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SHADOW REPORT:  AN ALTERNATIVE LOOK AT WOMEN’S DISCRIMINATION SITUATION IN ECUADOR

PERIOD 1990 – 1998

QUITO – ECUADOR 

ELABORATED BY:

LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN COMMITTEE FOR THE DEFENSE OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS (CLADEM)

TALLER COMUNICACION MUJER

ACCION CIUDADANA POR LA DEMOCRACIA

FUNDACION EQUIDAD, JUSTICIA Y DESARROLLO

JUDITH SALGADO, ATTORNEY-AT-LAW

LOLA VALLADARES, ATTORNEY-AT-LAW

WITH THE COLLABORATION OF:

FUNDACION KIMIRINA

FUNDACION YERBA BUENA

FORO PERMANENTE DE LA MUJER

COORDINADORA POLITICA JUVENIL

ORGANIZACION DE MUJERES NEGRAS DEL ECUADOR

ORGANIZACION DE MUJERES LESBIANAS DEL ECUADOR

RAQUEL RODAS A., ATTORNEY-AT-LAW

GEOCONDA HERRERA, ATTORNEY-AT-LAW

MARIA DEL PILAR TROYA, ATTORNEY-AT-LAW

INDEX

Political and social context  

Violence against women (Article 1) 

Weakening of the Public Institutions related to women’s effective protection against all acts of discrimination (Article 2)  

National penal dispositions that constitute or have as result discrimination against women (Article 2) 

Adoption of legislative measures to eliminate discrimination against women (Article 3) 

Positive action measures (Article 4) 

Elimination of discriminatory social/cultural patterns (Article 5) 

Women’s traffic and exploitation of prostitution (Article 6) 

Participation in political and public life (Article 7) 

Participation in Foreign Service (Article 8) 

Education (Article 10) 

Labor market (Article 11) 

Health (Article 12) 

Discrimination in the access to resources and to recreation and sports (Article 13) 

Rural women (Article 14) 

Equal treatment before the law and civil dispositions that discriminate or that have as end result discrimination against women (Articles 15 & 16) 

Issues of Concern  

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT

The 90s in Ecuador have been marked by the implementation of structural adjustment policies, political instability and a weakening of the democratic institutionalism, which have influenced the deterioration of human rights.

The government of Sixto Duran Ballén (1992-1996) boosted the “modernization” of the State, understood as an equivalent of privatization processes, the opening of markets and less control over financial entities, which had as consequence the crash of the financial system in the years 1999-2000.  Albeit this government was questioned for corruption, it managed to terminate the period for which it was elected.

In 1996, Abdalá Bucaram was elected and he remained in functions for six months after which he was overthrown by a social mobilization characterized by its heterogeneous nature.  The economic measures, corruption and the questioning of the populist, authoritarian and sexist style of the President were the main motives that ended in his being overthrown.  It is worthwhile indicating that in his fall, interests of the economic and political elites, mass media, indigenous movement, women’s movement and other social movements, converged.  Rosalia Arteaga, the elected Vice President succeeded him but was immediately ignored as Head of State on the basis of a political agreement in National Congress that arguing a constitutional void over the presidential succession, placed Fabian Alarcón, a politician of a minority party, as interim President.

In 1998, Jamil Mahuad assumed the Presidency of the Republic, and after 15 months of his mandate, he too was ousted, this time by an indigenous uprising, backed by other sectors of social movements and by middle-ranked officers of the country’s Armed Forces.  The people’s discontentedness had as its symbol the fight against corruption and the freezing of the depositors’ funds in the banking institutions and the delivery on the part of the State of huge sums for the so called “banking salvage operations”.  On January 21, 2000 a triumvirate composed by the President of CONAIE, a Colonel and a former President of the Supreme Court assumed power for less than 24 hours.  After that, Vice President Gustavo Noboa Bejarano was appointed President of the Republic in Ecuador’s Ministry of Defense.

This brief account of Ecuador’s political history seeks to make evident not only the political instability experienced, but rather the fragility of the democratic institutions and the consequent lack of credibility in the institutions representing democracy, both at the level of the executive, legislative as well as the Judiciary.

The corruption phenomenon has traversed the context of the 90s in Ecuador.  Actually, according to International Transparency reports, Ecuador is in second place regarding corruption levels in Latin America.  “It is as of 1997, when the country starts reacting more strongly vis-à-vis the acts of corruption.  From that date on up to now, the costs of corruption represent around 35% of the State’s General Budget annually and some cases threaten the development options of three generations of Ecuadorians that must pay the consequences of the illegal wealth, the bankruptcy of private financial institutions, oil businesses detrimental to the national interests, de-structuring of the public administration, among others.   The investors in Ecuador have to factor-in an additional cost of 31% in the public activities, as a result of corruption[1]; in the last five years its cost represents a value equivalent to five years of the National gross domestic product”[2].

