"Sexual violence in conflict, as well as all forms of violence and discrimination against women, girls, men and boys is a flagrant and unacceptable violation of human rights. Every person, who has suffered from sexual violence must have the right to comprehensive services, justice and reparations. It is the primary responsibility of all States, to support and assist the victims, as well as to hold perpetrators of sexual violence to account, to prevent and deter these crimes.
As a global leader, the European Union has taken decisive and concrete action to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence. We assist at least 700 000 Syrian refugees and internally displaced people in getting access to protection from sexual and gender-based violence through our Trust Fund for Syria. To tackle past abuses against women, we are preparing support to assist transitional justice processes in Kosovo, Colombia and the Philippines. And last year alone, the EU humanitarian aid for the prevention of and response to sexual and gender-based violence reached almost 3.4 million women, men, girls and boys through 84 different projects.
We work in a comprehensive and coherent manner to eliminate all forms of sexual and gender-based violence against women, men, girls and boys. This will continue to guide the implementation of relevant United Nations' and EU measures, such as Comprehensive Approach to the EU implementation of the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security, our Action Plan for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in EU External Relations for the period 2016-2020, our Guide to Practical Actions at EU level for Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict, our Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2015-2019, our Guidelines on Violence against Women and Girls and Combating all Forms of Discrimination against them and our policy on Transitional Justice.
We have achieved a lot, together. And we won't stop working each and every day until women, men, girls and boys are able to lead a life free from fear and violence anywhere in the world.
On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, Federica Mogherini, High Representative/ Vice-President, Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Neven Mimica, Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Christos Stylianides, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, and Věra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, made the following statement:
"Sexual violence in conflict, as well as all forms of violence and discrimination against women, girls, men and boys is a flagrant and unacceptable violation of human rights. Every person, who has suffered from sexual violence must have the right to comprehensive services, justice and reparations. It is the primary responsibility of all States, to support and assist the victims, as well as to hold perpetrators of sexual violence to account, to prevent and deter these crimes.
As a global leader, the European Union has taken decisive and concrete action to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence. We assist at least 700.000 Syrian refugees and internally displaced people in getting access to protection from sexual and gender-based violence through our Trust Fund for Syria. To tackle past abuses against women, we are preparing support to assist transitional justice processes in Kosovo, Colombia and the Philippines. And last year alone, the EU humanitarian aid for the prevention of and response to sexual and gender-based violence reached almost 3.4 million women, men, girls and boys through 84 different projects.
Our engagement to achieve true gender equality, conflict prevention, sustaining peace and realising the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is at the heart of our daily work. Empowering women is an effective way to advance conflict prevention, conflict resolution, relief and recovery and for building sustainable peace. Along with our active contributions to tackling the root causes of conflict, we will continue to address inequalities and to help build peaceful and inclusive societies. These work goes hand in hand with the key objectives of the European Union's Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy and the new European Consensus on Development.
We work in a comprehensive and coherent manner to eliminate all forms of sexual and gender-based violence against women, men, girls and boys. This will continue to guide the implementation of relevant United Nations' and EU measures, such as Comprehensive Approach to the EU implementation of the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security, our Action Plan for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in EU External Relations for the period 2016-2020, our Guide to Practical Actions at EU level for Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict, our Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2015-2019, our Guidelines on Violence against Women and Girls and Combating all Forms of Discrimination against them and our policy on Transitional Justice.
The EU is also leading by example in preventing sexual and gender-based violence and protecting individuals and communities from it within the European Union. We have allocated robust financial support for Member States and grassroots efforts to prevent gender-based violence and support its victims in the European Union.
The EU has also taken steps towards accession to the Council of Europe's 'Istanbul Convention' on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. This month, the EU will take over the leadership of the 'Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies'.
We have achieved a lot, together. And we won't stop working each and every day until women, men, girls and boys are able to lead a life free from fear and violence anywhere in the world."
9 June 2017 - Criminals exploit inequality and vulnerability, and profit from gaps in development and enforcement, UNODC Executive Director, Yury Fedotov, said today.
"At the same time, their actions exacerbate insecurity and perpetuate violence, as we have seen with the growing nexus of organized crime and terrorism," he said.
Criminal groups smuggle desperate migrants, traffic in people, and engage in cyber-attacks that victimize businesses and people, endanger critical infrastructure and harm vital services, he said. Terrorists were also looting cultural property and using the proceeds to commit further acts of terrorism.
"But there is nothing inevitable or invincible about transnational organized crime. We must engage all of our institutions, if we hope to defeat the criminals and protect the defenceless," said Mr. Fedotov.
Crime can be defeated, he said. The wisdom of Judge Falcone was to focus on painstaking investigation, cooperation across borders, and unwavering and uncompromising integrity. Judge Falcone's insights, said Mr. Fedotov, also led to the adoption of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (known as the "Palermo Convention").
The Palermo Convention is one of the most effective ways of combatting crime due to its promotion of joint operations, information sharing, and mutual legal assistance to strengthen financial investigations, protect witnesses and seize illicit assets.
Mr. Fedotov said, "We need to work together to promote peaceful and inclusive societies, and foster the rule of law, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals and we need to invest in prevention and education, and involve young people and civil society."
The UNODC Chief was speaking during a high-level debate at the UN General Assembly commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the assassination of renowned Italian Judge, Giovanni Falcone.
Giovanni Falcone, was murdered on 23 May 1992 by a massive bomb placed on the motorway near Capaci, Sicily. The bomb also killed Falcone's magistrate wife Francesca Morvillo and several police officers travelling with him.
Other speakers included the President of the UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson; the Chair of the 26th session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) and Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Japan to the UN (Vienna), Mitsuru Kitano; and President of 8th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations (Vienna), Pilar Saborio de Rocafort and the Italian Minister of Justice Andrea Orlando.
General Assembly resolution 55/25
of 15 November 2000
United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolution 53/111 of 9 December 1998, in which it decided
to establish an open-ended intergovernmental ad hoc committee for the purpose
of elaborating a comprehensive international convention against transnational
organized crime and of discussing the elaboration, as appropriate, of international
instruments addressing trafficking in women and children, combating
the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components
and ammunition, and illegal trafficking in and transporting of migrants,
including by sea,
Recalling also its resolution 54/126 of 17 December 1999, in which it
requested the Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of a Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime to continue its work, in accordance with resolutions
53/111 and 53/114 of 9 December 1998, and to intensify that work in
order to complete it in 2000,
Recalling further its resolution 54/129 of 17 December 1999, in which it
accepted with appreciation the offer of the Government of Italy to host a highlevel
political signing conference in Palermo for the purpose of signing the
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo
Convention) and the protocols thereto, and requested the Secretary-General to
schedule the conference for a period of up to one week before the end of the
Millennium Assembly in 2000,
Expressing its appreciation to the Government of Poland for submitting to
it at its fifty-first session a first draft United Nations convention against
transnational organized crime1
and for hosting the meeting of the inter-sessional
open-ended intergovernmental group of experts, established pursuant to resolution
52/85 of 12 December 1997, on the elaboration of a preliminary draft of
1
A/C.3/51/7, annex.
