Gender Inequality Position Papers

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Forum: General Assembly – Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee Issue: Gender Inequality

Chair: Tiffany Chung Rapporteur: Michael Xu

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Table of Contents Argentina ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….3 Brazil ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5 Germany ……………....………………………………………………....…………………....……..………...6 Israel …………………………………………………………………….......………………..………………....7 Italy ……………………………………………………....……………..…………………………………..……8 Japan ……………………………………………………………………....…………....……..………………...9 Kuwait …………………………………………………………………....…………....……..……………….11 Morocco ……………………………………………………....……………..………….…………………….12 Nigeria …………...………………....……....…....……………....….………………....………………...…..13 Pakistan ……………………………………………………....……………..………..………………………14 Russia ………………………………………………………...…………..……………………………………15 South Korea …………………………………………………………………………………………....……16 Sweden …………...………………....……....…....……………....….………………...………………...…..17 Syria ……………………………...………………....……....…....…………………………………………....18 Turkey ……………………………...………………....…….......……………....…………………………....19 Uganda ………….………………….....……...….…....…………….….………...….….………………...….21 United Kingdom ……………….....……...….…....………....….….…………….….……….…………...22

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Argentina Argentina fully recognizes gender inequality as a universal problem that affects the lives of many, especially women. This state finds that all unjust, unfair and unequal treatments towards women are unacceptable, and will strive, at all means, to promote and achieve equality between men and women. Gender inequality is an issue that remains unsolved over the past centuries. The United Nations Development Program’s 1997 Human Development Report even stated, “no society treats its women as well as its men.” Discrimination against women has resulted in violence and brutality on many women. In recent years, numerous occurrences demonstrate the outrageous implications resulting from gender inequality. For instance, in 2010, a18-year-old woman in Afghanistan had her nose mutilated for running away from home. A Taliban judge ordered the medieval-style punishment on her. This is only one case of out of the many unreported cases on mistreated women. Many women are treated as little more than slaves under regime’s rules. Furthermore, UN report shows that women do two-third of the world’s work; however, they receive only 10% of the world’ income. A majority of 1.5 billion people in the world that liv on less than on dollar are subjected to violence and religious suppression simply because of their gender as a woman. Moreover, many countries deny women their rights to education. This unequal treatment in has caused women of more than two-thirds of the world’s population to be illiterate, especially those under the Taliban rule. Argentina strongly opposes any form of gender inequality and thus, has taken various steps to address this issue. Argentina’s determination to promote equality between the two sexes is best reflected upon its Constitution and the National Council for Women. The Argentina Constitution is the highest set of law in Argentina and it guarantees the equality between both genders by prohibiting any form of discrimination against women. In 1985, Argentina ratified the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which was incorporated into the National Constituent Convention shortly afterwards, greatly enhancing the protection of women’s rights. The National Council for Women, established in 1992 to promote women’s participation in society, has continually carried out programs to promote social, political and economic opportunities for women. It works with several business organizations and ministries, such as the Ministry of Labor, to foster equal opportunities for men and women in the workforce. It formed the Tripartite Committee on Equal Opportunity for males and females with the ministry to equalize treatment to both genders and to ensure women have equal status as men. Results of advocating gender equality in Argentina are highly encouraging. At present, more Argentine women than men are enrolled in 3

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secondary and tertiary education. Females in Argentina have a higher school life expectancy of 17 years than men’s 15 years. Additionally, rights of women are well protected by measures and laws imposed: promotion, facilitation and exploitation of women into prostitution is illegal by law. On top of these, the international community has noted Argentina’s advancements in addressing gender inequality. The World Economic Forum has ranked Argentina 28th out of 135 countries in its 2011 Gender Gap Report. The Committee of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women commended Argentina for its gender-sensitive response to the introduction of comprehensive laws on violence against women. Argentina recognizes the importance of gender equality and will at all means promote this universal value. It believes that promotion of gender equality through education on men and women, ratifying the rights for women to guarantee women’s freedom and rights, increasing penalties on any form of gender discrimination and securing girls’ place at schools to be entitled for the right to education. Argentina urges all member states to discourage gender inequality and provide necessary assistance to achieve gender equality. Argentina wishes to change the course of history and entitle women to their basic rights and raise their status to an internationally acceptable level.