The government from Duran Ballén up to Jamil Mahuad had implemented structural adjustment economic measures, in line with the conditionings of the International Monetary Fund.  The payment of foreign debt signified during the entire decade a high percentage of the State’s budget, in detriment of social investment.  Actually, “while in 1991 30% of the national budget was earmarked to cover foreign debt service and 28% for social policies, in 1999 these percentages went to 41% and 20% respectively”[3].

It is undeniable that within the logic of globalization and the application of structural adjustments, the development Countries in general, and Ecuador in particular, have echoed the withdrawal of the State in the social field, gradually decreasing the budget allocations in this area, with ominous consequences in the health, education, social security and work fields, which undoubtedly increases poverty.

The last decade is characterized by the increase of poverty and a growing accumulation of wealth in a few hands, which have generated a shameful inequality.

Ecuador has not remained aloof to this phenomenon.  Actually, “…while in 1990 the poorer 20% received 4.6% of the income, by the year 2000 it received less than 2.5%; on the other hand, the richer 20% increased its participation from 52% to over 61%”.[4] 

It is worthwhile indicating that the poverty problem affects women, girls, boys and adolescents, indigenous people, afro-Ecuadorians and population groups below the line of poverty in urban sectors the most.

The factor of the zone to which they belong is also decisive for the larger incidence of poverty, hence the rural area is the one affected the most.

The growth of poverty in Ecuador is directly related to the lack of political will to eliminate it, since according to the UNDP Human Development Report: Ecuador 1999 “…the current productive capacity of the country would allow the satisfaction of the entire population’s needs, and, if there were a more adequate distribution of income, poverty would not have a massive manifestation and it could even disappear eventually.”

The deepening of the economic crises that we lived as of 1999, year in which the highest decrease in the 20^th century of the Gross Domestic Product (7.3%)[5]  occurred, has increased poverty in Ecuador.  According to recent reports, 79%[6] of the population is below the line of poverty. 

It is worthwhile highlighting that according to the SIISE[7] data, “the growth of poverty goes hand in hand with the increase in the inequality of income distribution, due to which the polarization of income has increased in a substantial manner.  Currently, the ratio between the richest 1% of the population and the poorest 1% is 1 to 180.”[8]  It is important highlighting that in January 2000, Ecuador dollarized its economy.  This cession of monetary sovereignty has implied a permanent increase in the prices of goods and services in the market, without the corresponding increase in salaries.  Additionally and in spite of the initial promises, inflation continues being a problem in the country, interest rates remain high and there has been no productive and economic reactivation.  Precisely in this context, Ecuador has experienced, as of 1999, a massive migration of Ecuadorian women and men to Spain, Italy and the United States, of which approximately 50% are women.

Another important element to consider in recent years (2000 – 2003) in Ecuador is the signing and execution of the covenant between Ecuador and the United States for the use of the Manta Military Base, for operations against drug dealing and the implementation of the Colombia Plan and the Andean Region Initiative, which has brought as a consequence the increase of the militarization and the flow of persons displaced by violence from Colombia to Ecuador; impacts on health and nourishment safety for the frontier zone inhabitants, due to the fumigations of coca leave plantations in the frontier with Colombia, with very negative effects in the enforcement of human rights.

Three positive deeds that must be highlighted in the 90s are:  the signing of the peace with Peru, the constitutional advancements in human rights issues and the consolidation of the indigenous movement and women’s movement in the country.

The Constitutional assembly 97-98 worked in coordination with several civil society organizations that presented their proposals, and that in human rights issues, were picked up in a high percentage.  The role of the indigenous, women’s and non-government organizations movements in defense of human rights turned out to be fundamental.  No doubt the Political Constitution of Ecuador in force constitutes a fundamental advancement in the formal/normative environment of human rights in general and women’s rights in particular.

In other words, in the formal normative part, Ecuador acknowledges the human rights of persons, grants protection guarantees of these rights and acknowledges constitutional hierarchy to the human rights’ treaties in force.

This constitutes an important advance in the human rights field; however, as can be ascertained in the development of this alternative report, the existing abyss between the human rights normative and its real application grows larger by the day.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN (Article 1)

In Ecuador, the incidence of intra-family and sexual violence is high and affects mainly women[9], without the State strengthening and implementing sufficient and adequate mechanisms that would imply an effective advance in the eradication of this extreme form of discrimination.

