NATIONAL PLAN OF ACTION
For the implementation of the
BEIJING PLATFORM FOR ACTION.
Women and Poverty
A.1 Generate economic policies that have a positive impact on the employment and income of women workers in both the formal and informal sectors and adopt specific measures to address women's unemployment, in particular their long-term unemployment.
A.2 Open special windows for lending to women, including young women, who lack access to traditional sources of collateral.
Education and Training
B.1 Create a gender-sensitive education system in order to ensure equal education and training opportunities and full and equal participation of women in educational administration and policy - and decision-making.
B.2 Make available non-discriminatory and gender sensitive professional school counseling and career education programs to encourage girls to pursue academic and technical curricula in order to widen their future career opportunities.
B.3 Design educational and training programs for women who are unemployed in order to provide them with new knowledge and skills that will enhance and broaden their employment opportunities, including self-employment and development of their entrepreneurial skills.
B.4 Develop training programs and material for teachers and educators that raise awareness about the status, role and contribution of women and men in the family, and society; in this context, promote equality, co-operation, mutual respect and shared responsibilities between girls and boys from preschool level onward and develop, in particular, educational modules to ensure that boys have the skills necessary to take care of their own domestic needs and to share responsibility for their household and for the care of dependants. B.5 Develop leadership training and opportunities for all women to encourage them to take leadership roles both as students and adults in civil society.
Women and Health
C.1 Allow women access to social systems in equality with men throughout the whole life cycle.
C.2 Ensure that girls and women of all ages with any form of disability receive supportive services.
C.3 Prepare and disseminate accessible information, through public health campaigns, the media, reliable counseling and the educational system, designed to ensure that women
and men, particularly young people, can acquire knowledge about their health, especially information on sexuality and reproduction, taking into account the rights of the child to access to information, privacy, confidentiality, respect and informed consent, as well as the responsibility, rights and duties of parents and legal guardians to provide, in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child, appropriate direction and guidance in the exercise by the child of the rights recognized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and in conformity with the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women; ensure that in all actions concerning children, the best interests of the child are a primary consideration.
Violence Against Women
D.1 Condemn violence against women and refrain from invoking any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination as set out in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women.
D.2 Refrain from engaging in violence against women and exercise diligence to prevent, investigate and, in accordance with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women.
D.3 Provide women who are subjected to violence with access to mechanisms of justice and, as provided for by the national legislation, to just and effective remedies for the harm they have suffered and inform women of their rights in seeking redress through such mechanisms.
D.4 Formulate and implement, at all appropriate levels, plans of action to eliminate violence women.
D.5 Create or strengthen institutional mechanisms so that women and girls can report acts of violence against them in a safe and confidential environment.
D.6 Raise awareness of the responsibility of the media in promoting non-stereotyped images of women and men, as well as in elimination patterns of media that generate violence. And also raise awareness of the important role of media in informing and educating people about the causes and effects of violence against women.
Women and the economy
F.1 Promote and support women's self-employment and the development of small enterprises and strengthen women's access to credit and capital.
F.2 Promote gender equality through the promotion of women's studies.
F.3 Eliminate discriminatory practices by employers on the basis of women's reproductive roles and functions, including refusal of employment and dismissal of women due to pregnancy and breast-feeding responsibilities.
Women in power and decision making
G.1 Monitor and evaluate progress in the representation of women through the regular collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative and qualitative data on women and men at all levels in various decision-making positions in the public and private sectors and disseminate data on the number of women and men employed at various levels in Government on a regular basis; ensure that women and men have equal access to the full range of public appointments and set up mechanisms within governmental structures for monitoring progress in this field;
G.2 Support non-governmental organizations and research institutes that conduct studies on women's participation in and impact on decision making and the decision making environment;
G.3 Create or strengthen, as appropriate, mechanisms to monitor women's access to senior levels of decision-making;
G.4 Aim at and support gender balance in the composition of delegations to the United Nations and other international forums;
G.5 Have transparent criteria for decision-making positions and ensure that the selecting bodies have a gender-balanced composition;
G.6 Provide gender-sensitive training for women and men to promote non-discriminatory working relationships and respect for diversity in work and management styles.
