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28 November, 2005
25 November 2005
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
Contents
1. Belgium - Amnesty International
2. Brazil
3. Canada
4. Costa Rica
5. Guatemala
6. Mexico
7. Philippines
8. Spain
9. China - Worker Dies After 24-hour Shift
10. European Union - Social Partners Agree Joint Text on Gender Equality
11. Finland - Pay for women in Finnish industry is now 85 cents
12. France - Equal Opportunities at TOTAL
13. International Partnership for Microbicides
14. ORIT - Women at the Summit of the Americas
15. South Africa - ICEM Women’s Strategy Meeting
16. Switzerland - New Weapon to Combat Salary Discrimination
17. United Kingdom - “Women are less happy with their pay”
1. Belgium - Amnesty International
“If you beat your wife, you’re not a man,” is the theme of Amnesty International Belgium’s year-end campaign which runs from 25 November to 10 December 2005, which is International Human Rights Day.
The campaign is geared primarily to men and young people. At least one woman out of five is a victim of domestic violence in Belgium, and apparently it is men who are responsible for such abhorrent behavior that drives too many women to the hospital…or the morgue.
According to the World Bank, one woman or adolescent out of five (hence many millions of women) worldwide have been battered, or are victims of sexual violence at least once in their lives. Violence against women at home knows no social, ethnic, geographical or economic bounds. Unfortunately, this violence seems to be more and more a trait of all societies.
Likewise UNIFEM, which has launched its 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence to last until 10 December, is also symbolically linked against gender violence and the abusive onslaught against human rights, which such violence brings.
2. Brazil
On 25 November, the 36 local unions affiliated to the FETIESC Federation in Santa Catarina commemorated the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women by launching a campaign entitled “What Example Are you Giving? What Future Are you Providing?"
In Brazil, approximately 15,000 rapes and other acts of sexual violence occur each year, but women in most cases do not denounce their aggressors for fear of future insecurity. Most are cases of aggression committed at home by husbands and partners, in many cases in the presence of children.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, domestic violence costs nearly 15% of GNP; in Brazil it is 10.5%. FETIESC has created a group called Men for the End of Violence against Women.
3. Canada
Vigils start on 25 November and go to 10 December, because in Canada 6 December marks the anniversary of 14 women who were murdered at a polytechnic school in Montreal. On that day in 1989, the students were gunned down by a man motivated solely by his hatred of women.
Maria Shupenia from affiliate CEP Women’s Committee writes, “Since this massacre, and every year since, we remember these women, and gather to denounce all acts of violence against women in Canada.”
4. Costa Rica
SITRAPEQUIA’s Women’s Section had a debate on the draft legislation on the penalization of domestic violence together with the National Women’s Institute, including a film and panelists.
All SITRAPEQUIA members received a flyer against economic and job-related violence which affects women workers in the Americas. Their conclusion is that there is no such thing as a democratic society with violence on the job.
Elena Gutiérrez from SITRAPEQUIA writes, “The RECOPE refinery has many men and few women, there will always be more men…they were very impressed by the topic of the law to penalize violence against women. It is a draft that has been in discussion for three years. The women in the National Assembly are fighting for it.”
5. Guatemala
A group of women from Guatemala traveled to Spain and then to Brussels from 22 to 26 November together with Comisiones Obreras and the Spanish Women’s Institute to denounce the situation of extreme injustice of murders of women in Guatemala.
This barbarism was influenced by armed conflict that went on for 36 years, during which rapes and sexual violence were part of the strategy of counterinsurgency.
No one to date has been held accountable for these atrocious acts. Rather, since Guatemala is a patriarchal and macho society, women are penalized and no one recognizes their rights. They find themselves alone in fighting against the gangs of delinquents roaming the towns. The murders are not judged or condemned, which implies connivance on the part of the state.
According to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, 1,188 women were murdered between 2001 and August 2004 in Guatemala.
6. Mexico
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s fourth largest city, is known as the capital of murdered women. At least 75 women, most of them factory workers, have been raped and murdered there since 1993. Scores more are missing. The city’s law-enforcement authorities have been exposed as incompetent or corrupt.
More than a dozen women’s groups have arisen in the city, and these groups are composed of mothers and grandmothers and friends of the murdered and missing. The groups demand that more attention be paid to violence against women in a city where young women’s lives do not count for much.
Women work late into the night without security. Billboards and bus advertisements warn women to be careful and watch for their lives. Women’s groups believe that the murders are the work of copycats who have discovered that they can rape and kill with impunity.
In El Paso, Texas, just across the border, local lawmakers, trade unionists and students recently launched a Coalition on Violence Against Women and Families on the Border. Because of NAFTA, both countries must take the responsibility for the violence.
7. Philippines
The United Nations has adopted a Philippines-led resolution calling for global action against violence against migrant workers who are women. Among the key features of the resolution, nations are called upon to incorporate a gender perspective in all policies on international migration, including protection of women migrant workers from violence, discrimination, exploitation and abuse.
The resolution also calls on criminalizing violence against women migrant workers, and protecting rights of women migrant workers, regardless of their immigration status. The Philippines has been forefront in advancing the safety of women migrant workers.
8. Spain
Comisiones Obreras condemned once again violence against women which is manifested at work by sexual harassment and bullying. In Spain, 60 women have died in 2005 of gender-related violence.
This is a structural and globalized phenomenon due to unequal power relations between men and women. It is an expression of existing discrimination which is passed on by means of models and cultural patterns that see violence as acceptable. That is why education is necessary to raise awareness on prevention, detection and eradication of violence.
