Children’s Rights in Human Rights
In today’s development work, the focus of the different development agencies is basically on the inclusion of people’s participation in the decisions and process that affects their lives in the implementation of programs. This is where the subject of human rights comes in. With the definition of human rights as moral norms, standards of accountability and weapons in the struggle of social justice, human rights provide a way of ‘empowering all people to make decisions about their own lives rather than being passive subjects of choices made on their behalf’.
The article delved into the discussion of the approach used by UNDP – the Human Rights-based Approach in their development programming that focus on development goals, ownership, and sustainability. Human rights-based approach is considered as a ‘holistic framework to enrich operational strategies in key areas’. The value lies in the transformative potential to alleviate injustice, inequality and poverty. It provides a vision of what development should strive to achieve and a set of human rights standards and principles. ‘It translates people’s needs into rights, recognizing the human persons the active subject and claim-holder’. This approach is strongly advocated by UNDP in the application of development programming to their UN partners, bilateral donors and major civil society organizations.
The approach is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that includes the succeeding legally binding human rights conventions or treaties that were ratified by member countries, namely; (1) International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, (2) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, (3) Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and (4) Convention on the Rights of the Child.
As was introduced above, a set of human rights-principles are of particular relevance for UNDP programming. These are (1) universality & indivisibility, (2) equality & nondiscrimination, (3) participation & inclusion, and (4) accountability & rule of law. These are considered to be minimum requirements in development assistance programming.
In the programming process, it was discussed in the article that human rights values, standards and principles should pervade in all aspects and phases, from the assessment, analysis, planning, implementation up to the monitoring and evaluation. Thus, the human rights programming is a continuing process in all its phases, having clear and appropriate indicators, and highlighting the meaningful participation of the people. However, the UNDP human rights programming can only be translated in the country-level through the participation of the government and other civil organizations.
With the extensive presentation on human rights-based programming, I would like to zero in on the specific context on children’s rights in the application of human rights-based approach. The human rights-based approach is the guide used by most child agencies; government-led agencies such as DSWD, CWC as well as local and international NGOs for children. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) serves as standards in the implementation of any programs and projects intended for the well-being and overall development of children, keeping in mind the four broad rights of children – rights for survival, development, protection and participation.
Being a signatory on the UNCRC, the Philippine government is expected to adopt the ratified document in the implementation of programs and projects for children. This is manifested by the creation of local laws for the protection of children stipulated in the UNCRC. RA 7610 (Special protection of children against child abuse, exploitation and discrimination) and RA 9262 (Punishes violence against women and their children) are examples of country level adoption of the UNCRC. Municipal mandates and barangay ordinances for children gives further credence in the functionality of created laws implemented down to the grass root level where the children are found. Inclusion of people’s meaningful participation and maintaining a strong partnership with NGOs like child sponsorship agencies that are present in the locality is crucial for sustainability and operationalization of human rights-based programming.
To conclude, the human rights-based approach in development promotes the well-being and dignity of all people in all walks of life. It recognizes the stake of the people in tackling poverty and vulnerability. It facilitates the claim for equal access in the alleviation of poverty, inequality, and injustice. However, the approach needs the cooperation of the LGUs in the strict implementation and adherence to locally mandated ordinances.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
An Article Review on Femininity and Sexual Agency Among Young Unmarried Women in Hanoi by Trang Quach
In the transitional phase of development in contemporary urban Vietnam, young unmarried women are struggling between liberal sexuality and conservative values and norms regarding women’s sexual roles and practices. However, women constantly negotiate and renegotiate in the construction of sexual identities and subjectivities.
On one hand, women’s views of female sexuality are seen to be constrained by the conservative social construction of femininity of which their bodies is seen as ‘body-for-others’. Young women are perceived as lacking agency to make decisions about their sexual lives. This is manifested in disinterest in sex and passivity in sexual encounters. Sexuality is seen as a commodity that is of value to men and this includes putting great weight on female virginity.
On the other hand, young women try to exercise their agency through multiple competing discourses on femininity and sexuality. In here, the ‘body-for-self’ is central in the embodiment of female sexuality. This is exacerbated by globalization and the rapid social and economic development of Vietnam that provided unmarried educated women with many previously unavailable opportunities and lifestyles that compete with conventional gender roles. Young women, for example, are engage in pre-marital sex and consider sexual relations between unmarried couples as natural.
Aiming to maintain their position of ‘authority’, these women may successfully transform their bodies to ‘body-for-self’, but it is likely possible that they also maintain the ‘body-for-others’ in order to protect their honour in the eyes of society. Sexuality is seen as part of woman’s ‘self’ that is not always only passively determined by men. As such, sexuality is a right, free from coercion and exploitation that serves ‘body-for-self’. However, women can make their bodies a ‘body-for-self’ by using them in ‘culturally expected ways though participation in sexual activity and reproduction, thereby, acquiring personal honour.
