UN women Archives | Stop Street Harassment

HABITAT 3: Safer Cities is a Priority

October 18, 2016 By HKearl

*Norti, Suneeta, Maria, Lakshmi, Luis, Powes*

Hello from day 4 at HABITAT 3 in Quito, Ecuador. The big event for me today was the UN Women panel on their Safe Cities programme.

UN Women could only host one high-level session at the conference and they chose this issue. My colleagues at UN Women have advocated for several years for this program on sexual harassment in public spaces to be recognized and included in these kinds of high level global events, so this was a big payoff.

The room was packed with about 150 people, including people standing in the back and sitting on the floor. It went really well.

First, here is an overview of what the Safe Cities programme is. This is essentially what was shared by the moderator, Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director and Assistant Secretary General of UN Women.

The flyer for the event today... that I designed! — *The flyer for the event today… that I designed!*

While the program is now in more than 20 cities, there were five flagship cities (Delhi, Cairo, Quito, Port Moresby, and Kigali) that started in 2011. Representatives from all five cities were invited to speak on the panel and representatives from Port Moresby, Delhi and Cairo were able to join (the rep from Cairo gave a pre-recorded video address). They spoke about their efforts and progress over the past five years. They were all incredibly inspiring, but I think that the governor from Port Moresby was my favorite.

In his opening remarks, Governor Parkop Powes did not shy away from sharing the problem of violence in Papua New Guinea. He talked about how tribes have been at war with each other for a long time and that violence is often seen as a means for solving problems. He noted that they are a patriarchal society where men are dominant. “Trying to change the violent culture is not easy. But we see it’s important. Violence is an impediment to women and also to the development of our city.”

The focus of the Port Moresby Safe Cities program has been to make marketplaces safer as they are not only economic hubs but also social hubs. They’ve had some successes so far, but they have a ways to go, he said.

“After being in the program for a while, we see that the interventions deal with the symptoms of violence and they alone won’t solve the problem. We’ve created a safe market to make it safe for women and girls, but we haven’t solved the problem of who is responsible for violence. The women vendors who leave the market and go back home still face threats of violence and fear of violence as they travel or even in their home. So we haven’t solved the problem of violence. Having a safe house for women facing domestic violence is symptom but doesn’t solve the problem. Same thing with the women-only buses – we’d rather have an integrated system where everyone is safe, but for now, we decided to have a women-only bus. Ultimately, it’s the behavior of men that’s the problem. They are violent. It’s the culture. We are working with UN Women to create behavior change.”

They are trying some creative methods. For example, doing yoga with men to help them start to respect themselves and then respect women. As another example, Governor Powes takes a walk every Sunday that anyone can join him in. He said sometimes a thousand people will join him, most of them women. This is really revolutionary because many women feel very unsafe walking in public. Rates of rape are very high, as are rates of murder. On average, every single person knows at least one person who has been murdered. So by walking in public for recreation, the women are claiming public spaces and demanding that they be safe for all.

A representative from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation closed out the panel. This is the “mother donor” of the program. They continued to fund it, even when Spain was in an economic crisis. The representative shared that they will increase their support next year. This is huge as it is really hard to fund programs to end violence against women (as I know firsthand from my limited experience trying to fundraise for Stop Street Harassment). Having this support is really important and makes the program possible.

Later in the day, I also had the opportunity to join my boss in meeting with the Quito Safe Cities team. They talked about their work with transit officials to make public transit safer. They also have created a comic book about respect that they will be taking to five schools and training teachers on how to hold conversations around respect. They were very open about how Ecuadorian culture is full of machismo and how they have to focus on changing mindsets and attitudes before they can really see change. But they said they have support at the highest levels — and indeed, the wife of the mayor, Maria Fernando Pacheco, led the meeting as she is very supportive of the program — and so that is making their implementation process easier. Plus, they have alarming data that helps them more easily galvanize support: more than 90% of women face street harassment. More than 1 in 4 girls have been harassed outside their schools. Most women see public transit as unsafe. And most women try not to be alone in public after 6 p.m. when it gets dark.

These two events were inspiring and uplifting and it made me so so so so happy to hear from and meet people in various parts of the world who are committed to making public spaces safer and who understand that ultimately, we have to see cultures change before that will be a reality.