·               In the Women and Family Police Stations, “97.1% of the denouncements correspond to violence against women”[10].

·               An incidence of sexual offenses of 56.86% is noted; and the feminine population is the one that is mostly the object of sexual abuse, with a 99.31%[11]

Intra-Family Violence: 

In Ecuador women are subject to all forms of violence in their family relationships,[12] affecting their physical, psychological and sexual integrity and perpetuating traditional attitudes that discriminate them.  The State has not overseen that the legal and institutional measures adopted against intra-family violence protect adequately all women.

The legal framework established by the State against intra-family violence, is surpassed by the magnitude and gravity of this form of violence.  The Law against Violence against Women and the Family is not totally and effectively complied with.

The Penal Code does not specifically typify intra-family violence as an offense; however, kin constitutes an aggravating factor in the sanction of offenses such as injuries, rape, etc.  One of the consequences of the non-existence of a special classification is the non-evaluation of intra-family violence as a grave violation of women’s rights.

The Law against Violence against Women  and the Family defines intra-family violence, but it processes it only as a misdemeanor, a category lower than an offense[13].  A grave consequence of processing it as a misdemeanor, is that in many cases the victims are forced to sign the so-called “Acts of Mutual Respect”[14], which are agreements signed between the aggressor and the victim, which infringe on the rights of women, such as freedom of movement and of action in exchange for men not exercising violence against them.

In spite of what is set forth in the Law against Violence against Women and the Family, which obliges the health staff, under penalty of cover-up to denounce the cases of violence that are known to them, there are no denouncements recorded,[15] in spite of the number of women that seek medical attention in the Health Centers.  This is due to the non-existence of a concrete mechanism so that these professionals can denounce without fear of legal or labor retaliation.  Furthermore, there is disinformation about the legal and institutional mechanisms to attend these cases.

The Law against Violence against Women and the Family, foresees Protection Measures, which should act immediately, however:  a) except the one foreseen as boleta de auxilio (help voucher), they are ordered in an average time of one month, which can be reduced or extended from 15 to 180 days[16]  b) even though there are no adequate registries or control mechanisms, it is known that a considerable number of them are not complied with.  The Women and Family Police Stations cannot sanction this deed and they leave the victim defenseless and the deed unpunished[17]; c) neither has it been possible to unify procedures so that in an effective manner the victims are indemnified, as well as the reposition of the goods destroyed by the aggressor[18].

The Law against Violence against Women and the Family establishes that no jurisdiction is acknowledged; however, this stipulation is difficult to comply with since in cases of violence generated by high-ranking State officials such as congress representatives and diplomatic staff, it has not been possible to sanction them[19].

The dispositions of the Law against Violence against Women and the Family that establish support services and trial instances have not been concreted.  Likewise, the Family Courts have not yet been implemented, the trial continues in the exclusive charge of the National Police Stations, the Women and Family Police Stations and the Police Department.  On the other hand, the assaulted women do not count with protection and support services.  The INNFA shelter for battered women is closed and the Matilde Shelter is a non-government organization that survives through the financing of self-generated projects.

There are no efficient programs in place to guarantee the physical and emotional integrity of the victims.  Even though a Program for the Protection of Victims, Witnesses and others has been created, same does not count with resources that allow its functioning[20]. 

Sexual Violence outside the Family Environment:

In Ecuador there is a high violence rate that affects the personal integrity and sexual freedom of persons, especially women.  The information generated from spaces where denouncements are received is alarming: 

“ten sexual assaults are denounced daily” only in the Sexual Offenses Unit of the Public Ministry in Quito.  According to the Judicial Police of the Province of Pichincha, since October 2001 the sexual offense denouncements received increased from 6 to 16 per month.”

The level of impunity in sexual offenses, which victims are mainly women and girls is extremely high.  Out of a total of 700 cases of sexual offenses and injuries registered at the Penal Courts of Quito, between 1994 and 1996, only in 25 had there been a sentence, and the same realities are faced in Guayaquil and Cuenca[21].

Several studies performed show that the education centers are the main scenario of sexual violence[22].  “The presence of sexual harassment and abuse in schools is proved in the number of cases known by the teachers and youngsters of both sexes.  32.7% of the young men and 44.4% of the young girls replied that they do know cases of sexual violence.  Regarding the aggressors, a heavier weight is given to the male aggressors and 36% identifies the teachers as the aggressors.”[23]

There is a behavior pattern among the teachers of both sexes that tends to “minimize the importance of the problem”[24]:  The school authorities take upon themselves functions when they form ad-hoc instances in charge of “investigating” and solving the sexual abuse cases that should be denounced in a penal manner.  They recur to methods of “counsel and conversation” with the persons responsible, without considering the victims’ vulnerability, in this case girls, boys and adolescents[25], who ignore their constitutional guarantees and fundamental rights.