2
a possible comprehensive international convention against transnational organized
crime, held in Warsaw from 2 to 6 February 1998,
Expressing its appreciation to the Government of Argentina for hosting the
informal preparatory meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee, held in Buenos Aires
from 31 August to 4 September 1998,
Expressing its appreciation to the Government of Thailand for hosting the
Asia-Pacific Ministerial Seminar on Building Capacities for Fighting Transnational
Organized Crime, held in Bangkok on 20 and 21 March 2000,
Deeply concerned by the negative economic and social implications related
to organized criminal activities, and convinced of the urgent need to strengthen
cooperation to prevent and combat such activities more effectively at the
national, regional and international levels,
Noting with deep concern the growing links between transnational organized
crime and terrorist crimes, taking into account the Charter of the United
Nations and the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly,
Determined to deny safe havens to those who engage in transnational organized
crime by prosecuting their crimes wherever they occur and by cooperating
at the international level,
Strongly convinced that the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime will constitute an effective tool and the necessary
legal framework for international cooperation in combating, inter alia, such
criminal activities as money-laundering, corruption, illicit trafficking in endangered
species of wild flora and fauna, offences against cultural heritage and
the growing links between transnational organized crime and terrorist crimes,
1. Takes note of the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration
of a Convention against Transnational Organized Crime,2
which carried out its
work at the headquarters of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and
Crime Prevention in Vienna, and commends the Ad Hoc Committee for its
work;
2. Adopts the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and the Protocol against
2
A/AC.254/34.
3
the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime annexed to the
present resolution, and opens them for signature at the High-level Political
Signing Conference to be held in Palermo, Italy, from 12 to 15 December 2000
in accordance with resolution 54/129;
3. Requests the Secretary-General to prepare a comprehensive report on
the High-level Political Signing Conference to be held in Palermo in accordance
with resolution 54/129;
4. Notes that the Ad Hoc Committee has not yet completed its work on
the draft Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms,
Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, supplementing the
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;
5. Requests the Ad Hoc Committee to continue its work in relation to
this draft Protocol, in accordance with resolutions 53/111, 53/114 and 54/126,
and to finalize such work as soon as possible;
6. Calls upon all States to recognize the links between transnational organized
criminal activities and acts of terrorism, taking into account the relevant
General Assembly resolutions, and to apply the United Nations Convention
against Transnational Organized Crime in combating all forms of criminal
activity, as provided therein;
7. Recommends that the Ad Hoc Committee established by the General
Assembly in its resolution 51/210 of 17 December 1996, which is beginning its
deliberations with a view to developing a comprehensive convention on international
terrorism, pursuant to resolution 54/110 of 9 December 1999, should
take into consideration the provisions of the United Nations Convention
against Transnational Organized Crime;
8. Urges all States and regional economic organizations to sign and ratify
the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and
the protocols thereto as soon as possible in order to ensure the speedy entry into
force of the Convention and the protocols thereto;
9. Decides that, until the Conference of the Parties to the Convention
established pursuant to the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime decides otherwise, the account referred to in article 30 of the
Convention will be operated within the United Nations Crime Prevention and
Criminal Justice Fund, and encourages Member States to begin making
adequate voluntary contributions to the above-mentioned account for the
4
provision to developing countries and countries with economies in transition of
the technical assistance that they might require for implementation of the Convention
and the protocols thereto, including for the preparatory measures
needed for that implementation;
10. Decides also that the Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of a
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime will complete its tasks
arising from the elaboration of the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime by holding a meeting well before the convening
of the first session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, in order
to prepare the draft text of the rules of procedure for the Conference of the
Parties and other rules and mechanisms described in article 32 of the Convention,
which will be communicated to the Conference of the Parties at its first
session for consideration and action;
11. Requests the Secretary-General to designate the Centre for International
Crime Prevention of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and
Crime Prevention to serve as the secretariat for the Conference of the Parties to
the Convention in accordance with article 33 of the Convention;
12. Also requests the Secretary-General to provide the Centre for International
Crime Prevention with the resources necessary to enable it to promote in
an effective manner the expeditious entry into force of the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and to discharge the functions
of secretariat of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, and to
support the Ad Hoc Committee in its work pursuant to paragraph 10 above and
combat transnational organized crime more effectively.
Article 2. Use of terms
For the purposes of this Convention:
(a) “Organized criminal group” shall mean a structured group of three or
more persons, existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim
of committing one or more serious crimes or offences established in accordance
with this Convention, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or
other material benefit;
(b) “Serious crime” shall mean conduct constituting an offence punishable
by a maximum deprivation of liberty of at least four years or a more serious
penalty;
(c) “Structured group” shall mean a group that is not randomly formed
for the immediate commission of an offence and that does not need to have
formally defined roles for its members, continuity of its membership or a
developed structure;
(d) “Property” shall mean assets of every kind, whether corporeal or
incorporeal, movable or immovable, tangible or intangible, and legal documents
or instruments evidencing title to, or interest in, such assets;
(e) “Proceeds of crime” shall mean any property derived from or
obtained, directly or indirectly, through the commission of an offence;
(f) “Freezing” or “seizure” shall mean temporarily prohibiting the transfer,
conversion, disposition or movement of property or temporarily assuming
custody or control of property on the basis of an order issued by a court or
other competent authority;
Annex I
U“Confiscation”, which includes forfeiture where applicable, shall mean
the permanent deprivation of property by order of a court or other competent
authority;
(h) “Predicate offence” shall mean any offence as a result of which proceeds
have been generated that may become the subject of an offence as defined
in article 6 of this Convention;
(i) “Controlled delivery” shall mean the technique of allowing illicit or
suspect consignments to pass out of, through or into the territory of one or
more States, with the knowledge and under the supervision of their competent
authorities, with a view to the investigation of an offence and the identification
of persons involved in the commission of the offence;
(j) “Regional economic integration organization” shall mean an organization
constituted by sovereign States of a given region, to which its member
States have transferred competence in respect of matters governed by this Convention
and which has been duly authorized, in accordance with its internal
procedures, to sign, ratify, accept, approve or accede to it; references to “States
Parties” under this Convention shall apply to such organizations within the
limits of their competence.
Article 3. Scope of application
1. This Convention shall apply, except as otherwise stated herein, to the
prevention, investigation and prosecution of:
(a) The offences established in accordance with articles 5, 6, 8 and 23 of
this Convention; and
(b) Serious crime as defined in article 2 of this Convention;
where the offence is transnational in nature and involves an organized criminal
group.
2. For the purpose of paragraph 1 of this article, an offence is transnational
in nature if:
(a) It is committed in more than one State;
(b) It is committed in one State but a substantial part of its preparation,
planning, direction or control takes place in another State;
(c) It is committed in one State but involves an organized criminal group
that engages in criminal activities in more than one State; or
(d) It is committed in one State but has substantial effects in another
State.
