Placing tobacco control on the global women rights agenda- UN Women

Published: Thursday, January 27, 2011

The United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. By creating a new agency solely focused on women's rights, the United Nations is making an effort to mend its historical short comings to invest in women's equality. UN Women will overhaul its current women's rights infrastructure, combining four under-funded existing programs (DAW, INSTRAW, OSAGI, and UNIFEM) into one office with a substantially increased capacity to promote gender quality.

The primary roles of UN Women are:
- To support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms.
- To help Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, and to forge effective partnerships with civil society.
- To hold the UN system accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress.
On September 14, 2010, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Michelle Bachelet as UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. The former President of Chile, Bachelet is a physician as well as a military specialist, having served as the country's health minister and defense minister before her election to the presidency in 2006. Bachelet is also a survivor of imprisonment, torture and exile under General Pinochet's regime, under which her father was killed.

The First Regular Session of the UN Women Executive Board will be held in New York on January 24-26, 2011.

As you have all observed, women and children rights are not well entrenched in tobacco control efforts, even though the FCTC carries the following relevant provisions among others:

1) Protection from exposure to tobacco smoke - majority of those who get exposed to second hand smoke are women and children. This happens mostly in their homes.
2)Education and public awareness on the dangers of tobacco - an unbelievably large number of women still think it is stylish, sophisticated and cool to smoke tobacco.
3)A ban on tobacco advertising - in many countries, tobacco use is still being associated with beauty, slim figures, etc
4) Demand reduction measures to reduce tobacco dependence - most stop smoking sessions do not meet the unique social responsibilities and needs of women.
5) Provision of support for economically viable alternatives - an overwhelmingly large majority of those trapped in the cycle of poverty created by tobacco are women who must get permission from their husbands before they can take up economically viable alternatives.
6) Stresses the importance of protecting public health - women continue to use tobacco and it's products at the risk of their health in general and reproductive health in particular
7) Women are uniquely affected by the health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco in ways that men are not affected
8) Women and girls are among the new targets of the tobacco industry's marketing
9) Women and girls are uniquely affected by the premature death, disability and disease caused by tobacco in ways that men are not affected
10) The FCTC acknowledges that pre-natal exposure to tobacco smoke causes adverse heath and developmental conditions for children
11) alarmed by the increase in smoking and other forms of tobacco consumption by women and young girls worldwide, the FCTC recommends the need for full participation of women at all levels of policy-making and implementation
12) The FCTC recognizes the need for gender-specific tobacco control strategies,
13)The FCTC recalls the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 1979, and urges state parties to take appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care

Am sure you will also agree with me that tobacco control measures are not well entrenched in the women rights agenda even through numerous women rights abuses happen in the farming, processing and use of tobacco and even though CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and various country legislations carry relevant provisions.

I would like to invite you to write a brief statement, sharing your personal and observed experiences in tobacco and gender and giving your recommendations on ways that UN women can bring about change on the ground for women and girls affected at any stage and in any way by tobacco farming, processing and use. Address your letter to UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet and at the end indicate your name, organization and country.
Women for Justice in Africa staff will compile all the issues that come out in the letters as well as all the names, organizations and countries and send this to Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women by the end of January, together with other concerns that are being made by women in the women's movement. Please include your telephone and e-mail address.
As we expect a large volume of observations, concerns and recommendations, please be clear and precise in the responses you send us. Please also circulate to relevant networks.

Mary Okioma
Executive Director
Women for Justice in Africa
Mucai Drive
Panorama Court
Suite 2
Email: info@womenforjustice.org
Tel + 254 723 232341