The victims of offenses against sexual freedom have remained invisible in the process for the creation of sanction and repair mechanisms, for which reason the procedures to judge these offenses do not constitute a repair response for the right violated.

The Ecuadorian Juridical System demands that the victim of “sexual offenses”, such as rape, present conviction means that indicate beyond the shadow of a doubt that she physically resisted the offense, thus excluding situations where intimidation or threat are present, fostering impunity in this manner[26].

The conditions that in general surround these acts which break sexual freedom are not considered and the victim must present witnesses of the deed.  In the cases of sexual harassment, especially in the work field, the proofs of this type are non-existent, hence the few denouncements.[27]  The victim’s sexual conduct is final proof in the trial of this type of offenses.  Women must present male or female witnesses or any other means of conviction of their sexual behavior prior to the offense to disregard any “suspicion of provocation”.[28]

Institutions Related to the Issue

Women and Family Police Stations:

The Law against Violence against Women and the Family still does not have regulations, which influences the manner of processing the cases and the effectiveness of the Women and Family Police Stations’ response.  These instances act in various ways.  Thus, in the application of the protection measures, some Police Stations classify them after a conciliation hearing, others request first the intervention of a Social Worker and still others act solely on the basis of the denouncement and the respective petition.[29]

In Women and Family Police Stations, the application of sanctions is done erroneously; the application order for the protection measures is considered as a sanction, de-naturalizing its preventive and protective nature.  On the other hand, the Law against Violence against Women and the Family foresees another type of sanction different from the privation of freedom, such as community service, but this is not regulated either therefore it is not applied.

The State has not adapted its response mechanisms to the needs of women victims of intra-family violence.  The State does not provide the Women and Family Police Stations with sufficient economic resources or administrative staff sensitized and trained in gender and violence, in order to adequately attend the women victims of intra-family violence.[30]

On the other hand, the distribution of the Women and Family Police Stations leaves the women of rural zones defenseless[31], especially in the provinces of the Amazon Region and the Galapagos Archipelago, since the majority of these Police Stations is in the provincial capitals of the Highlands and the Coast.

Women’s Rights’ Office of the National Police (ODMU):

On May 6, 1994 the Office for the Defense of Women’s Rights, ODMU, was created.  Since its creation, almost a decade ago, ODMU only has offices in five cantons of the country, which correspond to 2.3% of the total national Cantons.[32] 

The victims of intra-family violence are not duly attended by the National Police staff due to their insensibility and lack of specialization of its members.  On the other hand, ODMU lacks the resources and sufficient personnel; there are even complaints by assaulted women against some of its members for having received money from the aggressors to escape their responsibility.

Judicial Function and Others:

The training on gender for the justice administrators is not part of a sustained process on the part of the State: “therefore with respect to a rounded figure regarding the totality of public officers, obtained from The 1998 Life Conditions Survey, the public officers trained represented 1%.[33]

Recommendations:

1)         The State must channel resources for the implementation of services in favor of gender violence victims, as well as for the functioning of the Program for the Protection of Victims, Witnesses and others, of the Pubic Ministry.

2)         As soon as possible the Regulations of the Law against Violence against Women and the Family must be issued.

3)         Update the legal framework that sanctions gender violence, based on international standards.

4)         Establish training on gender for justice operators, as part of a sustained and permanent policy.

5)         Incorporate gender issues to the curricula of the Law and Judicial careers.

WEAKENING OF THE PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS RELATED TO THE EFFECTIVE PROTECTION OF WOMEN AGAINST ALL ACTS OF DISCRIMINATION (Article 2)

NATIONAL WOMEN’S COUNCIL (CONAMU)

By Executive Decree,[34] the National Women’s Council was created in 1997, as a technical organism attached to the Presidency of the Republic.  Its institutional mandate is the formulation of public policies focused on gender that will make viable and guarantee the fundamental rights and liberties of women.  Nevertheless, the lack of a law and the limited granting of resources by the State,[35] which is a reflection of the low valuation of the assigned task, has impeded the gender approach from being incorporated into the public policies.  During the 1997-2001 period, of the total budget allocated to this organism, 26.7% were State resources, the rest were funds from the international cooperation.  Most of these resources were destined only to cover personnel expenses.  CONAMU is not even considered as a part of, and even less invited to the Ministers’ Cabinet meetings.