Institutional mechanisms for the Advancement of Women
H. 1 Provide staff training in designing and analyzing data from a gender perspective.
H.2 Seek to ensure that before policy decisions are taken, an analysis of their impact on women and men, respectively, is carried out.
H.3 Mandate all Ministries to review policies and programs from a gender perspective. Locate the responsibility for the implementation of that mandate at the highest possible level; establish and/or strengthen an inter-ministerial co-ordination structure to carry out this mandate, to monitor progress and to network with relevant machineries.
H.4 Establish direct links with national, regional and international bodies dealing with the advancement of women.
H.5 Improve data collection on the full contribution of women and men to the economy, including their participation in the informal sectors.
H.6 Developing methods, in the appropriate forums, for assessing the value, in quantitative terms, of unremunerated work that is outside national accounts, such as caring for dependants and preparing food, for possible reflection in the satellite or other official accounts that may be produced separately from but are consistent with the core national
accounts, with a view to recognizing the economic contribution of women and making visible the unequal distribution of remunerated and unremunerated work between women and men.
H.7 Use more gender-sensitive data in the formulation of policy and implementation of programs and projects.
Human rights of Women
I.1 Review national laws, including customary laws and legal practices in the areas of family, civil, penal, labour and commercial law in order to ensure that women's rights are fully addressed.
I.2 Disseminate information on national legislation and its impact on women, include easily accessible guidelines on how to use a justice system to exercise one's rights.
Women and the Media
J.1 Encourage the participation of women in the development of professional guidelines and codes of conduct or other appropriate self-regulatory mechanisms to promote balanced and non-stereotyped portrayals of women by the media.
J.2 Encourage gender-sensitive media for media professionals, including media owners and managers, to encourage the creation and use of non-stereotyped, balanced and diverse images of women in the media.
J.3 Encourage the media to refrain from presenting women as inferior beings and exploiting them as sexual objects and commodities, rather than presenting them as creative human beings, key actors and contributors to and beneficiaries of the process of development.
J.4 Take effective measures or institute such measures, including appropriate legislation against pornography and the projection of violence against women and children in the media.
J.5 Promote the equal sharing of family responsibilities through media campaigns that emphasize gender equality and non-stereotyped gender roles of women and men within the family that disseminate information aimed at eliminating spousal and child abuse and all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence.
J.6 Produce and/or disseminate media materials on women leaders, inter alia, as leaders who bring to their positions of leadership many different life experiences, including but not limited to their experiences in balancing work and family responsibilities as mothers, as professional, as managers and entrepreneurs, to provide role models, particularly in young women.
The Girl-Child
L.1 Take steps to ensure that children receive enough financial support from their parents, by, among other measures, enforcing child-support laws.
L.2 Develop and implement, comprehensive policies, plans of action and programs for survival, protection, development and advancement of the girl-child to promote and protect the full enjoyment of her human rights and to ensure equal opportunities for girls; these plans should form an integral part of the total development process.
L.3 Ensure the disaggregation by sex and age of all data related to children in the health, education and other sectors in order to include a gender perspective in planning, implementation and monitoring of such programs.
L.4 Disaggregate information and data on children by sex and age, undertake research on the situation of girls and integrate, as appropriate. the results in the formulation of policies, programs and decision-making for the advancement of the girl-child.
L.5 Generate awareness of the disadvantaged situation of girls among policy-makers, planners, administrators and implementers at all levels as well as within households and communities.
L.6 Ensure access to appropriate education and skills training for girl children with disabilities for their full participation in life.
L.7 Take appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the girl child, in the household and in society, from all forms of physical and mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse. |