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Brazil Discrimination against women in many fields, such as education, employment and many other aspects of life, has been one of the major concerns. In countries like China and India, female infanticide rate is higher than that of any other countries, resulting in abnormally high ratio of boys to girls. Recently, a woman in India was brutally raped and died in hospital while under medical treatment. The assailant, however, are not properly brought to justice till now. In Brazil, a leading economic nation, only 40% of Brazilian women are employed outside the home. Although, many countries and organizations are endeavoring to bring gender equality to the world, the result of those efforts is yet to come. Brazil is no exception; women are still paid lower wages than men are, victimized by domestic violence, and provided less education and job opportunities. With an awareness of the male dominance, Brazilian government worked to increase the female participation in the labor force significantly in the 1970s and 1980s through the expansion of the services sector, and economic pressures on family income. Significant changes in family structures also represent a rise of women's equality. A process named as “feminization of poverty”, a referenced data shows a steady increase over the past decades in female-headed households, from 13% in 1970 to 16% in 1980 and 20% by the late 1980s. Government also works towards an improvement of education, providing more educational opportunities to females. It has been set as a rule to have as many females as males in schools, and women are slowly taking professions that once men dominated. More women than men are in the National Lawyers' Association (Associacao Nacional dos Advogados). With a creation of National Council on Women's Rights (Conselho Nacional de Direitos da Mulher), women’s movement grew, mobilizing the support for women’s health and rights from the men’s violence, as defined in the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo. Since late 1980s, Brazil has supported and encouraged equality between men and women, revised laws that were discriminated against women, and endeavored to put end to domestic violence against women. Also, in 1987, Brazil joined the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to further promote gender equality to the nation and to the world. Brazil elected its first female president in 2001, stepping closer to gender equality of the nation and of the world, and has been emphasizing the gender equality ever since. President Dilma Rousseff urges the country and its state members to prioritize eradicating violence against women and to endeavor to reduce gender gap in education and employment.

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Germany Throughout the European Credit crunch Germany has remained resolute and united, our people have stood together and we have throughout this time retained one of the lowest unemployment figures. Our land has seen oppression under the dictatorship of a single party regime where women were regarded solely as mothers. They were relieved of their positions at the workplace to create vacancies for men to fill. They were instead confined to homemaking and motherhood. Propaganda and dissemination of false truths to encourage women to stay home instead of contributing to the war effort. Following the creation of our predecessor state-West Germany, this political entity has recognized and fully reinstated conventional womens right and as regarded as a frontrunner in the global portrait of woman's equality. Evidently women have a central role in our political structure as illustrated by the brilliant leadership of our chancellor Madame Angela Merkel. Germany firmly believes that women have the same rights as men and that is reflected through our domestic policies and the equality in our country.

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Israel Israel recognizes the issue of gender inequality globally and the work that has been done to counter such bias, however Israel finds that it’s religion is of such significance on all levels of it’s society and government. The case of Israel is unique because Israel is an established state of the Jewish people with it’s Declaration of Independence in 1948 and is construed as a Jewish and Democratic state. Israel’s political and legal structure has never been separated from Judaism, religion is very well combined with society and government in Israel. Issues such as Israel’s conflict with its Arab neighbors has overshadowed many secondary civil and social issues, Israel must ensure that it’s state and people are safe before it focuses on it’s society. Gender equality and women’s rights are not as pressing as the current strife. But without regard to gender equality in Israel, the people of Israel would like to help improve this issue globally. Israel aims to help gender equality globally as long as it does not affect the reign and power of religion in it’s regime.

