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	Violence against older women remains an unspoken issue in many societies by Claudia Mahler OHCHR, HelpAge International, agencies   A group of UN human rights experts have urged Member States to renew their commitment to end all forms of abuse and violence against older women, promote their human rights and act against pervasive sexist and ageist attitudes. On the occasion of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, the Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons, Claudia Mahler, joined by other UN human rights experts, issued the following statement:   Around the world, thousands of older women continue to be silenced by the persistence of discriminatory societal attitudes and a lack of attention to abuse and violence. In 2020, around one in six people aged 60 and above experienced some form of abuse in community settings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the rates of violence against older persons, including older women, and cases of domestic violence increased considerably.   According to UN Women, 34 percent of women aged 60 and over reported experiencing violence or knowing someone who has, since the beginning of the pandemic. In this recent context, there is a critical need to acknowledge and document the extent to which violence against older women is widespread within our ageing societies.   Violence against older women remains an unspoken issue in many societies and a taboo grounded in deep-rooted sexist and ageist prejudices and stereotypes and discriminatory cultural and social norms. Power dynamics and inequalities leading to emotional, financial, material, physical and sexual violence are likely to exacerbate with older age.   The intersection between age and gender compounding and affecting risk factors, types of perpetrators, forms and impacts of violence, abuse and neglect remains insufficiently understood and researched. Studies show that perpetrators are most commonly a male intimate partner, a family member or a caregiver. Older women living in institutional settings, especially older women with disabilities and dementia, are at heightened risk of violence, abuse, and neglect, as they usually represent the majority of residents.   Older women, especially widows, are also the targets of harmful traditional practices and customs, often linked to poverty and lack of legal protection. Humanitarian crises and armed conflicts and all forms of violence also disproportionately impacts on older women. Sexual violence against older women is prevalent but continues to be largely ignored due to erroneous assumptions that sexuality and sexual violence disappear with age.   In some situations, societal and cultural norms expect older women to be respected and cared for by their family and society, making it socially unacceptable to speak out and report violence, abuse, and neglect.   The absence of large-scale research initiatives and insufficient data keep the struggle and suffering of abused older women invisible, making their situation more vulnerable by the day.   Laws, policies, and awareness-raising campaigns on abuse of older persons are often inadequate as they do not sufficiently integrate a gender perspective in addition to the curtailed access to justice to report and redress elder abuse. Campaigns on violence against women rarely consider the specific risks and disadvantages faced by older women.   Today, as we shed light on the scourge of elder abuse, we urge Member States to renew their commitment to end all forms of abuse and violence against older women, to ensure their protection and meaningful participation, to promote their human rights, to integrate age in data collection about gender-based violence, and efficiently act against pervasive sexist and ageist attitudes.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/06/un-experts-urge-states-address-violence-abuse-and-neglect-older-women http://www.helpage.org/what-we-do/will-you-refusetoabuse-this-world-elder-abuse-awareness-day/ http://www.helpage.org/what-we-do/elder-abuse/ http://www.helpage.org/what-we-do/society-for-all-ages/age-equality/ http://www.un.org/en/observances/widows-day   International action to protect older women’s rights has stalled, writes Barbara Crossette for PassBlue.   The images are stark: In India, Hindu widows who are considered burdens by their families are being abandoned at temples on the banks of sacred rivers. In Ethiopia, homeless older women evicted by their relatives sleep on the steps of a cathedral; many others shelter on the doorsteps of places of worship of all faiths around the world, including in developed countries where government protections fail them.   Three decades after United Nations Principles for Older Persons was adopted in 1991, it is apparent that as the global population grows rapidly older, the abuse of the oldest people, most of them women, needs to be addressed first of all by governments, advocates insist. This is not about palliative welfare but about ensuring basic human rights.   In October, the World Health Organization demonstrated how little has been accomplished to make sure older people can carry out a life of dignity and security. Among the WHO findings: about one in six people 60 years or older has faced abuse in family and community settings, and mistreatment is predicted to increase.   These developments will lead to more serious injuries and long-term psychological consequences. The pandemic, already marked by a sharp spike in domestic and gender violence, hit older people hardest.   WHO defines abuses broadly as “a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person. This type of violence constitutes a violation of human rights and includes physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse; financial and material abuse; abandonment; neglect; and serious loss of dignity and respect.” The agency calls such abuses “an important public health problem.”   