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PUTRAJAYA DECLARATION
1. We, the Ministers and other Heads of Delegation from
Member Countries of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) met in
Putrajaya, Malaysia, from 9 to 10 May 2005, to discuss
issues faced by women in the era of globalization recognize
that the participation of women and the integration of their
perspectives, in all sectors and at all levels, are
essential to their empowerment and to the achievement of
gender equality and equity. In conformity with the
principles and obligations of NAM Members, we hereby:
2. Reaffirm our determination to preserve the noble ideals
and principles of the Movement as initiated by its founders
so as to further consolidate and make the Movement as the
leading force in the 21st Century;
3. Recall that the Heads of State and Government of NAM
Member Countries called upon States which are not parties to
the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women to work actively
towards ratification of or accession to it and encourage all
members to consider signing, ratifying or acceding to the
Optional Protocol to the Convention;
4. Recognize the need for full and accelerated
implementation of the United Nations Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women by
States parties to the Convention;
5. Reaffirm also that the Beijing Declaration and Platform
for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special
session of the General Assembly, entitled "Women 2000:
Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First
Century" are important contributions to the advancement of
women worldwide and for achieving gender equality;
especially the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and
aggravation of the problems deriving from poverty and social
injustices have particularly adverse impact on women.
6. Increasing globalization and trade liberalization have
multiple impacts on the capacity of developing countries to
create employment, livelihood opportunities and to achieve
poverty eradication goals. Whilst women have enjoyed some
benefits, most of them still suffer from increased poverty,
deteriorating working conditions and job insecurity.
7. Structural adjustment programmes, the increasing debt
burden faced by the most indebted developing countries, in
particular the LDCs, is unsustainable and constitutes one of
the principal obstacles to achieving progress, sustainable
development and poverty eradication strategies, that
particularly affect women and girls.
8. Women's empowerment, their active participation and
direct involvement in the economic sphere are critical to
the achievement of sustainable development and poverty
eradication in the Member Countries of the Non-Aligned
Movement Creating an environment which empowers .women to
achieve upward mobility in the economic sphere in both the
formal and informal sectors is an essential part of the
national agenda.
9. In this regard, the role of the family unit that respects
the human rights of all its members as an institution that
provides the highest degree of material and moral well being
is extremely important as stated in the Doha Declaration on
Family adopted on 30 November 2004.
- Promote research on the impacts of globalization and trade
liberalization on women's economic status to develop better
understanding and mainstreaming of women's issues in
decision-making processes;
- Formulate strategies to effectively address circumstances
causing negative impacts of globalization on the situation
of women and girls worldwide;
- Provide women, especially marginalized and vulnerable
categories of women, access to financing, in particular
micro-credit and marketing facilities, and provide
corresponding capacity-building programmes in gender
awareness, fund management, and other appropriate skills;
- Provide an enabling environment that removes gender
specific barriers and creates opportunities for women's
entrepreneurial development;
- Strengthen the incentive role of the public sector as
employer to develop an environment that effectively affirms
and empowers women;
- Include gender perspectives in finance and trade
negotiations at all levels;
- Strengthen networking and communication at all levels to
broaden and enhance women's potential in economic
activities;
- Facilitate creation of sustainable jobs and livelihood
opportunities to improve women's position in the labour
market and ensure favourable working conditions for all
women, including migrant women, consistent with all their
human rights;
- Enact and enforce legislation to guarantee the rights of
women and men to equal pay for equal work or work of equal
value;
- bodies, among others, set up by the government with the
view to achieving equal representation of women;
- Faffirmative action policies to increase the proportion of
women at the decision-making level, at least to a minimum 30
percent in both public and private sector bodies including
in the legislatures;
- Review the criteria and process of appointment to
decision-making bodies in the public and private sectors to
encourage increased women's participation and
representation;
- Take measures, as appropriate, to ensure that political
parties, trade unions and all other private sector bodies
commit themselves to women's equal access to and full
participation in power structures and decision making at all
levels;
- Raise awareness among women and men on the importance of
women's participation in decision making processes at all-
levels in political, economic and financial sectors, and in
this connection, develop leadership training programmes for
women, especially for young women, to enable them to
exercise responsibilities at all levels.