7
Article 4. Protection of sovereignty
1. States Parties shall carry out their obligations under this Convention
in a manner consistent with the principles of sovereign equality and territorial
integrity of States and that of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of other
States.
2. Nothing in this Convention entitles a State Party to undertake in the
territory of another State the exercise of jurisdiction and performance of functions
that are reserved exclusively for the authorities of that other State by its
domestic law.
Article 5. Criminalization of participation in an
organized criminal group
1. Each State Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures as
may be necessary to establish as criminal offences, when committed intentionally:
(a) Either or both of the following as criminal offences distinct from
those involving the attempt or completion of the criminal activity:
(i) Agreeing with one or more other persons to commit a serious
crime for a purpose relating directly or indirectly to the obtaining
of a financial or other material benefit and, where required
by domestic law, involving an act undertaken by one of the
participants in furtherance of the agreement or involving an
organized criminal group;
(ii) Conduct by a person who, with knowledge of either the aim and
general criminal activity of an organized criminal group or its
intention to commit the crimes in question, takes an active part
in:
a. Criminal activities of the organized criminal group;
b. Other activities of the organized criminal group in the
knowledge that his or her participation will contribute to the
achievement of the above-described criminal aim;
(b) Organizing, directing, aiding, abetting, facilitating or counselling the
commission of serious crime involving an organized criminal group.
2. The knowledge, intent, aim, purpose or agreement referred to in paragraph
1 of this article may be inferred from objective factual circumstances.
3. States Parties whose domestic law requires involvement of an organized
criminal group for purposes of the offences established in accordance with
8
paragraph 1 (a) (i) of this article shall ensure that their domestic law covers all
serious crimes involving organized criminal groups. Such States Parties, as well
as States Parties whose domestic law requires an act in furtherance of the
agreement for purposes of the offences established in accordance with paragraph
1 (a) (i) of this article, shall so inform the Secretary-General of the United
Nations at the time of their signature or of deposit of their instrument of
ratification, acceptance or approval of or accession to this Convention.
Article 6. Criminalization of the laundering of proceeds of crime
1. Each State Party shall adopt, in accordance with fundamental principles
of its domestic law, such legislative and other measures as may be necessary
to establish as criminal offences, when committed intentionally:
(a) (i) The conversion or transfer of property, knowing that such property
is the proceeds of crime, for the purpose of concealing or
disguising the illicit origin of the property or of helping any
person who is involved in the commission of the predicate
offence to evade the legal consequences of his or her action;
(ii) The concealment or disguise of the true nature, source, location,
disposition, movement or ownership of or rights with respect to
property, knowing that such property is the proceeds of crime;
(b) Subject to the basic concepts of its legal system:
(i) The acquisition, possession or use of property, knowing, at the
time of receipt, that such property is the proceeds of crime;
(ii) Participation in, association with or conspiracy to commit,
attempts to commit and aiding, abetting, facilitating and
counselling the commission of any of the offences established in
accordance with this article.
2. For purposes of implementing or applying paragraph 1 of this article:
(a) Each State Party shall seek to apply paragraph 1 of this article to the
widest range of predicate offences;
(b) Each State Party shall include as predicate offences all serious crime
as defined in article 2 of this Convention and the offences established in accordance
with articles 5, 8 and 23 of this Convention. In the case of States Parties
whose legislation sets out a list of specific predicate offences, they shall, at a
minimum, include in such list a comprehensive range of offences associated
with organized criminal groups;
(c) For the purposes of subparagraph (b), predicate offences shall include
offences committed both within and outside the jurisdiction of the State Party
9
in question. However, offences committed outside the jurisdiction of a State
Party shall constitute predicate offences only when the relevant conduct is a
criminal offence under the domestic law of the State where it is committed and
would be a criminal offence under the domestic law of the State Party implementing
or applying this article had it been committed there;
(d) Each State Party shall furnish copies of its laws that give effect to this
article and of any subsequent changes to such laws or a description thereof to
the Secretary-General of the United Nations;
(e) If required by fundamental principles of the domestic law of a State
Party, it may be provided that the offences set forth in paragraph 1 of this article
do not apply to the persons who committed the predicate offence;
(f) Knowledge, intent or purpose required as an element of an offence set
forth in paragraph 1 of this article may be inferred from objective factual
circumstances.
Article 7. Measures to combat money-laundering
1. Each State Party:
(a) Shall institute a comprehensive domestic regulatory and supervisory
regime for banks and non-bank financial institutions and, where appropriate,
other bodies particularly susceptible to money-laundering, within its competence,
in order to deter and detect all forms of money-laundering, which regime
shall emphasize requirements for customer identification, record-keeping and
the reporting of suspicious transactions;
(b) Shall, without prejudice to articles 18 and 27 of this Convention,
ensure that administrative, regulatory, law enforcement and other authorities
dedicated to combating money-laundering (including, where appropriate under
domestic law, judicial authorities) have the ability to cooperate and exchange
information at the national and international levels within the conditions
prescribed by its domestic law and, to that end, shall consider the establishment
of a financial intelligence unit to serve as a national centre for the collection,
analysis and dissemination of information regarding potential moneylaundering.
2. States Parties shall consider implementing feasible measures to detect
and monitor the movement of cash and appropriate negotiable instruments
across their borders, subject to safeguards to ensure proper use of information
and without impeding in any way the movement of legitimate capital. Such
measures may include a requirement that individuals and businesses report the
cross-border transfer of substantial quantities of cash and appropriate negotiable
instruments.
10
3. In establishing a domestic regulatory and supervisory regime under
the terms of this article, and without prejudice to any other article of this
Convention, States Parties are called upon to use as a guideline the relevant
initiatives of regional, interregional and multilateral organizations against
money-laundering.
4. States Parties shall endeavour to develop and promote global, regional,
subregional and bilateral cooperation among judicial, law enforcement and
financial regulatory authorities in order to combat money-laundering.
Article 8. Criminalization of corruption
1. Each State Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures as
may be necessary to establish as criminal offences, when committed intentionally:
(a) The promise, offering or giving to a public official, directly or indirectly,
of an undue advantage, for the official himself or herself or another
person or entity, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in the
exercise of his or her official duties;
(b) The solicitation or acceptance by a public official, directly or indirectly,
of an undue advantage, for the official himself or herself or another
person or entity, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in the
exercise of his or her official duties.
2. Each State Party shall consider adopting such legislative and other
measures as may be necessary to establish as criminal offences conduct referred
to in paragraph 1 of this article involving a foreign public official or international
civil servant. Likewise, each State Party shall consider establishing as
criminal offences other forms of corruption.
3. Each State Party shall also adopt such measures as may be necessary
to establish as a criminal offence participation as an accomplice in an offence
established in accordance with this article.
4. For the purposes of paragraph 1 of this article and article 9 of this
Convention, “public official” shall mean a public official or a person who
provides a public service as defined in the domestic law and as applied in the
criminal law of the State Party in which the person in question performs that
function.
