This is my first EcoJustice diary and an overwhelming thought because one of the very real impacts of environmental issues has to do with the painfully unfair way hey affect less developed nations and the poor in more developed nations.
Exploitation of resources also means the exploitation of people, their lands, cultures and very existence. And one of the most pressing issue on resources is also the most difficult to address, population.
As anyone who has taken an environmental class knows, it's presented as the 800 pound gorilla in the room, it's that issue that no one knows how to talk about because it's tied to the very politically charged topic of choice and reproductive freedom.
But it also goes so much deeper than that in many other Countries where there is NO choice and where culture dictates childbirth, socio-economics (more children means more hands to work, or higher infant mortalities mean more pregnancies needed).
It's charged for so many reasons because for many women their bodies are not theirs to control, they cannot decide and we have much of a world that is living as a lesser entity.
That's why, when someone told me about the new United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women the first thing I thought was, population control. Empowerment of women, what a grand and wonderful thought.
Here is the press release...
United Nations, New York, 2 July 2010 — In an historic move, the United Nations General Assembly voted unanimously today to create a new entity to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide.
The establishment of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women — to be known as UN Women — is a result of years of negotiations between UN Member States and advocacy by the global women’s movement. It is part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact.
“I am grateful to Member States for having taken this major step forward for the world’s women and girls,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement welcoming the decision. “UN Women will significantly boost UN efforts to promote gender equality, expand opportunity, and tackle discrimination around the globe.”
UN Women merges and will build on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system which focus exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment:
Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW, established in 1946)
International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW, established in 1976)
Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI, established in 1997)
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, established in 1976)
“I commend the leadership and staff of DAW, INSTRAW, OSAGI and UNIFEM for their commitment to the cause of gender equality; I will count on their support as we enter a new era in the UN’s work for women,” said Secretary-General Ban. “I have made gender equality and the empowerment of women one of my top priorities — from working to end the scourge of violence against women, to appointing more women to senior positions, to efforts to reduce maternal mortality rates,” he noted.
Over many decades, the UN has made significant progress in advancing gender equality, including through landmark agreements such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Gender equality is not only a basic human right, but its achievement has enormous socio-economic ramifications. Empowering women fuels thriving economies, spurring productivity and growth.
Yet gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched in every society. Women in all parts of the world suffer violence and discrimination, and are under-represented in decision-making processes. High rates of maternal mortality continue to be a cause for global shame. For many years, the UN has faced serious challenges in its efforts to promote gender equality globally, including inadequate funding and no single recognized driver to direct UN activities on gender equality issues.
UN Women — which will be operational by January 2011 — has been created by the General Assembly to address such challenges. It will be a dynamic and strong champion for women and girls, providing them with a powerful voice at the global, regional and local levels. It will enhance, not replace, efforts by other parts of the UN system (such as UNICEF, UNDP, and UNFPA) that continue to have responsibility to work for gender equality and women’s empowerment in their areas of expertise.
UN Women will have two key roles: It will support inter-governmental bodies such as the Commission on the Status of Women in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms, and it will help Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, as well as forging effective partnerships with civil society. It will also help the UN system to be accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress.
Secretary-General Ban will appoint an Under-Secretary-General to head the new body and is inviting suggestions from Member States and civil society partners. The Under-Secretary-General will be a member of all senior UN decision-making bodies and will report to the Secretary-General.
The operations of UN Women will be funded from voluntary contributions, while the regular UN budget will support its normative work. At least US$500 million — double the current combined budget of DAW, INSTRAW, OSAGI, and UNIFEM – has been recognised by Member States as the minimum investment needed for UN Women.
“UN Women will give women and girls the strong, unified voice they deserve on the world stage. I look forward to seeing this new entity up and running so that we — women and men — can move forward together in our endeavour to achieve the goals of equality, development and peace for all women and girls, everywhere,” said Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro.
The General Assembly resolution creating UN Women also covers broader issues related to UN system-wide coherence, laying out a new approach to the funding of UN development operations, streamlining the work of UN bodies, and improving methods of evaluating reform efforts.
Empowering women is a worldwide effort to be undertaken by all developed Countries and population control is also an issue that must be addressed by all Nations because this burden will be felt by all.
Not only must developed nations address our consumption issue, which is vastly out of control, from our refusal to deal with our dependence of fossil fuels and our voracious consumption beyond our actual population needs (So even with far fewer people, we consume far more resources than less developed nations, this must also be addressed because it can be argued that is a far greater threat to our existence.)
But we must still deal with the growing number of human beings on planet earth because of the need to feed, cloth and sustain them humanely and to have living conditions for them that is not merely enough, but beyond enough. We can no longer accept what we have now and must address so many issues. There are consequences of too many people.
