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ALTERNATIVE FOLLOW-UP REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS’ INTERNATIONAL PACT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CLADEM)

COLOMBIA

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Within the general context, Colombia currently has a population of approximately 44 million inhabitants, of which 22’043,894 are men, with an expected life span of 70 years and 22’539,683 are women, with an expected life span of 76 years; out of the total population, 74% lives in urban zones and the remaining 26% in rural sectors.

Colombia has been acknowledged in the international community for its achievements in matters of legislation in defense of women and family.  However, women’s general situation does not present significant advancements.  The social viewpoint of the problems of women has not changed, since the roads that start when the laws are enacted until they are enforced are long and expensive.

Article 2 of the Pact. In spite of the legislative advances, there is a factor of the cultural type that maintains roles and stereotypes assigned distinctively to each sex, propitiating exclusion for gender reasons.  The National Constitution of 1991 creates conditions to eradicate discrimination against women and to achieve equality between the rights and opportunities related to both sexes; the laws enacted by this document are quite clear regarding equality between genders.  Nevertheless, discrepancies are visualized in respect of women’s real access to the legislative benefits.

Article 3 of the Pact. Currently, legally there is equality between men and women, for they formally have the same rights, duties and opportunities, since several laws have been enacted, which main objective is to grant attention and protection to the population in high risk (women, boys and girls, old men and women, etc.).  However, in practice, the exercise of liberties and guarantees established by law for women is coerced, a mistake that pretends to be overcome through the design of norms that eliminate inequalities.  Such is the case of the Quota Law, which objective is to regulate women’s access to decision-making levels in the public sector.  Nevertheless, this constitutes an advancement that only has meaning for a minority of educated women with access to the circles of power.  It must be pointed out that in general, laws that are neutral in their enunciation, may cause unfavorable effects for women and provoke indirect discrimination, since they do not take into account the cultural context that surrounds them, nor the conditions and opportunities to which women have, or not, access.

Article 5 of the Pact.  In the education sector, between 1997 and 2000, women showed a slight improvement regarding access to this right; in the 5 to 11 age group, with a larger incidence in the urban zone; starting from age 12, there is a reversion, with greater emphasis on the 18 to 25 age bracket, affecting more the population of the urban zone.  The average schooling level of the population reached 7.7 years; 7.8 for men and 7.6 for women.  In this same period it was evident that the male participation in higher-level education grew at a rate of 5.3% per annum, whilst the female rate declined at 3.8% per annum.  Thus, women ceased representing 53% of the university population in 1997 and went down to 44% in the year 2000.

Regarding health, we note with great concern the increase of pregnancies and deliveries in young girls.  15% of adolescents have been mothers and 4% are pregnant of their first-born.  Fertility at this age is greater in the rural sector and is inversely proportional to the education level, and even though the totality of women in fertile age know of at least one contraceptive method, it is clear that there are difficulties for them, especially in the rural areas, to access the health promotion and disease-prevention programs, among which are the family planning programs.

Articles 7 and 26.  The right to life and to not be subject to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

We want to highlight that one of the more usual practices to solve the conflicts within the family environment, is violence.  According to data from the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, in 1999 62,123 cases of injuries due to intra-family violence were reported; in 2000, this figure increased to 68,585 cases.  81% of the victims were women; this figure keeps increasing in the case of conjugal violence, in which it reaches 91%.  In the year 2000 the number of boys and girls victims of maltreatment was 4,297: 55% of the cases corresponded to girls.

Regarding sexual offenses, the above Institute reports that during 2001, 13,352 sexual offenses sentences were handed out, of which 11,508 corresponded to women.  84% of them were under the age of 18 (9,690 cases); in this group, 50% are within the 10 to 14 age bracket (4,167 cases).

Regarding prostitution, it is difficult to find concrete figures.  Research on sexual abuse done in Colombia estimates that the figures go from 4,477 women under the age of 20 working as prostitutes (Census of the National Police, 1997) up to suggesting that there are 35,000 boys and girls involved in this practice (estimate of DAS and Interpol, 1998) passing through a middle-of-the-road figure of 20,000 cases estimated by the Re-born Foundation (1997).

On the issue of sexual and reproductive rights, even though maternal mortality has decreased in the country, abortion, due to its illegal nature, continues being the second cause of maternal mortality, because it is performed under unhealthy conditions that place at risk women’s lives and physical integrity.