Article 9. Measures against corruption
1. In addition to the measures set forth in article 8 of this Convention,
each State Party shall, to the extent appropriate and consistent with its legal
11
system, adopt legislative, administrative or other effective measures to promote
integrity and to prevent, detect and punish the corruption of public officials.
2. Each State Party yshall take measures to ensure effective action by its
authorities in the prevention, detection and punishment of the corruption of
public officials, including providing such authorities with adequate independence
to deter the exertion of inappropriate influence on their actions.
Article 10. Liability of legal persons
1. Each State Party shall adopt such measures as may be necessary, consistent
with its legal principles, to establish the liability of legal persons for
participation in serious crimes involving an organized criminal group and for
the offences established in accordance with articles 5, 6, 8 and 23 of this
Convention.
2. Subject to the legal principles of the State Party, the liability of legal
persons may be criminal, civil or administrative.
3. Such liability shall be without prejudice to the criminal liability of the
natural persons who have committed the offences.
4. Each State Party shall, in particular, ensure that legal persons held
liable in accordance with this article are subject to effective, proportionate and
dissuasive criminal or non-criminal sanctions, including monetary sanctions.
Article 11. Prosecution, adjudication and sanctions
1. Each State Party shall make the commission of an offence established
in accordance with articles 5, 6, 8 and 23 of this Convention liable to sanctions
that take into account the gravity of that offence.
2. Each State Party shall endeavour to ensure that any discretionary legal
powers under its domestic law relating to the prosecution of persons for offences
covered by this Convention are exercised to maximize the effectiveness of law
enforcement measures in respec
t of those offences and with due regard to the
need to deter the commission of such offences.
3. In the case of offences established in accordance with articles 5, 6, 8
and 23 of this Convention, each State Party shall take appropriate measures, in
accordance with its domestic law and with due regard to the rights of the
defence, to seek to ensure that conditions imposed in connection with decisions
on release pending trial or appeal take into consideration the need to ensure the
presence of the defendant at subsequent criminal proceedings.The biological difference between man and women is generally the basis of defining them in two diametrically opposite social catagories as male and female and thereby attributing to them the characteristics of masculine and famine . The sexual differences becomes the basis of many unscintific irrational and artificial difference between man and women .The way these differences are produced and then rationalised is what is known as gender relationship .Thus while sex is natural and biological and one can do very little to change it ,gender is a social -cultural phenomenon and hence changes its definations , etc accroding to its socio-cultural phenomenon and hence changes its definition etc, according to its socio cultural local . Apioneering feminist ann oakley has tried to state this in these terms . Gender is a matter of culture , its refers to the social classification of men and woman in to masculine and famine gender reflects the existing power relationship in any given society .The power relations in society are un equal nature , where woman are given secondary position to men . What seems to be the way out ? what are some of the way in which the solution to this massive inequality has been sought to be overcome ? . These are some of the issues that we shall deal with.
WOMAN AND GENDER;
According to the historians of gender relations ,woman havw an given a lower socio economic and political status in social hierarchy.Their status is determined by the politically and economically dominant power which is quite often wilded by the male be it as an individual or asa a group .In 1947 kate millet in her book sexual politics defined this structure of power as a patriarchy .The way a girl child is socialised into accepting the powerfulmale authority has been one of the key themes of the sociologists and historians . Another pioneering feminist ,philosopher Simon DEbeauvoir in her monumental book second sex tried to unraval this aspect of our social life.There have been therefore serious attempts to understand and as a Marxist and feminist would say , to breake the power relationship so that woman could come out of their subordinate position to taste the freedom of opportunity life and happiness.
patriarchal system impringes on every sphere of a womans life .In mordern economy for example, woman as woman neither has easy access to the formal sectors of employment nor is there generally an equal wage structure for both man and women i e woman were paid less than the men for the same job.They also lack access to space and institutions to ecpress themselves .At home from selecting a partner to planning the size of the family societal or community rules and norms, finally access to facilitates of better health care and nutrition is also preferentially distributed .,woman .either as girl children or as pregnant women or merely as woman do not get the required attention. This gets reflected in the rate of mortality and exposure to illness.
In cultural arena too, from religious discourse to the portrayal in media women quite are reduced to the rolei of what is called second sex or quite often treated merely as an object or an commodity.
DEVELOPMENT AND GENDER:
Development has been differently defined as , progress , pisitive changes in the socio economic position of the people ,a community or a nation . In the third world and in most iof the erstwhile colonised countries ,it was the demand for development and future drvelopmental vision that defined their movement for liberation .In India ,for example, the nationalist leaders had already arrived at a consensus on the developmental path that the country would choose once it gets independence . The idea of self reliance both the ability to take independent economic decisions and follow independent path of development was shared by leaders across continents . The marxist understanding of the primacy of economic basis of exploitation added an extra merit to such ideas .For example the feminist who shared the marxian analysis as well as politics therefore the idea of development was supposed to change the economic bases on which gender relationship was defined then it was presumed that development was the preferred mode of changing those base .Therefore not a coincedence that that large womens movement have never been anti developmental.
this vision of development was , however , not merely economic progress but was closely related to the political expression of independence . Democracywas closely tied to this vision of independence .Democracy and democratic institutions for example as constitutions framers of india thought , were the greatest gurantee of womans rights and well being . As experience has shown , it is the democratic system which has provided the woman space to make their individual as well as collective voice felt . Now wonder that we have found that the woman voices were quite strong in the movement for restoration of democracy in latin America ,Asian ,and African countries,
The state occupied quite a central place in the developmental vision . first it was the leadership of the anti colonial movement which came to occupy the state apparatus and therefore there was some amount of a close relationship betwen the leadership , the state and masses . Second , it was only the state which could have mobilised resources at such large quantum and therefore became quite crucial.
economic development and political development was quite often co terminous with the drive for modernising the state , the state the society and its institutions , equality the legal rights of man and woman and idea of citizenship were the key to such modernisation for example in egypt it was gamel abdul nasser administration which expanded the economy. and brought large women work force out their traditional working environment, guranteed them equal
rights and since 1954 guaranteed equal wages , similarly in Tunisia where it was the moderniser and secular president Bohuiba and in iraq it was the Baath socialist party which tried to bring about modernisation by developing their economy . India too it was the state which initiated the first reform measure when after a lot of debate and discussion , it reformed the hindu succession act 1956 in which women were given equal right of inheritance.
there were two predominant strategies for development followed by the less developed and ex colonial countries . first there was a sence of urgency in correcting and disarticulation effected by the colonial
countries . Creating an industrial base for the future industrial
base for the future industrial and economic activity in this sense was a natural outcome . This prioritised the heavy industries sector and an import substitution strategy . In many countries , like india , egypt, iraq, pakistan and even in iran , it was the state which initiated and supervised the entire activity through planning resource mobilisation as well as resource distribution .
the second syrategy adopted was export led growth . Followed mainly in smaller sized countries it entailed a close linking with global economy and specialising in the goods and services produced for the world market . This was mainly followed mainly in the east asian countries israel, Moroco, Tunisia , etc, korean economy which was even in the 1960 was a sleepy economy could get in to the dynamic fold and made huge strides.