Over the past two decades, the UN General Assembly has adopted plans to deal with the vulnerabilities hindering the lives of the world’s oldest people, particularly in poor countries. There was the Madrid Plan of Action in 2002, followed by the creation of a working group in 2010 and, most recently, the proclamation of a Decade of Healthy Ageing for 2021-2030.   This is all good but a critical piece is missing, advocates for older citizens argue. To ensure a life of dignity and social inclusion, advocates are campaigning for an internationally binding convention to protect the human rights of older people. The movement is growing.   About 400 (and counting) nongovernmental organizations have joined the Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People since its founding in 2011.   The office of the UN high commissioner for human rights lists nine “core” human-rights conventions — which it regards as treaties — that have been adopted since the founding of the UN. They cover civil and political rights and various aspects of discrimination. Ironically, there is a Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), but none for the world’s oldest people, who may also need specialized care and legal protection.   Susan Somers, a former legal official dealing with abuse of senior citizens in New York State, is president of the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse. She and Frances Zainoeddin of the International Federation on Ageing and a former official in the UN Population Division, spoke in interviews with PassBlue by Zoom and by phone on Nov. 16 and 18. They described a slow-moving process in the General Assembly working group, which any government can join. But that possibility risks encountering the geopolitics of pushback and stalemate that face even the Security Council.   In May 2020, UN Secretary-General António Guterres launched a UN policy brief focusing on early reports of abuses coming to light in the pandemic. He asked that all parties making decisions affecting senior citizens be guided by a commitment to respect and the right to health. Guterres, who is 72, called for accelerated action.   “Health care is a human right, and every life has equal value,” he wrote. “Particular risks faced by older persons in accessing health care, including age discrimination, neglect, maltreatment and violence in residential institutions, need to be properly monitored and fully addressed.”   As Zainoeddin said, “Our main concern is that the OEWGA [open-ended working group] has not complied with its mandates, after 11 sessions.”   At its creation in 2012 in the Assembly’s Third Committee, which oversees human rights, the working group was asked to “present to the General Assembly, at the earliest possible date, a proposal containing, inter alia, the main elements that should be included in an international legal instrument to promote and protect the rights and dignity of older persons, which are not currently addressed sufficiently by existing mechanisms and therefore require further international protection.”   Advocates for a new convention, which the Assembly apparently favored, say that they suffered a setback three years ago when a unit in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (Desa) devoted to aging was downgraded by lowering the level of the top member of the staff assigned to it: in UN speak, from a P-5 to P-4. “Unfathomable, given an issue as important as global aging referred to by the Population Division,” a former staff person told PassBlue.   In a 2020 report, the UN Population Division, the keeper of global data, estimated that there were 727 million people age 65 or older, most of them women. That figure was expected to more than double by 2050, to at least 1.5 billion. Calculating in other factors, such as decreasing fertility and longer lifespans, the share of global population 65 and older will likely rise to about 16 percent, up from 9.3 percent in 2020.   In Somers’s interview with PassBlue, she noted how important it was that positive support from just a few UN member states in the General Assembly could help assure success on the topic of aging. She described, for example, how the committed leadership of New Zealand and Mexico had been vital to the adoption in 2006 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities. “New Zealand and Mexico stepped in and pushed it through,” she said.   No volunteers among UN member nations have appeared so far to do the same for a convention on the rights of the elderly. “We really need a champion,” Somers added.   http://www.passblue.com/2021/11/23/action-to-protect-older-womens-rights-has-stalled-in-the-un-general-assembly/ http://undocs.org/A/76/157 http://rightsofolderpeople.org/news/ http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/OlderPersons/IE/Pages/Reports.aspx http://www.helpage.org/what-we-do/elder-abuse/ http://www.who.int/health-topics/elder-abuse http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2021/6/explainer-what-you-should-know-about-widowhood http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/6/statement-ed-phumzile-including-widows-in-covid-19-recovery http://www.theloombafoundation.org/our-work/research/world-widows-report Visit the related web page