CONAMU’s institutionalism was seriously affected in 2002, when through an Executive Decree of President Gustavo Noboa, the mechanism to appoint the Executive Management was reformed, excluding the participation of the women’s movement’s representatives as part of the triumvirate from which the Board of Directors of the State and Civil Society must choose.  By doing so, this organism was politicized and its technical nature was lessened in value.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN OMBUDSMAN OFFICE, CURRENTLY PEOPLE’S OMBUDSMAN BUREAU.

This organism was created in the year 1998, as a specialized instance, in charge of guaranteeing and defending the fundamental rights of women, children and adolescents; however, in the year 2000 it was dissolved, degrading it hierarchically to one of the many national bureaus. 

The devaluation of a formal space for the defense of women’s rights signifies that the State limits the acknowledgement of situations that violate repeatedly and in a preferential manner the feminine population and indicates that it is not adopting all the measures, and strengthening the already existing ones that ensure women’s advancement and guarantee the enjoyment of their fundamental rights and liberties.

CONSTITUTIONAL TRIBUNAL.

The Constitutional Tribunal is the highest-hierarchy organ for Constitutional control.  Among other functions, it knows and resolves on the constitutionality of norms and administrative acts emanated from public authorities, aside from rendering a decision on, in accordance with the Political Constitution, prior to the ratification of the National Congress, the constitutionality of international treaties and agreements subscribed by Ecuador.  It cannot be said that it is a technical organ since its members are appointed based on the triumvirates presented by the political parties and elected by the National Congress.

All the members of the Tribunal are men and they lack gender sensitivity and perspective, which is transferred into their resolutions.

RECOMMENDATION

The State must comply with the commitments acquired upon subscribing the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), for which it shall have to create formal spaces for the control and oversight of women’s human rights, and strengthen the already existing ones, providing them with sufficient resources and authority.

PENAL NATIONAL DISPOSITIONS THAT CONSTITUTE OR HAVE AS RESULT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN

The Ecuadorian penal normative design maintains concepts and penal practices that perpetuate discrimination against women.  It conserves a notion of women directly related to their reproductive role, their sexual conduct and visualizes them as bearers of family and social “values”, such as honesty and honor.

The Penal Code establishes exculpation conditions for offenses against persons, based on conjugal honor and chastity.  “Family honor” over fundamental juridical goods, such as life and personal integrity, are protected.

Voluntary abortion is penalized and it is typified as an offense against life.  The penalty established in case of abortion is lowered if said act is performed to hide the woman’s dishonor; likewise, the same is true with respect to infanticide in which the lowering of the penalty is extended to the maternal grandparents.  Non-compliance of the “maternal role” is accepted when one is protecting social or family interests. 

The “kidnap with consent” has not been eliminated as a penal figure and the application of the sanction is conditioned to the marriage between the victim and the kidnapper being annulled.  On the other hand, in the definition of the penal type of defloration of a minor, one of the constitutive elements of the offense, the girl’s “honesty”, is maintained.

The Penal Code establishes that the parents, husbands or tutors can take the letters from the people under their dependence, without being subject to any type of sanction, as would happen where in the robbery of correspondence, other persons intervene.

The definition of rape excludes other violent and invasive sexual acts on the body of the victim that do not imply penetration,[36] with the same impact upon the victim.

Recommendation

The Ecuadorian State must urgently make compatible the penal legislation with the norms contained in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, eliminating concepts that are related to conjugal honor, honor and those related to women’s honesty.

ADOPTION OF LEGISLATIVE MEASURES TO ELIMINATE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN (Article 3)

In matters of legislation, the State, including the paper work, approval, sanction and application of the laws, has not complied with the commitments established in the Convention, by not adopting all the appropriate measures that shall contribute to eliminate discrimination against women.

The approval of laws aimed at protecting women’s rights has not meant establishing adequate measures for their applicability and enforcement on the part of the State.

In the period 1990 – 1998 the Free Maternity Law, the Law against Violence against Women and Family and the Women’s Labor Protection Law were approved, but their application has been difficult and incomplete.

The Free Maternity Law has serious limitations in its compliance due to the lack of resources assigned by the State and to the decentralization of these.  On the other hand, the Labor Protection Law lacks enforceability mechanisms, therefore it is not complied with by the State as employer or as guarantor.  The Law against Violence against Women and Family has the above-mentioned limitations also.

The National Congress delays discussion of projects related to situations that affect mainly women,[37] prioritizing others, evidencing the devaluation of these issues and favoring discrimination against women.

