ARGENTINA: Crisis Leads to Setbacks for Women’s Rights

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 6 2002 (IPS) - One out of five couples in Argentina suffer episodes of domestic violence, 400,000 illegal abortions are practiced annually, and women earn wages 40 percent lower than men with similar educational levels, according to a new study on women’s rights.

The report, drawn up by seven local women’s and human rights groups, notes that the country’s severe economic and social crisis has aggravated problems like domestic violence, teen pregnancy and the lack of health care. The organisations also point to a large gap between the wages earned by men and women.

On Aug 16, the organisations will present the report to the committee on the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), in New York.

The CEDAW convention, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979, establishes that signatory countries like Argentina must implement policies aimed at enforcing the rights of women. A committee of experts was also set up to monitor the progress made.

The independent report or “counter-report” drawn up by the seven civil society organisations is aimed at complementing the information that signatory states must provide to the committee every four years, to assess progress or setbacks and compliance with the committee’s recommendations.

Argentina’s economic decline in the second half of the 1990s, which peaked in the past six months, has created an environment favourable to the weakening of all kinds of rights, warn the activists.

One of the symptoms of that has been the loss of influence of the National Women’s Council, which in January – after the collapse of two governments in late December – was “demoted” to a mere programme that answers to the broader National Council of Public Policies, with the consequent loss of funds for financing initiatives.

According to the latest official figures, a full 51.4 percent of the population of 36 million has fallen into poverty, while unemployment stands at 21.4 percent.

Although the statistics are not broken down by gender, the report by civil society groups notes that the main victims of poverty are women and children.

The president of Women in Action, Noemí Aumedes, states in the document that sexual and domestic violence have been getting worse, and that virtually none of the CEDAW committee’s recommendations to the Argentine state in 1997 were met.

Aumedes told IPS that the number of convictions for rape and other sexual crimes is 10 times lower than the number of denunciations. She also pointed out that the country lacks a law cracking down on sexual harassment in the private sphere.

In addition, she underlined the need for a campaign to raise awareness on domestic violence.

In 1997, the CEDAW committee described the influence of sexist attitudes towards women in Argentina, and their direct consequence, “high rates of violence” against women, as “disturbing.”

In Argentina, 42 percent of female murder victims are killed by their husbands or partners.

Since there is no unified registry of complaints filed with police in Argentina, there have been cases of women who move house in an attempt to get away from their violent partners, and only after they are beaten to death do authorities discover that they had lodged as many as six or seven reports of abuse, but in different districts.

The UN committee had recommended a broad public awareness campaign on the rights of female abuse victims and the services to which they can turn for assistance. But according to the local women’s groups, the suggestions were never adopted.

“The public policies of the Argentine state have mainly focused on the aid aspect, providing psychological and legal assistance” to victims of domestic violence, while “prevention plans targetting the victims are insufficient,” says the report.

Cecilia Lipsick, with the Association of University Women, said that despite the fact that the committee observed in 1997 that the state was not doing enough to address the growing phenomenon of prostitution and sexual exploitation of girls, “no action or policy has been adopted to tackle the problem.”

“A number of studies, including one by UNICEF (the UN children’s fund), indicate that the crisis has triggered a significant rise in prostitution among women and girls due to the tremendous impoverishment of families, while extremely serious cases of networks trafficking in women and girls have come to light,” Lipsick told IPS.

Due to the crisis, the number of sexually exploited girls is growing, and they are falling prey to such activity at an increasingly young age, she explained.

For the first time, the statistics register cases of maternal mortality (pregnancy-related deaths) among girls under the age of 15, stressed the president of the Foundation for Studies and Research on Women, Dr. Mabel Bianco.

Access to health services has been severely curtailed by the crisis, while the public health system lacks essential materials, including contraceptives, she stressed.

“Not only continued access to information on birth control must be guaranteed, but access to contraceptives and related services as well, because just one aspect is not enough,” she said.

The Argentine state failed to adequately disseminate the committee’s 1997 recommendations, which signalled the need to reinforce the policy aimed at informing girls and teenagers on contraception, since abortion is illegal in Argentina, added Bianco.

She lamented that a bill on reproductive health is bogged down in the legislature. Only 14 districts have statutes on family planning and reproductive health, but in most cases the services lack contraceptives to distribute among low-income women and teenagers.

“Due to the escalation of the crisis, women are turning more and more to abortion, given the lack of policies guaranteeing their access to birth control,” explained Bianco.

The report notes that an estimated 400,000 illegal abortions a year are carried out in Argentina, and that back-alley abortions practiced without the necessary hygiene safeguards are the main cause of maternal mortality in Argentina, accounting for 29 percent of such deaths.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Legal and Social Studies assessed shortcomings in terms of economic and social rights, and found that women are paid just 60 percent of what men with a similar level of schooling earn.

The human rights group, which for the first time joined together with the women’s movement to draw up the civil society report, stated that the plan providing aid to unemployed heads of households, implemented this year by the government to help families in the midst of the crisis, fell far short.

While the basic basket of food items for a family of four costs an estimated 173 dollars a month, the assistance provided by the state amounts to just 41 dollars, the Centre for Legal and Social Studies points out.