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Italy Gender Inequalities refers to unequal treatment of individuals based on their gender. Gender-based discrimination permeates all cultures, and is often manifested in the laws, policies, and practices of institutions. Women are treated unequally when it comes to work and educate and are taught to stay at home. In The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights is aiming to provide equality in law and society across the world. UNICEF describes that gender equality "means that women and men, and girls and boys, enjoy the same rights, resources, opportunities and protections. It does not require that girls and boys, or women and men, be the same, or that they be treated exactly alike." The United Nations Population Fund had declared that women have the right to gender equality and promote gender equality as a greater economic prospect. In the past decade, women and girls in developing countries have had a significant improvement in their education level and health. But no substantial progress has been seen in the economic factor. In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was signed to eliminate income disparities in the workplace that form due to discrimination. Human rights organizations are fighting for gender equality, some recent marches in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. The message for gender equality is quickly spread and in 2007 the World Bank Group (WBG) began promoting gender equality in developing countries through lending, grants, knowledge sharing and policy dialogue. With Italy there have been many legislations to make male and females more equal. In the Italian Constitution, the principles of equal pay and gender equality are upheld. In 1950 only 7 percent of girls between the ages of fourteen and seventeen went to school, while 12 percent of boys did. In 1998-99 84 percent of the girls and 81 percent of the boys attended high schools. At university level women outnumbered men by the late 1990s and this increased level of education of Italian women explain the greater presence of women in the labor market. In 1991 the National Committee for Equal Treatment between female and male workers was founded, with its main goal to provide women with an equal workplace. This shows a rapid improvement in the fight for gender equality but even after many policies the data collected by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy show on average, women in employment only earn half the amount of their male counterparts. The people of the republic of Italy believe that gender equality is a very important and every growing problem, which must be solved effectively. Italy wishers to increase its efforts provide women with a safer lifestyle and rights to an equal workplace. In addition, it recommends enhancing collaboration between government entities involved in combating gender inequality. This issue needs to be integrated during policy-making and policy assessment and emendation in order to provide a more inclusive and widespread approach to terminate gender inequality.

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Japan Gender inequality has been a major concern for a lot of countries around the world, in both developed and less-developed places, as it is a crucial barrier hindering further advancement and development. The Gender Inequality Index of Japan in 2011 was 0.123 ranking 14th out of 146 places. Gender inequality has been threatening social harmony and both economic and political progress. Therefore, imminent actions are necessary from all nations and respective governments to strive for gender equality, especially the advancement of women’s rights in particular. The challenge is to eliminate stereotypes and discrimination against women, to secure women with basic human rights, to increase women’s political participation, to ensure that women are treated equally before the law, to provide women with equal opportunities in employment and work places, and to solve the problems of abuse and exploitation of women and essentially establishing and protecting women’s reproductive rights. Japan indentifies the roots of the problem of gender inequality to be the lack of legislation in protecting women’s rights and the government’s fail response to cases of gender discrimination. Fundamentally, the concept of women playing a supporting role to men in the society is deeply enshrined in people’s mindsets. According to the Constitution of Japan in 1947, women were first time officially granted equality before the law, the right to vote, the choice of spouse, property rights, inheritance, choice of domicile, divorce, education and other matters. With continuous efforts in advancing women’s rights, the social status of women has greatly risen when compared to the situation in the feudal society in Japan during the post-war period when the constitution was written. Japan as one of the most modern and developed nations around the world, Japan stands firmly on the elimination of gender inequality and the recognition of women’s rights to achieve mutual respect from both genders and fair opportunities for all. At present, the lack of legislation creates difficulty in securing justice in cases of gender discrimination against women, especially in cases of rape and domestic violence. Passing further legislation should be considered by all nations to prohibit behaviour of exploitation of women. Further legislation can empower a more all-rounded and sophisticated legal system which can extent its coverage to domestic violence, marital rape, discrimination in employment, and reproductive rights, so that women’s rights can be further protected by the law. Japan also encourages countries that already have sufficient legislation regarding gender inequality to raise the level of penalty to discourage behaviour of gender discrimination and to send a social message to the society that the protection of women’s rights is at the top of the government’s agenda. It is extremely important to make women’s voices heard. In countries with a more serious problem of gender inequality, women live in constant inferiority and fear. They are often reluctant to seek help from the police, friends or family when they experience abuse and exploitation. Japan strongly encourages respective governments to allocate funding to non-government organizations and other programmes and services that help women report cases of discrimination, abuse and exploitation. These organizations and services 9

