A Women's Human Rights Intersectional Approach to Poverty Eradication

I.  Guiding Principles

Poverty has various manifestations, including lack of income and productive resources sufficient to ensure a sustainable livelihood; hunger and malnutrition; ill health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic services; increasing morbidity and mortality from illness; homelessness and inadequate housing; unsafe environments; and social discrimination and exclusion.  It is also characterized by lack of participation in decision-making and in civil, social and cultural life.  It occurs in all countries ­ as mass poverty in many developing countries and as pockets of poverty amidst wealth in developed countries.(PFA, para. 47)

Poverty is a Women's Human Rights Issue.  The Platform for Action has provided a clear definition of the complex nature of poverty.  From this definition, it is clear that a holistic approach using all human rights mechanisms working in concert and strategies across all twelve critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action will be required in order to achieve the goal of eradication of poverty.  The Platform for Action affirms the indivisibility of rights.  Its detailed proposals begin to give concrete shape to the human rights of women in all twelve critical areas of concern.

. Lack of income and productive resources sufficient to ensure a sustainable livelihood - the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to receive wages to contribute to an adequate standard of living (human rights of women and women and the economy)

. Hunger and malnutrition - the right to be free from hunger (women and poverty)

. Ill health - the right to primary health care and medical attention in case of illness, the right to access to basic social services (women and health)

. Limited or lack of access to education and other basic services - the right to education (education and training of women)

. Increasing morbidity an mortality from illness, - the right to primary health care and medical attention in case of illness, the right to access to basic social services (women and health)

. Homelessness and inadequate housing - the right to housing (women and poverty)

. Unsafe environments - the right to a healthy and safe environment, the right to safe drinking water (women and the environment)

. Social discrimination and exclusion - the right to be free from gender and racial discrimination, the right to participate in shaping decision that affect oneself and one's community (human rights of women)

The CSW Agreed Conclusions should:

. Affirm that strategies to eradicate poverty are a part of governments obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and other human rights treaties. 

. Encourage governments and UN agencies to take an integrated approach to poverty using the relevant mechanisms of the UN human rights machinery including CEDAW and CERD.

. Reflect strategies that recognize the importance of the interconnections between the recommendations of the 12 critical areas of concern for the eradication of women's poverty.

(Supporting Precedent Language: UDHR and PFA, para. 16, 20, & 49)

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Many women face additional barriers to the enjoyment of their human rights because of such factors as their race, age, ethnicity, culture, religion or disability, because there are indigenous women or because of other status'...'Additional barriers also exist for refugee women, other displaced women, including internally displaced women, as well as for immigrant women and migrant women, including women migrant workers. (Beijing +5 Outcomes Document (B+5), para. 5).

Recognizing Poverty's Link to Racism and Other Oppressions.  All women have a universal right to the enjoyment of all human rights and differences in the contexts of their lives do not diminish this entitlement.  Similarly, women living in poverty of differing identities ­ race, ethnicity, caste, class, culture, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, language, age, status as indigenous peoples, health status, disabilities, status as refugee/displaced people, etc. - experience poverty differently.  Therefore, realization of women's economic rights is only possible if the full diversity of women's experiences are recognized and if diverse remedies are in created in response to different and intersecting factors.  CSW strategies for the eradication of poverty must not lose sight of this reality. 

The CSW Agreed Conclusions should:

. Reaffirm the understanding of the causal and other connections between poverty and race, ethnicity, caste, class, culture, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, language, age, status as indigenous peoples, health status, disabilities, status as refugee/displaced people, etc.and urge government to develop strategies that address the nexus of particular identities and poverty.

. Urge governments to report on efforts to develop methodologies to identify "the ways in which various forms of discrimination affect women and girls" and "to collect, analyze and disseminate quantitative, qualitative and gender sensitive data regarding the impact of all forms of discrimination including the multiple discrimination, on women and girls and sponsor, where appropriate, surveys and community based research, including the collection of disaggregated data by sex, age and other factors", in particular their application to poverty eradication strategy development.

(Supporting Precedent Language:  PFA, para. 31 & 36 and CSW Agreed Conclusions on Gender and all forms of discrimination, in particular racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance)

II.  Strategies for Eradicating Poverty

Eradication of Poverty based on sustained growth, social, development, environmental protection and social development, environmental protection and social justice requires the involvement of women in economic and social development, equal opportunities and the full and equal participation of women and men as agents and beneficiaries of people-centered development. (Beijing Declaration, p. 16)

Empowerment. The realization of women's economic rights and the eradication of poverty require participation if women living in poverty at all levels of decision-making.  Eradicating poverty is fundamentally about empowerment of the poor and it requires that women living in poverty have the power to choose how resources will be obtained and distributed.  The economic rights of women in poverty are intricately connected to the economic structures and realities at all levels: household, local, national and international.  The diversity of women and the diversity of their relationships to economic processes ­ from agricultural and industrial production to unpaid household and community work ­ must inform poverty eradication strategies.  Women living in poverty from different contexts must be equal actors in all strategies to eradicate poverty at all levels of economic policy development.

