Reaching Common Ground: Cultures, Gender, and Human Right

Culture is and always has been central to development. As a natural and fundamental dimension of people’s lives, culture must be integrated into development policy and programming. This report shows how this process works in practice.
The starting point of the report is the universal validity of the international human rights framework. The focus is therefore on discussing and showcasing how culturally sensitive approaches are critical for the realization of human rights in general and women’s rights in particular.
The report gives an overview of the conceptual frameworks as well as the practice of development, looking at the everyday events that make up people’s experience of development. Culturally sensitive approaches call for cultural fluency – familiarity with how cultures work, and how to work with them. The report presents some of the challenges and dilemmas of culturally sensitive strategies and suggests how partnerships can address them.
Culture – inherited patterns of shared meanings and common understandings – influences how people manage their lives, and provides the lens through which they interpret their society. Cultures affect how people think and act; but they do not produce uniformity of thought or behaviour.
Cultures must be seen in their wider context: They influence and are influenced by external circumstances and change in response. They are not static; people are continuously involved in reshaping them, although some aspects of culture continue to influence choices and lifestyles for very long periods.
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ILO Gender Equality campaign highlights need for rights, jobs and social security for older women and men

GENEVA (ILO News) ─ Despite increasing international attention to ageing societies and older persons, in many societies, older persons and especially older women, still face age discrimination in the workplace and lack access to rights, jobs and social security, the International Labour Office (ILO) said today on the occasion of the International Day of Older Persons.
“We need new age solutions to old age problems, especially for older women”, says Jane Hodges, Director of the ILO Bureau for Gender Equality. “Women in old age are particularly vulnerable because they are often stuck in unpaid, low-paid or part-time and precarious work. As a result women often lack any form of pensions, rights or other social benefits enjoyed by men. What is more, their lower pay engenders an endless cycle of gender-based poverty.”
The rights of older workers have long been on the agenda of the ILO. The Older Workers Recommendation, 1980 (No. 162) specifically applies to all workers, women and men, who are liable to encounter difficulties in employment and occupation because of advancement in age.
The Madrid International Plan of Action on Aging (2002) has made it clear that in order to build a society fit for people of all ages the international community needs to rethink the conventional course of working life.
Older persons should be able to choose to work, be it full- or part-time, and benefit from social security, old-age benefits, retirement benefits or long-service benefits. However, in many countries, the absence or low coverage of social protection systems compel older women and men to continue working, often in the informal economy and in precarious conditions, in order to afford a decent living.
Access to retirement through adequate pensions and health care is part of the ILO’s core mandate and an integral component of its Decent Work Agenda. The ILO’s Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) sets minimum standards for a comprehensive social security system. The ILO Social Security Department promotes this and other relevant conventions through its Global Campaign to extend social security to all women and men.
In June 2009, changing demographics and gender equality in the world of work are both to be discussed at the ILO’s annual International Labour Conference in Geneva.

Source: http://www.ilo.org