- Promote equal access to education, property rights and
inheritance rights and to information technology and
business and economic opportunities, including in
international trade, in order to provide women with the
tools that - enable them to take part fully and equally in
decision making processes at all levels, and
- Facilitate and create enabling conditions to have access
and to ensure active participation of women in
decision-making positions both in urban and rural areas.
Take all appropriate measures to ensure the equal
participation of women in decision-making and management
level in education system
Provide women and girls on equal basis with men and boys
access to scholarships, study grants, financial aids and all
other relevant facilities;
- Eliminate negative stereotyping in all curricula and
teaching materials made available to male and female
students to fight discrimination against women;
- Ensure that private sector educational institutions adhere
to gender equality policy to encourage equal education of
women and girls;
- Take all necessary measures to strengthen public
educational system to improve women's and girls’ access to
all levels of education;
- Promote illiteracy eradication programme and provide
increased opportunities and facilities for lifelong learning
for women;
- Provide equal opportunities for women and girls to
participate actively in all school programmes and
activities;
- Remove structural and cultural impediments to increase the
enrolment of female students in science and technology
disciplines at the tertiary level; And
- Facilitate access to professional education to widows in
war affected' countries.
- Ensure that women have equal access to health care
services, information and education throughout the life
cycle.
- Ensure safe motherhood and safe birthing for women living
in conflict areas or in areas of natural catastrophes.
- Ensure the protection of women and girls from sexual abuse
in conflict areas.
- Reaffirm the right to the enjoyment of the highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health, protect
and promote the attainment of this right for women and girls
and incorporate it in national legislation;
- Provide adequate and gender-sensitive services to address
all reproductive health needs and increase resources to such
services.
- Establish training centre and raise funds to support and
educate community-based health workers in remote areas.
- Raise awareness and understanding among men and boys about
their responsibilities of protecting women's health needs,
particularly their reproductive health.
- Provide necessary sexual education at school level as an
effective HIV and AIDS prevention tool;
- Promote gender-specific economic, social and legal
measures aimed at combating persistent and emerging
infectious diseases, inter alia the HIV and AIDS, malaria
and tuberculosis pandemics and intensify prevention
campaigns;
- Establish, as appropriate, gender indicators to monitor
healthcare programmes, goals and outcomes, particularly for
HIV and AIDS; and
- Educate the society on the importance of social inclusion
of people living with HIV and AIDS in particular women and
girls.
Women, the Media and ICT
1. The emergence of new information and communication
technologies (lCT) poses opportunities and challenges for
the promotion of gender equality. The role of ICT as a tool
for development cannot be over-emphasized and is central to
the empowerment of women in the developing countries.
2. It is particularly important to address gender-based
discrimination and inequalities that undermine women's
access to opportunities in the emerging knowledge and
information society, and that diminish the potential of ICT
and the media to be an effective tool for the promotion of
gender equality.
3. The media in many countries do not provide a balanced
picture of women's diverse lives and contributions to
society. In addition, violent and degrading or pornographic
media products are also negatively affecting women and their
participation in society. Efforts must be made to stop the
projection of negative and degrading images of women in the
media communications electronics, print, visual and audio.
4. We hereby commit ourselves to:
- Develop domestic policies to ensure that gender
perspective is fully integrated into ICT programmes,
including in education and training at all
- Promote effective participation of women in national,
regional and international forums on ICT;
- Increase the participation and access of women to
expression and decision-making in and through the media and
the ICT;
- Promote women's full participation in the media, including
management, programming, education, training and research;
- Promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women
in the media;
- Strengthen national and international measures to deter
and stop cyber-crimes such as the utilization of the
internet for trafficking of women and girls;
- Promote the use of ICT network to connect the member
countries of NAM for sharing of experiences and best
practices; and
- Call upon the media to promote gender equality and the
advancement of women and to intensify its contribution to
combat violence against women including through awareness
raising campaigns.
Women and Armed Conflict
1. War and militarism have profound adverse consequences on
women and children.
2. Casualties of war, armed conflicts, including in
situations of foreign occupation, are mostly civilians, the
majority of whom are women and children.
