Transcript Slide 1

Liberalizing Trade in Agriculture and
Women‘s Human Rights
Simone Heri
Contents
• Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture
– Women as Consumers
– Women as Producers: Feminization of Agriculture
• A Human Rights Approach to Trade
– Issues of Concern under CEDAW
– The Approach of the CESCR
– The Fundamental Principle of Non-Discrimination
• Indicators for measuring changes in gender equality
through trade
• Conclusion
Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture
• Three pillars of the Agreement on Agriculture (1995)
– Increasing market access
– Reducing trade-distorting domestic support
– Reducing export subsidies
• Balanced by Special and Differential Treatment for
developing, least-developed and net-food importing
countries
 Still of limited scope compared to de facto existing „special and
preferential treatment“ for developed countries
Women as Consumers
• According to the underlying rationale of trade to move
production to where it is comparatively more efficient,
food prices will eventually fall.
• However:
– Highly distorted agricultural production in OECD countries with
artificially cheap products for export,
 Prices of these products will rise if agriculture is liberalized
– Demand for biofuels drive food prices up (by 10 percent in 2006)
• A rise in food prices will most likely not be gender-neutral
Women as Producers: Feminization of
Agriculture
• Women are the main producers of the world‘s staple
crops (rice, wheat, maize):
– providing up to 90 percent of the rural poor‘s food
intake
– producing between 60 and 80 percent of food in
most developing countries.
• HOWEVER: Fewer than 10 percent of women
farmers in developing countries own land
Feminization of Agriculture?
„Gender bias and gender blindness persist:
farmers are still generally perceived as ‚male‘ by
policy-makers and development planners. For
this reason, women find it more difficult than
men to gain access to valuable resources such
as land, credit and agricultural inputs,
technology, extension, training and services that
would enhance their production capacity. A lack
of available gender-disaggregated data means
that women‘s contribution to agriculture in
particular is poorly understood and their specific
needs ignored in policy-making“
FAO, Gender and Food Security,
http://www.fao.org/GENDER/en/agri-e.htm.
Matrix of „domination“ for women in agriculture
Gender-blind macro-economic policies
Social Class
Salary and Wage Discrimination
Discrimination in access to Economic & productive ressources
Labour force segmentation
Un-waged work
Women as reserve labour force
Access to reproductive health
Access to education
Implications of multiple roles for
productivity
♀
„Dominating“ factors determining whether
gender impacts will be positive or negative:
• Impact on growth and employment opportunities
• The sectoral distribution of exports and import
competition
• The skill level of male and female employment
• Competitive pressures which may reduce or encourage
gender discrimination, in particular wage differentials
• Labour market policies and institutions
• Laws and the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws
• Management of national government budget pressures
due to declines in tariff revenues
• The gender division of labour in households
• The cultural pattern of male and female roles in the
economy at large, including the unpaid economy
Gender-Neutral Data?
• Intangible Nature of Social Impacts
• Tendency to emphasize the quantifiable
impacts
• Relatively poor integration of a qualitative
perspective
• Reductionist Assumption of Cost-Benefit
Analysis
Contents
• Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture
– Women as Consumers
– Women as Producers: Feminization of Agriculture
• A Human Rights Approach to Trade
– Issues of Concern under CEDAW
– The Approach of the CESCR
– The Fundamental Principle of Non-Discrimination
• Indicators for measuring changes in gender equality
through trade
• Conclusion
Human Rights, Gender and Trade
• A Human Rights approach to promoting equality
between men and women in the context of trade
can add force and precision:
– Force: States have Human Rights obligations
concurrent with their commitments in the area of
international trade
– Precision: Covenants and General Recommendations
set out precisely the obligations of States to respect,
protect and fulfil the respective human right
Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture:
Issues of concern under CEDAW
RIGHT TO WORK
(Art. 11 CEDAW, as interpreted by Art. 14 (1) CEDAW
and General Recommendations Nos. 13 (1989) and 16
(1991))
Has the government assessed the impacts of
the right of rural women to remunerative work of
its current trade-driven approach to
development? Has it reminded ist trading
partners of their obligation under human rights
law to undertake such assessments?
See 3D, Niger: Agricultural trade liberalization and
women’s rights (August 2006), available at
http://www.3dthree.org/pdf_3D/3DCEDAWNigerAg.pdf
Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture:
Issues of concern under CEDAW
RIGHT TO HEALTH
(Art. 12 CEDAW, as interpreted by Art. 14 (1) CEDAW
and General Recommendation No. 24 (1999))
Has the government taken measures to ensure
that „special and differential treatment“ for
developing countries gained in agricultural trade
fora are matched at the national level with
implementation of poverty alleviaton strategies
that provide for rural women‘s physical and
economic access to productive resources, in
furtherance of their right to health?
Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture:
Issues of concern under CEDAW
RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE
(Art. 7 (b) and 14 (2) (a) CEDAW)
Has the government facilitated public education
and consultations, with women as well as men,
on trade negotiations, agricultural trade
liberalization, and their impacts on human
rights?
Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture:
Issues of concern under CEDAW
RIGHT TO TEMPORARY SPECIAL MEASURES
(Art. 4 CEDAW)
Has the government considered that a humanrights approach to agricultural trade could
require „special and differential treatment“ for
developing countries as a means of fulfilling
Article 4‘s requirement of „temporary special
measures“ to accelerate de fact equality for
women?
Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture:
The CESCR Approach
1.
Please describe what measures your country has
taken to ensure that your colleagues responsible for
trade policy know about their obligations under the
Covenant.
2.
Describe the steps you have taken to assess the
impacts, particularly on vulnerable groups, of the trade
agreements you are currently negotiating.
3.
Have you sought technical assistance from OHCHR
relating to your capacity to participate in trade
negotiations, or implement your trade commitments in
a way that is consistent with human rights?
See 3D, Accountability of Trade Policy‘s Effects on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (Apr. 30, 2007), available at
http://www.3dthree.org/pdf_3D/presentation_cescr2007.pdf
Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture and
the principle of non-discrimination
• The principle has since ist inclusion in the Charter of the
United Nations been restated in all major human rights
instruments.
=> All WTO State Parties have at least ratified one
human rights treaty
• Also applies to indirect discrimination:
=> When a neutral measure has a disparate and
discriminatory effect on different groups of people and
when that measure cannot be justified by reasonable
and objective criteria
Contents
• Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture
– Women as Consumers
– Women as Producers: Feminization of Agriculture
• A Human Rights Approach to Trade
– Issues of Concern under CEDAW
– The Approach of the CESCR
– The Fundamental Principle of Non-Discrimination
• Indicators for measuring changes in gender equality
through trade
• Conclusion
The Beijing Platform for Action
Actions to be taken by Governments:
• Seek to ensure that national policies related to
international and regional trade agreements do not have
an adverse impact on women‘s new and traditional
economic activities (para. 165(k))
• Use gender-impact analyses in the development of
macro- and micro-economic and social policies in order
to monitor such impact and restructure policies in cases
where harmful impact occurs (para.165(p))
Elasticity Indicators
• Indicators should be
–
–
–
–
Simple
Comparable
Dynamic
Feasible
• Elasticity Indicators
– Compare the percentage change in one variable, with
the accompanying percentage change in another
variable.
See Irene van Staveren, Gender Indicators for Monitoring Trade
Agreements (WIDE Briefing Paper, February 2007).
Trade Elasticities of Gender Equality
Numerator: Measures changes in gender equality
- Income / - Wages
- Employment (export sectors / import-competing sectors,
unemployment / under-employment rates, gendered job
segregation)
Denominator: Measures changes in trade
- Total value of trade of a country / region
- Total value of trade as a share of GDP
- Bilateral or regional value of trade as a share of total trade of
a country or region
- Openness measured as tariff reduction of x percent)
Policy responses to trade and gender
• Direct policy measures:
– Inclusion of gender expertise in trade delegations
– Stimulation of foreign investment into particular sectors of the
economy
– Technical support in the enforcement of labour laws in export
processing zones
– Stricter social accountability requirements for subsidiaries of
companies that have their headquarters in the trading partner‘s
country
• Indirect policy measures:
– Labour market policies
– Fiscal policies
– Polices in the area of human resource development
Conclusion and Suggestions
• More Gender-disaggregated data and data
about time spent on unpaid work necessary
• Incorporating gender considerations in Trade
Policy Review Mechanism
• Incorporating gender considerations for the
designation of Special Products in WTO
Agriculture Negotiations
• Technical Assistance to enhance production
capacity for women producers: access to land,
credit, agricultural inputs, extension and training,
education, technology, rural organizations,
services
Future Research
• Role of women in securing food, biodiversity,
environmental services, cultural practices,
coping with HIV/AIDS epidemic
• The role of patents in agriculture relative to
traditional knowledge, agro biodiversity,
communal ownership and gender
• Water use and consumption for agricultural
production and rural development, and the link
to gender