AGENCIES OF DEVELOPMENT;
there is a close link between the change of the overall status of woman and the autonomy that she gains through changes in some crucial areas of her life . Access to education , better health care , access to gainful employment and opportunity to take decision , etc The society as is empirically known ,does not grant these without struggle . Thus there is a vicious circle . The three agencies v which seems to help her in this struggle to break this circle . The three agencies which seems to help her in in this struggle to break this circle and there by help her gain the required autonomy are namely , the individual she her self , the community that she lives in and in the mordern time the state . In recent times there have been other agencies which are supra state or multinational agencies .However at the moment, in most places they try and invoke primarily the agencies of self community and the state in furthering the interest and development of woman .
There is a strong belief i.e the liberation , which insists that it is the individual and her merit that alone count , any intervention by community and the state on her be half , they argue, proves not only counterproductive in the final analysis but also detrimental to her well being . This proves helpful in pursuing policies , which advocating the states withdrawal from any welfare activities . It is made popular during the early eighties with people like Margaret thatcher and Ronald Reagan who argued for what who argued for what is known as complete freedom to the individual and the withdrawl of the state from affairs of individual
freedom .Thus women too have to fend for themselves according to this logic and only the meritorious would come up
There is another stand i,e communitarian view which has gained some popularity these days due to two factors., first , the most powerful woman movement over the last three decade have been fought by woman with the hlelp ofb local communities , they habe thus inspired other struggles , second the western aid agencies too are propagating the communitarian idea in their programmes .Quite often they are projectedin opposition to the state .The basic proposition is that womans development and freedom lies in the community itself where rights are enshrined .It is therefore the community which should be galvanised to further the development of the woman .On closer analysis , however ,one finds that the natural or traditional communities in most places are bound up with patriarchal normative universe from which the woman could hardly get true justice . The religious communities , villages, communities or even artificial communities like trade unions or other professionals bodies are hardly the epitome of equality between man and woman . Quite often the religious communities have made the life of woman worse as what happened with the traditional hindu or for that matter muslim and christian social life . The woman in countries like Algeria, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, were gaining freedom and and equality under mordern regimes till the islamicists arrived in the scene in the eighties . So is the case with the catholic communities where the woman are still struggling for their sexual rights or rights or divorce . There is also a continuous efforts to wrest from woman control even the resudual powers .Thus the claim that the communitarian makes , i e that it is the communities which is ensures real freedom for woman , seems on a careful analysis , not true to a greate extent .However the communities of woman , have proved to be a successful contribution of the feminist movent . This not only gives woman the much needed political and social space to express themselves freely but also paves the way for political and social mobilisation .
In mordern times it is the state which has most often played the crucial role in enabling the woman to access those facilities and resources that facilitate her autonomy . However , the dilemma remains that when the powers inimical to womans interest capture the state women are left to fight one more agency . This time it is superior to all others by virtue of having a monopoly over coercive authority . when the state goes to war for example , with another state it can be harsh to the rights of women .Iraq under the baath party rule in the seventies gave woman tremendous autonomy and facilitated their drvelopment . By the end of 1970 29 per cent of the medical doctor 49 percent dentists , 70 percents of the pharmacists , 46percent of the teacher and university lectures , 33per cent of the government staff 45 per cent farm employees were woman .Maternity leave was generous and pregnant woman had their jobs protected , but the war with iran on 1980 changed the state attitude . Now they were told that they should bear five children to narrow the gap between iraqs population 15million people and irans 47 million .
From every prominent one to a supportive role , the state figured in all paradigms of development .In the socialist model of development , the state played not only a central role but was also the organiser and mobiliser of production in society .Market was seen to
According to the historians of gender relations ,woman havw an given a lower socio economic and political status in social hierarchy.Their status is determined by the politically and economically dominant power which is quite often wilded by the male be it as an individual or asa a group .In 1947 kate millet in her book sexual politics defined this structure of power as a patriarchy .The way a girl child is socialised into accepting the powerfulmale authority has been one of the key themes of the sociologists and historians . Another pioneering feminist ,philosopher Simon DEbeauvoir in her monumental book second sex tried to unraval this aspect of our social life.There have been therefore serious attempts to understand and as a Marxist and feminist would say , to breake the power relationship so that woman could come out of their subordinate position to taste the freedom of opportunity life and happiness.
patriarchal system impringes on every sphere of a womans life .In mordern economy for example, woman as woman neither has easy access to the formal sectors of employment nor is there generally an equal wage structure for both man and women i e woman were paid less than the men for the same job.They also lack access to space and institutions to ecpress themselves .At home from selecting a partner to planning the size of the family societal or community rules and norms, finally access to facilitates of better health care and nutrition is also preferentially distributed .,woman .either as girl children or as pregnant women or merely as woman do not get the required attention. This gets reflected in the rate of mortality and exposure to illness.
In cultural arena too, from religious discourse to the portrayal in media women quite are reduced to the rolei of what is called second sex or quite often treated merely as an object or an commodity.
DEVELOPMENT AND GENDER:
Development has been differently defined as , progress , pisitive changes in the socio economic position of the people ,a community or a nation . In the third world and in most iof the erstwhile colonised countries ,it was the demand for development and future drvelopmental vision that defined their movement for liberation .In India ,for example, the nationalist leaders had already arrived at a consensus on the developmental path that the country would choose once it gets independence . The idea of self reliance both the ability to take independent economic decisions and follow independent path of development was shared by leaders across continents . The marxist understanding of the primacy of economic basis of exploitation added an extra merit to such ideas .For example the feminist who shared the marxian analysis as well as politics therefore the idea of development was supposed to change the economic bases on which gender relationship was defined then it was presumed that development was the preferred mode of changing those base .Therefore not a coincedence that that large womens movement have never been anti developmental.
this vision of development was , however , not merely economic progress but was closely related to the political expression of independence . Democracywas closely tied to this vision of independence .Democracy and democratic institutions for example as constitutions framers of india thought , were the greatest gurantee of womans rights and well being . As experience has shown , it is the democratic system which has provided the woman space to make their individual as well as collective voice felt . Now wonder that we have found that the woman voices were quite strong in the movement for restoration of democracy in latin America ,Asian ,and African countries,
The state occupied quite a central place in the developmental vision . first it was the leadership of the anti colonial movement which came to occupy the state apparatus and therefore there was some amount of a close relationship betwen the leadership , the state and masses . Second , it was only the state which could have mobilised resources at such large quantum and therefore became quite crucial.
economic development and political development was quite often co terminous with the drive for modernising the state , the state the society and its institutions , equality the legal rights of man and woman and idea of citizenship were the key to such modernisation for example in egypt it was gamel abdul nasser administration which expanded the economy. and brought large women work force out their traditional working environment, guranteed them equal
rights and since 1954 guaranteed equal wages , similarly in Tunisia where it was the moderniser and secular president Bohuiba and in iraq it was the Baath socialist party which tried to bring about modernisation by developing their economy . India too it was the state which initiated the first reform measure when after a lot of debate and discussion , it reformed the hindu succession act 1956 in which women were given equal right of inheritance.
there were two predominant strategies for development followed by the less developed and ex colonial countries . first there was a sence of urgency in correcting and disarticulation effected by the colonial
countries . Creating an industrial base for the future industrial
base for the future industrial and economic activity in this sense was a natural outcome . This prioritised the heavy industries sector and an import substitution strategy . In many countries , like india , egypt, iraq, pakistan and even in iran , it was the state which initiated and supervised the entire activity through planning resource mobilisation as well as resource distribution .
the second syrategy adopted was export led growth . Followed mainly in smaller sized countries it entailed a close linking with global economy and specialising in the goods and services produced for the world market . This was mainly followed mainly in the east asian countries israel, Moroco, Tunisia , etc, korean economy which was even in the 1960 was a sleepy economy could get in to the dynamic fold and made huge strides.
