Statement
by elmira Nazombe to the Commission on the Status of Women
Center
for Women's Global Leadership Intervention
March
12, 2001
Good
morning, my name is elmira nazombe and I am speaking on behalf of
the Center for Women's Global Leadership, an NGO in consultative
status with ECOSOC, and participating in the working group on Women
and Human Rights. We are based in the United States, but work
globally on leadership development and advocacy on behalf of women's
human rights. The Center would like to thank the Commission for
the opportunity to share our view of the important issues before
the Commission this year and in the years ahead. We are encouraged
that the Commission is focusing its attention on the connections
between race and gender.
We
believe that the human rights treaty obligations of states to ensure
and protect all the human rights of all women require an intersectional
approach. We believe that an understanding of the diversity of
women's realities is essential to meeting these treaty obligations.
All women are not the same, but racism is a daily reality in the
lives of too many. Intersecting identities can work to multiply
women's subordination. Understanding these differences is a key
to designing policies to overcome the subordination of all women.
Interrogation
of the interaction of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia
and related intolerances with other aspects of women's identities
which become the venues for the violations of women's human rights
must be incorporated into the Commission's permanent patterns of
work to monitor commitments made in the Beijing Platform for Action.
We see two tasks for the Commission and Governments: development
of an intersectional methodology and development of new patterns
of work.
Intersectional
Methodology
We
support the views of the Expert Group Meeting on Racial Discrimination
and Gender. We agree that the elements of an intersectional methodology
should include the following:
1.
Disaggregated Data Collection
2.
Contextual Analysis
3.
Intersectional Review of Policy Initiatives and Systems of Implementation
Data
Collection - The first requirement for intersection analysis is
the availability of reporting and evaluation data disaggregated
by race, ethnicity, descent, citizenship status and other similar
identities. Disaggregated data will make it possible to identify
the magnitude of the impact of particular problems and policies
on particular groups of women. For example, in order to evaluate
the problem of the feminization of poverty it is important to identify
the extent of the impact of poverty on different groups of women.
We agree that women's testimonies can be an important part of the
data collection process. Women's human rights groups have pioneered
these methodologies through the many women's human rights tribunals
organized during the last decade. We hope that this experience
can be called on as intersectional methodologies are developed.
Contextual
Analysis - Once disaggregated data is available, the second task
is to document the impacts of a problem that are the result of the
convergence of identities. That is to probe beneath the single
identity to discover other identities that may be present and contributing
to a situation of disadvantage. The contextual realities could
include the legacy of slavery or colonialism or ancient animosities.
For example, disaggregated data may reveal the extent of rape of
ethnic women during a situation of war, but an analysis of the context
reveals a history of inter-ethnic struggle for economic power that
created a climate of permission for the rape among the majority
group.
Intersectional
Review of Policy Initiatives and Systems of Implementation - With
disaggregated data and contextual analysis as background, policy
initiatives and systems of implementation can be evaluated for their
efficacy in addressing the problems faced by different intersectional
identities. For example, does a policy initiative addressing racial
discrimination and economic opportunity for one group of women create
further tensions with other racial or ethnic women creating a competition
and hierarchy of minorities that serves to perpetuate the domination
of a majority group? Or on the other hand, do the implementation
procedures for national machinery include a variety strategies that
are sensitive to the different situations of subordination of women
within different groups?
We
urge the Commission to adopt this methodology through a process
of extensive consultation with women's organizations, especially
those of women experiencing intersectional discrimination.
New Patterns
of Work
The
Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcomes Document recognized
the international human rights framework as a powerful tool for
addressing women's inequality. But we must acknowledge that the
human rights framework predominately addresses injustices - racism,
gender, children, etc. separately. Therefore, we agree with the
panelists that have said that we need to think creatively about
new patterns for work for the development of an intersectional approach
that uses mechanisms to uncover the intersectional way in which
injustices occur. Dialogues between different treaty bodies and
the work of Special Rapporteurs could be utilized to develop an
understanding of intersectional subordination. For example, in
its projected review of issues of poverty and globalization, the
Special Rapporteurs' findings on the human rights impact of policies
such as structural adjustment could be considered alongside the
finding of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women to understand
the differential and combined effects on different types of women.
In its leadership role on gender and gender mainstreaming within
the United Nations, we hope the Commission will take initiative
in the development of such dialogues, again including an extensive
process of consultation with marginalized women's groups.
We
are hopeful that an intersectional approach by the Commission that
includes new patterns of cooperative work within the UN system will
make an important contribution to the enjoyment of full human rights
by all women.
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