Even though in the National Congress there is a Permanent Specialized Commission for Women, Children, Youth and Family, which main function is boosting and informing regarding projects in favor of the rights of various social subjects, particularly women, the discriminatory conceptions, the absence of gender perspective and the predominance of patriarchal positions that prevail in the Legislative function, which make difficult the work of this Commission.

The members of congress, in order to “argue” for or against proposals that favor the elimination of discriminatory conditions, recur to moralist elements, with obsolete, closed, rigid and discriminatory arguments, which lack a vision of diversity, ignoring notions of acknowledgement and exercise of rights, as occurred with the reforms to the Health Code, on the issue of sexual and reproductive rights.[38]

On the other hand, the reports sustained by the members of the Women’s Commission, are subject to the criteria of other permanent commissions, which implies that other commissions “need” to assist and/or confirm the reports, in detriment of the former’s functions and attributions. 

Recommendation

The Ecuadorian Congress should render accounts in a public and permanent manner on the legislative advances regarding the issue of discrimination against women.

POSSITIVE ACTION MEASURES (Article 4)

In numeral 7 of the report presented by the Ecuadorian State, referred to Paragraph 521 of the Observations of the Committee for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women,[39] done to Ecuador, in relation to the absence of affirmative action measures, it is indicated that “…in the last few years laws such as the Law against Violence against Women and Family and the Free Maternity Law have been approved…”.

The nature of these laws does not effectively correspond to affirmative actions; the first one establishes dispositions that sanction violence against women; the second one defines as a public health action and State responsibility, the right to free and quality healthcare attention during pregnancy, birth and post-birth; access to sexual and reproductive health programs; and the right to free healthcare attention for the newborns and the boys and girls under 5 years of age.

The above-mentioned legal norms do not comply with the basic functions of the affirmative actions: i) the elimination of the obstacles that impede or make it difficult for women to access certain power or space situations under equal conditions with men;  ii) give women opportunities so that they can place themselves on a real equality level regarding men, thus reducing the historical advantage that the latter enjoy;  iii) the laws noted cannot have the temporality nature of the affirmative actions because they would lose the objective for which they were created.  The notations establish that the Ecuadorian State does not acknowledge the concept, scope and nature of the affirmative action measures.

To the confusion in the implications of these norms is added the non-compliance, violation and inobservance of the positive action measures contained in two laws:  Labor Protection Law and the Law for the Reform of the Electoral, Provincial Regime and Decentralization Laws.

Recommendations

1)         Propose programs of preferential scholarships for women in the different educational levels, particularly in careers traditionally masculine.

2)         Implement affirmative actions for women heads of households in the areas of loans and housing.

3)         Establish accountability mechanisms for the competent organisms in the application of the Labor Protection Law and Electoral Law, as well as sanctions for non-compliance.

ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATORY SOCIAL/CULTURAL PATTERNS (Article 5)

The actions described in the Official report constitute a list of activities that are far from being a public policy or a coherent, integral and sustained group aimed at achieving the cultural changes required for attaining gender equality and the elimination of the gender stereotypes. 

The 90s’ statistics presented throughout the Shadow Report, particularly regarding education, health, employment, access to resources and violence, show that discrimination against women, adolescents and girls persists and that violence is deeper to the extent that the social and economic conditions of the families worsen and that the masculinity crises (man as supplier – public – controller) increases; that women continue being a primary contribution in the non-remunerated domestic work and that the latter constitutes the main cause of feminine dropouts in the secondary education, while the main cause for boys and male adolescents is that they must work outside the house.

The sexual stereotype of women being solely responsible for reproduction is maintained.  According to the ENDEMAIN survey[40], 33.7% of the women interviewed do not use contraceptive methods and of the 63.3% that do use them, 7.7% practices the rhythm method; 3.6% the withdrawal method and 14% traditional methods.

This means that 25% uses the most unsafe methods and it would seem that this trend is the one that increases the most;[41] in 1994 it was 4.8% and in 1999 it was 10.5%.  Among the causes for the non-utilization of contraceptives are the opposition of the husband/partner and the religious reasons.  If to the 33.7% we add the 25.3% of women that use unsafe methods, we wind up with 59% of women having unwanted pregnancy risks.[42]  Close to 3% of men use condoms.

The National Plan on Sexual Education and Love (PLANESA), which came to life in 1999 is currently reduced to a government instance without major transcendence.  The contents of the Plan do not have a gender focus and do not objectively approach the latest advances on the issues of pregnancy, abortion and sexual options.  This National Plan requires a non-moralist treatment more in line with the integral protection of sexual and reproductive rights.  Likewise, it is important to indicate that the Free Maternity Law does not include a gender/sensitive vision and does not contribute to view women as subjects of rights but rather reduces the view to that of woman/mother and therefore to maternal/infantile health.

