By Natalia Ruiz Diaz
ASUNCION, May 4 2009 (IPS)

Women in Paraguay have learned to voice their demands and to fight for them, activist Line Bareiro, whose track record in defence of human rights has earned her nomination for a place on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), told IPS.

Line Bareiro Credit: Natalia Ruiz Díaz/IPS

Bareiro, a political scientist and lawyer by profession, is a longtime activist with international renown as an expert on human rights, democracy and gender equity.

In this interview with IPS, Bareiro discussed the main issues on the agenda for women's rights in the local, regional and global scenarios.

IPS: There is a Guaraní saying, "Kuña kuimba'épe ha so'o mbarakajape" (women are for men as meat is for cats). Is this attitude still prevalent in Paraguayan society? LINE BAREIRO: This idea is part of Paraguayan patriarchal views, which are not highly elaborated, in contrast to German patriarchal thought, for instance, which was extensively elaborated because their great philosophers were misogynist and helped lay the foundations of Western thought.

In Paraguay the situation is more brutal. This kind of "machismo," with the Latin American trait of patriarchal brutality, is still prevalent. But I think it is changing in broad sectors, mainly because women are gaining ground.

IPS: What is the situation like for working women? LB: In law, the only discrimination on the labour front is the discrimination against domestic employees. They do not have equality under law, and this is the leading occupation of women in Paraguay, and in Latin America as a whole. If we want to fight poverty from a gender perspective, we have to work intensively on this issue.

At the level of minimum wages, there is hardly any difference between men and women, but the studies show that the higher up the salary scale you go, the greater the discrimination.

However, we have dreadful forms of discrimination related to sexual harassment and everyday difficulties. It is still very common in Paraguay for a woman who knows all the ropes and does most of the work, to be the "second-in-command," while the number one is a man.

IPS: Have women made any progress in terms of political participation? LB: Not much. CEDAW had to repeat its recommendations to Paraguay about this, telling it to change its legislation. Our quota of 20 percent of women candidates for internal party elections translates into approximately 10 percent of women in parliament and in local government. This means that our country is below average for the region, which has approximately 15 percent of women in these positions.

IPS: Is domestic violence still seen as an issue that belongs to the private sphere? LB: Strides have been made, because there's a big difference between domestic violence being an issue for private negotiation, and knowing that the state is on your side. That has made a big difference, even in a way we may not like very much, in that society prefers to deal with the problems of women as victims, so it provides at least some level of care. It's not so common now for a woman to go to the police and be told "go home."

We have not yet achieved the second generation of laws. Law 1,600, against domestic violence, is a major achievement, but we haven't reached the second generation, with proper penalties, and of course, femicide has not been included.

The media are very backward in some ways, because they still present femicide as a crime of passion, when it's really gender-related murder.

IPS: How is Paraguay doing in regard to the fulfilment of the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG), about achieving gender equity? LB: Badly. And it's not just the third MDG; the maternal mortality rate is even worse. This indicator has not budged in Paraguay nor in the region. The poverty rate, too, is disgraceful.

But there has been progress toward equality, thanks to action by women. When we make up our minds to push, things change. We make less progress when we try to coax and persuade men to share household chores and the raising of children, and the same thing happens in other countries.

There have been strong women leaders in this country. But with some exceptions, women have given up their rights. However, now we have learned to want things, to say what we want and to fight for them.

IPS: On the global scene, what are your views on the progress made in defence of women's rights? LB: I think the world wasn't ready for this. States weren't ready to deal with the issue of human rights in general, still less to address equality for women, and for women to take their rightful place as half of humanity.

We are living at a time when the most unyielding forms of patriarchy coexist with the real possibility for women to exercise power, for transformations, for the recognition and the exercise of their rights in broad sectors.

In Paraguay and in Latin America as a whole, we have still not managed to enact national laws in accordance with the Inter-American Convention of Belém do Pará (on the prevention, punishment and eradication of violence against women). In the new constitutions that are being approved, we need to make sure women are not left out.

IPS: Why is CEDAW important? LB: The committee examines what governments say they have done to comply with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The experts on CEDAW receive the reports and make observations and recommendations. One thing women appreciate is that the committee is very progressive in its thinking, and its observations and recommendations contribute arguing points. Then it is up to human rights organisations and the women's movement to make sure the recommendations are implemented.

There is also a group of countries that have ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention. In our region, all but four countries have done so.

Women in countries that have ratified the protocol can take a case before CEDAW, as individuals or as a group. The committee's response is especially valuable because it views the cases not only from the perspective of human rights, but also from a gender perspective.

IPS: You have a picture of lips printed on your T-shirt, surrounded by the words "tu boca fundamental contra los fundamentalismos" (your voice is fundamental against fundamentalisms). What's the meaning behind this message? LB: It's part of a campaign being carried out by the Articulación Feminista Marcosur (made up of personalities and organisations from seven South American countries). It's fascinating, because we are using ideas to fight the people who want the powers-that-be to remain unchanged.

We are against all kinds of fundamentalism, we are for democratic societies in which we can talk about everything, even if we disagree, and that's how things get worked out.

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