Address by Foreign Minister Kristiina Ojuland at the 60th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva
Mr Chairman,
Honourable Members of the Commission,
Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The tragedy in Madrid last Thursday has deeply hurt all of us. I extend Estonia's deepest condolences to the people and Government of Spain. We profoundly condemn all terrorist activity and hope that the perpetrators will be brought swiftly to justice.
Terrorism poses new challenges for the promotion and protection of human rights. In fact, the promotion of human rights has to become an essential part of the fight against terrorism. And there is no area of human rights that could be left out of bounds.
Let me extend my best wishes to you, Mr Chairman, and the whole Bureau for performing the demanding task of presiding the 60th session of the Commission.
I would also welcome the appointment of Ms Louise Arbour as the new High Commissioner and thereupon the United Nations chief advocate for human rights. Estonia places confidence and hope in her leadership in promoting the human rights worldwide and in dealing with grave violations in this field. I would like to assure that Estonia fully supports her endeavours.
As Estonia has aligned itself to the European Union statement delivered by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland, I would like, as several Ministers taking the floor today, concentrate in my presentation mainly on the issue of human rights of women, introducing anew the areas of concern and possible solutions.
"Violence against women is a global outrage. The experience or threat of violence affects the lives of women everywhere, cutting across boundaries of wealth, race and culture. In home and in the community, in times of war and peace, women are beaten, raped, mutilated and killed with impunity." These are words whereby Amnesty International introduces its campaign to Stop Violence Against Women. Estonia warmly welcomes this initiative and recognizes its timeliness
Violence against women is one of the major obstacles to the achievement of real equality between women and men. Women suffer from violence resulting in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering, both in private and public life. As we know violence can take different forms, such as sexual assault, violence within the family or in the domestic unit, trafficking in human beings for the purposes of sexual exploitation and sex tourism, rape or assaults in armed conflict situations.
Violence against the more vulnerable part of the society is a global, political and social problem and therefore has to be tackled at all levels - national, regional and the international.
Mainstreaming the women’s human rights throughout the UN system could be achieved by tighter cooperation with Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and other Treaty Bodies. We invite all states to effectively cooperate with these human rights mechanisms and implement the Conventions’ provisions at national level.
In the framework of United Nations the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is the main tool. Most of the states have recognized the significance of the instrument, as CEDAW has one of the largest memberships among the human rights treaties. And hereby I would like to pay tribute to the work of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Estonia welcomes the Committee’s efforts to reform its working methods in order to increase efficiency. The Committee’s role in the awareness rising in these issues and the constant dialogues with State Parties should not be underestimated.
Mr Chairman
Estonia appreciates the cooperation between the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Human Rights and we believe that it should be reinforced by enhancing the joint work plan of the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Universal initiatives could be even more effective if they were advanced at regional levels. When speaking about the fight against the violence against women in the Nordic-Baltic region I would like to mention that co-operation in this field has been intensive and fruitful, and has spawned numerous projects on different topics. The main themes of the co-operation are: integrating a gender perspective into Nordic-Baltic programmes as well as into financial policy, women and entrepreneurship, trafficking in women, violence against women, men and gender equality, youth and gender equality. In this context I would like to mention the work of the Nordic-Baltic Task Force initiated by my dear friend Anna Lindh, late Swedish Foreign Minister in 2002. Our Government strongly supports the activities of the Task Force in its combat against trafficking in human beings, particularly women and children. I am personally convinced that our aim should be to move towards achieving a trafficking free region, trafficking free Europe and trafficking free World.
Estonia hosted the third Baltic Sea Women’s Conference “WoMen and Democracy” the series of which started in Lübeck in 1997. Different awareness-rising campaigns have been organised in our region, however this is only the first step towards what has lead to long-term cooperation in the Baltic Sea region. Training courses for civil servants, conferences and seminars for politicians, researchers and NGOs have been organised in the Baltic countries and information material has been produced and disseminated for different target groups.
