HON AMONGI BETTY AKENA’S SPEECH AT THE NON ALIGNED MOVEMENT CONFERENCE IN BAKU, AZERBAIJAN AHEAD OF NAM MEETING IN KAMPALA.

By Dinah kakai.

The Minister of Gender Labour and Social Development Hon Amongi Betty Akena has delivered a keynote address at the Non-Aligned Movement Conference on Advancing the Rights and Empowerment of women in Baku, Azerbaijan today, 20th.11.2023. This is a pre-conference meeting focus on Gender Equality a head of the NAM meeting in Kampala.

MINISTRY OF GENDER, LABOUR AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT.
STATEMENT ON ADVANCING THE RIGHTS AND EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN UGANDA

By: The Hon. Minister Betty Amongi Ongom, Minister of Gender Labour and Social Development

AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCING THE RIGHTS AND EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN UGANDA

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN
21ST NOVEMBER 2023

Excellency the Minister of Women and Gender Equality, Azerbaijan
Excellences, Ministers from the NAM Countries, in charge of women and gender equality,
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

Let me start by thanking our host, the Hon. Minister of Azerbaijan, for the warm welcome accorded to all our delegations from the airport till now, and congratulate you for the well-organized meeting today.

I extend greetings from Uganda, specifically our President, H.E Y.K MUSEVENI, whose commitment to NAM affairs is exemplified by his acceptance to host the next Summit due in Kampala, Uganda.

We gather here under our unique global political group of Non Aligned Movement. The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is an international organization with currently 120 states. Its primary goal is to maintain a post-Cold War neutrality, i.e. a deliberate abstention from the East-West conflict. NAM anhcores its principles in peaceful settlement of international disputes; abstention from joining big power alliances.

Under our women Ministers, we should therefore, be able to use the forum to front collective issues that requires heads of states to address, to ensure GEWE. This meeting is therefore, timely since the next meeting of the Heads of states is due in January, 2024, in Kampala, Uganda. We should use this opportunity to generate our outcome documents to be presented during the Summit.

Our theme for this conference which is Advancing the rights and empowerment of women, is therefore important because globally, women are still facing serious obstacles including the following:

Legal barriers and poorly enforced legislation

At least 28 countries do not have laws granting women equal rights to enter marriage and initiate divorce, and 67 countries lack laws prohibiting direct and indirect discrimination against women. Where legislation does exist to promote gender equality, effective implementation remains a challenge. Social norms and cultural practices still remains a challenge in many countries, with harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation persisting. Globally, one in five young women is married before age 18. The prevalence of child marriage highlights the need for attitudinal shifts and the promotion of legal frameworks that safeguard women and girls’ rights.

FAMILY LAW Family law touches on the most intimate part of people’s lives, regulating marriage, divorce, adoption, child custody and other domestic issues. It is the area of law most often affected by cultural norms and belief systems regarding the role of women and men in a household. Reforms pushing for women’s rights are often met with greater resistance under the guise of conservation of national and cultural identity, which in turn cements the unequal distribution of power between women and men, and has a negative economic impact on women. Research shows greater female labor force participation rates where men have a higher share in childcare and other household responsibilities because it enhances the possibilities for women to combine work with having children

PROPERTY LAW Property law governs the ability to collect, own, manage and transfer assets. Therefore, property law is an essential component of engaging in productive employment and entrepreneurship. Assets are needed to sustain a person’s livelihood, provide for family members, help build wealth, and serve as collateral for credit. In addition, the ability to control and accumulate assets provides nonmaterial gains by providing tangible rewards for a person’s efforts. Laws that prevent women from owning property and other assets can effectively hinder or significantly disincentivize them from participating in the economy.

Research shows that control over earned income increases female labour supply and labour force participation. Legal impediments related to property law appear in various forms. Some laws prohibit women from owning movable and/or immovable property on their own. Customary marriage and inheritance norms can further interfere with property rights. Because of laws hindering or prohibiting women from owning, acquiring and disposing of assets, some women do not have the same access to financial services, including opening bank accounts. This in turn prevents them from building credit, borrowing and saving money, or obtaining insurance. Female entrepreneurship evidently suffers from all of these impediments and can be further dampened by legal constraints on signing contracts or registering a business. Certain laws regarding marriage are related to property rights. Specifically, the distribution of property during a marriage and after a divorce often discriminates against women.

Women are more often affected by the less favorable valuation (or non-valuation) of nonmonetary contributions in marital property regimes. Many countries have laws that prevent daughters or female surviving spouses from inheriting property because they follow the cultural norm of male lineage. 