The CSW Agreed Conclusions should:

. Urge national governments to organize consultations with women living in poverty: grassroots women, immigrant and migrant women, women with disabilities, women of racial and ethnic minorities, older women, young women etc. to hear their views on the impacts of globalization including trade liberalization and privatisation policies and to discuss alternative strategies.

. Urge national governments, in consultation with women living in poverty, to set goals for the eradication of poverty including increases in minimum wage and other guarantees which can ensure livable wage and assistance levels above the poverty line.

. Urge governments to include NGO's, especially those representing women living in poverty in the development and use of gender impact audits of macroeconomic policy initiatives such as PSRP's etc.

(Supporting Precedent Language: PFA para. 16, 20, 21, 49, 56, 60 a, & 60c; Beijing +5 Outcomes Document para. 8 and CHR Resolution 2001/31: Human Rights and Extreme Poverty)

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The Secretary-General's in Millennium Report urged all governments to take action to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the world's people whose income is less than one dollar a day; to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people who do not have access to safe drinking water; to narrow the gender gap in primary and secondary education by 2005; to ensure that, by 2015, all children complete a full course of primary education and to reduce the maternal mortality rate by three quarters by 2015.

Millennium Goals for Women.  The United Nations Millennium Goals and the Beijing Platform for Action reflect a similar understanding of the complex nature of poverty and the strategies important to its eradication.  Within this framework it is necessary to delineate specific goals for impacting women living in poverty.  Target goals for women using social indicators such as income, access to safe water, educational enrollment and attainment and maternal mortality and can serve as yardsticks to measure the realization of social and economic rights of women living in poverty.  Overall women's targets should be developed and where necessary develop sub-targets that take into account diverse identities such as race, age, ethnicity, and citizenship status etc.

The CSW Agreed Conclusions should:

• Income: Urge governments to use their regulatory and administrative powers to stabilize women's incomes above the poverty line using such tools as livable minimum wage levels, worker protections and requirements for equal pay for equal work.

• Water: Urge governments to recognize the potential negative impact of the privatization of water strategies on women and act to ensure access to and democratic control over water resources.

• Primary Education & Literacy: Urge governments to use an intersectional methodology to measure progress toward the right to education through the collection of data on girls' primary school attendance and completion rates and female adult literacy as well as conducting a gender audit of government expenditures for these education programs.

• Maternal Mortality: Urge governments to use an intersectional methodology to collect and disseminate data on maternal mortality that identifies the interaction of cultural, economic, political and other factors that contribute to maternal mortality.  Governments should use this data to design programs and policies to reduce maternal mortality.

(Supporting Precedent Language: PFA, para. 53, 58h, 80b, 80f, 81a, 81b, 81c, 165a, 165b, 165r, 256a & 256g, B+5  para. 72b & 79c)

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In order to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development, women and men must participate fully and equally in the formulation of macroeconomic and social policies and strategies for the eradication of poverty.  The eradication of poverty cannot be accomplished through anti-poverty programmes alone but will require democratic participation and changes in economic structures in order to ensure access for all women to resources, opportunities and public services. (PFA  Para. 47)

Gender Perspectives in Macroeconomic Policy.  The connection between macro-level policies and gender equality and women's poverty must not be denied.  Gender biases in institutions, markets, and economic processes are often reinforced by macroeconomic polices.  Macroeconomic strategies such as trade liberalization and privatization take for granted but do not acknowledge the role played by women's low wage paid labor and unpaid household and community labor.  Bilateral and multilateral strategies such as structural adjustment programs and PSRP's often fail to protect women's economic and social rights.  All of these strategies can contribute to women's economic vulnerability and often increase the feminization of poverty

The CSW Agreed Conclusions should:

• Identify macroeconomic policies and strategies for financing development that support initiatives of women living in poverty that invest in and create jobs in poor communities.

• Identify tax policies that negatively effect women living in poverty and adjust taxation policies to ensure that they do not disproportionately affect them.

• Ensure that a priority is given to the women specific Millennium Goals with the resources that are made available through debt relief, currency transaction taxes and other measures.

(Supporting Precedent Language: PFA para. 47, 49, 150 & 155 and B+5 para. 17 & 21)

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The low social and economic status of women can be both a cause and a consequence of violence against women. (PFA 112)

Women's Poverty and Violence Against Women.  Both the feminization of poverty and violence against women are the result of differential power relationships between women and men, women and their families, and women and economic, political and cultural institutions.  Women in poverty are often unable to escape abusive situations because of their economic dependence on their abusers.   In addition, changes in economic status and power relationships in the household can often have violence against women as a consequence.    The differences in how women living in poverty experience violence and their ability to escape it can be further complicated by factors such as a woman's race, ethnicity, caste, class, culture, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, language, age, status as indigenous peoples, health status, disabilities, status as refugee/displaced people, etc.

The CSW Agreed Conclusions should:

. Urge governments to collect data that recognizes the special characteristics and contexts of violence against women living in poverty.

. Urge governments to harmonize strategies for poverty eradication with strategies to eliminate violence against women that reflect the reality of women's lives.

(Supporting Precedent Language:  PFA para. 116 & 118; B+5 para. 14; Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the General Recommendation 12 for CEDAW)