Benita Ferrero-Waldner
European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy

Women's Rights are Human Rights

Conference on Joint Action of Member States against Harmful Traditional Practices
Brussels, 25 January 2006

Ministers,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First let me add my voice of welcome on behalf of the European Commission. I am delighted that the Commission is hosting this conference and I thank Maria Rauch-Kallat for her excellent initiative in holding a conference on this topic.

I would like to start with the words of the wife in the African poem, the Song of Lawino.

I have only one request.

I do not ask for money

Although I have need of it,

I do not ask for meat...

I have only one request,

And all I ask is

That you remove

The road block

From my path.

Removing the road block from women's paths is exactly what we are trying to achieve. We want to empower women to make their own choices. We want them to have the same opportunities in life as men. And above all, we want to protect them from violence, discrimination, and persecution.

The title of my speech is "women's rights are human rights". To people in this room that is self-evident - of course women's rights are human rights. Human rights are universal. They are the rights of every man, woman and child anywhere in the world.

But unfortunately, this message still hasn't been heard or understood in many parts of the globe. So it is our duty to repeat it time and time again, until the day when women's rights are respected and protected throughout the world.

Violating the rights of women or girls can never be justified on grounds of cultural relativism or in the name of tradition. Such arguments that sustain and excuse human rights abuses against women are mere excuses for their true meaning: that women's lives matter less than men's.

The subject of today's conference, harmful traditional practices, goes to the heart of this debate. "Culture" has been the longstanding defence of harmful traditional practices perpetrated against women and girls.

Yet as the great Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, wrote: "Culture is a matrix of infinite possibilities and choices. From within the same cultural matrix we can extract arguments and strategies for the degradation and ennoblement of our species, for its enslavement or liberation, for the suppression of its productive potential or its enchantment."

Our task is to extract the strategies for the ennoblement, liberation, and full productive potential for women.

This morning you heard about the situation within the EU, and my colleague, Commissioner Spidla will shortly be talking to you about what the European Commission is doing inside the EU to combat harmful traditional practices.

My responsibility, however, is for countries outside the EU. Tackling harmful traditional practices beyond our borders is not only a moral imperative, it is also intimately linked to addressing the issue within the EU.

Which is why I will ensure the European Commission continues to devote it substantial resources. Earlier today the Commission adopted a thematic programme on human rights which lays out our priorities for the years ahead. I can assure you that the fight against harmful traditional practices will continue to play a prominent role in our assistance.

The European Union has made quite clear its position on the unacceptability of traditional practices which violate women's or children's rights. But we need to make sure that all countries understand our position, and advocate for these human rights to be respected.

That is why we take every opportunity to raise our concerns in our political dialogue with non-member states. We have included a specific commitment to prevent female genital mutilation into our Cotonou Agreement with 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. And violence against women, including honour killings in South Asia and elsewhere, is raised with our partners around the world, wherever it is an issue.

We clearly state that such practices are a violation of the UN Conventions on the rights of women and children. While we support governments with stated initiatives to address these issues, we have also co-sponsored resolutions of the UN commission for human rights against those taking insufficient action.

On a practical level, we favour a two-pronged approach for our assistance. On the one hand advocacy and lobbying for national legislation and policy on the right to equal treatment and prohibiting harmful practices. And on the other hand capacity building for government officials and advocacy and awareness-raising for all sections of society. Without involving all levels of society the chances of effective enforcement of legislation are limited. To deal with culturally ingrained practices it is as important to change perceptions and attitudes as legislation.

Tackling violence against women is a special concern of our gender equality programmes. We support projects aiming at promoting gender equality in the attitudes and behaviour of adolescent boys and girls to violence against girls and women.

We have also mainstreamed support for gender equality into our geographic programmes. Even a project on sustainable forestry or earthquake reconstruction must have a specific component designed to empower women. And projects funded from our human rights budget line are assessed for their impact on children's rights and gender equality.

Practices like forced marriage, honour crimes and female genital mutilation are the target of a special line of European Commission assistance. Our European Initiative for Democratisation and Human Rights (EIDHR) has just launched a call for proposals on women's rights. This specifically mentions equal treatment and physical integrity including harmful traditional practices and other forms of cultural coercion such as female genital mutilation and gender-based violence in conflict zones.

Current projects funded under EIDHR include the STOP Female Genital Mutilation campaign, an international campaign to eradicate female genital mutilation, which has received nearly €1 million of Commission funding over the last two years. This excellent initiative has launched an international appeal for the eradication of female genital mutilation, signed by 25,000 people, including Nobel prize winners.

It has also provided legal expertise and training to stakeholders, launched a pilot media campaign in Kenya, and held the Cairo Afro-Arab conference on legislation for the elimination of female genital mutilation.

Many of our projects against female genital mutilation take place in countries of sub-Saharan Africa. But the practice is also highly prevalent in Egypt (97% of married women of reproductive age). The Commission is funding a project for children at risk, providing family outreach, social marketing and communication and community service initiatives. The human rights section of Egypt's European Neighbourhood Action Plan will also include a commitment to dealing with harmful traditional practices.

EIDHR also supports a wide range of projects to reinforce women's rights and their position in society. Examples are legislative reform, awareness-raising campaigns, and support for women's access to political mandates and legal aid. We tackle a range of harmful traditional practices, including honour killings and forced marriage, through education and literacy programmes, legal system reforms and the implementation of the UN convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Changing cultural practices, ingrained over hundreds, perhaps thousands of years is not easy. Earlier this month a study was released showing India was missing 10 million women due to prenatal selection and selective abortion over the last 20 years. The changes must come from within societies in order to be sustainable.

I strongly believe that it is poverty itself and its related factors, especially education, that lies behind the continued practice of such harmful traditions. Which is why long term development actions designed to empower women are key to improving women's health and ultimately reducing poverty.

Above all, I believe education holds the key. As Jim Wolfensohn put it, "There is no doubt that it is more important to educate a woman than to educate a man. Everyone from Gandhi to the head of the IMF would tell you that educating a woman is educating a family, and educating a man is educating a man.".

That is why we lay great emphasis on human rights education, but also on fulfilling the millennium development goals on education through our geographic programmes. At its most basic that involves the eradication of illiteracy; the equal provision of education for boys and girls; and all children enrolled at primary school.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Not so long ago practices like female genital mutilation, early marriage, and honour killings were widely practised in Europe. The fact that they are now restricted to certain immigrant groups shows it is possible for cultural practices to evolve.

European women today must continue the fight for such degrading and inhuman practices to be eliminated on our continent. We owe it to those in previous generations who fought for our right to equality, dignity and the integrity of the human body to continue to battle - both within Europe and beyond.

Thank you.