SI UN
Representative Wilfrida Hendrickx recently attended a CoNGO and Human Rights Council session on
women’s rights and the multiple discrimination women face around the world.

During
this session, the various barriers women and girls face in realising their full
rights were reviewed and debated, taking into account the various cultures, legal systems, and traditions around the world. These ranged from cultural and social, to
legal and political obstacles.

Discrimination at birth:

The
right to a formal, state recognised identity for each child is set out in the Convention on the Rights
of the Child. However, more than 51,000,000 children every year are not
registered at birth due to legal, administrative, political, and cultural
obstacles. Birth registration gives access to rights such as education, health
care, state benefits and formal employment. Without official registration, state
services can be almost impossible to access. Personal decisions such as the
decision to marry can also be prevented as proof of age is often  required and without a birth certificate or similar, this cannot be given.

The panel listed the following as factors
which contribute to female children in particular not being registered:

1. Distance from urban
   centres where registration takes place
2. Cost of registrarion
   (financial resources focus on the male children)
3. Lack of education
   regarding the importance of registration
4. Complex bureaucracy
   which is difficult and intimidating to navigate
5. Children born outside of marriage are often not registered due to social stigma or laws against sex
   before marriage
6. Unmarried mothers
   are often afraid to register their children
7. In some cultures,
   women have a period of confinement following the birth of a child. This
   can delay the process of registration if the mother is the catalyst for such administration. If the child is a girl, it may not be deemed a good use of time for the mother to register her.

It
is important to raise awareness of the importance of birth registration and to
urge states to provide children with a birth certifcate, confirming their nationality, in addition to their date of birth, for free.

Forced marriage and freedom of consent:

In
line with the recent reports from the June meeting of the Human Rights Council,
too many women are still forced into marriage. The concept of consent often
does not apply to women and girls.

Patriarchy:

The
panel confirmed that it is still the case that women are
poorer than men when general trends are examined. In many countries, woman have
no legal rights to property or assets, and where they do have these rights in
law, local custom, tribal law or tradition prevent the realisation of these
rights.  The management of family or
personal assets falls to the men. Following on from this male bias, in many
countries women do not have equal rights to inherit.

This session was a timely reminder of the valuable work of Soroptimist International, and why it is so important that our 86,000 members in 125 countries continue to advocate for the rights of women and girls.