ARTICLE - UN - EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

UN WOMEN PROMOTES THE EQUALITY AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF HAITIAN WOMEN
(Haiti Libre) -

On March 7th at the press briefing of the MINUSTAH, Kathy Mangones, Representative of UN Women in Haiti has declared, "There is an expression in Creole 'Fanm se poto mitan', which means that women are the pillars of society. However, as part of the reconstruction, the society represents the framework of work to do and this is the whole of society. Men and women must mobilize as pillars of this effort.

It is important to remember that issues related to women's rights do not only concern women. This society will remain unequal and discriminatory as long it will ostracize the women, preventing their participation in the decision-making process, as in the reconstruction following the earthquake, or as part of the democratic refoundation of the society, and the exercise of their rights.

This year the theme chosen by the United Nations is the empowerment of rural women. The system wants to denounce the pauperization and marginalization of rural women throughout the world. Again, I would like to bring to your attention the fact that the Creole expression 'Fanm andeyò', an expression that is symptomatic of the exclusion of rural populations in societies where wealth, information, education and power are concentrated in the hands of a minority of women of a higher economic level; in some cases living in urban areas."

The Executive Director of the UN agency for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women Michelle Bachelet, stressed, in fact, in the message she sends on the occasion of March 8, 2012 the link between the empowerment of rural women and poverty reduction, with these words: "Providing women farmers with equal access to resources would result in 100 to 150 million fewer hungry people. Providing women with income, land rights and credit would mean fewer malnourished children."

"In Haiti, women and girls suffer the same discrimination. In Haiti, 60% of women and girls are living in rural areas. Men and women are still not equal in Haitian law regarding land and farm incomes. Moreover, The daughters of farmers and women and girls living in rural areas have the least access to education.

This fact is not only a crying injustice, but also a handicap for the entire society. We can not indeed decouple the treatment of issues related to women's rights, of development, and the growth of the country.

It is proven that societies that discriminate against women produce less wealth, less information, and less decision makers to make them productive and livable.

The Gender equality implies an equal participation, the same right to speak, the exchange of ideas and decision making for men and women", added Mangones.

Therefore, the United Nations system and its agency for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UN WOMEN, considered it important to emphasize on the necessity of promoting the economic empowerment of women, their political participation, and their leadership.

"In this sense, the quota mentioned in the proposed amendment of the Haitian Constitution is a fundamental tool to move towards more equality. We encourage and will thus support any initiative allowing the application of a 30% quota of women in the process and decision-making positions..." clarified the representative of UN Women in Haiti.

Bachelet stressed that "Equality depends on each of us: from the government that changes its laws, to the enterprise that provides decent work and equal pay, to the parents that teach their daughter and son that all human beings should be treated the same."

"However, in this struggle, women must take the lead, because it is their rights and recognition of their equality vis-à-vis men, which constitutes the issue,"
concluded Kathy Mangones.