Violence against women and girls

From domestic violence to traditional harmful social practices and sexual exploitation, violence against women and girls happens all over the world

• 1 in 3 women around the world experience violence (source. World Health Organization).
• 58% of all women murdered in 2017 were killed by an intimate partner or a family member (source. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2018).
• Around 650 million women across the globe were married before the age of 18 (source. Unicef, 2018).
• Over 200 million women and girls in 30 countries have undergone female genital mutilation (source. Unicef, 2016).
• 71% of all human trafficking involves women and girls – mainly for sexual exploitation (source. UNODC, 2016).
• Women and girls suffer the most during violent conflict due to inequality and discrimination. They are more at risk of sexual violence, exploitation and trafficking during war. 1 in 5 female refugees and internally displaced people (someone who is forced to leave their home but remains in their country) have experienced sexual violence in countries affected by conflict (source. OCHA, 2016).

Women’s economic rights

. Poverty and lack of economic opportunities

More than 340 million women and girls are projected to live in extreme poverty by 2030. This represents a staggering 8 per cent of the global female population surviving on less than USD 2.15 a day. Social protections, access to decent work, and other support systems are urgently needed to provide a path out of poverty.

Women don’t have the same economic rights as men. Unpaid care work, lack of fair pay and job security, poor working conditions, and limited opportunity to own land and inherit property are all undermining women’s rights. Women can’t earn a living and take control of their lives.

• Women spend at least twice as much time as men on domestic work, and when all work – (paid and unpaid) – is considered, women work longer hours than men (source. The World’s Women, 2015).
• Over 2.7 billion women don’t have the same work opportunities as men, with laws restricting the types of jobs they can do (source. World Bank, 2018).
• Less than 15% of landholders worldwide are women, despite most women in the global south working in agriculture (source. Food and Agriculture Organization, 2015; World Bank, 2019).
• In 2018, the estimated global gender pay gap was 22%, with women earning around 78% of what men are paid (source. ILO, 2018).
• Nearly 82 million women around the world don’t have any legal protection against discrimination in the workplace (source. World Policy Analysis Centre, 2017).

Women’s participation and leadership

Discrimination, violence and inequality stop women from speaking up about the decisions affecting their lives.

• Women make up just 27% of parliamentarians worldwide (source. Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2019). With 36 per cent of local government seats, and 28 per cent of management positions held by women, there is a lack of diverse perspectives in decision-making processes, hindering comprehensive policy formulation.
• In January 2019, there were 11 women serving as Head of State and 10 as Head of Government (source. UN Women, 2019).
• In January 2019, 1 in 5 government ministers around the world were women (source. Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2019).
• Between 1990 and 2019 women made up 2% of mediators, 5% of witnesses and signatories, and 8% of negotiators in major peace processes worldwide (source. Council of Foreign Relations, 2019).
• When women are involved in negotiations the probability of a peace agreement lasting at least two years is increased by 20 per cent, and 15 years by 35 per cent (source. Preventing Conflict, Transforming Justice, and Securing the Peace: A Global Study on Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325, 2015).

Workplace discrimination and inequalities

• Only 61 per cent of prime working-age women participate in the labour force, compared to 91 per cent of prime working-age men. This affects both economic growth and societal progress. In 2019, for each dollar men earned in labour income, women earned only 51 cents.
  An imbalance in unpaid care work
• On the current trajectory, the gap between the time spent by women and men on unpaid care will narrow slightly, but by 2050, women globally will still be spending 9.5 per cent more time (2.3 more hours per day) on unpaid care work than men. This persistent gap limits women’s participation in education, employment, and other opportunities.

Inadequate access to education and health care

• An estimated 110 million girls and young women may remain out of school by 2030. Stalled progress in reducing maternal mortality and expanding educational opportunities call for targeted interventions to meet the 2030 goals.

Access to justice
Justice sector institutions, both formal and informal, are central to the legal protection and enforcement of human rights. Despite the recent expansion of women’s legal entitlements, women are being failed by discriminations and gender biases within the infrastructure of justice – the police, the courts and the judiciary. Structural inequalities also act as a barrier to justice, for example lack of time, confidence, literacy, and access to information.

Gender and traditional justice;
In many parts of the world, men and women rely on a variety of traditional, customary, religious and informal justice systems. These systems can be more relevant and accessible to poor people than state institutions. However, they tend to suffer from systemic gender biases, with local male elites dominating the decision-making processes. For example, research for the International Rescue Committee in Timor-Leste found that women used traditional justice systems because of their familiarity. This is despite findings that women have minimal and often superficial participation in justice hearings, and that rulings are often based on the biases and cultural beliefs of administrators of justice regarding women’s status in society (Swaine, 2003).

