New UN Women Report Highlights Disparity Between Law and Practice

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

This week marked the release of UN Women‘s first report, Progress of the World’s Women 2011–2012: In Pursuit of Justice. UN Women was founded last July, in order to accelerate the UN’s progress toward achieving its gender equality goals.

The report produced some tidbits that may surprise you – for example, that women in Quatar earn 142% of what men earn in the manufacturing sector, or that women hold 51% of seats in Rwanda’s parliament.

But the report goes much deeper than that. The comprehensive study of women’s access to justice around the world is not intended to portray women as people who need protection, but to seek out ways to empower women and improve gender equality. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wrote, “This edition of Progress of the World’s Women examines the injustice that far too many women endure. It also highlights how essential it is to see women as far more than victims, but as agents of change.”

The aim of the report is to acknowledge the global gap between what is set down in law and what really happens, and to establish goals in narrowing that gap.

Disparity Between Law and Practice

We all know that what’s written in the rule book doesn’t necessarily translate to real life. In large part, Progress of the World’s Women 2011–2012: In Pursuit of Justice is dedicated to identifying those countries that are not walking the talk when it comes to gender equality.

Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Michelle Bachelet emphasizes in her opening letter that while women have made great strides in the past century, there is much to be done. She wrote:

“[The report] shows that where laws and justice systems work well, they can provide an essential mechanism for women to realize their human rights. However, it also underscores the fact that, despite widespread guarantees of equality, the reality for many millions of women is that justice remains out of reach.”

Bachelet means that, just because 125 countries have outlawed domestic violence and 115 guarantee equal property rights, that doesn’t mean those legal guarantees hold up in practice, and the report is an acknowledgment of this.

The report says:

“In many contexts, in rich and poor countries alike, the infrastructure of justice – the police, the courts and the judiciary – is failing women, which manifests itself in poor services and hostile attitudes from the very people whose duty it is to fulfill women’s rights. As a result, although equality between women and men is guaranteed in the constitutions of 139 countries and territories, inadequate laws and loopholes in legislative frameworks, poor enforcement and vast implementation gaps make these guarantees hollow promises, having little impact on the day-to-day lives of women.”

For example, as the report says, “despite decades of equal pay legislation, wage gaps remain wide and persistent across all regions and sectors.”

And in many cases the justice chain works against women as well, with attrition from the justice system at startling levels. For instance, as the report explains, that in Gauteng Province, South Africa, “only 17 percent of reported rapes reached court and just 4 percent ended in a conviction for rape.”

And that’s not counting the women who aren’t even protected by law. According to the study, “Some 600 million women, more than half the world’s working women, are in vulnerable employment, trapped in insecure jobs, often outside the purview of labour legislation.”

Recommendations

The report put forth ten recommendations for closing the gender disparity between law and practice.

1. Support women’s legal organizations.
2. Support one-stop shops and specialized services to reduce attrition in the justice chain.
3. Implement gender-sensitive law reform.
4. Use quotas to boost the number of women legislators.
5. Put women on the front line of law enforcement.
6. Train judges and monitor decisions.
7. Increase women’s access to courts and truth commissions during and after conflict.
8. Implement gender-responsive reparations programmes.
9. Invest in women’s access to justice.
10. Put gender equality at the heart of the Millennium Development Goals.

By increasing focus on gender and getting more women involved in positions of power, equality can be achieved. Women who serve as role models can inspire and empower women around the world – and they can also improve the chain of justice.