Women's rights, women's safety--and Israel

As you saw in yesterday's post, "The UN's anti-Israel record in 2017", tuviabrodieblog, January 28, 2018), the UN Women's Rights Commission voted in 2017 to label Israel as the world's only violator of women's rights (ibid). In that same essay, you read that it was the NGO (Non-Government Organization) called, unwatch, which outed that outrageous condemnation for what it was: a gross lie (ibid). Now, you can take a look at exactly how delusional that lie is.

One truth about how safe women in the world are comes from the market research group, newworldwealth. This group gathers statistics to identify and rate wealth issues in the nations of the world (Homepage, newworldwealth). One such issue they have recently surveyed is called, safest countries for women (Chris Pash, "The 10 safest countries in the world for women", businessinsideraustralia, January 23, 2018). 

 This data-gathering group claims there is a 92% correlation between historic wealth growth in a country and women's safety levels within that country (ibid). This suggests that a country which offers women a high level of safety won't be an economic 'basket case'. Such safe countries will have wealth--and a history of wealth growth.

This criteria is strict. Not all countries make it to the survey's top 10 list. Not all wealthy countries make it to the top 10. 

Germany, France and the UK, for example, didn't make it to the most recent top-10 list. Neither did Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Italy or Ireland. 

Now, women's relative safety in a country isn't necessarily the same thing as women's rights in a country. But there's a high correlation between the two because when women's rights are violated, their sense of safety diminishes--and vice versa. 

The UN defines 'women's rights' in almost exactly these terms: for the UN, women's rights mean to  provide a safe environment for women. Such rights protect women from discrimination and gender-based violence, ("Women's rights are human rights", ohchr, 2014,  p 1, 12). Women's rights mean to protect a woman's ability to have a say in controlling her own fertility (ibid, p 13). Women's rights mean having the right to be free from coercion (ibid, p  13). 

I suggest to you that the higher the degree of woman's rights a woman finds in a country, the greater will be her sense of safety in that country. Indeed, when you see the countries on the top 10 list of 'safest countries for women', you find countries having among the highest commitment to women's rights: the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada.  

I suggest the reverse is true. That is, when a country  consistently violates women's rights, women don't feel safe. 

This brings us to Israel. The UN Women's Rights Commission  may have voted to label Israel as the world's only women's rights violator, but the fact on the ground contradict that label. On the top 10 list of 'safest countries in the world for women', Israel is ranked number 8. The USA is number 9.

Did the UN Women's Rights Commission condemn the USA as a women's rights violator? No, it did not.

No Arab country appears on this top-10 list. The Arab states which surround Israel do not provide the same degree of safety for their women as Israel. They also fail to provide real women's rights. 

Israel provides women's rights,  even to Israeli Arab  women.

By voting to label Israel the world's only women's rights violator ,the UN Women's Rights Commission betrays the women it's supposed to protect. Instead, it spends its time and attention demonizing the world's only Jewish nation.

How do you think that's going to affect the UN's credibility? More important, how does that anti-Israel vote help protect women in Arab countries (and elsewhere) who suffer discrimination, gender-violence and sex abuse?

That anti-Israel vote doesn't help anyone. It leaves the most vulnerable women unprotected.

It renders the UN useless.