|
IWRP-SA
IWRP is incorporated as a Section 21 not-for-profit organization in South Africa, with a board of seven community members. The IWRP-SA projects are:
Putting Feminism on the Agenda Introduction Susan Bazilli (Ed.) November 2008 This introduction provides a brief summary of the events leading up to the colloquium Putting Feminism on the Agenda, held in November 2006 at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, as well as a short description of the papers in this edited e-publication. Background November 2006 marked the 15th anniversary of the conference and subsequent publication of Putting Women on the Agenda. This was the first regional conference held to galvinize the struggle for women's rights in the possibility of a new constitutional dispensation in South Africa. Together with others that followed, it was a significant event in the development of the South African women's movement as a place for engaging the new democracy: network building and consolidation, formulation of policy and advocacy strategies, legislative drafting, consultation on the creation of the national gender machinery; and providing support for women who moved from activism to the state. That conference was attended by over 450 academics, activists, lawyers, judges, law professors, ANC members returning from exile, representatives from NGOs and participants from the Southern African region. Many went on to help shape the Constitution and the laws that would create the new democratic South Africa and many have become significant players in the new South Africa. As democracy has become entrenched, the women's movement has engaged the state on a range of issues, often prioritising formal legal gains over building new leaders and capacity and strenghtening links with community organisations. As the debate has shifted from opposition and protest politics to one of implementation and delivery, the national women's movement has became disparate and less visible, and the activists, legal advocates and scholars have necessarily shifted their focus to proactive policy and advocacy activities. Women have worked in a sector specific and segmented manner within the areas of their expertise and analysis such as land reform, gender violence, reproductive rights, HIV/AIDS, constutional litigation, customary law, health, etc. However, both the focus on formal gains in the state and the declining collaboration between and among sectors has weakened the movement's ability to advocate for women's rights in a more coherent way. Thus what was historically a national women's movement using opposition to the apartheid regime as a cohesive focus, became national and local women's movements, struggling with how to work with the newly elected democratic government, comprised of many of the feminists who came from the movement itself. In addition, new gaps emarged. For example, the continuing focus on feminist policy analysis and advocacy by women outside the state became seen in many instances as an attack on the new fragile State structures rather than contributing valuable analysis and critique on how to entrench women's equality rights. In reverse, the feminists who went into government now found themselves confronted by the criticism of their sisters and former comrades because of the slow and hampered nature of the reconstruction and redevelopment of the inherited apartheid state. In effect, this was democracy at its fledgling inception; messy and contradictory and idealistic and frustrating – but revolutionary. This herstory raises a number of critical questions for feminists about the nature of contemporary political institutions, the possibilities for radical change through the state (including the courts), and the kinds of processes within the women's movement that need to accompany state-focused political and legal strategies. South Africa is far from being representative of the continent as a whole, as well as other emerging democracies or established ones, but the dilemmas faced within the context of democratization finds resonance globally. The particular combination of political will, institutional development and linkages between activists in the state and in civil society suggested a different trajectory to the usual forms of engagement between the women's movement and the state. The South African situation thus raises a set of interesting and important questions for women in SA, and globally:
This project, initially called Putting Women on the Agenda 2 (PWOTA2), and renamed by the organizers as PFOTA, was seen by the organizing committee members and by the lead organizations, CALS and IWRP, to be aimed at providing the space, time and reflection needed to further develop an explicity feminist (rights) agenda for the future. It is recognized and understood that “feminism” in an African context and within the South African disparate communities is often a controversial term. How to include feminist analysis and critique in large national gatherings is neither productive nor useful, as the debate becomes one of semantics and terminology rather than one of pragmatic policy development or political and legal strategies. Rather, reflection on the past twelve years during PFOTA was to form the basis for critical thinking to develop rigorous policy proposals, political and legal strategies and “think pieces” that were to be taken forward by activists at, and after, PFOTA. The conceptualization of PFOTA has been a partnership between CALS at Wits University in South Africa, and the IWRP at the University of Victoria in Canada. Canadian feminist legal scholars have been working in partnership with South African feminist legal scholars since the 1980's. Much exchange and learning has taken place between them, particularly regarding Canadian constitutional jurisprudence on the Charter of Rights, and South African jurisprudence especially on socioeconomic rights. It is a fundamental belief that the research, expertise, and learning is “South/North” and “North/South”. It is also a fundamental commitment of the partnership that academics and legal scholars work in equal partnership with civil society feminist activists who have been working on the challenges of making women's constitutional rights become “lived rights” in both countries. The colloquium that was held was strategic, focused, analytical, facilitated and small in number but representaive of regional geography, key sectors, race, age, and organisations. Of the 100 participants invited, we had 70 in attendance. In conceptualising this conference, it was agreed that it would focus especially on constitutional rights activism in critical areas of women's lives. These were identified as