AGENCIES OF DEVELOPMENT;
there is a close link between the change of the overall status of woman and the autonomy that she gains through changes in some crucial areas of her life . Access to education , better health care , access to gainful employment and opportunity to take decision , etc The society as is empirically known ,does not grant these without struggle . Thus there is a vicious circle . The three agencies v which seems to help her in this struggle to break this circle . The three agencies which seems to help her in in this struggle to break this circle and there by help her gain the required autonomy are namely , the individual she her self , the community that she lives in and in the mordern time the state . In recent times there have been other agencies which are supra state or multinational agencies .However at the moment, in most places they try and invoke primarily the agencies of self community and the state in furthering the interest and development of woman .
There is a strong belief i.e the liberation , which insists that it is the individual and her merit that alone count , any intervention by community and the state on her be half , they argue, proves not only counterproductive in the final analysis but also detrimental to her well being . This proves helpful in pursuing policies , which advocating the states withdrawal from any welfare activities . It is made popular during the early eighties with people like Margaret thatcher and Ronald Reagan who argued for what who argued for what is known as complete freedom to the individual and the withdrawl of the state from affairs of individual
freedom .Thus women too have to fend for themselves according to this logic and only the meritorious would come up
There is another stand i,e communitarian view which has gained some popularity these days due to two factors., first , the most powerful woman movement over the last three decade have been fought by woman with the hlelp ofb local communities , they habe thus inspired other struggles , second the western aid agencies too are propagating the communitarian idea in their programmes .Quite often they are projectedin opposition to the state .The basic proposition is that womans development and freedom lies in the community itself where rights are enshrined .It is therefore the community which should be galvanised to further the development of the woman .On closer analysis , however ,one finds that the natural or traditional communities in most places are bound up with patriarchal normative universe from which the woman could hardly get true justice . The religious communities , villages, communities or even artificial communities like trade unions or other professionals bodies are hardly the epitome of equality between man and woman . Quite often the religious communities have made the life of woman worse as what happened with the traditional hindu or for that matter muslim and christian social life . The woman in countries like Algeria, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, were gaining freedom and and equality under mordern regimes till the islamicists arrived in the scene in the eighties . So is the case with the catholic communities where the woman are still struggling for their sexual rights or rights or divorce . There is also a continuous efforts to wrest from woman control even the resudual powers .Thus the claim that the communitarian makes , i e that it is the communities which is ensures real freedom for woman , seems on a careful analysis , not true to a greate extent .However the communities of woman , have proved to be a successful contribution of the feminist movent . This not only gives woman the much needed political and social space to express themselves freely but also paves the way for political and social mobilisation .
From every prominent one to a supportive role , the state figured in all paradigms of development .In the socialist model of development , the state played not only a central role but was also the organiser and mobiliser of production in society .Market was seen to
have no role in the decisions of production . However , in case like that of India , state was thought to be pivotal and acted as such . He re state not only acted along side the market but at the same time it played a socially emancipatory role too .On the other side of the spectrum societies like the USA where state seems to have a withdrawn role , in the final analysis it is the state which comes in basic developmental agent in both infrastructural as well as in the domain of infrastructural facilities for the development.
However , the state has a significant role to play in the developing countries. Even in the scandinavian countries , it is the state , which has come up to mobilise the social resources to provide some of the largest welfare measures to the woman . In latin America for example , it was the state , which provided education to the largest chunk of woman .Many of the west asia countries played a crucial role in changing the status of women .Here the state has to fight the family and community ties . Iran , Iraq., Tunisia, Turkey, etc, helped to bring women out in the productive space and to attain some amount of autonomy.In India , for example , like many other colonised countries , the leadership of the freedom movement inherited the state apparatus of the erstwhile rulers . They tried to reorient those structures into taking up the role of new development task . Gender and particularly the development of women was also concidered as a responsibility of state . The womens movement in India for example till today keep facing and demanding that the state should intervene more to bring equality between sexes in public plaves provide opportunities to women .However , the movement felt that making the state take up this tasks needs the presence of woman in decision making places and hence there are demands for guaranteeing women space in the otherwise male domain of legislature.
The idea of well being sees an entrenched womans development of her capabilities through which . It is argued ., her freedom and development is ensured . These capabilities include those , which are essential for her survival as a human being also . Exploring gender and human development in india .Martha nussbaum argues very strongly for an approach which seeks to raise the capabelities of the women and therefore their possibilities in warding off the exclusionary chances . She argues that the key to development of women is to provide them with the cover of justice because only in such a situation can these capabilities be ensured . There is a strong need for the fullfilment of what she tried to develop as the list of central human functional capabilities . the list includes , life bodily health ., bodily integrity, senses imagination and thought , emotions, practical reason , affiliation , other species , play , control over ones own environment. The fulfillment of these capabilities involves addressing the moral questions too as it involves prioritising the fulfilment of such capabilities over something else . Also ,it is the question of these human abilities exerting a moral claim in the political arena .The basic intution from which the capability approach beings , in the political arena ,is the certain human abilities exert a moral claim that should be developed . This begs the question as to whome does this make the claim on and then one realise that gender justice and development issues of large society cannot be whisked away . They are as important as talking about the claim of capabilities , and there should be a democratic order to which these claims can be made. And it is here that a human exploitation less society based on some normative horizon is striven for , the century old womens movement has been a living testimony of how collective human development can change life and face of human civilisation from a patriarchal barbarity to a more equal and just society.
CRITIQUE OF DEVELOPMENT;------------------------
Beginning of the anti vietnam war movement to the radical students movement in the USA and Europe there were other events that were changing the world in the sixties . The growing environmental activism of the late 60s in the west and the cultural revolution in china with the massacre of the communist s in indonesia and other places and the intensification of the cold war and finally the defeat of the USA forces in vietnam were shapping the face of an entirely new world . The hike in the oil prices shoked the first world economy and there seemed to be a new confidence of the third world countries.
on the other hand , the growing issues awareness of the issues and criticism by the womens movement gradually began to view the existing models of womans liberation critically . Ester Boserups work , woman s role in economic development , for example was a major eye opener . It argued that economic work of the female is naver accounted for in the analysis of economic activities . thus the green revolution agricultural strategy was criticised . It was argued that it focused on technology and traning of man while conveniently forgetting the woman whose work , quite a substantial economic activity is perceived and broaden the concerns
And issues of woman so as to include the women of the world.