In order to effectively combat with the phenomenon of violence against women in our societies, recognition of the problem should be the starting point. As much as I would like to state that this is not the problem in my country, it is not true, this is the problem we all face independent of the country’s geographical location or level of development.
It was not so long ago when Estonian Government recognized the existence of the problem of violence against women, including domestic violence. After this in recent years remarkable improvements in combating violence against women have taken place. The police statistics have been carefully revised following a representative survey by the Ministry of Social Affairs in close cooperation with the Estonian Open Society Institute on violence against women. As a result a sociological databank of the scale and scope of violence in Estonia has been created. Moreover, the results of the survey have been presented at 16 training sessions with 800 participants, among them the police, social and medical workers, specialists engaged in the victim support system, women's organisations, etc.
A large-scale project has been initiated with a view to elaborate a cooperation scheme between the police and social workers to jointly launch preventive activities and provide help to victims. Active participation of press, radio and TV has helped to provoke a public debate on the issue of violence against women. A manual for the victims of rape has been published and distributed via women's organisations. Also a book "Silenced Voices", containing interviews with victims, officials and specialists as well as articles by outstanding scientists, was published.
National courts have handled first criminal cases concerning the charges of domestic violence and the perpetrators have been found guilty and punished.
The following steps are being taken by the Government to improve the situation of women: A government action plan for mitigation and prevention of violence against women is being drafted. The plan envisages work along 5 strategic objectives:
Convincing the public of the danger of violence against women and launching a programme "No to domestic violence".
Improving the existing legislation, which will criminalize also minor cases of domestic violence.
Raising the capacity of the police officials by specifying their rights and adding responsibilities to improve the handling of cases of domestic violence;
Introducing the victim-centred approach, i.e. provide immediate medical, legal, psychological assistance to the victims of violence;
Increasing inter-agency cooperation including preparation of a joint action plan and developing a network of all relevant persons, institutions and authorities.Estonian Government has performed an analysis of the situation of women in Estonia and their possibilities to exercise fundamental rights in different spheres of social life. As result of the analysis the Government decided to draft a special law concerning the gender equality. The Draft Gender Equality Act clarifies the terminology and definitions with regard to gender equality, explicitly prohibits direct and indirect discrimination, and provides relevant measures. The Gender Equality Act further obliges authorities and employers to promote equality between men and women, thus strengthening the legislative basis for promoting gender equality de jure and de facto. The Act is currently under discussion in Estonian Parliament.
On the initiative of the Estonian Government a special commission was constituted for elaborating the National Gender Equality Plan for years 2004-2008. The plan will be formed on the basis of international human rights conventions, agreements and documents and will consist of different domains including violence against women, trafficking, protection and assistance of victims, working life, education, and economic situation of women as well as institutional co-operation.
Prevention of violence should be conducted on many levels, not only on the level of the individual but also of the society as a whole by creating better knowledge through education and greater awareness of the problem and its causes. Media could play an important part in influencing the changing of attitudes. Awareness-rising can be seen as the most effective preventive measure: it can influence public attitudes and stereotypes, as well as contribute to the shaping of more respectful and non-violent behaviour among young generation, in particular among young men. Special attention must be paid to familiarising women with their legal rights in order to provide them with the means to stop violence at an early stage. Specific programmes directed towards violent men could be drawn up and the patterns of behaviour of men should be dealt with.
The Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia in co-operation with Tallinn Pedagogical University organised on the International Women’s Day a conference called "If he beats – he loves..." that focused on the violence in partnership relations. A discussion forum was organised to consider the reasons for violence, myths connected to it and statistical data. The conference raised considerable interest among professional circles as well as media and public at large. A comprehensive study concerning women and violence in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will be published in autumn.
There is though a long way to go to create a truly inclusive world where women and men are equal.
I would like to conclude my presentation with the words of Martin Luther King who said "It is not acts of the bad people, but the silence of the good people." I am convinced we can break the silence for the sake of all people.