Objectives The objectives of PFOTA were:
Research Papers Research papers were commissioned from key researchers/activists and presented in summary on panel sessions with key discussants, and then followed by wide ranging discussion from the participants. The process was facilitated by a key group of trained and experienced facilitators. The discussion was captured by a rapporteur to produce a final document from the conference, and the summary of those transcripts is found in this e-publication. In order to include the active participation of key young women and girl's activists, there was an all day Girls Forum held the day prior to the conference where 10 young women and girls between the ages of 14 and 20 attended. This Forum was held to work with the girls on the key summaries of the issues papers and they were given a role as discussants on each session to ensure that their perspectives were heard. More information on the Girls Forum can be found at the GirlsNet website. There was participation from Namibia, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe in order to share the learnings from the region with South Africans as well as to expand the conversation. Globalization has impacted on the SADC region, as has South Africa's dominance. The situation for women in Zimbabwe and Swaziland, in particular, has worsened over the past decade. The participation of the Professor Elizabeth Sheehy of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa, and as well as IWRP Director Susan Bazilli, ensured that the lessons from women in Canada and the recent massive cuts to women's equality advocacy would be shared as lessons as well. Both Lee Lakeman of the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres, and Marilou McPhedran, were also supposed to be in attendance, but personal circumstances in Canada prevented them from travelling. However, we have included their presentations in this publication. The tone of the gathering was set by the first presenter, Elizabeth Sheehy. As a participant in the 1990 conference, she was asked to update her presentation some 16 years later, to see how women have fared in Canada since the introduction of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Her response, entitled Formalized Inequality - Women's Equality Rights in Canada 1990-2006, was a rather shocking reminder of how fragile rights are, the need for the women's movement to stay vigilant, and the tremendous losses that Canadian women have faced. Cathi Albertyn had said that in 1990 her presentation had been a “morose” one, however Sheehy now says that she was being overly optimistic at that time. She provides a review of the ways in which the equality provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms have in fact impacted adversely against women. Her ‘sobering reflections' from 1990 have in fact become ‘shocking'. She concludes by arguing the need to defend women's right to defend themselves and their children against violence. An issue that we can see is just as timely in South Africa today. Anu Pillay's Violence Against Women in South Africa – Where to From Here????, provides a context for examining VAW from a South African feminist perspective, and reviews the many initiatives undertaken by feminist anti-violence workers in the past decade or so. She poses the questions - What happened? What did we do right? And what went wrong that allows violence against women, in all spheres of the lived realities of women's lives, to continue to prevail unabated? Her chapter encourages our discussion and debate about the way forward. Sisonke Msimang's Women and HIV/AIDS paper is divided into three parts. The first section tells the story of the political debates. The second section looks at the personal experiences of women, and the third section looks at what the analysis means in terms of feminist activism and leadership. Critically, the paper grapples with the question of what AIDS mean for a nation beset by poverty, inequality, lost identities and dispossession, a nation struggling to be a democracy not in name only, but in practice. Sibongile Ndashe addresses the fact that the reform of customary law, particularly with regard to removing aspects that are considered discriminatory towards women, has progressed and regressed at the same time. Her Customary Law paper argues that the cause of the problem is a series of failures ranging from misdiagnosis to well-intentioned but misguided interventions. She points out that the issues to be addressed have not been articulated with sufficient clarity and that this has adversely impacted on the strategies adopted to date, and that the interventions as made run the risk of failure because they are superficial. She concludes by making a case for a conceptual rethinking of the customary law debate with a view to extending a courteous invitation to some of the stakeholders that have abandoned the process of development and dragging back to the debate those who have shunned their Constitutional obligation to develop customary law. In The King's Rule is Considered Supreme: The Impact of Religion and Culture on Gender Equality, Gertude Fester uses the Women's Charter for Effective Equality as a guide to explore, from a feminist perspective, the current strategies used by women in SA and why women have not achieved their demands 12 years after democracy. She argues that many women's lives have not changed because of the profound impact that religion and culture have on women, despite the constitution and progressive legislation. The average women's life is closer to her religion or culture than the constitution. Some questions she considers are: What are the opportunities and political spaces for feminists? How do feminists use the positive space created by the African National Congress (ANC) policy and which alliances /coalition or partnerships should be formed to realise women's rights and gender equality? How do we reconcile aspects of the diverse South African cultures and religions with the human rights culture articulated by the Constitution and legislation? Aninka Claassens and Sizane Ngubane's chapter, Women, Land and Power: the Impact of the Communal Land Rights Act, examines the likely impact of the Communal Land Rights Act 11 of 2004 on rural women in South Africa. This paper is an elaboration on the discussion document presented at PFOTA by Claassens. Their work is based on research undertaken in the context of the legal challenge to the Act. The Act deals