It was argued by the feminist groups and womans movement in various countries , as they took cognisance of the experience and aspirations of the middle class european white woman that some of the fundamental premises of the feminist movement was too limited . Any meaningfiul struggle for liberation , it was argued , must take in to account the problem which women in the third world were doubly exploited . First , they are woman secondly , they come from the third world and poor background . Thus class and gender both fuse in them .Their issues were not merely releted to domestic violence or demand for sexual choices but to the very basic human development items education , health and employment .They needed to come out of the vicious circle of poverty which prevented them from even coming out of the tyrany of tradition . In beginning should be made from the lower and i,e poor woman of the third world
It was now argued by the feminist groups and womans movement in various countries as they took cognisance of the experience and aspiration of the middle class european white woman that some of the fundamental premises of the feminist movement was too limited .Any struggle for liberation , it was argued , must take in to account the problems . Which woman in the third world face in their day to day life . The poor woman of the third world were doubly explouted .First they are woman and secondly
they come from third world and poor back ground . Thus class and gender both fuse in them . Their issues were not merely related to domestic violence or demad for sexual choices but to the very. basic human development items , i.e, education health and employment . They needed to come out of the vicious circle of poverty which preventd them from even coming out of the tyranny of tradition .It began to be argued that for the end of subordination of the female , the beginning should be made from the lower and i,e the poor women of the third world .
on the other hand heve been efforts by the united nations science s 1975 which was decleared as the womans year . To bring the issues related to women in the major internatipnal forum and discuss the issues relating to their resolution even at global level .As a result there has been a real internationalisation of the issues of womans development and freedom . The ensuring debate . In fact forced many cities and womans movement to have a relook at their programmes and priorities. The indian cases is worth considering as it has made major contribution . The woman movement flourished during the anti colonial struggle . The fact that the constitution had accepted equal right to vote other qualities was a vindication of the fact that national movement had accepted the basic ethos of equality in 1947 in itself .The focus of post independence movement was to get stateinvolved more into the development programme in such ways as not to let woman leg behind .It is for this reason they attacked the government to shed its warfarist approach . Since the mid 1970s however one can see two broad terrains in the womans movement .One that was part of the larger political economic movement and demanded more stayes action in the issues of women and organised people along those issues . Soon sharp divergence began tp appear as one could see that the autonomous groups began attacking, the development
role of the state,
There have been a strong criticism of the idea of development .The ideas of mordern industrialism , nation state , and the scintific world view are closely associated with the idea of development which was the newest of all.The criticism came that all of them have worked against women .They have it is argued , increased inequalities and deprived women .They have it is argued increased inequalities and deprived woman of whatever control they earlier had over the resources of community or family It is modern state and its agencies which were supposed to have taken over those right and powers .Similarly the critique pointed out that the massive industrial complexes are antithetical to the womans interests .Technical complexes are antithetical to the woman interest .Technical complexes and technological world militates against some of the basic feature of womans nature and interest . Thus the stream of environmental activism andone stream of feminism mingled and created a strong critique which came to be known as eco feminism . Some of the feminist authors have shown Indias green revolution as a classic example of how development was anti woman.
In the 1950 the late 1970 the green revolution swept the world .It focused on increasing food production through expanding the area under production and increasing yields from those areas already under production by using faster maturing and higher yielding seed varieties and higher inputs such fertilizers and pesticides .It resulted in dramatic increases in housing electricity transpotation . Critics of the green revolution have pointed out that it has brought uneven distribution of benefits and its emphasis on new technologies infact was creating more inequality between men and women . This also resulted in monoculture which meant less variety and therefore dependence on the market thereby making the lives of woman more difficult than before .Similarly with monocultures, crops also have become more vulnerable to pests , droughts, etc and thus not only there is reduced food security at the local level but also environmental hazard such as increased salinity , etc began to affect the life of the people .And in all this women were a major casuality. The post independance development in many a ex colonised countries was also seen from the prism of socialism .It was argued that development was leading to a capitalist development which does not augur well for womanas it was argued that capitalism is not only antithetical to gender justice , development which is leading to capitalism , but also not conductive to womans well being.They show as vindication of their point the wide spread practice of female foeticide in some of the relatively more development states like punjab Haryana and Gujarat in India
It was argued that during the 1950 and 1960 development was considered merely a technical problem of raising productivity by technological input. It is said to have been lacking both political or ideological and even policy dimensions whereby women and children could be brought under the rubric of development. When woman were included they were more often than not confined to the reproductive role which was stereotypical western understanding of the third world woman .No agency was given to woman to voice their own understanding and concerns .At a more basic level they argued that initial concern for equality between woman and man was based on the enlightment ideals of a liberal western world which did not take into cognizance the women of the third world .Here they were not only countering the male dominance but also poverty and other forms of exploitation and inequality .Thus the concern in even what emerged as the feminist studies also began shifting to poor woman and poverty alleviation to poor women and to poverty allevation rather than the welfarist or pure humanitarian concerns. Woman were now constructed as vulnerable as victims and invisible scholars and policy makers argued that one of the major reasons for the failure of different development projects was precisely this invisibility.
FROM WOMAN IN DEVELOPMENT TO GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT;----------------
The result of criticism of development was that by 1986 , at the end of the united nations initiative in which indian experience and womans movement also had contribution , there should be large scale and concious effort to involve women in to the development process and be given access to the formal sector of the economy . Its rationale was that development was failing because it is failing to take advantage of the labour of half of the population that is the labour of woman .As perspective analysis income -generations and micro enterprise projects become popular focus .Woman time began to be seen as elastic inother words they have time to take on new projects .Thus the incorporation into formal or informal sector as workforce was seen to be a solution to the vicious circle in which the woman were.
At the strategic level the woman in development (wid)approach focused on woman as a group and sought to address the exclusion of woman from the development process .It emphasised that if development would only incorporate and include womans productive capacity it would be much more efficient . Since the 1970s the world is no more the old world . Global environmental concern , issues of smaller communities living in far of places like the villeges in the Himalayan hills , or the Andean villages in south america or the Chiapas in mexico or in the African continents etc.Were cominig to fore in the discourse on development .The issue of power relationship , key to the decision making process also was gradually coming into open even in the discussion of womans issues . Starting with the German greens , the concerns began to take shape in the womans movement as well as movements of diffrent local communities in Asia, Africa, and southAmerica .From 1974 the women in the Garhwal Himalayas India got engaged in a long struggle against the filling of trees by government contractors .As forest was key to the day to day livelihood in which it was women who had to struggle most, it was the women of the area who pioneered the movement . It was not a feminist movement so to say, but a struggle for livelihood , for a better and humane development .Soon the poorest embraced other issues but the protest which soon attracted outside attention became a focal pount in concern over the livelihood issues which were intimately connected with the planning process and developmental concerns.Similar struggles dotted the south and latin America where the 1970 was also the phase of a very bitter and powerful democratic upsurge as well as popular movement . Neo liberal reforms had failed to provide a better life situation or employment opportunities and the end of the 1970 saws and economies after economies in latin America plunging into economic and financial crisis . The woman became the greatest sufferers of these developments . As results there grew a strong reaction to the idea that development itself is not a solution . Suspucion of the state too has surfaced in many quarters . Thus critique of component of development has taken the shape of a critique of development itself . Amultitude of feminist movements across the world also added to the experience . They showed the deep negative impact of development work by the state or multinational agencies were doing on the lives of females at the local level. These experience then got teansferred in to the theoretical domain.
