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Contributions from
the Column
Monitor
Afghanistan: Drug economy increasingly mafia-like
Vietnam, a UN test case
UNDP focuses on Arab women
BMZ budget 2007
Financial markets: Sitting on a powder keg
Somalia: Experts fear escalation
Female genital multilation: Scarring body and soul
Informal institutions: sometimes good, sometimes bad
01/2007
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UNDP focuses on Arab women
Women in the Arab world are discriminated against in many ways and therefore cannot fulfil their potential for contributing to the political and economic development of their countries. This is what the fourth and final Arab Human Development Report concludes. It was published by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) last month. Like its three predecessors, the report was written exclusively by Arabs and was financed by UNDP.
According to the report, the situation for women has improved in many Arab countries in recent years – for example, because they were granted the right to vote or their legal status was enhanced. Nonetheless, Arab women are still only symbolically involved in political decision-making, rather than vested with any real power. Their legal standing often looks better on paper than in reality as formal legislation on gender equality is not rooted in society. According to the report, 17 out of 21 Arab countries have ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. However, they only did so with all sorts of reservations, such as putting compatibility with Sharia law first. In the authors’ view, such caveats limit the Convention’s relevance.
The report is skeptical of Western attempts to improve Arab women’s situation by asserting pressure on their governments. Doing so often achieves only symbolic compliance, but can weaken local women’s initiatives, as ruling men tend to dismiss them as being pro-Western. (ell)
On the Internet:
http://rbas.undp.org/ahdr2005.shtml
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