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should also help rehabilitate battered women from their experience and at the same time promote gender equality sentiment in society. As mentioned above, one of the root problems of gender inequality is that the concept of women playing a supporting role to men in the society is deeply enshrined in people’s mindsets. By formulating school curriculum to teach students of the importance of gender equality, education can essentially change the values of the next generation and reduce stereotypes and discrimination in society. Education is a long-term and sustainable measure that effectively solves the root cause of gender inequality and facilitates the implementation of other legislations and policies. Japan as a democratic country strongly believes that universal suffrage is vitally important in the formation of an effective government. Japan strongly encourages nations to establish women’s suffrage to increase women’s political participation. The votes of women represent their interests. Granting women the right to vote is an indirect way of making women’s needs and opinions heard. The government formed will then be able to formulate policies that protect women’s rights and interests and thus ease the problem of gender inequality in society. Media plays a crucial role in shaping people’s values, especially in today’s world where technology and the internet facilitates quick circulation and dissemination of information. Japan believes that the prevalence and the tolerance of media images of women being raped and abuse, and the prevalent images of violent pornography dehumanise women and contribute to an attitude of hostility towards them, resulting in increased exploitation of women. Women subject to the attacks of violence provoked by these materials are being denied their equal rights under articles 3 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 19 of the Covenant provides that the exercise of freedom of expression "carries with it special duties and responsibilities" and may therefore be subject to restrictions necessary for respect of the rights of others and for the protection of public order, public health and morals. Lastly, Japan strongly supports and encourages the holding of conferences for the sharing of knowledge and experience. Since 1975, the UN has held a series of world conferences on women's issues, starting with the World Conference of the International Women's Year in Mexico City. It is extremely important for nations to actively participate in such conferences to motivate the progress of empowerment of women to achieving gender equality world-wide.

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Kuwait A mere few years ago the delegation of Kuwait has shared the right of suffrage with our women. However, we are still a long way from equalizing the genders. Due to our cultural customs, Kuwait, like our Arabian neighbours, is facing obstacles and constraints that limit the recognition of women. In the near future, we will be increasingly improving and enforcing our policies on gender equality that further allows women to have equal rights and roles in our society. We look forward to discuss and assimilate with fellow delegates who support gender equality to strengthen our own policies.

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Morocco Gender inequality is an issue that has been around for centuries. It occurs in many places and in various forms. Apparently, the situation has improved but women still experience unfair treatment. The United Nations sees gender equality as a human right. It is essential in order to reduce poverty because majority of the world’s poor are women. Thus, equal pay for equal work is not respected in most societies as women gain less opportunity for jobs and are generally paid less. Divorce rights and voting rights are other areas where rights remain unequal especially in developing countries due to traditional reasons. The Kingdom of Morocco believes that in order to eliminate gender inequality, nations must look to empower women in all aspects of society. In developing countries, women have limited social and cultural rights due to the dominance of traditional values. In rural areas, Morocco still embrace traditional views leading into a situation where women lack education, health care as well as basic necessities including clean water and electricity. In 2011, the finance ministry presented the employment rate for both men and women (68.6% and 23.3% respectively). Leadership roles are filled by male leaders and most women find themselves working for low-skilled jobs with poor working conditions. Although the necessary rights exist, women still suffer from discrimination and have yet to deserve equal rights. The Kingdom of Morocco attempted to abolish discrimination towards women on a number of occasions. In 2002, a movement was made to increase participation of women in public life and decision making. Political parties allowed 30 women to enter the House of Representatives. This was a substantial movement that gave women the privilege to take on leadership roles. However, no additional movement is made since then. Men still hold traditional views that do not allow women to make decisions. Since June 2006, Morocco has pursed a national strategy for gender equality by introducing different gender approaches into various policies and programmes. As a result, all policies and programmes will now have to fairly influence and direct both genders as well as provide equal benefits. We have also set up a group of gender experts that will assist State agencies in devising policies and programmes that are fair to both genders. Morocco is confident that this strategy will reduce gender inequality and give further rights to women that are struggling to establish public life. Educating the public is another step towards gender equality. Governments should work together to form a campaign that educates people with the history of gender discrimination. Learning from people’s mistakes is perhaps the most effective way to prevent gender inequality. In order to eliminate gender inequality nations must work together. Finding a solution to this problem will lead to resolving other issues such as poverty. The Kingdom of Morocco looks forward to support nations with recommendations and ideas that will help resolute this problem.