In the eyes of society, ‘body-for-self’ is a problem and a target for social condemnation. Health policies and programmes in Vietnam regarded sexuality of young unmarried women as problematic because of the high risk of pregnancy and abortion. Pre-marital sex is a societal taboo. This makes it difficult for young people, especially women, to acknowledge their own sexuality and also for policy-makers and program managers to respond to their needs. Thus, exercising their agency to enjoy sexual pleasure and achieve sexual health well-being is difficult in this situation.
The social construction of feminine sexuality, ‘body-for-others’, may be used to serve young women’s sexual desire as ‘body-for-self’. Through sexual manipulation, ‘body-for-others’, which is controlled by social and cultural expectations of feminine sexual identities, may be used to negotiate their sexuality. These negotiations and re-negotiations emphasize the ability to have ‘choices’ in the context of social construction of femininity in a transitional society.
On one hand, women’s views of female sexuality are seen to be constrained by the conservative social construction of femininity of which their bodies is seen as ‘body-for-others’. Young women are perceived as lacking agency to make decisions about their sexual lives. This is manifested in disinterest in sex and passivity in sexual encounters. Sexuality is seen as a commodity that is of value to men and this includes putting great weight on female virginity.
On the other hand, young women try to exercise their agency through multiple competing discourses on femininity and sexuality. In here, the ‘body-for-self’ is central in the embodiment of female sexuality. This is exacerbated by globalization and the rapid social and economic development of Vietnam that provided unmarried educated women with many previously unavailable opportunities and lifestyles that compete with conventional gender roles. Young women, for example, are engage in pre-marital sex and consider sexual relations between unmarried couples as natural.
Aiming to maintain their position of ‘authority’, these women may successfully transform their bodies to ‘body-for-self’, but it is likely possible that they also maintain the ‘body-for-others’ in order to protect their honour in the eyes of society. Sexuality is seen as part of woman’s ‘self’ that is not always only passively determined by men. As such, sexuality is a right, free from coercion and exploitation that serves ‘body-for-self’. However, women can make their bodies a ‘body-for-self’ by using them in ‘culturally expected ways though participation in sexual activity and reproduction, thereby, acquiring personal honour.
In the eyes of society, ‘body-for-self’ is a problem and a target for social condemnation. Health policies and programmes in Vietnam regarded sexuality of young unmarried women as problematic because of the high risk of pregnancy and abortion. Pre-marital sex is a societal taboo. This makes it difficult for young people, especially women, to acknowledge their own sexuality and also for policy-makers and program managers to respond to their needs. Thus, exercising their agency to enjoy sexual pleasure and achieve sexual health well-being is difficult in this situation.
The social construction of feminine sexuality, ‘body-for-others’, may be used to serve young women’s sexual desire as ‘body-for-self’. Through sexual manipulation, ‘body-for-others’, which is controlled by social and cultural expectations of feminine sexual identities, may be used to negotiate their sexuality. These negotiations and re-negotiations emphasize the ability to have ‘choices’ in the context of social construction of femininity in a transitional society.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
A Review of Verena Stolcke’s Article: Is Sex to Gender as Race to Ethnicity?
Rootedness of Inequality in an Unequal World
In the article, the author tried to analyze the relation of sex and gender and made a comparison if it is the same with race and ethnicity. She tried to explore the discussions about social inequalities’ legitimization by its rootedness to natural differences legitimization. She presented different arguments that support the above statement and those that are against it.
Taking off from Pascal’s (1670, quoted by Levi-Strauss, 1985) point that the ‘natural facts may turn out to be cultural constructs’ and Moore’s analysis that ‘racism divides gender identity and experience and how class is shaped by gender and race,’ the author wants to investigate the intersections between gender, race and class.
She started by looking at the historical background of the transformation of concepts like sex as a biological fact to gender which is a cultural construct, the socially defined relationships between women and men. Shapiro (1981), Collier and Yanagisako (1987), have greatly influence the idea of the author. The gender theory presented was actually to challenge the biological essentialisms and at the same time touches other ‘inequalities such as race and class and their intersection’.
According to Collier and Yanagisako (1987,) as quoted by the author and I quote: ‘we argue against the notion that cross-cultural variations in gender categories and inequalities are merely diverse elaborations and extensions of the same natural fact.’ McDonald (1989) went on further and stated that views on natural facts, ‘biology and physiology, are socio-political conceptualizations’.