Thank You
Honourable Members of the Commission,
Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The tragedy in Madrid last Thursday has deeply hurt all of us. I extend Estonia's deepest condolences to the people and Government of Spain. We profoundly condemn all terrorist activity and hope that the perpetrators will be brought swiftly to justice.
Terrorism poses new challenges for the promotion and protection of human rights. In fact, the promotion of human rights has to become an essential part of the fight against terrorism. And there is no area of human rights that could be left out of bounds.
Let me extend my best wishes to you, Mr Chairman, and the whole Bureau for performing the demanding task of presiding the 60th session of the Commission.
I would also welcome the appointment of Ms Louise Arbour as the new High Commissioner and thereupon the United Nations chief advocate for human rights. Estonia places confidence and hope in her leadership in promoting the human rights worldwide and in dealing with grave violations in this field. I would like to assure that Estonia fully supports her endeavours.
As Estonia has aligned itself to the European Union statement delivered by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland, I would like, as several Ministers taking the floor today, concentrate in my presentation mainly on the issue of human rights of women, introducing anew the areas of concern and possible solutions.
"Violence against women is a global outrage. The experience or threat of violence affects the lives of women everywhere, cutting across boundaries of wealth, race and culture. In home and in the community, in times of war and peace, women are beaten, raped, mutilated and killed with impunity." These are words whereby Amnesty International introduces its campaign to Stop Violence Against Women. Estonia warmly welcomes this initiative and recognizes its timeliness
Violence against women is one of the major obstacles to the achievement of real equality between women and men. Women suffer from violence resulting in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering, both in private and public life. As we know violence can take different forms, such as sexual assault, violence within the family or in the domestic unit, trafficking in human beings for the purposes of sexual exploitation and sex tourism, rape or assaults in armed conflict situations.
Violence against the more vulnerable part of the society is a global, political and social problem and therefore has to be tackled at all levels - national, regional and the international.
Mainstreaming the women’s human rights throughout the UN system could be achieved by tighter cooperation with Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and other Treaty Bodies. We invite all states to effectively cooperate with these human rights mechanisms and implement the Conventions’ provisions at national level.
In the framework of United Nations the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is the main tool. Most of the states have recognized the significance of the instrument, as CEDAW has one of the largest memberships among the human rights treaties. And hereby I would like to pay tribute to the work of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Estonia welcomes the Committee’s efforts to reform its working methods in order to increase efficiency. The Committee’s role in the awareness rising in these issues and the constant dialogues with State Parties should not be underestimated.
Mr Chairman
Estonia appreciates the cooperation between the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Human Rights and we believe that it should be reinforced by enhancing the joint work plan of the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Universal initiatives could be even more effective if they were advanced at regional levels. When speaking about the fight against the violence against women in the Nordic-Baltic region I would like to mention that co-operation in this field has been intensive and fruitful, and has spawned numerous projects on different topics. The main themes of the co-operation are: integrating a gender perspective into Nordic-Baltic programmes as well as into financial policy, women and entrepreneurship, trafficking in women, violence against women, men and gender equality, youth and gender equality. In this context I would like to mention the work of the Nordic-Baltic Task Force initiated by my dear friend Anna Lindh, late Swedish Foreign Minister in 2002. Our Government strongly supports the activities of the Task Force in its combat against trafficking in human beings, particularly women and children. I am personally convinced that our aim should be to move towards achieving a trafficking free region, trafficking free Europe and trafficking free World.
Estonia hosted the third Baltic Sea Women’s Conference “WoMen and Democracy” the series of which started in Lübeck in 1997. Different awareness-rising campaigns have been organised in our region, however this is only the first step towards what has lead to long-term cooperation in the Baltic Sea region. Training courses for civil servants, conferences and seminars for politicians, researchers and NGOs have been organised in the Baltic countries and information material has been produced and disseminated for different target groups.