with the content and vesting of land rights as well as the powers and functions of the structures that will administer ‘communal' land. The chapter looks at the interplay between land rights and power over land. The discussion begins with a description of some of the problems facing rural women in the former homeland areas covered by the Act. It then describes the two main objections to the Bill raised by women's organisations in late 2003 during the parliamentary process leading to the passing of the Communal Land Rights Bill. They make the discussions very poignant by outlining some of the case studies from their research. In Turning gender rights into entitlements: Women and welfare provision in post-apartheid South Africa, Shireen Hassim answers the question to what extent is the democratic state directing public resources in ways that advance gender equality? She explores the extent to which one key area of policymaking, social welfare, has attempted to integrate gender rights into the allocation of resources by focusing on the elaboration of a social policy framework – the groundwork for what could perhaps be called Africa's first welfare state. Social welfare is a useful lens to through which to refract the different expectations that different social groups have of the state and to examine the ways in which different needs have been interpreted by the state and other social actors as legitimate bases for entitlements. She argues that while women have made enormous strides in gaining recognition for their particular political disadvantages, there has been slower translation of political rights into social rights. Mohau Pheko's Trade and Globalization Through South African Women's Eyes explores the contradictory nature and complexity that globalization and international trade brings to women in South Africa. It exposes new forms of poverty and presents some lived experiences to confirm the evidence that the power structures in South Africa are organized around patriarchal assumptions that bestow to men monopoly over power, authority and wealth. During her presentation at PFOTA, it became clear that while every subject area discussed at the symposium should be considered “cross-cutting”, the issue of globalization impacted on every other issue raised. In fact, this analysis is continued by Lee Lakeman in her use of the example and metaphor of the New Orleans ‘disaster' in the Relevance of Rights for Systemic Change for Women to discuss sex, race and class and institutionalized oppression. She places examples of the Canadian state's refusal to act in cases of violence against women within a debate about ‘rights'. As with Sheehy's paper, she paints a dire picture of the situation for women's equality, or rather inequality, in Canada. Lessons that we all need to take to heart, and to action. Lakeman concludes that democratic, self-organized and sustained independent women's groups and coalitions are essential, a point that is part of ongoing debate amongst the women's communities in Southern Africa. The final chapter, Women's Constitutional Activism in Canada and South Africa, by Marilou McPhedran reminds us all that the struggle is ongoing. She reviews the engagement of women in both countries in terms of equality provisions in the constitutions, and the grassroots movements that led to both. She also places women's constitutional activism in an international context of the last decade. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to acknowledge the work of the following women, whose contributions have been essential to this publication. The first, of course, to the authors, who have allowed us to publish their work here on this website. Without Cathi Albertyn, whose leadership made PFOTA happen, we would not have this e-book to share with you. Sally Shackleton, Director of WomensNet, whose vision of making feminist work as accessible as possible has provided great support. Salima Samnani, a law student from the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, was an intern at CALS and worked very hard on assisting with the organization of the symposium in November 2006. We thank Patricia Weber and Rashida Usman of the University of Victoria for their assistance with editing the final papers by chasing footnotes and finding sources. Without the generous funding from the International Development Research Centre, the Ford Foundation, and HIVOS, we would not have been able to carry out the symposium itself, or gather the papers together into this publication. Senakangwedi - Access to Justice for Rural WomenSenakangwedi is the South African NGO partner with IWRP on the Access to Justice for Rural Women project. This pilot project, funded by USAID, addresses issues of HIV/AIDS, inheritance, maintenance, violence against women and girls, and other issues impacting on women in the small rural community of Moratele in the North West Province. A local women's rights forum has been created, which works with the traditional elders and tribal council so that the community can address gender inequality issues on its own. Small local workshops are held on significant days such as Human Rights Day and Women's Day, as well as a program for the 16 Days of Activism on Violence Against Women. Community radio programs in Tswana have been developed by the community on awareness of these issues. The African Gender Development IndexIWRP provided consulting, research and editing services to the Centre for Applied Legal Studies in the completion of the South African pilot of the AGDI. The Economic Commission on Africa designed the AGDI as an important tool for informing regional and global processes on the situation and the status of women in Africa. AGDI is a composite index composed of two parts, the Gender Status Index (GSI) and the African Women's Progress Scoreboard (AWPS) rather than a collection of individual statistics. AGDI is a specifically African index with its emphasis on the major African charters and documents that have a bearing on gender relations and women's empowerment. AGDI will provide a mechanism for measuring the status of women as compared to men's in the social, economic and political spheres. In developing this index, ECA hopes to achieve the following objectives:
The two components of AGDI:
GSI and AWSP combine both quantitative and qualitative indicators. Thus, AGDI is a strategic tool for stimulating the process of community participation and enhancing political awareness of gender issues. Grandmothers
With thanks: original site created by Kelly Mannix. Maintained and updated by Nina Cherington. |