All these have led to what is in the theoretical domain began to be referred to as gender and development ( GAD) paradigm.This would advocate not to look at woman as just to be there to be inducted into some developmental programme but argue for looking at development as something completely different from how it has been perceived so far . It would argue for closer look into the structures of decision making of development . One of the premises was that the paradigm that dictated development was defined and structured along patriarchal lines and quite often based on western models too which structurally are incapable of taking in to account the concerns and issues of the non western women and hence paradigm has to be shifted one stream within this talked of autonomous spaces to be given more importance . It emphasised that self reliant development is not possible within established structures which were definitely patriarchal . The large developmental and modernising projects were seen as more often detrimental to womens development and well being and at the perspectives level they favoured small . Local and participatory projects were womens voice could be more decisive . Hence instead of large goverental projects small is argued to beautiful and effective.
Empowerment of women was thought to be the only way to ensure their participation in their own development and this in turn was possible only when the concentration were to be small with an effective local level development vision . Thus at the execution level it favoured non - governmental initiative which it was thought could bring in more of the participatory approaches . focused on small scale women only projects , to ensure participation and prevent male domination .At the level of political struggle an autonomous movement of women has been projected as the only possible way to achieve more power to the women.
In this understanding , the crucial feature has been the attack on the idea of the traditional understanding of the domain of private and public in which womens work as well as life has been compartmentalised . it has been argued that in the final analysis this dual domain is instrumental in women getting exploited on a daily basis . The male argument of being breadwinner rests on his work on the public domain . The womens work in the private domain is economically not even valued and if she works outside as well , only the outside is valued . Therefore , the notion of public private help sustaining an exploitative gender division . The premise of this approach is also that women are poor and victims .It is somehow ignored a more dynamic analysis of the way the male domination is established by ascribing gender roles in the society . It spent quite a lot of energy attacking western models of development capitalism and power relations . There have been shifts in the GAD in recent years and now people assert the need to investigate relationships among gender ideology . The sexual division of labour womens subordination and the operation of social political and economic power . It draws on the both the perspective of the north and the south and emphasises the global diversity of womens experiences and interests .Influenced by the writings of the third world feminists it acknowledge the need to understand gender relations on the ground .It emphasises the global inequalities and global systemic crises . It seeks to empower women through collective action in grassroots womens groups . Shift is accompanied by a newly emerging notion of power which saw power relations not merely in grand scale between male and female but it argued that the relationships negotiate on very basis and on a macro level . The construction of the ideology of gender and assignment of gender roles is dictated by the power relation in the society and its negotiation . has also to be wresting this power .
The consequences of these have been the increasing voices which argue for empowerment as the basic approach to womens issues . Emerging from the south are vouces of Bina Agarwal ,Vandana Shiva, Arturo Escober, Maria Mies,etc,
At the strategic level GAD focused on women and men in relation to one another .GAD sees the subordination status of women to men as deterimined by society as the core problem that needs to beadressed , and believes that focusing on women in isolation does not address the power issues that are at the core of the problem .For more information , kabeer 1994 who provides a comprehensive analysis and discussion of the evolution of the field of women in development to gender and development GAD.
GENDER, DEVWLOPMENT AND JUSTICE :-----------------
Gender equality equality between men and women , entails the concept that all human beings , both men and women , are free to develop their personal abilities and make choices without the limitations set by stereotypes , rigid gender roles and political and other prejudices . Gender equality means that the different behaviour , aspiration and needs of women and men have to become the same , but that their rights , resposibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female . Gender equity means fairness of reatment for women and men , according to their perspectives needs . This may include equal reatment or treatement that is diffrent but which is considered equivalant in terms of benefits , obligations, and opportunities.
One of themost crucial issues that face the womens questions today is the larger political process , the idea of justice and the role of women . There is no confusion today that the agency of women has to be there in their own well being and that the womens well being is something on which even male well being depends . This close relationship has been reflected in the very high human development indicators from several states in India , like Kerala, Himachal pradesh, Tamilnadu, etc. Where a geneal improvement in the conditions of health of women has led to the general improvement of health of both male and child and female child .
How ever the political process are extremely and quite crudely male centred . Thus another vicious circle present itself . To make the political processes and spaces attuned to the female presence also . Institutions of male dominance , ownership patterns , decision making monopoly etc have to be weakened . Here one key component , one agrees , is to democracy where the voting rights give the ultimate decision making power to woman to bring democracy in the country because existentially one can see that it is the democracy . As Amartya sen has pointed out , freedom in one area fosters freedom in other area as well .
Development is the only way possible to bring out a positive change in the status of women and change gendered ecploitation . Indian developmental experience has been a shinning and change gendered exploitation . Indian developmental program experience has been a shining example of this . what is now referred to as nehruvian vision is based on the development . In India for example at the time of independence the political quality between men and women was considered as a matter that was settled . Thus it is was only economic equality that was sought after . Despite criticism, development has improvrd the condition of women a lot .
Over year in India the welfarist approach and the pressure of the movement and other autonomous groups have provided a major corrective to the attitudes of the state and the male .During the 1980s efforts were made to make gender animportant component in development programming . This was the beginning of the 30 per cent reservation for women at the local level administrations . i e panchayats , so that they could enter into the decision making domain . The issue of 30 per cent reservation for them in the parliament and state legislature then was taken up but is still mired in controversises and debates and pending before the indian parliament .
Economist Amartya sen called development as freedom whete development is the way to provide capabilities to women to bring out her fullest self. This is argued , to be done throuugh providing literacy , health and other basic facilities that give her the wherewithal to change hereconomic standing in the family and society and thereby improve her position in order to wrest decision making powers too. In Indian development phenomenon development as a philosophy of progress has assumed that with asset formulation , etc women would have greater freedom than in traditional society . Third world development discourse from the very beginning believed that it was poverty and quite often the womans economic and social exclusion that deprived her of any role in decision making . this strengthened the patriarchy system and womens exploitation was accentuated due to the extreme poverty.The indian development experience can show that through the development process there has been a revolutionary change in the basic indicators of women lives . The indicator like education , health, or life expectancy does not simply reflect the well being of the women involved , but as commented by many an economists or sociologists , its fruits are shared by the coming generations too.
