ITEM 12 : Integration of the human rights of women and the gender perspective

Mr Chairman,

Pax Romana and the International Young Catholic Students (IYCS/JECI) appreciate the efforts of the Commission on Human Rights to promote the fundamental rights of women and girls.

We would like to draw the attention of the Commission to Equatorial Guinea where there is a practice of the utmost concern that affects mainly women. This practice consists in the possibility of being imprisoned for failure to return the dowry when the marriage bond is dissolved. This violates particularly Article 11 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Equatorial Guinea is a party, as stated in the Special Representative's report (doc. E/CN.4/2000/40).

Another grave discrimination against women in this country is the one reflected in data given by the UNDP as regards illiteracy and access to education, in particular to secondary and university levels. While some 10% of male population is illiterate, this figure increases up to three times and we find that some 30% of women are in this situation.

Mr Chairman,

Debates of the Commission on the phenomenon of trafficking in women show that the United Nations recognise the necessity to protect this vulnerable group in society.

Beyond the substantial work of the Special Rapporteur, Ms Radhika Coomaraswamy, we want to attract the attention of this Commission to the growing trafficking of women and girls. Significant commercial systems in this area have developed increasingly at the international level. The trade in prostitution has become a profitable industry, capable of generating considerable amounts (more than 17 billion USD per year).

Thus, girls from Africa and Asia are handed over to traffickers by their relatives at very low prices. Most often, they are brought to the United States, where they are forced into sexual servitude. The traffickers present their relatives with an attractive future, mainly in developed countries, thereby profiting from their ignorance and their naivety. In the case of women, they are attracted by the promise of a well-paid job abroad. Traffickers use local newspapers to place coded advertisements. In this way, they profit from their ignorance and their naivety to enrol them in systems of prostitution.<

In all these cases, we notice common factors such as poverty and lack of education and information in the places of origin of girls and women.

Mr. Chairman,