Article 8. Employment.  In the labor market, women that work outside their homes have increased from 60% to 69%.  However, it is evident that women are victims of unemployment more frequently than men.  Consequently, the unemployment rate in men is 12.1% whilst in women it is 23.0%.  Legally, pregnancy tests are not allowed as a requisite for a job; nevertheless, there is no sanction of any type in case of non-compliance, because either openly or in a covert way, these tests are practiced, together with other entrance medical examinations. The 5-year difference to access the benefits of the retirement pension is maintained (55 years of age for women and 60 for men).

Article 12. Forced Displacement.  Armed conflict is the main cause of forced displacement, with a specific impact on women, who when widowed, must assume the responsibility of supporting the family affectively and economically.  Studies show that close to 30% of the Colombian families, particularly the poorer ones, are under the responsibility of women, who must perform several functions in conditions of precarious income.  It is estimated that 50% of the population displaced from January 2000 to June 2001 were women and the remaining 50% were men (sic).  This data agrees with the one presented by the Unique Registry of Population in Displacement Situation, belonging to the Social Solidarity Network, according to which, out of a total of 283,734 registered persons, in the same period, 49% (139,029) were women; 51% (144,705) were men, 48.35% of them under the age of 18.

It is important to note that of the persons in situation of displacement, 74% was made up by women, boys and girls. On the other hand, according to the experts, the displaced families take slightly more than 20 years to reinsert themselves into the city that shelters them.  The displacement of women influences the increase of the female population in poverty conditions at the cities and towns of arrival.  Achieving there the stabilization of the homes headed by women is a very difficult process, due to the big responsibilities that the latter have to assume in a new and unknown environment.

The National Constitution protects the population in situation of displacement and Law 387 of 1997 adopts measures for the prevention of forced displacement, as well as the attention, protection, consolidation and socio-economic stabilization of the victims.  However, this policies turn out to be incipient vis-à-vis the magnitude of the problem.

Article 25. Political participation.  Regarding the voting participation, women represent between 47% and 49% of total votes in the last decade; the feminine political participation in the Senate during 1998 was 10.3% and the highest voting was obtained by a woman and in the House of Representatives: it was 11.4% and the second highest voting was obtained by another woman.  In the departmental assemblies the feminine participation (1998 – 2000) was limited to 14.57%; in the municipal councils, to 10.32% and in the departmental Mayor’s Office, to 5.04%.

Currently, out of the 101 Senate of the Republic representatives, 14 are women, and even though it is a minimal representation, it has been the highest one recorded up to now.

Among the factors that are obstacles for women to gain access to politics, aside from the political regime and the socio-economic conditions, is the lack of a gender conscience on the part of some of the women that get to these positions.

Recommendations

The solutions must stop being mere palliatives and turn into motors of transformation, not only in the legal aspect, but also they need to involve the cultural socio-economic patterns, which are the main cause of the postponement of the feminine gender vis-à-vis the full exercise of their human rights.

It is necessary that the State come up with affirmative legal actions and national as well as local public policies aimed at eradicating discrimination against women, particularly where the social and cultural practices are concerned, which preclude or limit real equality between the genders.

On the issue of intra-family violence, it is necessary that the State comply with the recommendations issued by the international organisms that protect human rights, in relation to the prevention, effective sanction of the aggressors, immediate and effective protection to the victims, and training and sensitization for the justice operators, both male and female.

It is essential to regulate the Constitutional guarantee of special protection of women before and after childbirth, in view of the social function performed by reproduction and its contribution to the building of citizenship.

Social and welfare policies are needed to guarantee a support infrastructure for the tasks of socialization, upbringing and protection.

Even though the Constitution protects women that are heads of households (Article 43, developed through Law 82 of 1993), it is necessary to create the mechanisms to convert it into reality, since in spite of some sectarian efforts towards its implementation (social welfare, health, social security, family well-being, education), in practice its application is restricted, due to the fact that the contents and scope of the law are not known.

Advance endeavors aimed at decreasing the socio-economic, family and stability costs of families in situations of forced displacement upon arriving at urban areas, particularly of women, boys and girls, based on the degree of defenselessness in which they find themselves.

Attend to the population in situation of displacement from the point of view of the promotion of rights of women heads of households, as a strategy to improve the living conditions of said population.

The implementation of public policies that tend to prevent and sanction sexual violence, therefore decreasing impunity and eradicating the social tolerance shown in this type of conduct, which main victims are women and girls.

It is urgent to attend the problem of adolescent pregnancies, because they turn into limitations for education, access to jobs and the political participation of women, among others.