The sensitization of the mass media in matters of women’s human rights and the initiatives undertaken by different sectors in benefit of gender equality have not contributed to provoke a change of perceptions or behaviors over issues that have always generated controversy. On the contrary, a growing extension of the red tabloids is evident in the mass media, specially the written press and television, fueled by data on abortions, intra-family violence, misogyny and homophobia.  Neither has gender-sensitive public opinion been generated in this respect.  In the year 2001 the Black Women Movement of Quito presented a complaint in the Women’s Bureau of the OMBUDSMAN Office regarding a company that promoted its products utilizing racist and sexist images and language.  In view  of this, the Movement managed that the company comply with the demands presented, which implied changing the aggressive tone of the advertising, since terminating the publicity contract was too difficult.  Additionally, the Black Women Movement requested the company to apologize publicly.  The company merely sent a letter which circulated on the Internet.

In spite of being so established in the Equal Opportunities Plan 1996 – 2000, CONAMU has not developed any type of mechanism that allows doing follow-up and controlling the advertising and the mass media that denigrate the image of women and foster a culture of disrespect and violence.  There is no sustained communication strategy that is able to place the issue in the public and State agenda.

The attempts to transverse the gender focus in the basic education curricula in order to modify the traditional roles between men and women, do not count with enough political will to achieve it.  The Ministry of Education’s authorities and the School Texts Committee[43] did not comply with the function of looking after the incorporation of the gender focus and the elimination of sexist stereotypes in the school texts.  The resistance of several “traditional” male schools of Quito to co-education and their misogynist and excluding positions are proof of the strong effort that needs to be performed in the educational environment. 

The performance of the Ecuadorian State referred to the elimination of sexual stereotypes centers basically in the health and education areas; areas such as recreation, communication, participation, and information, have not yet been worked on.  “The expense in education and health is not only minimal but rather it decreases in education, whilst the public foreign debt service is always higher.  In that aspect, the criterion that the resources are scarce that does count.  You search and re-search for what the debt demands.  Public expenditure in recreation and culture could not even be charted because up until 1988 it was merely 0.1% of GDP.  From that year onwards the percentage appears as 0%.  Decimals were lacking to account for the ridiculousness of that expense”.[44]

Recommendations:

1)         The State initiatives must incorporate an integral vision of guarantee and protection of women’s human rights, in accordance with the Constitutional Mandate.  The cultural and social transformations exhort the meeting of wills of the political decision-making spaces.  To render these wills effective requires commitment, actions and a constant exercise of social controllership for said processes.

2)         In the light of CEDAW’s mandate and of the Ecuadorian Constitution’s text itself, one of the fundamental goals of the gender public institutionalism is achieving that the formulation, design and oversight of public policies with a gender focus promote substantial changes in the content of the State decisions that make invisible or affect women as a specific group as well as in its family, economic, social and political relations with the State.

3)         The public programs and plans aimed at women must make visible the cultural, age and class diversities of the women that are subject of the policies.  The daily life of women in the diversity of people and indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian nationalities, together with the gender public conscience must be components of gender equality in the public institutionalism considered as a whole and not only of CONAMU as specialized entity.

4)         It is necessary to form gender-sensitive public opinion that comprises the tensions derived from the imposition of a market, social and economic system vis-à-vis the derivations of human and social responsibility for the life of women.  Otherwise, it shall be difficult to procure great changes in the transformation of the sexual, racial and age stereotypes.

5)         The State –as organizing “entity” of the citizen’s practices- is called to attain the basic social services, particularly those directed at boys and girls, adolescents and young people in order to re-create a new gender culture based on equality and the equal valuation of the subject girls and boys / women and men.  At the same time, it is fundamental to attain that the work division by roles contains equal valuation for the activities developed by men and women and that the girls and boys be socialized in roles that channel the “public-private” dichotomy.

WOMEN’S TRAFFIC AND THE EXPLOITATION OF PROSTITUTION (Article 6)

Paragraph 86 of the Official Report states that the Ecuadorian Constitution grants a framework of rights to boys, girls and adolescents.  However, the National Congress has not enacted any reform of the Penal Code to adapt it to the Constitutional Mandate contemplated in Article 50, numeral 4, which guarantees the State’s protection to boys, girls and adolescents against the traffic of minors, pornography, prostitution, and sexual exploitation.  Actually, none of these figures is typified in an explicit manner as delinquent conducts.

