AP News
July 1, 2000
U.S - Expressing concern
about the effect of sanctions on Iraqi
and Cuban women, a U.N. committee criticized Iraq Friday
for failing to ensure that both sexes get an equal share of humanitarian
aid and praised Cuba's determination to end sexism in the
face of hardship.
The Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women reviewed
progress of seven countries, including Iraq and Cuba, in implementing
the 20-year-old U.N. Convention on Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) during its biannual session,
which ended Friday.
Cuba won the committee's
"admiration for what it had achieved in face"
of the U.S. economic embargo, according to a report on the session.
Although women were
particularly vulnerable to the 38-year-old embargo,
Cuban authorities "sought to implement the convention as far
as possible," Yakin Erturk, director of the U.N. Division for the
Advancement of Women, told a news conference.
U.N. sanctions on Iraq
though, "were no excuse for failing to implement
the provisions of the convention," the committee said.
"The committee is very
concerned about situation of the population in Iraq and about the situation
of women and children because of the
sanctions," said Aida Gonzalez Martinez, chairwoman of
the committee, but Iraqi authorities have shown little improvements
in areas not affected by the sanctions such as ending violence
against women, or the disparity in inheritance rights.
"In particular, steps
had not been taken to ensure that women benefited
equally from the oil-for-food program," said Erturk.
Since its inception in December
1996, the U.N. oil-for-food program has
allowed Iraq to sell oil despite and use part of the money to buy food,
medicine and other humanitarian goods.
Nonetheless, the committee said
the health situation was deteriorating and
mortality rates for infants and women were rising. It urged Iraqi authorities to
establish a mechanism "to ensure that those funds are not
diverted for other purposes," the report said.
The Iraqi representatives at the
review session said that the sanctions as well as
airstrikes by U.S. and British jets in the northern and southern
no-fly zones in Iraq had forced authorities to change their priorities.
The "rights of
survival" had taken precedence over women's programs, Mona Kaman of
Iraq's Ministry of Higher Education told the 23 experts from across the
world.
Women are also particularly
vulnerable to the U.S. embargo on Cuba, Sledded Diazo of
Cuba's Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment told the
committee.
Cuban women were particularly
targeted by the embargo because it "is impeding the
possibility for the government to buy, or to trade, medicines, food and
some domestic products," said Gonzalez Martinez, citing the
difficulty in a getting refrigerators or soap.
The committee noted significant
progress in the social and economic life of Cuban
women, including high levels of education, but noted that their
access to managerial posts were low.
U.S. lawmakers earlier this month
moved toward at least a partial lifting of the 40-year-old
trade sanctions allowing for sales of food to Cuba provided they
are not financed by either the federal government or private U.S.
sources. The sale of U.S. medicine is permitted since 1992.
