Widows seek rights protection in fight against poverty
Manyani widows weed on May 2, 2023. Their husbands were killed by bandits. The Global Fund for Widows wants the human rights agenda to prioritise widows education, vocational training and entrepreneurship opportunities to help them gain financial independence.
What you need to know:
- Through the Global Fund for Widows, they want the human rights agenda to prioritise their education, vocational training and entrepreneurship opportunities.
- They want governments to initiate legal and policy reforms that safeguard their rights and dignity, assure them of their physical and mental wellbeing and advocate gender equality.
Widows have called for increased attention to their human rights to help them overcome poverty and restore their dignity.
Through the Global Fund for Widows, they want the human rights agenda to prioritise their education, vocational training and entrepreneurship opportunities. This, they say, will help them gain independence and contribute positively to their communities.
They want governments to initiate legal and policy reforms that safeguard their rights and dignity, assure them of their physical and mental wellbeing and advocate gender equality.
They are also pushing governments and other stakeholders to fight harmful norms and attitudes that perpetuate discrimination, educate communities on widows' rights, and assist with financial and economic empowerment to help rebuild their lives.
“The Global Fund for Widows invites governments, NGOs, businesses, and individuals to advocate the human rights of widows worldwide and remains available for consultation and guidance on how to empower widows to create a more just and inclusive world,” the organisation said in a statement.
The UN estimates that nearly one in 10 widows live in extreme poverty, which has only been exacerbated by the polycrisis of Covid-19, climate crisis, and ongoing conflicts in Eurasia, East Africa, and Latin America.
Human Rights Watch recently published the World Report 2023, summarising human rights conditions in over 100 countries. The report was, however, criticised for failing to acknowledge the human rights needs of widows in the developing world. Widowhood is an essential yet often overlooked gender issue that affects over 300 million women and 500 million children globally.
Challenges
Widows face discrimination, harmful practices, disinheritance, and loss of income, status, and basic needs. This leads to a cycle of poverty. Despite being highly marginalised, they are often overlooked in aid and development programmes. In view of these challenges, widows are now urging their governments and the international community for human rights laws recognising their struggle.
They are calling for the condemnation of violence and discrimination, abolition of unfair inheritance laws, protection of widows in conflicts, and prevention of rights violations. To enhance the rights of widows globally, the United Nation (UN) General Assembly in 2010 adopted the celebration of International Widows’ Day on June 23 annually.
The celebrations are aimed at drawing attention to and addressing the issues faced by widows, including increased risk of poverty and violence, and a lack of access to healthcare.
Widows in many countries lack legal rights. According to a World Bank’s report, Women, business and the law 2023, 76 out of 190 countries studied restrict a woman’s property rights.
Currently, 43 economies do not grant equal inheritance rights to male and female surviving spouses. According to the UN, in many countries, being a widow can mean significant financial insecurity.
The organisation notes that many widows experience poverty because they have no access to credit, have no or limited inheritance rights, are dependent on the charity of deceased relatives, or are made liable for the debts of their husbands.
Widows have also been victims of physical and mental violence relating to inheritance disputes and can be coerced into participating in harmful traditions as part of burial and mourning rites.
Lack of access to healthcare can be exacerbated by poor nutrition, inadequate shelter and vulnerability to violence, as well as sexual and reproductive health needs not being addressed.
The UN has argued that armed conflicts, Covid-19, displacement and migration have left many women widowed. In 2018, the Violence Against Women Girls, produced a review of the evidence available on harmful cultural practices affecting widows.
It identified a number of such practices, such as widows being forced to marry surviving members of their husband’s family, being raped and being accused of witchcraft.