	Multinational companies have so far failed to adequately protect women’s rights by Franziska Korn und Karolin Seitz Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Germany   Apr. 2022   Multinational companies have so far failed to adequately protect women’s rights and promote gender justice.   Nearly 190 million women work in global supply chains worldwide. They keep the economy running, supplying the world with products and services. At the same time, the global economy has many negative impacts for women that are different from those men experience. Regulations and laws are thus essential to ensure multinational companies provide special protection for women.   Structural disadvantages in the global world of work   Structural discrimination against women cuts across all levels of the global workforce. Women are much more likely than men to work in insecure or lower-paid jobs and to encounter unfair and unhealthy working conditions, as well as being underrepresented in managerial positions and more likely to encounter discrimination and sexual assault.   In addition to paid work, women around the world also bear the brunt of unpaid work, such as housework, childcare and other care roles. Patriarchal social structures further exacerbate the precarious situation of many women in the Global South and North.   Women are particularly affected when economic activities lead to environmental disasters or human rights violations. They face huge obstacles in gaining access to justice and redress. At the same time, women are underrepresented in trade unions, which thus often lack a gender-sensitive perspective.   Crises reinforce gender inequalities   The coronavirus pandemic has heightened gender inequalities. Poverty, exploitation, and discrimination against women have increased worldwide due to the breakdown of global supply relations. At the same time, the pandemic has drastically cemented the pattern of dependency between the Global South and North, along with the associated power imbalance.   The textile industry, where women make up about 80 per cent of the workforce worldwide, is a case in point. Multinational companies based in Europe cancelled orders worth millions at very short notice. Factories had to close. Women workers in Bangladesh, India or Ethiopia lost their jobs overnight. The loss of income led to poverty and hunger, particularly due to the lack of social security systems.   Gender justice is vital for resilient supply chains   Any serious approach to making global supply chains sustainable therefore also entails resolutely opposing exploitation of women.   Multinational companies have so far failed to adequately protect women’s rights and promote gender justice. Attempts to prevent human rights violations through audits or other voluntary initiatives have often proven unsuccessful. Laws and regulations are essential to ensure companies fulfil their duty to protect people and the environment.   The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, published in 2011, point the way. They seek to ensure that multinational companies address human rights and environmental rights violations throughout their supply chains and provide redress if harm is done. Companies are also encouraged to design their corporate due diligence to provide greater protection to especially vulnerable or marginalised groups. Women undoubtedly fall into that category.   In the light of the UN Guiding Principles, several countries have passed what are known as due diligence laws. While these are a crucial step towards more just, inclusive and sustainable globalisation, they do not focus sufficiently on gender justice.   In 2019, the UN published the report Gender Dimensions of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which formulated proposals for gender-equitable production networks for the first time. In 2020, a broad alliance of German civil society actors followed up with the paper Gender Justice in Global Supply Chains. It addresses how gender-responsive supply chain laws should be designed.   While German legislation in this field fails to address gender justice, the EU’s draft Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence is not completely gender-blind. For example, the draft lists the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women among the human rights provisions to be respected. However, it does not prohibit any form of discrimination against all women, including non-employees. It likewise does not call for gender-sensitive risk analysis or address access to legal remedies that genuinely enable women to claim redress. ILO Convention No. 190 on violence and harassment in the workplace is not yet included either. Gender justice must come to the fore in future discussions on EU legislation.   G7: Internationally binding agreements are vital for progress   “Progress towards an equitable world” is the motto of this year’s German G7 Presidency. Making globalisation fairer and more sustainable is a pre-requisite for long-term progress and justice. In 2015, G7 heads of state and government were already calling on companies worldwide to integrate the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) into their business operations. Implementing the global WEPs, an initiative from UN Women and the UN Global Compact, enables companies to make a specific contribution to promoting and empowering women. Evaluation followed in 2020 and sparked enormous disillusionment. Despite publicly acknowledging the principles, many companies entirely ignored them in their business practices.   One thing is certain: companies only fulfil their duty to protect workers worldwide if regulations and laws to this effect are in place. That means the G7 Presidency must set an example: national and European legislation on gender-just supply chains is crucial. An internationally binding agreement is also needed to regulate company behaviour worldwide and ensure access to justice and redress for human rights violations or environmental pollution by businesses.   Negotiations are currently underway in the UN Human Rights Council on the UN Treaty on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises. The G7 should engage constructively in these negotiations and advocate a strong, gender-just international treaty.   http://www.fes.de/en/themenportal-gender-jugend/gender/the-future-is-feminist/artikelseite/protecting-women-in-global-supply-chains-gender-just-legislation-is-the-only-way http://www.fes.de/en/themenportal-gender-jugend/gender/the-future-is-feminist http://www.cesr.org/feminist-organizations-reject-the-imfs-strategy-toward-mainstreaming-gender/ Visit the related web page
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