Consultation on women’s rights

Bahrain

8 March 2021

Address by the OHCHR Regional Representative for Human Rights for MENA

Excellency, Dr. Abdullatif Bin Rashid Al Zayani, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Excellency, Hala Bint Mohammed Jaber Al Ansari, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Women

Excellency, Abdulla bin Faisal bin Jabur Al-Doseri, Assistant Foreign Minister

Esteemed representatives of diplomatic corps, officials and civil society,

Colleagues,

1. Gender equality is at the very heart of human rights and United Nations values. A fundamental principle of the United Nations Charter adopted by world leaders in 1945 in its preamble is "to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small. 76 years later, millions of women around the world continue to experience discrimination in laws, economic and social discrimination in life choices, gender-based violence, or other types of discrimination based on factors such as their age, religion, ethnicity, disability, social activism, or socio-economic status or other.
2. It is a common knowledge that reasons for not providing women with equal rights with men lies heavily on social structures and power relations that frame laws and politics, economy, social dynamics, family and community. Additional reasons include demographic configurations, religious norms, gender stereotypes, or simply intrinsic factors, such asgender identity, capacities or limitations.
3. It would not be shocking to the audience if I say thatsimilar arguments were usedin civil rights movements to emancipate African descent, which only came after decades of struggle, pain and resistance, and waited decades to legalise equality and formalise it in practice.
4. Comparing gender to race might be staggering to you, but equality on racial basis was always perceived asnorms that [could wait] since they are not the priority now, or are seen as a priority at a later stage, or are simply seen as too fast too soon. The right of women to pass on nationality could wait, equal rights in personal status could wait, the right of women to participate in decision making and peace processesequally to mencould wait, while the anecdote is that the woman, SHE is NOTasked to wait nor her obligations vis-à-vis the society, family or community.

5. In the Arab region, significant progress has taken place in relation to the rights of women and girls. Gender issues have gained momentum in the last two decades. New constitutions andlegislation have included women’s rights and afforded better protection from gender-based violence and discriminationcompared to previous texts or practices. Several Arab states withdrew some or all of the reservations they had made upon ratification or accession to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)[1], and all Arab States have now ratified or acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child[2].Moreover, Arab states have established specialized governmental institutions entrusted with addressing women’s and gender issues such as the Supreme Council for Women in Bahrain. Arab States also adopted various national and regional strategies for the advancement of women, including female quotas in their national parliaments such as the National Plan for the Advancement of Bahraini Women 2013-2022. Many States have reached or are close to reaching enrolment equality in primary education, and an increasing number of women are completing university studies, often in higher proportions than men. The maternal mortality ratio in the Arab countries has been nearly halved, marking a prosperous outcome to report under SDG 3, 5 and 10 among other SDGs and respond to Agenda 2030.

6. However, more remains to beachieved. The share of women in parliaments in the Arab region remainslargely low. Women’s presence in parliament is close to zero in some countries. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) estimates that by January 2021[3], women constitute only 19.3 per cent of members of parliament in Arab States. This is well below world averages, which currently stand at 24 per cent.The share of women participating in the labour force in the Arab region remains strikingly low. The share of the female working-age population that engages actively in the labour market in the Arab region, either by working or by looking for work, is just 23 per cent on average.

7. The Arab region has yet to take integrated measures to prevent and eliminate violence against women based on studying causes and consequences of violence against women and the effectiveness of preventive measures, promote women’s economic rights and independence, including over economic resources, and eliminate occupational segregation and all forms of employment discrimination. It is also essential to look at increasing the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication.

8. An important aspect for states to note that Beijing Platform for Action lays particular emphasis on the value of partnerships between national women’s machineries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It highlights the role that members of civil society can play in the identification of priority needs and in the monitoring and implementation of governmental programmes. Therefore, it calls on Governments to “encourage and promote the active involvement of the broad and diverse range of institutional actors in the public, private and voluntary sectors to work for equality between men and women.”

9. As for Bahrain, CEDAW and other international mechanisms commanded the recent positive developments encouraging the State to mark additional steps towards compliance with international human rights norms. Positive steps include:

10. A) the promulgation of Law No. 19 of 2017 asa positive response to CEDAW concluding observations (2014) expressing the committee’s concern about the absence of a unified family law, b) the entry into effect of the Domestic Violence Act No. 17 of 2015 and the launch of the national strategy to protect women from domestic violence by the Supreme Council for Women, c) decree of the Public Prosecutor No. 1 of 2016, setting up a special prosecutor’s office for family and childrenheaded by a female judge holding the rank of judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal, d) domestic workers are included in the new labor law amended in 2018 to ban discrimination on the basis of sex, origin, language or creed, and sexual harassment in the workplace, e) high gender parity in education, with 0.985 index as indicated by the World Economic Forum in 2020, f) doubling women’s participation in Parliament in 2018 and the election of Ms. Fouzia Zainal as first woman to serve as the speaker of a parliamentary chamber in the country, and f) the recent passing of the corrective Law for children welcomed by RC, UNODC, UNICEF and OHCHR.
11. Finally, as we celebrate today the International Women’s Day, we command the women who are battling in the forefront against COVID-19as health sector workers, as teachers, as mothers, as activists or officials with responsibilities to face the pandemic. 
12. We stand today in support and solidarity with all girls and women across the Arab region to amplify their voices for genuine dialogue, including on topics, which may seem uncomfortable.
13. A profound transformation is needed to convertthe region -from accommodation of gender rights driven by compliance with international obligations- to the genuine inclusion and co-design of equal societies based on true belief in fairness in treatment and equality between human kind without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status[4].

END

[1]Bahrain ratified CEDAW in 2002

[2]Bahrain ratified in 1992.

[3]https://data.ipu.org/women-averages?month=1&year=2021&op=Show+averages&form_build_id=form-7k1FVCNk1L5z-Hn3s7c5E6QZRjxGMQ-Mnrd3csPIV8w&form_id=ipu__women_averages_filter_form

[4][4]Article 2 (a) of ICCPR ratified by Bahrain in 2006, and Article 2 (b) of ICESCR ratified by Bahrain in 2007.