Consequences of overpopulation
Overpopulation occurs when a population's density exceeds the capacity of the environment to supply the health requirements of an individual, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Environmentalists have long been concerned about the resources threatened by rapidly growing human populations, focusing on phenomenon such as deforestation, desertification, air pollution and global warming. But the worst-case scenario for people experiencing overpopulation, according to Lawrence Smith, president of the Population Institute, is a lack of fresh, clean water.
"If the water goes, the species goes," he said.
"That sounds kind of alarmist," Smith conceded, "considering there's water all around us, but 97 percent plus is saltwater, and the freshwater that we use to sustain ourselves is just native to 3 percent. ... So the accessibility of water, the competition for water, the availability of water is going to be a major, major threat," he said, noting world population growth estimates at more than 9 billion people by 2050.
Nine billion is an exceptional amount of people, considering the world's population only reached 1 billion in 1830, according to the Population Institute, a nonprofit organization that works to fund population and family planning programs around the world.
Governments facing overpopulation will also struggle to manage waste, said Allen. "Handling your waste and the public health consequences of not handling it well is the biggest problem that will be faced in rapidly growing urban areas in the developing world." When London, England, faced a population boom in the 1850s, for example, its infrastructure was not prepared for the excess waste, which resulted in Cholera outbreaks.
...
Smith said that 97 percent of world population growth between now and 2050 will occur in the developing world, where governments face serious economic and social challenges.
"I would say most of this is in sub-Saharan Africa, where by every other health indicator, they rank at the bottom," Smith said. "This growth rate is taking place despite the high levels of HIV and AIDS and [tuberculosis] and malaria."
Source
And this is where we must focus on education, empowerment and equality, it is where we can make the largest strides in not only reducing population numbers but in lifting up the status of women in their communities and cultures and by transforming old paradigms. It is time that we work to make the lives of women more meaningful and more sustainable. It will not only help those developed nations but help these women be healthier women and mothers.
It is a fact that:
Where women’s status is low, family size tends to be large, which makes it more difficult for families to thrive. Population and development and reproductive health programmes are more effective when they address the educational opportunities, status and empowerment of women. When women are empowered, whole families benefit, and these benefits often have ripple effects to future generations.
Empowering women, educating and bringing them up in the world can mean saving our very planet, if you don't believe me, look at the issues and linkages that the United Nations Population Funds that outline how intimately women are linked to all those key things that we may take for granted.
Key issues and linkages
Reproductive health: Women, for both physiological and social reasons, are more vulnerable than men to reproductive health problems. Reproductive health problems, including maternal mortality and morbidity, represent a major – but preventable -- cause of death and disability for women in developing countries. Failure to provide information, services and conditions to help women protect their reproduction health therefore constitutes gender-based discrimination and a violation of women’s rights to health and life.
Stewardship of natural resources: Women in developing nations are usually in charge of securing water, food and fuel and of overseeing family health and diet. Therefore, they tend to put into immediate practice whatever they learn about nutrition and preserving the environment and natural resources.
Economic empowerment: More women than men live in poverty. Economic disparities persist partly because much of the unpaid work within families and communities falls on the shoulders of women and because they face discrimination in the economic sphere.
Educational empowerment: About two thirds of the illiterate adults in the world are female. Higher levels of women's education are strongly associated with both lower infant mortality and lower fertility, as well as with higher levels of education and economic opportunity for their children.
Political empowerment: Social and legal institutions still do not guarantee women equality in basic legal and human rights, in access to or control of land or other resources, in employment and earning, and social and political participation. Laws against domestic violence are often not enforced on behalf of women.
Empowerment throughout the life cycle: Reproductive health is a lifetime concern for both women and men, from infancy to old age. UNFPA supports programming tailored to the different challenges they face at different times in life.
Women count, their place in the world needs to be elevated, it can bring the rest of the world up a level and heal what damage we've done to Mother Earth by building communities of strong, educated women who rely on each other for building communities.
And it's not about population control foremost, it is EcoJustice, I want to make this clear, it's an important distinction because it is a question that's been asked, Women's Rights or Population Control?.
Empowering women is the main issue at hand, bringing up their status and honoring them as equals means that we elevate humanity as a whole.
How can we begin to heal our relationship to planet earth if we cannot even treat other human beings as equals?
How can we consider humane treatment of animals, such as whales and dolphins, or recognizing the importance protecting biodiversity if we cannot stop torturing each other, murdering, raping and keeping over fifty percent of the world's population as less than equal?
This, to me, has a deeper implication regarding our continued harm towards planet earth and our inability to see it as any thing other as a resource only when we are extracting, refining, digging or mining.
Until we can collectively see the inherent worth in the environment, that we can see the inherent worth in how the world as our home keeps us and holds us, we will not survive this violent period of humanity.
And if we cannot treat women as equals, as a worthy partner with men to responsibly inhabit this amazingly beautiful planet with all its wonders and gifts, then maybe we will never learn to appreciate everything else that goes with such a responsibility.