Master of Ceremonies, Miss Vicky
Masuku, Mayor of Ethekwini Unicity Mr Obed Mlaba, Chairperson of the Inkatha
Women’s Brigade Mrs A Mchunu, Secretary General of the ANC Women’s
League Bathabile Dlamini, Dr Thabisa Dumisa Commissioner on Gender Equality,
Provincial Ministers, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
I wish to greet you all and welcome
you once again. I would like to say that each and every one of you gathered
here today is important and has a role and a contribution to make towards
the better life for all the Women of this Province. We all have a
responsibility to say “NO to violence against women and any other forms of
abuse, NO to poverty and NO to HIV/AIDS”.
As we are gathered here, we all have a
common goal: the promotion and protection of Women’s rights as well as
their empowerment thereof. For us to realize our common goal, we need to
make a significant paradigm shift. This is a challenge we are facing as
citizens of this Province and of this Country. We are facing a challenge of
“unlearning what we have learnt”. Gender Equality and Women Empowerment
has been understood from a very narrow and limited point of view or
traditional framework.
We are moving from the premise that
says: “Women’s Rights are Human Rights”. Human Rights are premised on
the equal worth and dignity of all humanity. Equality and the principle of
non-discrimination require equality of opportunity and equitable access to
public resources.
Women throughout the world suffer
gross inequities, and are denied full enjoyment of their rights on a basis
of equality with men. In order to prompt the necessary action to achieve
women’s equal rights the UN adopted the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). There was recognition that
discrimination and violence against women is a human right’s concern. For
too long it had been argued that what took place behind closed doors, or
within the family, was a private matter and of no concern to the state, thus
falling outside human rights.
Government is obliged to ensure
protection and enjoyment of Human Rights by Women. Respect for individual
rights not only sustains the development of individuals but also encourages
the initiative required for economic and social progress. Securing human
rights helps protect people from impoverishment and enables them to develop
in accordance with their equal rights and dignity.
Securing the realisation of Women’s
Rights on a basis of equality with men is an essential pre-requisite for
sustainable development. Human Rights are central to development. My view is
that Human Rights approach to Development adds the vision of what
development is striving to achieve. Human Rights should be integrated into
development projects. These range from women’s rights projects to those
designed to empower street children. As the HIV/AIDS pandemic has shown,
respect for human rights saves lives. Women should be empowered by learning
of their human rights. Those women living in poverty or social isolation
should be encouraged to think of themselves as Victors rather than Victims
e.g. women living with HIV/AIDS.
Women should participate in the
identification of priorities and in the planning, implementation and
evaluation of projects, as this will help women to have a sense of ownership
in the process and outcome of development. By doing this, we will ensure
that the impact of policies and projects are fully considered and that they
are designed to put the interest of people firmly at the top of the agenda.
Human Rights are central to development and to our objective of poverty
elimination. To me poverty means the denial of choices and opportunities for
a tolerable life, it is a statement of denial of the human rights and
freedoms necessary to enjoy a quality of life commensurable with human
dignity.
Poverty is itself a violation of human
rights. In addition, it causes vulnerability to a denial of a wide range of
other human rights. Inequalities and other violations exacerbate poverty.
The relationship between human rights, poverty and development is thus
circular. Breaking this circle by securing the enjoyment of human rights by
women living in rural areas, poverty and social isolation is an effective
tool in overcoming poverty and in promoting human development.
Mainstreaming gender into our dealings
as Government and Civil Society will require a review of priorities,
targets, methodology and evaluation as well as the manner in which
partnerships are perceived and carried out. A serious commitment to Gender
Equality and Women Empowerment requires it to be mainstreamed into all
policies and programmes of this Government.
Gender is a multi-sectoral,
multi-disciplinary and cuts across all levels of the social discourse. The
social discourse is about people who have feelings, beliefs, values and
cultures and women are part of such a discourse. I therefore believe that
they should effectively participate in order to change or reshape whatever
that inhibits them from being actively involved within the social discourse.
You should be part of the transformation of your lives and assume the part
of “change agents” within the social discourse. Women need to articulate
vigorously those issues that require government’s intervention.
We need to join our forces as both
government and civil society and begin to face this scenario head on. I have
in many instances advocated the idea of public-private partnership. The
intervention by government in terms of legislation, policies, resources and
other programmes symbolizes the completion of the partnership. We already
have partnership between civil society (represented by different NGO’s)
and spheres of government (represented by the OSW and KWANALOGA)
In this partnership, we are pleading
for a multi-sectoral participation and all encompassing approaches in
dealing with Gender Equality and Women Empowerment. It is, however, critical
that the partnership does not preclude each partner from adhering to its
roles, responsibility and executing its mandates on any matters. Each
partner for it to exist should not give away its own characteristics or
qualities.
As government we have constitutional
and legislative mandates to serve the public as well as accounting in terms
of how successful or unsuccessful have we performed our mandates. In terms
of good governance, government should strive towards providing more quality
services and to be responsive to the changing needs of the public.
In order to execute our mandates and
realize our common goals, certain organizational functional structures have
been put in place. The Office on the Status of Women is a Sub-Directorate
within the Human Rights Directorate that was created to ensure that Gender
issues are coordinated and implemented in this province. All of us as a
collective need to reflect on both national and international initiatives
with their huge challenges. This country will be hosting the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in August-September 2002. My Office in collaboration
with the Department of Social Welfare and Population Development are taking
37 Women specifically from rural areas of this Province to attend the Summit
(The Women Process).
Let us go out, each one of us and
champion the good course of the women of this Province and this country at
large. We need to vigorously impact on the decision-makers to make sure that
Gender is being integrated into all the departments and programmes that are
intended for the society at large. We need to think about those disabled
women and children who are raped and abused, it’s a double tragedy for
them in this very stereotyped society. We need to think about Women and
Children who are HIV positive or orphans of HIV/AIDS. We need to have a
province and a country that will be sensitive towards the rights of women.
My Office is committed to providing
and coordinating a coherent framework both for the planning, implementation
and evaluation of gender programmes and ensuring cross sectoral policy
coherence in support of the rights and needs of women in this Province.
I thank you.