Procuring in Ecuador is not penalized when the pimps administer a facility established in accordance with the regulations that the local authorities and the Ministry of Health issue for such effect.[45]

The penal law increases the sanctions to the pimps when they “promote or facilitate” prostitution of a boy or girl under 14 years of age.  Under this same consideration, profiting from minors’ prostitution is also sanctioned.[46]  The age band between 14 and 18 remains unprotected.  Regarding the traffic of minors and women in particular, Congress has not adapted the internal legislation to the international instruments that have been ratified by Ecuador on this matter.  The actions of enrollment, transport, purchase, sale, transfer, lodging or reception of persons to obligate or subject them to forced labor or analogous slavery practices, have not been typified as offenses.  The Penal Code contemplates sanctions for those that “promote or facilitate the entry or exit to / from the country or the transfer within the territory of the republic of persons with prostitution purposes.” In this way, the victims of other traffic modes are left unprotected.[47]  The victims of modes covered up by the figure of arranged marriages are especially vulnerable.

Regarding the production of child pornography, not only is it not contemplated as an offense but rather the Ecuadorian State has not acted with due diligence vis-à-vis the cases of child pornography production; for example, the ones produced in the cities of Azogues and Guayaquil.  In both cases, sexual rape and invasions of the bodies of minors were filmed.  The figure contemplated in the Penal Code under the denomination “corruption of minors”[48] turns out to be absolutely insufficient to sanction the pornographers.  In the case of Azogues the pornographer and pedophile perpetrator of these offenses was tried under the figure of indecent assault and his penalty was lowered due to good behavior.

The Ecuadorian State has not undertaken any official investigation on the characteristics of the sex industry in Ecuador: forced prostitution, sexual exploitation of minors, sexual traffic and tourism.  The Official Report presented before Congress argues that it is a funding problem.  The institutions and organizations that make this Report believe that it is about the lack of political will and non-compliance with commitments. Civil Society and the international cooperation have denounced, investigated and provided information to the State.  Actually, an investigation on the sexual exploitation of minors[49], found at least one network aimed at the traffic of women and girls that functions with the complicity of the Police authorities and due to the fact that false ID are delivered to minors at the Civil Registry.[50] Neither the National Police nor the District Attorney have investigated this denouncement during the period covered by this Report or later.

Regarding the treatment of the victims of pimps and exploiters, the referred investigation sustains that in the conception of “child prostitution” rests an enclave of rights’ violations of sexually exploited minors.  According to its authors, this age group is treated under the adult prostitution regime both by the interpretation of the law as well as by the practice of the justice administration system operators.[51]

PARTICIPATION IN THE POLITICAL AND PUBLIC LIFE (Article 7)

In popular election candidacies

The Ecuadorian State has not complied with the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, due to the fact that it has not adopted the appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the political and public life.

There is a small proportion of feminine candidacies and elected women, which is not in line with the percentage of feminine Ecuadorian population, nor with the voting population.  The existing inequalities between participation and power have constituted a historic constant for Ecuadorian women.

The Labor Protection Law was applied only in the elections for the 1998 National Assembly, for the elaboration of the current Political Constitution.  Its observance was effective in only three provinces (Guayas, Pichincha and Manabí)[52]; out of a total of 68 assemblypersons only 7 women were elected.

The State’s institutionalism, through the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, as well as the political parties that are represented in this power space, hamper the political participation of women by means of illegal procedures and legislative reform attempts.

The Reformatory Law of the Electoral Law formally established the obligation of the political parties to conform their lists with women candidates, in a minimum percentage of 30%, alternately and sequentially.  This Law was applied, for the first time, in the year 2000 elections, but the alternating and sequential principle that guarantees that women shall be located in the lists of candidacies in spaces that make them eligible, was not respected.[53]  As a consequence of this, the number of elected women was low.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal on repeated occasions and taking on functions of “interpretation of the law”, has issued instruments[54] in which texts the alternating and sequential principles are violated frontally. Finally, in the year 2002, after the electoral process, the Constitutional Tribunal declared unconstitutional Article 40 of the Regulations of the Electoral Law and the constitutionality of the affirmative actions contemplated in the Electoral Law.

In the Executive Function

Sexist stereotypes maintained in Ecuador have caused that no woman has ever been elected President of the Republic.  In 1996, a woman occupied, for the first time in the history of Ecuador, the position of Vice President of the Republic, but was not able to succeed in the post the ousted President Abdalá Bucaram, due to a political agreement in the National Congress that argued a constitutional void on the presidential succession.

In Ministries and other Decision-Making and Execution of Policies Posts

Women are not nominated for decision-making public posts in the same percentage that men are.  During this period the women that have occupied Minister-rank positions have only been 21