Bangladesh faces ‘critical challenges’ to ensure gender equality

Bangladesh has presented violence against women, trafficking, and child marriage as “critical challenges” in the way of ensuring gender equality and women’s empowerment in its ‘Beijing+20’ review for the Asia-Pacific region.

Nurul Islam Hasibfrom Bangkokbdnews24.com
Published : 17 Nov 2014, 05:01 PM
Updated : 19 Nov 2014, 10:09 AM

These are despite the country’s success in bringing more girls to education and employment, and increasing life expectancy since 1995 when the landmark Beijing conference promised to attain gender equality.

The review process began on Monday at the UN regional headquarters in Bangkok with the meeting of the senior officials of the UNESCAP member countries including Bangladesh.

Before the meeting, every country has submitted its own report for the review to take stock of their progress and renew their pledge for accelerated actions.

UN Women is the focal agency of the landmark Beijing declaration that set off a platform for action which was later endorsed by the UN General Assembly in 1996.

Known as ‘Beijing Platform for Action’, it constitutes a global framework for realising gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

Thai Minister for Social Development and Human Security Adul Saengsingkaew inaugurated the meeting on Monday morning.

He said: “Thai women still face gender discrimination in the workplace."

The review at the regional level, before global launch in March next year, comes when the global leaders are discussing the post-2015 development goals after the expiry of the MDGs.

Bangladesh in its report said it was one of the first few countries that ratified the CEDAW in 1984 to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women.

Under its mandate, “remarkable progress has been made in gender equality and women empowerment”.

Policy reform has brought more girls to the schools while women participation both in national and local level has also been increased.

Currently 20 percent parliamentarians in Bangladesh including the prime minister, leader of the opposition, and speaker are women

The increase of life expectancy has been described as a result of increase in women’s status, improvements in women’s access to nutrition and health services, and an overall improvement in infrastructure.

Maternal deaths have been reduced significantly that put Bangladesh’s MDG-5 on track.

The report, however, blamed “weak enforcement” of “strong laws and policies” for standing in the way of promoting and protecting the rights of women.

“Violence against women still persists as a critical challenge for the country,” the report cited.

Despite awareness, slow legal processes, difficulties in ensuring accountability of law enforcers, and the uncertainty of obtaining legal justice have been blamed for the continuous violence against women and trafficking.

Despite the increase in age for marriage for both male and female, the proportion of women marrying early is high.

Child marriage also appears as a “major concern”, according to the report, having an “intergenerational impact” with undernourished teenage mothers having underweight children who are at greater risk of malnutrition.

Bangladesh stressed on coordinated efforts of the government, NGOs and development partners for further improvements.

The senior officials would also complete the draft of a declaration that the ministers of those countries would adopt at the end of their two-day meet from Wednesday.