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Strategic objective E.2.
Reduce excessive military expenditures and control the availability of armaments
Actions to be taken
143. By Governments:
e. Recognizing that women and children are particularly affected by the indiscriminate use of anti-personnel land-mines:
v. Adopt at the earliest possible date, if they have not already done so, a moratorium on the export of anti-personnel land-mines, including to non-governmental entities, noting with satisfaction that many States have already declared moratoriums on the export, transfer or sale of such mines;
Beijing Declaration (1995)
Of those grotesque urgencies felt by those who know the atrocities and inhumanities of humanity to humanity from war, leftovers killing and maiming seem like a solid point of reflection. This particular section of paragraph 143 of the Beijing Declaration deals with the problems of armaments and excessive military expenditures with a focus on anti-personnel land-mines.
Those are some of the leftovers from war. These kill. These mutilate. These disfigure. These kill, mutilate, and disfigure mostly women and children who tend to be the majority of the civilians during wartime and after combat moments. One issue is the conscription or the drafting of men into wars for the creation of killers or murderers for-hire of the state for sometimes noble and often ignoble purposes. That’s one concern. Another is those who are not involved in any way with the war being affected in general.
The main statements in this section of the Beijing Declaration emphasize that which happened in 1997 with the moratorium or the call for the moratorium of land-mines and other widely used weapons that continue to kill innocents. There should be a moratorium, as noted, on the everyone including NGOs with several Member States, circa 1995, already declaring moratoriums on them in terms of “export, transfer or sale.”
Into the present moment, this has simply been amplified as an effort to reduce the impacts of widespread murderous possibilities of weapons lodged in the ground at 9 figure numbers with estimates as high as 110,000,000.
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- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Some general declarations (not individual Declaration or set of them but announcement) included the UN Decade for Women (1976-1985).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979) and the Optional Protocol (1999).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the optional protocol (1993).
- Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), Five-year review of progress (2000), 10-year review in 2005, the 15-year review in 2010, and the 20-year review in 2015.
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), and the UN Security Council additional resolutions on women, peace and security: 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), and 2467 (2019).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
- UN Women’s strategic plan, 2018–2021
- 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, emphasis on the entirety of the goals with a strong focus on Goal 5
- 2015 agenda with 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (169 targets for the end to poverty, combatting inequalities, and so on, by 2030). The SDGs were preceded by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 2000 to 2015.
- The Spotlight Initiative as another important piece of work, as a joint venture between the European Union and the United Nations.
- February 6, International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation is observed.
- February 11, International Day of Women and Girls in Science is observed.
- June 19, Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict is observed.
- June 23, is International Widows’ Day is observed.
- October 11, International Day of the Girl Child is observed.
- October 15, International Day of Rural Women is observed.
- November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is observed.
- Gender Inclusive Guidelines, Toolbox, & United Nations System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity.
- Say No, UNiTE, UNiTE to End Violence against Women, Orange the World: #HearMeToo (2018), and the 16 days of activism.
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Photo by Марьян Блан on Unsplash