Measuring progress on women's rights: how far has Namibia come in implementing the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), since its ratification in 1992, two years after independence?

Namibia's progress and challenges were reviewed in January 2007 by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on the basis of government's combined second and third periodic report, as well as the non-governmental Shadow Report submitted by the National Society for Human Rights and Women's Solidarity.

While government had a delegation of eight to present its report, the authors of the Shadow Report were not able to secure the funds to travel to New York to address the Committee. According to Rosa Namises of Women's Solidarity, government ignored the organisations' request to be included as partners in the official delegation, presumably due

to their critical stance.

Despite this challenge, Namises believes that the Committee seriously considered the Shadow Report when formulating its recommendations. "In its Concluding Remarks, the Committee has appreciated only two things from the State's report: the cooperation in compiling the report and the legislation government has enacted which addresses some provisions of CEDAW. Many of the recommendations stem from the issues that we raised in our Shadow Report, for example the lack of disaggregated data, the persistence of gender roles and stereotypes, and the huge need for disseminating information and awareness raising. These are some of the areas of concern in our report."

Compiling the Shadow Report

According to Rosa, compiling the Shadow Report took a great deal of effort and she was happy to have Phil ya Nangoloh of the National Society for Human Rights as a partner. "I want to congratulate him for not sitting back and making CEDAW an issue simply for women. He worked many late nights and countless hours compiling this report and I want to ask other men to follow suit." Rosa told Sister Namibia that she believed with more input from other organisations, the report could have been more concrete and powerful. She emphasised that it is not just up to the NGOs working specifically on gender to contribute, but that all of us should come together to work for gender equality.

"The issue of women's rights is cross-cutting. It's a human rights issue; it's an environmental issue; every area of society affects women and children. And," Rosa added, "it's not just about NGOs." She encourages all women to record their experiences. "When you experience violence or discrimination, when you seek help from civil servants and don't receive it, share your story. Write it down, in any language. Share it with our organisations so that it can be documented for future reports."

What the CEDAW Committee concluded

While the Committee did commend the Namibian government on the laws it has passed to end discrimination against women, the upgrading of the Department of Women's Affairs to a full-fledged Ministry, and the 1997 adoption of a National Gender Policy, it concluded that these are essentially paper tigers whose impacts on the lives of women have yet to be seen.

The Committee reviewed all aspects of women's lives, from health and education to sexual rights and participation in governance. In the end, they presented seven pages of recommendations to the State. According to the Committee, one major obstacle in the implementation of the provisions of CEDAW is the lack of monitoring systems and of disaggregated data. This makes it difficult to assess the actual situation of women and the effectiveness of policies and programmes. The Committee therefore insisted that Namibia enhance data collection, disaggregating data not only by sex, but by age, ethnicity and by rural and urban areas. It must also monitor the impact of laws, policies and programmes and use the findings to formulate new policies to promote the effective implementation of CEDAW.

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The Committee further concluded that lack of knowledge is another impediment to progress. Judges, lawyers, prosecutors, and women do not know about the provisions of CEDAW and therefore women are not able to claim their rights. The Committee urged the State to provide training for judges, lawyers and prosecutors around CEDAW's provisions and to step-up a sustained campaign to raise awareness and increase the legal literacy of women, especially rural women and NGOs working with women. It also suggested implementing special temporary measures to accelerate women's equality in political, economic, social and cultural life.

Other areas of concern expressed by the Committee included women's health, specifically sexual and reproductive health, unsafe abortion, maternal mortality and HIV/Aids. It focused on the problem of gender stereotypes and harmful cultural practices including early marriage, and criticised aspects of the Married Persons Equality Act, which does not address the inequity in customary marriages with regard to property and does not require customary marriages to be registered, two factors which often leave widows and their children destitute and homeless.

The Committee also highlighted the persistent problem of violence against women--despite the measures implemented by the government; the trafficking of women and girls; and girls' education, including government's current policy on pregnancy which requires girls who fall pregnant to stay away from school for one year. The plight of rural women, who lack access to healthcare and economic opportunities and who are underrepresented in regional councils, was also outlined in the Committee's conclusions.

The way forward

The CEDAW Committee recommended a variety of steps that Namibia must take in order to reconcile its gender policy with the provisions of CEDAW, and take stock of what is actually changing or not changing in the lives of women. In its Concluding Remarks, the Committee made it clear that it is time for Namibia to put words into action. If the country wants to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, it must be sure to fully and effectively implement the provisions of CEDAW. That includes not only developing laws, policies and programmes, but monitoring their implementation and evaluating their effectiveness to determine if they are truly impacting the lives of women.

Activists promoting women's rights have welcomed the recommendations, saying they would be useful in guiding their work. Elizabeth IKhaxas of Women's Leadership Centre said that her organisation was taking particular note of the need for government to study the impact of the Traditional Authorities Act and the Community Courts Act to ensure that customs and cultural practices that are harmful and put women and girls at risk of HIV infection are discontinued. Ottilie Abrahams of Namibian Women's Association welcomed the recommendation to review the education ministry's policy on pregnancy as it may be a deterrent for girls to complete their secondary education. Liz Frank of Sister Namibia said that it was now up to the NANGOF gender sector to study the recommendations more closely so as to support and monitor their implementation. Namibia is due to present its next report to CEDAW in 2009 and more NGOs should become involved in writing the next Shadow Report, a process that is welcomed by the CEDAW Committee as an important resource for its work.

Budgeting for women's rights

The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has just published a report "Budgeting for women's rights: monitoring government budgets for compliance with CEDAW", which elaborates on how budgets and budget policy making processes can be monitored for compliance with human rights standards, in particular CEDAW. The report is based on the premise that accountability to women's rights needs to be translated into mobilising the necessary resources to meet the commitments made by the ratification of CEDAW. This will be a useful tool to all who are serious about 'putting words into action'.

To read CEDAW's Concluding Comments on Namibia in full go to SARPN (Southern African Regional Poverty Network) http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0002324/index.php.