Gulf | Yemen
Women receive fewer chances
A UN official said Yemen is not complying with human rights international agreements despite the fact that it has signed and ratified almost all of them.
- By Nasser Arrabyee, Correspondent
- Published: 00:30 February 29, 2008
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Yemen is off track, says UN official
'A lot of work needed to continue process of democratisation'
Sana'a: A UN official said Yemen is not complying with human rights international agreements despite the fact that it has signed and ratified almost all of them.
"If we talk about human rights, the good part is that Yemen is a signatory to all the human rights conventions, social economy, political, cultural, the right of the child, rights of women," said former UN Resident Coordinator, Flavia Pansieri.
"Implementation, however is lagging behind, certainly when it comes to basic rights for women, therefore, there is a need to review current legislation to make sure that it is compatible with the conventions that Yemen has signed and ratified," she said in an interview with Gulf News before she left Yemen for Germany to head a UN voluntary programme last week.
The official described women's status in Yemen as not good calling towards empowering women to contribute to the development of their country.
"Women's status here is a problem area, because women have fewer opportunities than men, when it comes to education and consequently when it comes to employment, when it comes to income, and when it comes to political participation," she said.
Development issue
The UN official urged the Yemeni government and society to focus on women's issues as an essential development issue.
"Through education, through respect, through opportunities, by making sure that fathers educate their daughters to make them citizens who can really contribute to society, it also means husbands understanding that it is both the right and responsibility of their own spouses to be able to work also outside the family."
She also called for the effective role of Yemen's civil society to be parallel and integral to that of the government. "Yemen has a number of very well-established civil society organisations but notwithstanding, there is clearly a need for capacity building, for developing skills, for creating stronger institutional setup exactly like this similar need is found in government institutions," she said.
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