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Nigeria Nigeria is not the worst country in gender inequality. It ranks 118 out of 134 countries in the Gender Equality Index. Still the situation is heart-breaking in that gender inequality exists at highly worrying levels in almost all areas of human development in Nigeria, including economy, education, politics, and access to justice. Nigeria's 80.2 million women and girls have a significantly worse life chances than men. About 70% of women are unable to read or write and only 3% of females complete secondary school. The lack of education renders the female sex unable to get a better job or a higher position in the working force. The situation is even worse in the North where poverty level can be twice as high as the South. The lack of economic independence is an essential factor of women's empowerment. Uneducated women are also less likely to bring up better nourished and educated children. This causes an obstacle to the economic growth of the country. Levels of gender violence are also high, notably in the South. Nigeria also has the worst maternal mortality rates in the world with one woman dying every 10 minutes during delivery. Nearly 50% of all Nigerian women are mothers before they turn 20. Nigerian women are also underrepresented in all political decisionmaking bodies. This lack of women representation may be one explanation for the lack of resources to improve women's health, nutrition, education and social status. If the situation is not changed, as Maina, a woman activist said, is dragging down on Nigeria's economic and social development.

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Pakistan The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has always been and will continue to be committed to gender equality. Women make up an integral part of our global society and Pakistan will strive for equality between genders in accordance with Islam. Our Constitution explicitly states that “there shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex”, and this is a stance Pakistan has taken. Recent crimes against women have pushed gender inequality back into the public attention, and Pakistan is absolutely dedicated to ameliorating these issues. Legislation plays an important role in ensuring the protection of women’s rights. Over the last few years, Pakistan has made tremendous leaps in laws to protect women. 2010 saw the passing of the Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act and the unanimously passed extension of the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill, the 2011 Anti-Women Practices Law which outlaws and severely punishes the practice of trading women as wives, killings for honour and forced marriages. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan urges other nations to adopt similar policies to ensure the legal protection of women all over the world. Despite our changing society, the rights of women have neglected to improve. Pakistan views this as an immense detriment to the global community and in addition to legislation believe there must be a significant social adaptation in order to ensure the full rights of women all over the world. There must also be a focus on education and healthcare for women and girls. However, many countries, especially those in the developing world simply do not have the resources to provide progressive education and healthcare for all their citizens, much less for women and girls. It is also imperative that religions and faiths are taken into account when writing resolutions. Pakistan and many other countries were founded upon and function with religious principles and in order for a resolution to be relevant and important it must also be founded on principles of major religions. It is The Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s hope that any resolution will not only promote gender equality but create more cohesive gender relations.

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Russia The Russian Federation recognises the vital role played in societies by social well-being, the promotion and protection of human rights and effective humanitarianism. Because of this, Russia esteems the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee and looks forward to collaborating with the members of the committee in seeing through resolutions that will effectively address, along Defamation of Religion and the Integration of Refugees into New Society, the issue of Gender Inequality The Russian Federation believes that gender equality, the empowerment of women and protection of their rights is a cardinal component of social development. Russia is therefore dedicated to ensuring that women within its territories are granted equal terms of employment and working conditions to those of their male counterparts. Also among the Federation’s priorities is the prevention of domestic violence and work-place sexual assaults, problems that are threatning to be prevalent in the society. The Russian Government is working with activists to ensure that the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to account and that proper retribution if offered to the victims. Additionally, the Government hopes to increase the role of women in decision-making by creating more opportunities for their participation in the political arena. Furthermore, the Russian Federation hopes to partner with other countries and assist in the realisation of gender equality especially in the face of discriminatory practices like female-infanticide and increased socio-economic disparity between men and women. Russia is concerned with with the denial of girls and women education, land ownership rights and inheritance. Russia encourages both developed and developing nations to take a firm stance against gender inequality and reassures the latter that the empowerment of women is an important step that ought to be taken in boosting growth and progress. The delegation of Russia acknowledges that gender inequality is deeprooted in many cultures and therefore believes that the only way to succeed in uprooting it is through collaboration within the international community. The Federation of Russia anticipates partnering with members of the the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee in putting forth proposals to the secretariat that will assist in the eradication of gender inequality,

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South Korea The Republic of Korea believes all people, regardless of gender, should have the equal prerogative to human rights, civic opportunity, and the pursuit of happiness. Ever since the late 19th century Joseon Dynasty, the status of women has been equivalent to that of men, if not higher in our nation. In fact, we believe women should be protected, loved, and pampered, as shown through our Conscription Laws, which apply only to males; women too are allowed to volunteer for military service. We acknowledge and respect the differences amongst various cultures regarding gender roles; however, we condemn the oppression and exploitation of people, especially women, as ostentatiously done by nations such as Yemen, Pakistan, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. We remain actively seized upon this matter.

