IN the report, Women’s Rights in Review 30 Years After Beijing, UN Women said the 30th anniversary took place in a year in which the world faced severe challenges that included humanitarian crises and a backlash against gender equality, among others.
The 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, endorsed by 189 governments, outlined the steps needed to achieve gender equality and remains a lasting testament to multilateral solidarity and commitment, according to UN Women.
The report noted that in the past five years, countries have taken many steps forward on gender equality, women’s rights and empowerment. Some 88% have passed laws and established services to eliminate violence against women and girls. Most have banned discrimination in employment and 44% are improving the quality of education, training and life-long learning for women and girls.
However, it noted that gender discrimination remains deeply embedded in the structures of economies and societies. This sustains wide and unjust gaps in power and resources, imposing a chronic constraint on progress on women’s rights, it said. The weakening of democratic institutions has gone hand-in-hand with backlash on gender equality. Anti-rights actors are actively undermining long-standing consensus on key women’s rights issues, UN Women said.
This is a cause for reflection two days after the world celebrated International Women’s Day on Saturday.
Zimbabwe has made strides in promoting gender equality through the promulgation of laws that have created an environment for women to excel. And excel they did, occupying senior positions in government and the private sector.
Justice Loyce Matanda-Moyo became the country’s first female prosecutor-general when she was appointed to the post in 2023. Former Justice secretary Virginia Mabhiza became the first female Attorney-General when she was made government’s chief legal advisor in 2023.
In the corporate sector Divine Ndhlukula shattered the glass ceiling in 1998, converting her cottage into an office with four employees and Securico was born.
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Today, the company is one of the largest security firms.
Since independence, the country has promulgated laws in support of gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Gender equality is one of the country’s founding values with section 17 of the supreme law directing the State to promote the full participation of women in all spheres of the Zimbabwean society based on equality with men.
It mandates the State to take all measures, including legislative, needed to ensure both genders are equally represented in all institutions and agencies of government at every level and that women constitute at least half the membership of all commissions and other elective and appointed governmental bodies established by or under the Constitution or any Act of Parliament.
Section 56(2) of the Constitution buttresses gender equality prescribing that women and men have the right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres.
The quota system created by section 124 of the Constitution has seen more women in Parliament and local authorities.
Despite these great strides, more work needs to be done to root out gender discrimination due to cultural or societal norms.
Child marriages, especially among postolic sects, persist despite the existence of legislation crying for enforcement.
It is still a long way out of the woods if 462 women die per every 100 000 live births in Zimbabwe. It means we need to put our shoulder to the wheel to halt the frightening statistic.
