Forms of Discrimination Against Women

Question: Discuss about the Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Answer: Introduction: The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), is adopted in 17979by the General Assembly of UN. This treaty is generally known as bill of rights for women at international level. This treaty consist preamble and almost 30 articles, which defines what actions are considered as discrimination against women and it also provide actions to end these discrimination activities. The main aim of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2008 is to promote and protect the rights of human with disabilities, and also ensure the enjoyment of these rights by person with disability. In this paper, we discuss the applicability of Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2008 in Zambia. Applicability of CEDAW UNCRPD on Zambia: CEDWA states that discrimination against women is still exist, and this treaty ensures that a woman gets equal rights and also it provides respect to the dignity of women. Zambia is the country where number of tribal groups exists, and the society of Zambia consist patriarchal cultural values. Discrimination against women is widely spread and absence of women in the political position shows the condition of women in Zambia. Womens does not take part in the decision making structures and this will result in gender discrimination in the government policy also. This is the only reason that nongovernmental organizations conduct various programs to protect and promote the rights of women in Zambia. Constitution of Zambia guarantees equal treatment of men and women. However constitution itself contains limitation in Article 23(4) (c) which put limitation on the rights of women related to marriage, adoption, divorce, and other personal law matters. On the continuous basis womens are discriminated in family law matters such as legal age of marriage is 21 years for men but 18 for women, and in many cases womens get married at very young age under customary law. There are other laws also such as De jure discrimination against women which are related to immigration law such as Zambian Immigration Act provides that if Zambian men marry non national women, then in such case that non national women automatically becomes the Zambian citizen whereas in case of women no such provision exist. In Zambia domestic violence against women occurred at large scale. The United Nations Committee comment on the Zambian report that various incidents are reported related to violence against women such as violence in prison and domestic violence, and also recommend that Zambian government must take initiatives to protect the women against violence. Whereas number of initiatives are taken by the government such as gender violence tribunal which help in solving the public issues, and also help policy makers and law enforcement officers, and Victim Support Unit (VSU) to provide ample support to the victim. Recently, government adopted a National Gender Policy, but there is no national plan for prevention and protection of women against violence. It is clear that there are number of Discriminatory laws stated in Zambia which encourage the discrimination against women. Discrimination in Zambia is set up at legal level of the country. Therefore, we can say that government signs the CEDWA but applicability of CEDWA is not up to mark. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2008 (UNCRPD) - in this we discuss the current status of applicability of UNCRPD, and the condition of disable persons in Zambia. There are number of steps taken by government for meeting the criteria of UNCRPD such as enactment of disabilities Act no 6 of 2012, government also launch policy that is national disability policy and also make other efforts at policy level. Whereas government also prepares a report related to UNCRPD and submit it to UN which shows that government does not take measure steps to implement this treaty. According to the WHO findings almost 15% population of Zambia is suffered with disability, and the maximum numbers of peoples with disability is live in rural areas where basic facilities are limited. A survey was conducted in 2015 which shows employment rate that is 45.5% in case of disabled people as compared to non disable people that is 58%. A census shows large number of people stated that most disable person is self employed whereas very few are working as employers in organization, and it also shows that 80% disable people are engaged in agriculture. Maximum numbers of disable persons are live in poverty and they also have low level of literacy as compared to non disabled people. In fact, large numbers of disabled are begging on street for survival. Number of public buildings is set up to help the persons with disability, but these buildings are not able to access large number of disable people which result in various challenges to the disable persons and infringement of rights of disable persons. In Zambia there is need to formulate various strategies to protect the rights of disable persons and for the implementation of UNCRPD. Therefore, we can say that applicability of UNCRPD is not up to the mark, but government takes various steps and measures to protect the rights of the disabled persons in Zambia. Conclusion: In last, we conclude that both the treaty signed by Zambia is not implementing in country up to mark, and government does not take measure steps to implement these tasks. Government does not take accurate measures to implement these treaties. CEDWA and UNCRPD are signed by government to improve the conditions of women and Disabled persons respectively, but there are number of faults in the implementation of these treaties. Bibligraphy Treaty on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) [1979] Treaty on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [2008]. Martignoni J., Violence against Women In Zambia (OMCT 2002) https://www.omct.org/files/2002/01/2193/zambiaeng2002.pdf accessed on 23rd November 2016. CEDWA, Third and fourth Periodic report of Zambia, https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw27/zam3-4.pdf accessed on 23rd November 2016. Longwe, S. LEGALIZED DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN IN ZAMBIA https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNAAX512.pdf accessed on 23rd November 2016. Ammattikorkeakoulu, D. United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Current state in Zambia : Perspective from PWDs https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/107690 accessed on 23rd November 2016. ILO, Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Zambia, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_emp/@ifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_115100.pdf accessed on 23rd November 2016. Chilufya, M. Accessibility of public buildings to disabled persons https://dspace.unza.zm:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/3162/CHILUFYAM0000001.PDF?sequence=1 accessed on 23rd November 2016.