth strategies on how to make the conference a success.
There are twelve key areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action. These areas of concern put forward the positions and demands of women with the main aim of attaining global relevance and resisting all forms of gender subjugation. The first area of concern focused on the feminization of poverty. This aspect explained that a lot of women especially those from the Third World like Nigeria live in absolute poverty and thus cannot cater for their economic wellbeing. In this regard, it should be stated that it is because women are denied access to quality education as well as full participation in the traditional, religious, economic and political events of their societies, that they tend to lack the will power to acquire resources and implement policies that are capable of helping them become relevant in the society. The situation is not completely different in developed countries because over there, the unemployment rate of women is on the rise than that of men.
While the second area of concern focused on the provision of equal access to primary and advanced education and training for girls and women with the primary goal of expunging illiteracy and eliminating barriers within the education system, the third area of concern discussed the need to narrow the gap widened against women in regard to the enjoyment of the best standard of psychological, physical, emotional and mental health. The fourth aspect was concerned with the eradication of violence against women; the fifth, on protecting women from suffering the effects of wars through equal participation of women in all peace activities, promotion of disarmament, stoppage of war crimes against women and many others; the sixth, on integrating women into economic decision-making of their countries, the seventh, on empowering women to rise to relevance and contribute to the decision making of government of their states; the eight on the projection of institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women; the ninth, on ensuring the practice, respect and regard to the fundamental human rights of women, and the tenth, the use of the media for the advancement of women. The eleventh area of concern stressed on the protection of the rights of women to a healthy and productive life while the twelfth area emphasised the need to ensure that the rights set forth in the convention to each child within the jurisdiction are respected and upheld without discrimination irrespective of the child’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, poverty, disability, birth or status.
So far, it should be mentioned that the agreements and conventions drafted at the end of the conference helped in improving the condition of women politically, economically, and socially all over the globe. Be that as it may, the level of improvements made by countries of the world in this regard solely depended on how serious they are in incorporating women into their national policies. Since the making of laws are easier than their execution, it is crucial to note that a lot of African women especially Nigerians even at present, still suffer the impact of patriarchy and as a result are subjugated and relegated to the background irrespective of the agreements in Beijing. This goes further to explain that despite African nations’ commitment to the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action results, there is very little or no sign of the implementation of the plan in these countries due to certain political, religious, and economic encumbrances masterminded by patriarchy.
The Beijing Conference of 1995: What Challenges for African Women?
According to Angela Lusigi, critical areas of concern that have continued to limit the progress of African women are linked to poverty, inequality and lack of economic empowerment. Beneath these intersecting challenges are also concerns related to lack of access to health and education, property rights, and vulnerability to violence and various economic, environmental and political shocks. In Nigeria, culture, tradition and religion have been at the forefront of women’s subjugation across the different ethnic formations. Particularly, in the Northern part of the country, women are traditionally and religiously suppressed as they are not meant to be relevant than men. For instance, they are meant to sit differently from men and in most cases at the back. Also, they are not meant to ask their husbands questions until they get back to their houses. Every Muslim woman must be covered in a Hijab which by no reason should be removed while in public. Even in the Southern part of the country, women are forbidden to doing most agricultural activities like climbing of palm trees, cutting of trees and more. They are not allowed to bless kolanut in the presence of men or even play the role of a man in the family. Religiously, most orthodox churches like the Catholic Church rebuke women from taking the head position of the church. Similarly, in most Pentecostal churches, women are limited to certain positions of authority but also are allowed to play significant roles in other offices. All these point at the the fact that many doctrines and customary activities collectively advance the discrimination of Nigerian women.
It is worth mentioning that Nigerian women, right from the pre-colonial times have had tremendous contributions to the growth and development of their communities. They have in so many occasions driven economic growth, as well as cultural and political successes in their society. However, with the emergence of colonial rule, the reverse was the case as colonialism ignited the relegation of women to the backstage. And since then, the fight for women’s liberation and freedom in Africa has remained intense. On the other hand, it is important to note that despite the fact that the Beijing women’s conference placed serious sanction on poverty, illiteracy, ill-health, violence, armed conflict, unemployment and many others against women, the aforementioned vices have continued to manifest themselves in Nigeria at present.
In Nigeria, there is a perception that there are limited resources and opportunities. As such, empowering women will mean a drastic reduction of these which however, are opportunities available for men. This perception has caused a lot of confusion in the work space as today; there are jobs that are designed for men and also those that are designed for women. On the long run, this has continued to widen the unemployment gap between men and women in the society.
As regards illiteracy among African women, it is on record that West African countries like Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau and Benin by 2018, have below 36% female adult literacy rate. In the same vein, Senegal, Cote d’ I’ voire, Gambia and Mauritania are below 45% female adult literacy rate. African girls and women are denied access to education and vocational activities by certain religious, cultural and traditional doctrines and practices. By so doing, their rights to expression and association are denied thus making them irrelevant in the state of events in society. Sadly, even in cases where national laws recognize the Affirmative Action for Women in politics , these doctrines, dogmas and practices tend to superimpose on such laws.
Again, N. Bofu-Tawamba mentioned that the presence of African women in politics since the Beijing conference has normalized women’s status as political actors, but has not eliminated uneven and unimpressive legislation for women’s rights and gender equality. However, the socio-political, economic, legal and environmental position and condition of women and girls is still unpromising thus questions further questions regarding the measures with which sustainable gender equality is to be pursued. On the whole, African women are still on the mission to engendering female relevance in politics and many other aspects of the society. This is evident in their continuous quest and clamour for equal opportunities in the parliament, executive mad and judicial chambers of various African countries in Nigeria, Rwanda, Liberia, Senegal, South Africa among others. Also, it is important to point that aside mere proposals and quests for gender equality, there is need for African women to strongly support themselves doggedly in their quest for equal opportunities for all gender. With African women as Presidents, Governors, Senate Presidents, Speakers in parliaments and Chief Justices and Judges in their different countries, the implementation of the Beijing Plan for Action key areas in these countries would no more become a herculean task to take on. But first, African women must rise and shun political apathy.
Conclusion
Africa has made great attempts at developing strategies to enhance the rights nad liberty of women in the continent. This is evident as since 2000, it is recorded that Africa has witnessed the fastest growth in women representation in various legislative chambers across the globe. Countries like Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Mozambique, Uganda, and Tanzania, rank in the top twenty countries for percentage of women in parliament. Also, there are a number of countries like Tanzania, Egypt, Kenya and Uganda where women have shown interest in contesting for the office of the Chief of government. All these come together to justify the agreements and commitments of the Beijing conference. However, the progress so far is not all-encompassing because a host of African nations including Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya and others up until today, account for cases of gender inequality. And in situations such as this, one dares to ask: Was the Beijing conference really for Africa or was it mainly for a selected few democracies? The answer of course remains no.
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