Session
4
Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa
The 2005 Massey Lectures - CBC, Anansi, U of Toronto, by Stephen Lewis
WOMEN: Half the World, Barely Represented
"I've been emotionally torn asunder by the onslaught of AIDS ...What I have attempted to do in these lectures is ... [renew the] ... development and humanitarian ethos.
Index Chapter Summary Media Selections Discussion References
Summary Notes -
Ever the gadfly, Lewis thinks his beloved United Nations should practice what it preaches. And in recognition of women it is no different in practice than the world in general. Under Kofi Annan matters have improved. There are many qualified women says Lewis for various posts but they continue to be "invisible". So of course the MDGs are rather difficult to advance since the issue of women's equality is central to them all. So central that we will not meet the goal by 2015.

Yet, Lewis argues, what more natural defender of human rights could there be than the UN? Here are found the lofty standards of the human race: The Charter of the United Nations, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, The Covenant on Economic Social and Cutltural Rights, The Covenant on Political and Civil Rights. If these declarations and conventions were followed the world would be a different better place. In particular CEDAW (1979) is ratified by 181 of 191 countries, and speaks in bold language of elimination of this discrimination. Therefor it speaks loudly that the world can continue to ignore the agreement.

During the 1990's, there were 4 great international conventions to consider the next millenium for the UN, that led to the MDGs. Each of these agreed on the need for gender equality and each has been followed by little action. There has also been guerilla theatre and well organized representation of women at these conferences. Even though they were often denied official status, they made sure they had a voice at the proceedings.

The progress is not zero, says Lewis, but maintaining the momentum is very difficult. Certain women have played pivotal roles at these conferences: Charlotte Brunch, Dr. Nafis Sadik, Bella Abzug. The NGOs and the private persons now identified as "civil society" is a new and important player in this progress, having a larger role with each passing year.
Nonetheless, despite these sterling and repeated exhortations for equality, we haven't, in the aftermath, begun to overcome the discrimination, the indignity, the violence visited upon women around the world on a daily basis.
The UN should not only hold up the standard but accuse those who fail it. But it lacks the resources of administration to deal with it. He compares UNICEF for children to UNIFEM for women, itself only a division of UNDP (UN Development Program). A size and budget 40 times more. It even lacks general public recognition. It requires advocacy and affirmative action. "Mainstreaming" the women's agenda is to entrench things as they are. Why he asks do the MDGs themselves limit the goals for a better world as they do rather than propose full "civil, economic, social and political" opportunities? Why was not one of the goals, for sexual and reproductive rights?

His experience on so many commissions, in so many meetings, at so many levels in the UN and indeed in the world of diplomacy give gravity to his "agitation" on gender equality. He gives so many examples that there is little room but to agree the world is still only paying lip service to this issue. We can't "break the monolith of indifference and paralysis." And Africa is worse than most in the world. The bottom 20 countries of 145 in a UNDP report on gender equality are African.
It should be the role of the UN family to shame, blame, and propose solutions, all the while yelling from the rooftops that inequality is obscene. Only then will change have a chance."
Larry has discovered a superb website that promotes the central issues of the MDGs called The Pelikan Web with an e-newsletter called Solidarity, Sustainability and Non-Violence. The current month's focus is on MDG 2 - Education. It is the site of Luis T. Gutierrez and one of the most remarkable private efforts you will encounter. It is prolific, efficient and unexpected. For example check out this mathematically derrived chart that shows how wrong the world and United Nations is to consider the 8 Millenium Development Goals as equal and to be programmed in linear fashion. He shows them to be highly inter-related and in all cases dependant upon the 3'd goal of woman's equality. It all hinges on this goal. Here is his graphic on the centrality of gender equality.

The years Lewis spent as the special envoy of Kofi Annan may have born special fruit. Here is a link to an article in UNIFEMs e-newsletter on perhaps the last report from the outgoing UN Secretary General.
The Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on System-Wide Coherence, which recommends, among other measures, the consolidation of three of the UN's existing gender institutions — Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women (OSAGI), Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), and UNIFEM — into a single gender entity. This issue also focuses on the UN Security Council's recent open debate on women, peace and security, and on the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence.
UNIFEM maintains 4 internet portals as well as their prime site and newsletter. Here are the links:
     Unifem.org - Their primary site.
     Their e-Newsletter - Currents
     Women, War & Peace
     Gender and HIV?AIDS
     Gender Equality - Millenium Development Goals
     Gender Responsive Budget Initiatives.

Larry also shares another image with us. In the Name of God Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot has made a crucifix for the right to contraception and sexual education. It was unveiled 1 December 2006, International Aids Day in front of Copenhagen Cathedral. The copper sculpture depicts a pregnant teenager in natural size crucified on a big cross. It is a harsh comment to the impact of the fundamentalist branch of the Christian church, with President Bush and the Pope in the lead, on contraception and sexual education. Women, including teenagers, bear the brunt of the disastrous consequences of the ban on condoms based on ´Christian´ morality.
Media Selections
Discussion - Women: More than half the world. Describe your first experience, or "ah ha" moment when your realized that women were being discriminated against. How did it make you feel? What did you do about it?
We need to acknowlege that often we simply accepted injustice in society and in our family/personal lives.

Then, you have a moment of awareness that the system is patronizing. You#begin to put other things together. You start getting very upset about #what#has been taking place and no one seems to question it.

A number of women spoke of having equal education to a male when applying#for a job and the man got the position. One woman, as a young girt, went#with a boy from her congregation to a youth conference. When they got back, it was the boy who reported to the congregation on what took place. It was as though this was expected. When she thought about it, she grew very upset with these assumptions.

Many examples were shared. The common idea was that a patriarchal system was in place and that was how life in the community, on the job, in church, was conducted.

After a time of awakening an awareness, women went through stages of anger and resolution. In time, many sought to make changes in the way things were structured. Often men were supportive of these changes. More changes are#needed, but some progress has occurred. This offers hope for our lives, and an example for women in other settings.
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St. David's United Church.Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Jan
2007