Action is necessary to protect the most vulnerable such as the disabled, young girls, the elderly or migrant women who, because of their irregular situation, have little or no protection. What is even worse is the vulnerability of women and girls who are victims of trafficking and networks of sexual exploitation.
Likewise, Comisiones Obreras denounces violence against women trade unionists, women and girls who are the victims of belligerent conflicts or fundamentalism and religious fanaticism.
9. China - Worker Dies After 24-hour Shift
A woman died of exhaustion after working a 24-hour shift at a Chinese handicraft factory, following weeks of 15-hour days, the Chinese state media reported on 3 November.
The 30-year-old migrant worker, He Chunmei, fell into a coma and died after working for 24 hours at the Guangzhou Huaxin Handicraft Factory in southern Guangdong province. A co-worker said factory employees had been ordered to work 15 hours a day since 24 October to complete orders ahead of a planned move to a new location.
10. European Union - Social Partners Agree on Text of Gender Equality
The EU-level social partners agreed a new text to improve gender equality at the workplace in March 2005. The joint text is called “Framework of Actions on Gender Equality,” and was concluded by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the employers’ side.
Both parties state that integrated strategies are needed to promote gender equality and tackle the remaining inequalities of the labor market. These strategies include actions to desegregate labour markets and to address gender roles in society. The parties do note that difficulties still persist such as the difficulty to reconcile work and family life, the reproduction of gender stereotypes in employment, gender segregation in the labour market, and the gender pay gap.
Four priorities were set to tackle the problems in the years ahead. They are meant to address gender roles, to promote women in decision making, to support work-life balance, and to tackle the gender pay gap.
11. Finland - Pay Deficit for Finnish women is now 85 cents to the Euro
In second quarter 2005, women's pay for regular working hours in the Finnish industrial sector was, on average, €11.42 per hour, with men earning €13.46. This means that for every Euro paid to a man, a woman earns the equivalent of €0.848 cents.
In second quarter 2005, nominal wages for men were, on average, 1.4% above the second quarter 2004 level. In the same period, women's nominal wages rose by 2%. On average, real growth was 0.5%. The higher percentage for women reflects the lockout of the male-dominated paper industry in May and June.
The biggest growth, 6.1%, took place in the rubber industry.
12. France - Equal Opportunities at TOTAL
The European Federation of Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers’ Unions (EMCEF), signed a European agreement on 21 November with TOTAL on equal opportunities.
The agreement is based, on one hand, on a report on diversity and equal opportunities drawn up by the TOTAL European Works Council, and on the other the equal opportunities framework adopted by the ETUC and European employers in March 2005.
An annual report will be presented which will enable the European Works Council to follow relevant developments. The report will be based on data on recruitment, career development, mobility, work-life balance, equal pay and training. The agreement lays down goals and objectives which will be negotiated together with the employer.
13. International Partnership for Microbicides
Women in developing countries will have easier access to future microbicides that will offer some protection against the HIV/AIDS virus.
Two pharmaceuticals companies, Merck & Co and Bristol-Myers Squibb, have agreed to donate the rights to develop, manufacture and distribute vaginal gels and creams that include experimental compounds to help prevent HIV infection. T
he nonprofit International Partnership for Microbicides will be permitted to develop the products without paying royalties.
“The search for an effective microbicide is crucial to providing women with more options to protect themselves against HIV infection,” said Dr Peter Piot, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.
14. ORIT - Women at the Summit of the Americas
Women trade unionists from the Americas met on 1 November in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in the framework of the Peoples’ Forum. The theme was to create work to overcome poverty.
Unity and integration of the working class were also stressed as representatives from ICFTU/ORIT joined together with the trade union federation CLAT from the WCL.
Decent work is the key to creating more democratic societies. Civil society needs space to participate, including activities promoted by the Organization of American States.
15. South Africa - ICEM Women’s Strategy Meeting
The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) sponsored a meeting of ICEM’s African Women’s Committee to develop strategy.
The shop-steward development project also has women’s facilitators who are building up women’s leadership on the shop floor. This work can be linked to the broader work of the women’s committee. The group worked on equal pay criteria and decided to investigate the pay situation in 14 different jobs done by women and men.
In addition, Shirley Miller, ICEM’s African HIV/AIDS coordinator, presented ICEM’s fight against HIV/AIDS programme with an emphasis on gender-related challenges to the fight against HIV/AIDS. The women attending discovered how they can become more actively involved in ICEM’s project on HIV/AIDS.
16. Switzerland - New Weapon to Combat Salary Discrimination
Swiss trade unions say a new method of calculating salary differences between the sexes shows women are paid up to one-fifth less for performing the same work. Despite equal pay for equal work being enshrined in the Swiss Constitution, the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions said there had been little progress over the past 25 years.
As part of a new campaign for higher pay for women, the unions unveiled an on-line pay calculator. The tool takes into account qualifications, including work experience and level of education to evaluate salaries between men and women doing the same job. The unions said making the calculation tool available on the internet promotes transparency and empowers women to demand equal pay.
See www.lohngleichheit.ch (available in German, French and Italian).
17. United Kingdom - “Women are less happy with their pay”
Women are less likely to be satisfied with their take-home pay than men, a survey in the UK has revealed. Over one in four female employees said they are unhappy with their pay, compared to one in five male workers.
However, in spite of this, women were found to be less likely to complain about pay. Only 39% of female respondents said that they had discussed their pay with their manager. Workers can check their salary against that of people doing similar jobs across the UK on the following website: www.paywizard.co.uk.
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