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Sweden As the world around us subjugates women to stay inside their homes and cover themselves from head to toe, we are strictly against the practice. The problem of gender inequality has grown to an unreasonable amount. In some countries women have deprived of the basic necessities of life. They can’t travel or dress in comfortable clothing; for fear of being branded a whore and raped or killed. In some countries girl babies are killed because of their gender, as the parents believe boys will bring more success to their family. The Kingdom of Sweden, however, believes this is wrong. Gender equality is one of the cornerstones of Swedish tradition. We apply gender teaching from preschool onwards to high school, and stoutly ensure that our entire population is open-minded towards the issue of gender inequality. The Kingdom of Sweden is fully aware that an indiscriminate population is one of the requirements for a truly global and connected population, and that a global citizen is one of the requirements for our country to advance. As the Kingdom of Sweden, we strongly and firmly encourage the proliferation of gender teaching, and we wish to collaborate with the UN body to restore gender equality resolve this issue.

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Syria The United Nation’s desire to remove gender inequality has been a matter of much interest to the Republic. Syria, as a country of strongly diverse religion, believes in permitting religious groups to practice their own family code and gender perception. With 87% of the population Muslim, the Republic allows civil liberties, resource entitlement and education bias be determined by Muslim tradition as a mark of respect towards religion. In accordance with Islam and Christianity, same-sex relationships are illegal. However, the Republic does not permit violence towards women, unless it falls under the family code of Islam. In recent years, women have been granted greater economic opportunities and more women have been able to enter the job market, and the Republic takes an increasing progressive stance towards achieving sexual equality. While the Republic recognises that there may be judicial, social or intellectual discrimination towards women and members of the LGBTQ community in Syria, the Republic believes that SOCHUM should not take any immediate action to implement global gender equality or mandate gender equality in Syria. If Syria is forced to undertake measures that go against religious freedom and the main religions, the Republic fears that severe unrest and riots, perhaps those even mirroring that of Libyan crisis, may occur, and the Syrian public will neither accept the measures nor any outside interference. Such will cause irreparable damage both towards the Republic and the image of the United Nations, and may lead to an even more difficult path in attempting to bring about gender equality. The Republic acknowledges the desire and need for SOCHUM to mandate gender equality, and supports co-operation with SOCHUM to reach a compromise and achieve greater equality, beginning first with more liberal and developed countries, such as members of the G8 bloc. The Republic thus calls on more experienced and more developed members states, such as the USA, to take the first step as means to provide a model for furthering understanding and planning, as well as lending less developed states support. The Republic recognises the fact that changes may needs be implemented, and supports a gradual approach provided that all member states, in particular members of the Arab League, agree to co-operate with SOCHUM to support gender equality. The Republic urges SOCHUM to take a considerate stance and not overlook other crucial factors in certain countries when attempting to push forward gender equality, to avoid social backlash or retrogression, as well as look toward major member states to take a leading and active role.