HABITAT 3: Men Talking to Men

October 17, 2016 By HKearl

Today was day three of HABITAT 3 in Quito, Ecuador. My boss asked me to attend four sessions that were not pitched as being specifically about women or gender or sexual violence (though there are a few of those across the conference, many of them involving UN Women in some way) with the hopes that I could help insert those topics into the conversation during the Q&A. What I found when I attended the sessions was what she and I suspected, without those items in the title or being pitched as the main topic, gender and women’s experiences and views barely came up at all. It reminded me of college where unless I took a course in the women’s studies division, the courses basically focused on men. As a history major, I’ll always remember my first women’s history class and my relief — “here’s where the women are!”

As an example of the four sessions today, one focused on the active transportation of bicycling and walking and how having fewer vehicles on the roads benefits cities in various ways. In theory, yes, I agree. Here is where I had issues. All of the presenter were men and they seemed to only be focused on men. The data they presented from their various cities did not include a gender break down. Their discussions about barriers to having more people walk or cycle did not include street harassment. Women’s unique experiences were not included AT ALL. What an oversight. You cannot expect to see more women walking and cycling until the issue of street harassment and safety are addressed and ended!

The first three sessions I attended went over time or nearly went over time and so there either was no time for questions or only time for 2-3 questions. Thus, I did not get to insert gender during the Q&A … until the final session. This was a session on urban rules and governance. The moderator was a female judge from Malawi and panelists included an EU parliament member, Sierra Leone mayor and minister in Singapore. These three were all men. They talked about how to pass policies and laws, how to work across local, regional and national government, and more.

The process for Q&A was to have a few people ask their questions and then the panelists could answer them in a grouping. I was the fourth person to ask a question in a group and the first woman. The three men went on and on about their own work and observations. I actually asked a question:

In most countries, women are under-represented in government and law, especially at the national level, so what is being done to ensure that women’s unique experiences, such as sexual harassment while in public spaces, is taken into account in the creation of and enforcement of policies and laws?

When the time came for the panel to respond, none of the men addressed my question. They only responded to the topics raised by the men. The moderator kindly tried to incorporate a response to me in her remarks, but even then it was pretty basic: yes, the views of women, children, persons with disabilities, etc should be included as we pass policies and laws.

Needless to say, I was really disappointed in the series of sessions and in the response (or, nonresponse) to my question. I am tired of men talking to men about men’s experiences when women are in the room, are trying to be active participants, and have unique viewpoints to offer!

HABITAT 3: Women’s Assembly – Safe Cities Session

October 15, 2016 By HKearl

10-15-16-waiting-in-line-to-get-registered-for-habitat-3 — *Waiting in line to register for HABITAT 3, Quito, Ecuador*

I recently started a new consultancy position with UN Women and as part of my job, I am in Quito, Ecuador, for HABITAT 3, the third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development. Tens of thousands of people from around the world are convening to discuss cities.

Today was the Women’s Assembly, “designed to celebrate the contributions to and leadership of the Women and Human Settlements’ movement in championing sustainable and women inclusive urban development.”

In the morning, we heard from various UN leaders and grassroots women about the importance of including women in all efforts. In the afternoon, we divided up into 10 sessions to focus on 10 topics (e.g. economic rights, leadership, and safety). In our groups, in addition to discussing our own experiences and ideas, we came up with recommendations for what needs to happen by member states to ensure women’s views and experiences and needs are included and acted upon.

*Safe Cities for Women and Girls breakout session*

I was the documenter for the Safe Cities for Women and Girls session. Our session coordinator was Kathryn Travers, Executive Director of Women in Cities International, and she shared this to set the stage:

“Safe cities and safe public spaces free of violence against women and girls are increasingly recognized as a priority issue for sustainable development. The fact that safe cities for women figures explicitly as a goal in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a binding international commitment by Member States, strengthens its position as a key issue for implementation as part of the New Urban Agenda (NUA), a normative non-binding international framework.