In order to effectively combat with the phenomenon of violence against women in our societies, recognition of the problem should be the starting point. As much as I would like to state that this is not the problem in my country, it is not true, this is the problem we all face independent of the country’s geographical location or level of development.
It was not so long ago when Estonian Government recognized the existence of the problem of violence against women, including domestic violence. After this in recent years remarkable improvements in combating violence against women have taken place. The police statistics have been carefully revised following a representative survey by the Ministry of Social Affairs in close cooperation with the Estonian Open Society Institute on violence against women. As a result a sociological databank of the scale and scope of violence in Estonia has been created. Moreover, the results of the survey have been presented at 16 training sessions with 800 participants, among them the police, social and medical workers, specialists engaged in the victim support system, women's organisations, etc.
A large-scale project has been initiated with a view to elaborate a cooperation scheme between the police and social workers to jointly launch preventive activities and provide help to victims. Active participation of press, radio and TV has helped to provoke a public debate on the issue of violence against women. A manual for the victims of rape has been published and distributed via women's organisations. Also a book "Silenced Voices", containing interviews with victims, officials and specialists as well as articles by outstanding scientists, was published.
National courts have handled first criminal cases concerning the charges of domestic violence and the perpetrators have been found guilty and punished.
The following steps are being taken by the Government to improve the situation of women: A government action plan for mitigation and prevention of violence against women is being drafted. The plan envisages work along 5 strategic objectives:
Convincing the public of the danger of violence against women and launching a programme "No to domestic violence".
Improving the existing legislation, which will criminalize also minor cases of domestic violence.
Raising the capacity of the police officials by specifying their rights and adding responsibilities to improve the handling of cases of domestic violence;
Introducing the victim-centred approach, i.e. provide immediate medical, legal, psychological assistance to the victims of violence;
Increasing inter-agency cooperation including preparation of a joint action plan and developing a network of all relevant persons, institutions and authorities.Estonian Government has performed an analysis of the situation of women in Estonia and their possibilities to exercise fundamental rights in different spheres of social life. As result of the analysis the Government decided to draft a special law concerning the gender equality. The Draft Gender Equality Act clarifies the terminology and definitions with regard to gender equality, explicitly prohibits direct and indirect discrimination, and provides relevant measures. The Gender Equality Act further obliges authorities and employers to promote equality between men and women, thus strengthening the legislative basis for promoting gender equality de jure and de facto. The Act is currently under discussion in Estonian Parliament.
On the initiative of the Estonian Government a special commission was constituted for elaborating the National Gender Equality Plan for years 2004-2008. The plan will be formed on the basis of international human rights conventions, agreements and documents and will consist of different domains including violence against women, trafficking, protection and assistance of victims, working life, education, and economic situation of women as well as institutional co-operation.
Prevention of violence should be conducted on many levels, not only on the level of the individual but also of the society as a whole by creating better knowledge through education and greater awareness of the problem and its causes. Media could play an important part in influencing the changing of attitudes. Awareness-rising can be seen as the most effective preventive measure: it can influence public attitudes and stereotypes, as well as contribute to the shaping of more respectful and non-violent behaviour among young generation, in particular among young men. Special attention must be paid to familiarising women with their legal rights in order to provide them with the means to stop violence at an early stage. Specific programmes directed towards violent men could be drawn up and the patterns of behaviour of men should be dealt with.
The Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia in co-operation with Tallinn Pedagogical University organised on the International Women’s Day a conference called "If he beats – he loves..." that focused on the violence in partnership relations. A discussion forum was organised to consider the reasons for violence, myths connected to it and statistical data. The conference raised considerable interest among professional circles as well as media and public at large. A comprehensive study concerning women and violence in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will be published in autumn.
There is though a long way to go to create a truly inclusive world where women and men are equal.
I would like to conclude my presentation with the words of Martin Luther King who said "It is not acts of the bad people, but the silence of the good people." I am convinced we can break the silence for the sake of all people.
Thank You
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