Abuses against women affect economies, U.N. report says

September 21, 2000
Web posted at: 2:17 PM EDT (1817 GMT)

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By Jonathan D. Austin
CNN.com Writer

UNITED NATIONS -- Women throughout the world continue to be the victims of violence, sexual exploitation and discrimination and those acts harm their countries' economies, according to a United Nations report.

VIDEO CNN's Margaret Lowrie reviews the report Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)    READ THE REPORT "The State of World Population 2000" (will open in a new window)

The report, issued by the U.N. Population Fund, notes that conditions for women have improved since 1994. That's when 179 countries met and pledged to do more for their female citizens.

But Stan Bernstein, a senior research adviser with the fund, said the continuing discrimination against women constitutes "a massive violation of human rights that takes various forms around the globe."

The annual report, which was released this week, is an attempt to underscore "what the costs of inequality are, what has kept it in place in the past and what's being done to address it now," Bernstein said.

Bernstein said the report includes economic data because "sometimes people don't pay attention to misery until it hits them in the pocketbook. So we felt we had to report on both sides."

According to the report, titled "State of the World Population 2000," a 1 percent increase in female secondary schooling results in a 0.3 percent increase in economic growth.

If you use Pakistan as an example, and don't consider inflation, that country's economy would have grown by $262 million last year had it increased its investment in female secondary education by 1 percent.

The report also tries to show the link between abuse, illness, early deaths, abortions and degradation. According to its data:

• One in three women will experience violence during her lifetime -- most often at the hands of people she knows.
• Complications from pregnancy and childbirth kill 500,000 women each year.
• Stillbirths or newborn deaths total an estimated 8 million yearly, with the lack of obstetric care cited as the primary cause.
• About a third of all pregnancies each year -- 80 million -- are unintended or unwanted.

"Abused women tend not to use family planning services ... for fear of reprisal from husbands," the report states. It cities a Ghana study in which "close to half of all women and 43 percent of men said a man was justified in beating his wife if she used contraceptives without his expressed consent."

Likewise, abused women who participated in focus groups in Peru and Mexico said they did not discuss birth control with their husbands, fearing a violent reaction.

The resistance to contraception, the report said, "takes a tremendous toll, both physical and emotional, and causes immense damage to a woman's reproductive health." Unwanted pregnancies, frequent high-risk pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases are among the results.

The miseries surveyed in the report have "direct consequences for the lives of women, for the lives of men, for the quality of their partnerships, for the development of their communities and the development of their countries," Bernstein said.

The report refers to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt. At that conference, 179 countries agreed to increase domestic spending on health care, including reproductive health, and agreed to share technical data from successful programs.

In a 1999 review of the conference goals, representatives from those countries agreed that empowering women and meeting their education and health needs were necessary, according to the report.

"The countries included many of these goals for reproductive health, for women's empowerment, for reduction of women's mortality and HIV/AIDS deaths," Bernstein said.

The report cites changes in legal or administrative codes that have since improved conditions for women, including:

• The adding of sexual and reproductive rights and gender equity to the new Venezuelan constitution.
• The approved sale of low-dosage oral contraceptives in Japan.
• Legislation to increase access to reproductive health services in Mexico and Peru.

The report also cites advancements in Albania, Burkina Faso, Fiji, Madagascar, Poland and the Sudan, all of which adopted measures to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex.

"The world has moved these topics to the center of the international development agenda," Bernstein said. "This is a time of extraordinary opportunity, and we have to rise to the occasion.

"We know what needs to be done, and we need to commit ourselves to do the action," he said. "There are not going to be too many second chances."

U.N. conference calls for AIDS programs, domestic violence laws to protect women
June 10, 2000
Kuwaiti legislature says 'no' to women's vote
November 30, 1999

United Nations
Human Rights Watch