All the above exist despite the fact that our countries have signed and ratified several international, regional and continental instruments like:

• The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), 
• the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) was adopted in 1995 at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, it still provides a visionary grounding for international debate on women’s rights. The BPfA called for strong and specific commitments by governments and other institutions to take action in 12 areas, including health, VAWG, economics, the environment, and decision-making. Progress and challenges on their implementation are discussed each year at CSW.
• UN Security Council Resolution 1325, agreed in 2000, recognises women’s role in peace building and the impact of armed conflict on women. It promotes women’s participation and representation at all levels of decision-making, the protection of women and girls, and the integration of a gender perspective in post-conflict processes and UN activities. 1325 and seven later resolutions together make up the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and provide vital support for women’s rights organisations working on the ground.
• the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by UN members. Encompassing 17 goals on economic, social, and environmental issues, they apply to all countries. Gender equality is promoted through goal 5, which aims to ‘achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’ and is mainstreamed into many of the other goals. SDG 5 sets specific objectives on legal frameworks to end discrimination; VAWG; harmful practices such as child marriage and FGM; unpaid care and domestic work; participation and leadership in public life; sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights; and, economic rights.

Regional Agreements

• the Maputo Protocol, adopted by the African Union in 2003. This agreement affirms women’s rights in many areas and is binding on member states, requiring them to address laws, policies and culture so that these rights may be realized. In contrast to CEDAW, the Maputo Protocol specifically addresses VAWG, requiring the state parties to prohibit all forms of violence against women and to adopt all necessary measures to ensure the prevention, punishment and eradication of all forms of violence against women.
• African Union – Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa
• African (Banjul) Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
• Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (ECA)
  Equally, many countries have put in place NATIONAL FRAMEWORKS like in Uganda:

The CONSTITUTION, and other legal and policy frameworks has been adopted  to protect the rights of women and girls. Eg at National level, Foundationally, Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in Uganda draws legitimacy from the 1995 Constitution. For examples, Chapter 4 section 21 (2) prohibits discrimination against any person on grounds of sex, race, religion, ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed, social or economic standing, political opinion or disability 

Equally Article 32 of Uganda Constitution states; “Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, the State shall take affirmative action in favor of groups marginalized on the basis of gender, age, disability or any other reason created by history, tradition or custom, for the purpose of redressing imbalances which exist against them”.

• The National Women’s Council Act of 1993 (amended 2010, 2015) (1993)
  that creates women’s councils at national and local levels to coordinate and promote the organization of “the women of Uganda as a unified body; and to engage the women in activities that activities for their welfare and rights to them and the nation.
• The Land Act (amended 2010) that provides for a joint ownership of the matrimonial home and property, prohibits either the husband or wife from selling of matrimonial property without the consent of the other and the children
• The Equal Opportunities Commission Act (2007) with mandate to eliminate all forms of discrimination in access to social services, employment opportunities and governance structures, and redressing Imbalances which exist in the country.
• The Domestic Violence Act (2010) and its regulations (2011) Which provides for protection and relief of victims of domestic violence; remedies for the punishment of perpetrators of domestic violence among others.
• National Climate Change Act developed in 2021 that calls upon all the climate change stakeholders in Uganda to prioritize women’s issues in climate financing, allow women’s participation in the development and implementation of the framework strategy on climate change The Uganda Gender Policy (2007) revised in 2015 that provides the framework and guidelines for mainstreaming gender in the public sector.
• The Penal Code Act (as amended in 2007); (Cap 120) also has various provisions to address issues of criminal and civil nature including sexual offences and assault.
• The Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act (2010) and its Regulations 2013 outlaws the practice of Female Genital Mutilation and provides for punishment of the perpetrators of FGM
• The Public Finance Management Act (2015) makes it mandatory for all Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to allocate resources for the delivery of gender mainstreaming and equity. 

Uganda has achieved 48% representation in Cabinet and Heads of parastatals, and 45% in Parliament. Several progress has been made in economic , social and institutional structures to address VAWG and many other areas.

However, progress in achieving parity has stagnated and remains utopian for most countries. If the world progresses at the same pace, it will take us over 200 more years to achieve equality. “The gender snapshot 2023”  UN report warns that, if current trends continue, more than 340 million women and girls—an estimated 8 per cent of the world’s female population—will live in extreme poverty by 2030, and close to one in four will experience moderate or severe food insecurity. The gender gap in power and leadership positions remains entrenched, and, at the current rate of progress, the next generation of women will still spend on average 2.3 more hours per day on unpaid care and domestic work than men.
The annual publication provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state of gender equality across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and highlights prevailing trends, gaps, and recent setbacks on the journey towards achieving gender equality by 2030.

“The gender snapshot 2023” underscores the urgent need for concrete efforts to accelerate progress towards gender equality by 2030, revealing that an additional USD 360 billion per year is needed to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment across key global goals. The report also includes calls for an integrated and holistic approach, greater collaboration among stakeholders, sustained funding, and policy actions to address gender disparities and empower women and girls worldwide, concluding that failure to prioritize gender equality now could jeopardize the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

I therefore conclude by calling upon countries to prioritize actions at national levels that can reverse the negative trajectory and demand tangible actions to achieve progress. We acknowledge progress already made across the globe and  appeal to members in this room to be bold, and approve an outcome documents that will address the above obstacles to women’s empowerment for our presentation to Heads of governments during the NAM meeting in Kampala.