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Turkey Turkey has a deteriorating gender equality issue, albeit we have entered into various international protocols. The issue of gender equality in Turkey, both in terms of legal changes and societal awareness, goes way back to the early days of the Turkish Republic. Nezihe Muhittin did establish a political party for women’s rights, Kadinlar Halk Firkasi (Women’s People Party) and she organized a women’s movement for political participation in 1925. Turkish women were granted to vote in the municipal elections in 1930 and in 1934, alongside of the rights to vote in national elections and hold office. There was significant progress in Turkey’s gender policy in the last two decades, especially with the aim of making Turkey’s legislation closer to the European Union (EU) acquits. Being part of the EU, Turkey’s gender equality policies has been motivated partly by Turkey’s preparations for EU accession. This indicates that Turkish women are able to exercise political rights-to vote and to be elected for public office. Turkey signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1985, and the Additional Protocol to CEDAW in 2000. This led to substantive changes in the field of gender equality with the steps to adjust to CEDAW. Turkey initially had reservations against CEDAW’s Articles 15 and 16, but lifted them in 1999. In 2002, Turkey signed the Optional Protocol (of CEDAW) that allowed the right of individual petition to the Convention’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. In 2008, Turkey submitted its 6th Periodic Report on eliminating gender based discrimination and defended the report in front of the CEDAW Committee in 2010. The CEDAW committee was established with the unanimous support and coordination with women’s movement. This Commission is in charge of promoting gender equality in the legislation making and examining complaints on violation of equality between women and men and gender-based discrimination is a great milestone for women’s movement in Turkey. The Commission brings an institutional dimension to gender equality in Turkey. In addition, in 1995, the Turkish government signed the Beijing Declaration of the Fourth World Conference on Women, and committed itself to its Action Plan. Having said that, situation for women in Turkey is still worrying. Although legal basis for gender equality has been set up in Turkey, its implementation is limited by the prevalent social norms and practices. Most often, the society prevents women to exercise their rights that exist on paper. The social customs act as effective barriers to women’s access to jobs. Gender based violence is also common. Turkey strongly believes that a social transformation is needed. Turkey proposes that significant progress is needed to remove gender-based violence. Turkey also suggests that activities of women’s organizations, campaigns in the media, training of public officials, and increased societal awareness on gender equality. Only with these good measures to eradicate the current inequality can

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Turkey really implement the agreed clauses signed in the international protocols.

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Uganda Uganda has been very much concerned about gender inequality. Actions have been taken in response to the Millennium Development Goals. In order to achieve the goal of bringing political power to women, a third of the leadership positions in the Local Councils are reserved for female. With the efforts made to solve the problem of gender inequality, Uganda’s ranking in Global Gender Gap Index has risen from 47 to 28 in seven years’ time. However, problems still exist. The gender balance of paid workers is needed to be improved as women are more than twice as likely to be unpaid family workers as men. Besides, a gap exists between the number of boys and girls receiving education. There is a gap of 22,100 between the number of males and females joining tertiary institutions. Therefore, Uganda proposed making more effort in ensuring that there is access to family planning, corresponding to the Millennium Development Goals. With family planning, there will be a greater chance ensuring that every child, especially the girls, will have enough resources for education. Moreover, the United Nations Joint Programming on Gender Equality should be continued in the future so as to improve the gender balance of paid workers. Uganda hopes that gender equality can be achieved with all the policies mentioned above.

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Hong Kong Model United Nations 2013

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United Kingdom Gender inequality is a major global issue, most significant in underdeveloped and developing countries, where women remain second-class citizens, deprived of many fundamental rights. The United Nations has always been aware of the issue, including it as goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals - “Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women - Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education, no later than 2015” In order to achieve this goal, the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) has focused on Women’s Empowerment, in particular the areas of “Gender and Poverty Reduction”, “Gender and Democratic Governance”, “Gender and Environment and Energy”, “HIV, Human Rights and Sexual Diversity”, and “Gender and Crisis Prevention and Recovery”. The United Kingdom is relatively advanced in this respect, stemming from a long-standing fundamental respect and recognition of gender equality at a social level. Legal and corporate frameworks provide safeguards in the protection of women’s rights and equity, which further encourage good practices. Such laws have been enforced since 1970, and are constantly being revised under by the country’s Gender Equality Mechanism for continued and enhanced protection. The promotion of access to education and employment opportunities, as well as respect for human rights (such as over marriage, in sexual relations, the upbringing of children), have provided for the current degree of equality. On the international stage, for least developed countries, the United Kingdom views that improving equity in access to necessities such as food, water, and basic healthcare, as well as preventing abandonment of girls, improves the situation of infant mortality and child deaths. Then, for lesser developed countries, the United Kingdom views that empowering women through ensuring universal primary education is a clearly important priority. By then further extending this to secondary and tertiary education, the competitiveness of women in employment can be improved, benefiting job security. Such improvements can help lower traditional biases against women by showing that they are not the weaker ones in the society. For more developed countries, with this clearly dependent on the cultural and historical traditions of the country, respect for the role of women in society, especially in corporate and political leadership, should be encouraged and improved. By better educating women so that they are aware of their civil rights, and can make more informed decisions over marriage, sex, and children, future generations benefit, which again goes to the further development of society and the country.

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