SDG 5, on gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls specifically calls for ending violence against women and girls (VAWG) including in public spaces (sub-target 2). This language is mimicked in the NUA and goes on to include mentions of harassment more specifically in (para 13 c). SDG 11 calls on Member States to Make Cities and Human Settlements Inclusive, Safe, resilient and Sustainable, and sub-target 7 specifies “By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities”…

The NUA Para 100 calls on Member States to “support the provision of well-designed networks of safe, inclusive for all inhabitants, accessible, green, and quality public spaces and streets, free from crime and violence, including sexual harassment and gender-based violence (…) bringing people into the public spaces, promoting walkability and cycling towards improving health and well-being”. Finally, echoing the SDG 5.5, the NUA calls for the empowerment of women and others to participate in urban and territorial development and decision-making (para 155).”

In this context, these were our collective conclusions:

We want member states to recognize safety as a right to the city and:

Keep women at the center of efforts including by including women as leaders at all levels;
Collect data at the national level through creative and new methods;
Learn from new practices that are shared in a central place;
Have multi-stake holder and multi-level efforts;
Commit funding to these different initiatives so they can actually happen;
Monitor and report back on efforts and hold governments (local, national) accountable

On our end, we made four commitments for what we’d be do to ensure these outcomes.

We commit to making available the knowledge, tools, successful practices as part of comprehensive rights-based approaches, and key experts (both professional and grassroots women) to national, regional, state and local governments to implement safe cities for women and girls initiatives in cities. Support and capacity building for both grassroots leaders and government stakeholders will be offered as part of this commitment.
Recognizing the special vulnerabilities that girls and young women face, we commit to support girls’ empowerment through processes including intergenerational dialogues to speak for themselves and transform their cities to be safer and more inclusive for all girls and women.
We commit to innovating participatory action research tools, including technology, and approaches for gender transformative and inclusive safe cities for women and girls initiatives and making them available to cities worldwide
We commit to implement safe cities initiatives that recognize women and girls as essential agents of change in a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral and multi-level partnership informed by existing global frameworks on safe cities free of violence against women and girls that can be adapted to city and country context.

Emma Watson: “I’ve Felt Scared Walking Home”

March 9, 2016 By HKearl

During an interview with Esquire magazine, actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson (I love you, Hermione!) spoke about her experiences of sexual harassment and how they are commonly faced by most women.

“I’ve had my arse slapped as I’ve left a room. I’ve felt scared walking home. I’ve had people following me,” she said. “I don’t talk about these experiences much, because coming from me they’ll sound like a huge deal and I don’t want this to be about me, but most women I know have experienced it and worse… this is unfortunately how it is. It’s so much more pervasive than we acknowledge. It shouldn’t be an acceptable fact of life that women should be afraid.”

I am sorry to hear about the harassment and assault she has experienced and I am so grateful to her for speaking out and for bringing attention to the fact that this is a widespread problem.

#16Days of Activism: More Global Action (Day 1)

November 25, 2015 By HKearl

Nov. 25 – Dec. 10 are the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. To commemorate the week, we will feature 1 activism idea per day, starting tomorrow.

Today, I wanted to express gratitude and acknowledgement that gender-based street harassment, or sexual violence in public spaces, is gaining much more widespread recognition as a problem. Here are two examples from this year that clearly illustrate this.

1. In April groups in 41 countries took action in support of safe public spaces through our International Anti-Street Harassment Week, from Australia to Zimbabwe and dozens of countries in between. You can view photos and read a recap (and plan to join us April 10-16, 2016!). It’s heartening to see so many people dedicate time and energy to this cause.

2. UN Women hosted a Safe Cities Global Leaders’ Forum in June, and 140 people from 24 countries gathered in Delhi, India, to share ideas about the best strategies to address sexual violence in public spaces. Attendees included government officials, grassroots women, researchers, and staff from UN agencies that are implementing programs that form part of the agency’s Safe Cities Global Initiative (SCGI).

The SCGI works with local organizations and governments to tackle sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence in public spaces. Launched in New Delhi in November 2010 with five cities, it now includes 22 cities. Representatives from these cities, as well as from other groups working on safe cities work, were present at the forum.

Read the wrap-up report.

For too long, street harassment has been seen as normal, no big deal, or the fault of harassed persons. Those attitudes are quickly falling away and in their place are thousands of people worldwide who are dedicating time, energy, and expertise to making public places safer for everyone. For that, I am grateful.

Help fund our work in 2016, donate to our end-of-year giving campaign!