With her discussion on sex and gender, she related this with class, race and ethnicity. Race as a derogatory term and used to legitimate racial prejudice and discrimination was replaced by concepts of ethnicity or ethnic groups as a sense of cultural identity. However, it was pointed out in the article that, indeed, the substitution of terms ‘does not transform social reality’. The shift has two implications. As the author said, (1) it downplay or side-step prevailing racism of discriminations and exclusions, and (2)race as a distinct phenomena. Linked to it is the term xenophobia, widely being used in the European political realm, as a cover up for racism.
Is sex to gender as race is to ethnicity? The author tried to explain her answer with the posed question. Her proposition is that it holds through in class society, a society of that is unequal and contradictory. ‘Social and gender inequalities are construed and legitimized by rooting them in the assumed biological facts of race and sex differences.’ She concluded that it is an illusion and an ideological trap that socio-economic success only depends on the goodwill and effort of the individual. She further stated that this diverts attention from the true causes of inequality and unequal access to power and property. With the economic and political ideologies on the naturalness of social conditions, women’s experiences of oppression in a class society is also a manifestation of these belief.
Thinking it over, I agree with the analysis of the author that relegating social inequalities as a natural fact perpetuates inequality of opportunities. This is glaring in the third world and developing countries. Attentions are diverted to nonsensical private affairs of actors and politicians to mask the real issues on the staggering weight of inequality and oppression of those in the lower economic status, of women, of children, of workers and laborers. Shortcuts to success are broadcasted in radios and televisions – the likes of Manny Pacquio, actors’ rise from poverty, parades of individuals who won in million peso game shows – this are cover ups of the harsh social realities that are not being resolved. ‘Success by sheer individual endeavor.’ These words are prevalent in media and are frequently painted in business magazines and books. Yet it holds true that even with the best individual efforts, such difficulties being experienced in the attainment of success is also embedded in social inequality and unequal access to resources.
In the article, the author tried to analyze the relation of sex and gender and made a comparison if it is the same with race and ethnicity. She tried to explore the discussions about social inequalities’ legitimization by its rootedness to natural differences legitimization. She presented different arguments that support the above statement and those that are against it.
Taking off from Pascal’s (1670, quoted by Levi-Strauss, 1985) point that the ‘natural facts may turn out to be cultural constructs’ and Moore’s analysis that ‘racism divides gender identity and experience and how class is shaped by gender and race,’ the author wants to investigate the intersections between gender, race and class.
She started by looking at the historical background of the transformation of concepts like sex as a biological fact to gender which is a cultural construct, the socially defined relationships between women and men. Shapiro (1981), Collier and Yanagisako (1987), have greatly influence the idea of the author. The gender theory presented was actually to challenge the biological essentialisms and at the same time touches other ‘inequalities such as race and class and their intersection’.
According to Collier and Yanagisako (1987,) as quoted by the author and I quote: ‘we argue against the notion that cross-cultural variations in gender categories and inequalities are merely diverse elaborations and extensions of the same natural fact.’ McDonald (1989) went on further and stated that views on natural facts, ‘biology and physiology, are socio-political conceptualizations’.
With her discussion on sex and gender, she related this with class, race and ethnicity. Race as a derogatory term and used to legitimate racial prejudice and discrimination was replaced by concepts of ethnicity or ethnic groups as a sense of cultural identity. However, it was pointed out in the article that, indeed, the substitution of terms ‘does not transform social reality’. The shift has two implications. As the author said, (1) it downplay or side-step prevailing racism of discriminations and exclusions, and (2)race as a distinct phenomena. Linked to it is the term xenophobia, widely being used in the European political realm, as a cover up for racism.
Is sex to gender as race is to ethnicity? The author tried to explain her answer with the posed question. Her proposition is that it holds through in class society, a society of that is unequal and contradictory. ‘Social and gender inequalities are construed and legitimized by rooting them in the assumed biological facts of race and sex differences.’ She concluded that it is an illusion and an ideological trap that socio-economic success only depends on the goodwill and effort of the individual. She further stated that this diverts attention from the true causes of inequality and unequal access to power and property. With the economic and political ideologies on the naturalness of social conditions, women’s experiences of oppression in a class society is also a manifestation of these belief.
Thinking it over, I agree with the analysis of the author that relegating social inequalities as a natural fact perpetuates inequality of opportunities. This is glaring in the third world and developing countries. Attentions are diverted to nonsensical private affairs of actors and politicians to mask the real issues on the staggering weight of inequality and oppression of those in the lower economic status, of women, of children, of workers and laborers. Shortcuts to success are broadcasted in radios and televisions – the likes of Manny Pacquio, actors’ rise from poverty, parades of individuals who won in million peso game shows – this are cover ups of the harsh social realities that are not being resolved. ‘Success by sheer individual endeavor.’ These words are prevalent in media and are frequently painted in business magazines and books. Yet it holds true that even with the best individual efforts, such difficulties being experienced in the attainment of success is also embedded in social inequality and unequal access to resources.
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