Information for women’s rights specialists
“It is imperative to make the global economy more supportive of decent work for women both as agents and as beneficiaries. Globalisation is clearly an unfinished business, a work in progress that can be shaped and steered by human interventions and values of equality, poverty reduction and social justice.”
-
Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, United Nations Development Fund for Women
A. Sections of the website that women’s rights specialists find particularly useful
The sections of our website relating to women, among the most heavily used on our site, include:
1. “Individual companies” section:
- over 3600 company-specific subsections, including reports about their impacts (positive and negative) on women
2. “Sectors” section includes:
- “Prostitution & sex trafficking”
- “Pornography”
3. “Issues” section includes:
- “Gender discrimination”
- “Sexual harassment”
- “Rape & sexual abuse”
- “Pregnancy discrimination”
- “Marital status discrimination”
- “Women”
- “Pregnant women”
- “Mothers/Maternity”
- “Family”
4. “UN & intl orgs” section includes:
- “UNIFEM”
- “UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women”
B. Women’s rights specialists on our International Advisory Network
Our International Advisory Network, chaired by Mary Robinson (former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and President of Ireland), includes:
Asma H.S. Khader, Coordinator of SIGI (Sisterhood is Global Institute) Jordan; Director of Mizan - Law Group for Human Rights (Jordanian branch of the International Commission of Jurists); on leave from the Advisory Network during her service in the Jordanian Government
Lynne Muthoni Wanyeki, Executive Director, African Women's Development and Communication Network, Kenya
Sarojeni V. Rengam, Executive Director & Coordinator of “Women in Agriculture” programme, Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific (PAN AP), Malaysia
Mark Erik Hecht, Executive Director, Human Rights Internet (includes “Guide to the International Women's Human Rights Movement”)
Anuradha Vittachi, Director, OneWorld International Foundation (OneWorld website includes major section on “Gender”)
C. Our Academic Partners addressing women’s rights
Our twenty Academic Partners include the following institutions with projects specialising in women’s rights:
Centre For Applied Legal Studies (including the Gender Research Project), University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Centre for Comparative and Public Law (including the CEDAW in Hong Kong Project, re the application of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to Hong Kong), Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Centre for Human Rights (including the Gender Unit), Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Socio-Economic Rights Project (including the Gender Project), Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
D. Examples of women’s rights-related reports linked to by our site
Iraq: Amnesty International calls on companies involved in post-war reconstruction process to ensure no discrimination against women, and to solicit views of local women affected by company operations
Kenya: Women working at certain flower plantations (providing fresh flowers for European market) raped on a regular basis by male employers; AIDS is rampant
Uganda: Cisco and Intl. Telecommunication Union launch first women-oriented internet training centre
Dominican Republic: Women working in export-processing zones who become pregnant routinely fired from jobs
Afghanistan: Business Council for Peace helps women create sustainable businesses by providing technology for training in computer skills and entrepreneurship
China: Of the millions being laid off by state factories, 80% of men eventually find work but only 49% of women
UK: Investment banks warned not to use “opaque” bonus schemes to avoid equal pay rules, following landmark sex discrimination case
Johnson & Johnson donates to a non-profit group the rights for a product that could help prevent HIV infections in women
Sri Lanka: ILO launches code of conduct for eradication of sexual harassment in the workplace
Europe: Women and girls trafficked for forced prostitution
Oxfam report “Trading Away Our Rights – Women Working in Global Supply Chains” says multinationals’ global search for cheap labour has accelerated exploitation of women workers
Brazil: Instituto Ethos report on how companies can contribute to women’s health
US military contractors on duty in Bosnia allegedly bought and "owned" young women
Japan: Surveys suggest nearly 70% of working women have experienced sexual harassment
Nigeria: ChevronTexaco and UNDP launch partnership for women’s empowerment projects in Niger Delta
USA: Arbitration panel finds Merrill Lynch engaged in systematic discrimination against women
