UN commissioner urges move forward on women's rights

NEW YORK // Women around the world are denied fundamental freedoms according to the UN's human rights chief, citing in particular Sudan, Afghanistan and Gulf states. "Women's rights continue to be curtailed in too many countries," and efforts must be made to address this, said Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights during her keynote speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. She highlighted recent positive developments in the Gulf, such as the election of nine women in 2006 to the UAE's Federal National Council [FNC], the election of four women to the 50-member Kuwaiti parliament, and the recent appointment of the first female deputy minister in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But, Ms Pillay said, the overall situation of women in the region "falls well short of international standards". She also pointed to a "severe backlash against women's rights" in the contested Afghan elections and urged authorities there to take care to stamp out violence related to the vote. Ms Pillay's opening address before the 47-nation rights body touched on a range of civil liberties concerns around the world, from Sri Lanka's civil war refugees to the abduction of activists in Zimbabwe. She also voiced alarm that migrants who pay traffickers to attempt to cross the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden are risking their lives in search of a better life. The South African legal expert, formerly the top judge on Rwanda's war crimes tribunal, urged Gulf governments to adopt international conventions and reject home-grown laws that discriminate against women. "A crucial step in the right direction is the ratification and implementation of key human rights conventions, as well as the removal of the numerous reservations expressed by many Gulf countries regarding those human rights treaties they have chosen to accept," she said. The Geneva-based rights monitor has already shone a spotlight on Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen during routine probes of all 192 UN members called the Universal Periodic Review. Saudi Arabia's record comes under particular scrutiny, with activists criticising a ban on female drivers and a system of male guardianship that sharply curtails a woman's right to travel and control her own life. All six members of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) have been censured for laws that block female nationals from passing on their nationality to their children if the father is a foreigner. Ms Pillay did not criticise only one region during her opening address at the Palais des Nations, pointing her finger at a total of 47 countries and territories where people get a raw deal from their governments. Her rebukes also covered western countries, including the 17 European nations in which violence or discrimination against the Roma people has been recorded, including murders, police brutality and forced evictions. She described "huge gaps" between the "lofty pledges" made by states and the realities of daily life for many of their inhabitants, pointing out that "no country in the world can claim to be free of human rights violations". Juliette de Rivero, a Geneva-based advocate for Human Rights Watch, said prickly nations should overcome their hostility to criticism and recognise that everyone has "human rights challenges to face". "We've raised several concerns about the situation for women in the Gulf, including a report on the system of guardianship in Saudi Arabia and the problems faced by female migrant workers," Ms Rivero said. "It is very pertinent to raise this, although it doesn't mean that there are not issues surrounding women's rights in other countries, too." Although diplomats from the UAE and the GCC missions to the UN were not available for comment, Emirati and other Gulf envoys have proven responsive to such criticism at past council meetings. Zaid al Hussein, the vice president of Saudi Arabia's human rights commission, told the rights body "we do not claim to be perfect" and said officials were cracking down on men who beat their wives and children. Dr Anwar Gargash, the Minister of State for Foreign and FNC Affairs, acknowledged the UAE is "not a perfect society" and listed improving conditions for women as at the top of the Government's agenda. He said limitations on Emirati women passing on citizenship to their children should be "reviewed and debated" with the focus on liberalising such laws. [e-mail] *With additional reporting by Reuters