3. For women with regard to their advancement, self-reliance
and integration in the development planning of their
society.
- Address the various dimensions of rehabilitation and
reintegration of women and girl refugees, including the
psychological consequences of rape and other forms of
gender-based violence;
- Put in place mechanisms and programmes for the protection
of women and girls in refugee and Internally Displaced
Persons camps against violence and all forms of sexual abuse
and exploitation and to ensure the enforcement of action
against the perpetrators in accordance with the law;
- Provide humanitarian assistance including the health
needs, especially reproductive and sexual health of women
and girls in conflict, refugee, and lDP situations;
- Increase and hasten, as appropriate, subject to national,
security considerations, the conversion of military
resources and related industries to development and peaceful
purposes;
- Reject the adoption of and demand to put an end to
unilateral coercive measures not in accordance with
international law and the Charter of the United Nations,
that impedes the full achievement of economic and social
development by the population of the affected country, in
particular women and children, that hinders their well-being
and that creates' obstacles to the full enjoyment of all
their human rights;
- Encourage, by all means, education on human rights and
peace and to promote non-violence; and
- Educate men and boys to respect women and girls as equal
partners in all spheres of life and society and mobilize
them against gender-based violence;
- Enact and enforce legislation against the perpetrators of
practices and acts of violence against women and children;
- Develop and implement national, regional and international
plans, multi-sectoral strategies and measures to combat all
forms of violence, including trafficking in persons,
particularly women and girls, child sexual exploitation and
protection of migrant workers;
- Document and disseminate case studies of good practices in
combating violence against women and girls;
- Create an enabling environment to combat all forms of
violence against women and children living in situations of
armed conflict and foreign occupation;
- Establish appropriate national monitoring mechanisms for
monitoring and evaluating implementation of measures taken
to eliminate violence against women and girls;
- Support development at the national level. of a
collaborative relationship with relevant non-governmental
and community-based organizations and other relevant actors
of civil society aimed at the development and effective
implementation of provisions and policies relating to
violence against women and girls;
Gender Mainstreaming
1. NAM member countries recognize that the full and
effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action and its follow-up processes and the
promotion of gender equality and of women's empowerment and
participation, together with the widely accepted strategy of
gender mainstreaming, are among the essential elements for
advancing the implementation of the Millennium Declaration,
with a view, in particular, to achieving the internationally
agreed development goals, including those contained in the
Millennium Declaration and the outcomes of United Nations
summits, conferences and special sessions.
2. Gender mainstreaming in all legislation, policies, and
programmes is an essential process to women's empowerment
and their full participation in all spheres of society. It
facilitates the integration of women's differing experience
and needs into the development process, as well into the
society and helps to change the negative social norms that
discriminate against women. NAM member States recognize that
effective gender mainstreaming is critical to the
empowerment of women and to the achievement of gender
equality.
3. We hereby commit ourselves to: a) Take all necessary
measures, including in the area of law, policy, programme
and activities to eliminate discrimination against women
within public and private sectors;
- Implement affirmative action’s, where needed, to
accelerate de facto equality rights of women in all spheres;
- Raise awareness about women's right to equality and the
importance of women's participation and representation in
all spheres and at all levels in order to eliminate
obstacles to women's equality; local, regional and national
levels including through open and participatory dialogue;
and
- Encourage cooperation and interaction between Governments
and members of civil society, including non-governmental
organizations and private sector, in the implementation of
all of the above commitments to the advancement of women to
ensure their empowerment and their full participation in all
sectors and at all levels.
4. We, the Ministers and other Heads of Delegation from
Member Countries of the Non-Aligned Movement hereby:
5. Agree to recommend to the Heads of State and Government
of the Non-Aligned Movement that the issue of the-
advancement of women be integrated into the mainstream
programmes and activities of NAM and that the NAM
Ministerial Meeting on the Advancement of Women be convened
on a biennial basis; and
6. Welcome the proposal of Malaysia t6 initiate the
establishment of a centre on gender and development for NAM
in Malaysia, which will serve as an international
institution dedicated to women's development and empowerment
through a lifelong learning approach.
PUTRAJAYA MALAYSIA 10TH MAY 2005
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