The situation of Women in emerging democracies following the Arab revolution

The Arab Spring of 2011, seen as a generally peaceful uprising of citizens, spread quickly across North Africa and into some countries of the Arabian Peninsula. It was widely welcomed as a triumph for democracy over dictatorship. Particularly it was welcomed as a new dawn for the women of these countries given their confident and forthright position at the vanguard of the protests and their clear desire for political inclusion in a new social order.

 

The truth is, that for very few, has this promise been realised and worse, in Syria, the modernising movement was captured by militant jihadists and international forces are now bombing those we thought would deliver gender equality. In fact, with the possible exceptions of Morocco and Tunisia, where there are at least constitutional or legislative reforms, in the majority of countries the position of women has actually deteriorated.

 

Ireland’s constitution was written and adopted in 1937 and last year we held a constitutional convention of 100 citizens, randomly selected, to review some of its provisions and make recommendations for change. We invited 17 parliamentarians from Arab Spring countries to visit Ireland and to witness the process of constitutional debate and change. While they welcomed exposure to a different democratic process, all, even the 3 women who came, maintained their immediate concern was not gender equality or new rights for women, but basic physical safety.

 

In short, in several countries unrest and instability following the uprising and the absence or the arbitrary application of the rule of law has left all citizens exposed to potential violence. In conflict situations or even just in situations of ineffective government it is always women who are most vulnerable and who suffer most.

 

In addition to the personal insecurity experienced by all citizens some commentators maintain there is actually a deliberate backlash against Arab women, attributing their search for egalitarian treatment as Western inspired or worse, and bizarrely, as a legacy of the autocratic regimes. They instance the re-instatement in law of polygamy in Libya and the removal of quotas for women in Egypt, as well as the unprecedented violence against women which occurs with almost complete impunity.

 

I fully support the draft resolutions and recommendations and in particular the recommendation to the Council of Ministers to promote, in their interactions with the southern neighbourhood countries, the Council of Europe Convention on Prevention and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. We should also vigorously defend and promote the UN Convention to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW), which is fundamental to the concept of the universality of rights.

 

We have too an opportunity right now to influence the new Sustainable Development Goals post-2015 through the participation of our governments in the open working groups. In the Millennium Development Goals the gender equality goal’s success was measured by the percentage of women in parliament and by the number of girls in primary school. We all know that achieving gender equality is far more complex. We must strive to ensure specific targets and indicators are included, including the prevention of gender based violence and the protection of sexual and reproductive health and rights. These specific targets are important because they are how states will be held accountable for delivering gender equality and consequently are more likely to be the focus of government attention and attract national and multilateral budgets.