Today is Human Rights Day – the anniversary of the day, 67 years ago, that the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The thing about human rights is that they should be a given and they should be universal. But they're not. In order to uphold one another's basic human rights – like equality, freedom from slavery and freedom of speech – we need to observe empathy and respect. Failing that, there's the law.
Sometimes, however, municipal laws don't quite cover it – they are insubstantial or unequal in their treatment of different groups of people. That's why the charity Equality Now have decided to focus their campaigning this year on laws that discriminate specifically against women. They're calling the campaign #UnsexyLaws, which makes quite a lot of sense given that there is absolutely nothing sexy about the fact that, in the Bahamas, for example, it is still legal for women to be raped by their husband.
The list goes on, or as Jacqui Hunt, the European Director of Equality Now, puts it: "Twenty years after 189 governments pledged to 'revoke any remaining laws that discriminate on the basis of sex' as part of the Beijing Platform for Action, only just over half of the laws highlighted in our reports on the subject have been revised, appealed or amended – a great achievement, but one which falls very short of what was envisaged."
Scroll on to see what some of these laws are, and sign Equality Now's petition here.
Polygamy in Marriage
As recently as last year, new laws have been brought into being that allow polygamy in marriage. That is, for men, not women. Kenya ’s 2014 Marriage Act states that: “A marriage celebrated under customary law or Islamic law is presumed to be polygamous or potentially polygamous." However, perhaps unsurprisingly, this only really allows polygyny (the husband having more than one wife), rather than polyandry (the wife having more than one husband). The same goes in Pakistan, Malaysia and the Philippines, among others – but only for Muslim men, since polygyny is still widely accepted under Sharia Law.
Photo: Getty
Domestic Violence
In Nigeria, violence “by a husband for the purpose of correcting his wife” is considered lawful. Lebanon has no proper domestic violence law, nor does Algeria, Armenia, Egypt, Haiti, Niger, Russia... the list goes on. When you consider that around 38% of all femicides across the world are carried out by an intimate partner (according to research by the World Health Organisation), you wonder why on earth the law doesn't protect women.
Equality Now say: "Since many forms of violence against women and girls are interlinked, it is vital that governments recognise these relationships and ensure that their country’s laws fully empower rather than impede a girl or woman on her journey through life."
Photo: GettyNationality
The right to nationality is one of the 30 basic human rights we are all entitled to. However, as a new film from the Equal Rights Trust (watch left) points out: 27 countries around the world do not allow women to pass down their citizenship to their children. That means that, if your father is not around, you might wind up stateless – likely making you unemployable.
Even in the U.S., a child born outside of a marriage can only be granted citizenship if “a blood relationship between the person and the father is established by clear and convincing evidence” or “the father (unless deceased) has agreed in writing to provide financial support for the person until the person reaches the age of 18 years."
Marital Rape
In an Indian Act from 2013: “Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape”. 2013!!! And in 2011, Mali rejected the opportunity to remove their codes of "discriminatory wife obedience and other provisions that were found in the 1962 Marriage and Guardianship Code", while Iran ’s new Penal Code of 2013 maintains the provision stipulating a woman’s testimony to be worth less than a man’s – meaning that, if she says she was raped and her husband says otherwise, tough shit. These types of laws allow for the rape of a woman within a marriage in many more countries across the world.
Photo: Getty
Work Rights
In Guinea, West Africa, a wife can't have a separate profession from her husband if he objects to it. This basically takes away the human right to work, which according to the UN, states that: "Every adult has the right to do a job, to a fair wage for their work, and to join a trade union." In 18 countries, women can't get a job without their husband's permission, including (according to the Wall Street Journal): B ahrain, Bolivia, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Mauritania, Niger, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, West Bank and Gaza and Yemen.
Photo: GettyFreedom of Movement
Although laws restricting freedom of movement for women have largely been amended, some still exist. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, “the wife is obliged to live with her husband and follow him wherever he sees fit to reside”.
It's not technically a basic human rights violation, but in Saudi Arabia, a 1990 Fatwa suggests: “women’s driving of automobiles” is prohibited as it “is a source of undeniable vices”. This still stands today. Saudi Arabia is the last country in the world where women are not allowed to drive, and as the Saudi Arabian woman Buthaina al-Nasr says in the CNN clip to the left, it's about control and about taking away women's agency.
This week, for the first time ever, women in Saudi Arabia will be able to vote.
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