The Committee was established by Parliament on 21st August 1996 with the following terms of reference:

"to monitor and oversee progress with regard to the improvement of the quality of life and status of women in South Africa, with specific reference to the Government's commitments in that regard made in Beijing, and with regard to the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Committee to have the power to take evidence and call for papers."

The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is a statement of minimum standards that governments need to meet to ensure that there is an end to discrimination and to promote gender equality.

By signing and ratifying CEDAW, countries are agreeing to take specific goals and measures to help protect the basic rights of women and to improve the status of women by eliminating gender-based discrimination (both direct and indirect). CEDAW identifies many specific areas where there has been wide-spread discrimination against women, for example, with regards to political rights, employment and marriage and the family.

CEDAW is a product of the United Nations Decade for Women (1976 - 1985), and is premised on the realisation that there is a need for legal and actual equality between men and women, without which there can be no sustainable development.
CEDAW requires a recognition of the important economic and social contribution of women to the family and to society as a whole. It emphasises that discrimination against women will restrict economic development. It also prioritises the need for a change in attitudes, through the education of both men and women to accept equal rights and responsibilities and to overcome prejudices and practices based on stereotyped roles.

The Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), which was adopted at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, is a comprehensive plan of action to enhance the social, economic and political empowerment of women, and it is premised on the need for the sharing of power and responsibility in the home, workplace and in wider society. It calls for the integration of gender perspectives in all policies and programmes and focuses on concrete measures to address critical areas such as poverty and economy, human rights, peace, violence against women, independent and people centred sustainable development, health, and the equitable sharing of family responsibility.

The BPFA links strategic objectives to actions to be taken by Government, the private sector, the mass media, NGOs and international bodies. The South African Government committed itself to both CEDAW and the BPFA.

In South Africa, the majority of the poorest, the homeless, the landless, the unemployed and the violated are women. It is the improvement in the quality of life and status of these women that guides the Committee's monitoring of Government's implementation of CEDAW and the BPOA.

In February 1996, Government Departments tabled their commitments to the BPFA. The Committee used these commitments together with CEDAW and the BPFA in evaluating the progress made by Government to improving the quality of life and status of women.

Other important markers are the 1994 Women's Charter in which the women of South Africa reflected their needs, demands and expectations of a democratic South Africa; the commitments given in the Constitution; and the development of the RDP draft Women's National Empowerment policy (WNEP) into an official gender policy framework.

The programme of action of the Committee over the period 1997 - 1998 is therefore the following:

1. Action by specifically focusing on the various Departmental reports on CEDAW and the implementation of the governments post-Beijing commitments. The Committee's work serves to highlight the political, economic and social changes that government policy, legislation, programme, budget and institutional mechanisms could and need to achieve.

2. Analysing the budget with the aim of assessing the extent to which various Departments are prioritising improving the position of women as the majority of the poorest, and in terms of the different impact of spending on men and women due to their gendered roles in the home and in society. In this regard, the Committee assessed the extent to which Departments are adjusting their budgets and reprioritising spending.

3. Identify the gaps within existing and proposed policy and legislation, and identify priorities for improving the quality of life and status of women in terms of the Constitution, CEDAW and the Beijing Platform For Action. In this regard, the Committee has focused this year on the critical area of customary law and violence against women.

4. Liaising with women and relevant organisations working on improving the quality of life and status of women to ensure the Committee programme over the next two years achieves its objectives in an informed manner.

CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPOA):

The South African Government submitted its first report on CEDAW to the United Nations in October this year. Governments have to submit reports once every four years. Parliament's role should be to conduct an annual evaluation of the progress made on the implementation of CEDAW. In this regard the Committee has started the process of evaluating this report by -

• Engaging in discussion with and by tabling a question in the House to Minister Fraser-Moleketi with regards to the drafting of the report (Appendix A).
  
• Beginning the process of analysing the report.
• Circulating the reports from each Department to the relevant Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for evaluation and comment.
• Calling before it Ministers and Departments to account on the progress they have made, and plans that they have, with regards to the implementation of CEDAW and the BPFA in early 1998.

On the basis of the above, the Committee will analyse the CEDAW Report submitted to the United Nations by Government and will table an independent report that evaluates progress made, identifies weaknesses, and makes recommendations in this regard.

Women, Poverty and the Economy:

The work of several ministries for example labour, trade and industry, agriculture and public enterprises are relevant in this area. The first Ministry whose work the Committee has examined has been the Finance Ministry.

The commitments of Governments to CEDAW and the BPFA can be measured by the extent to which the budget has been reprioritised, and the extent to which resources have been made available to address the needs of women in the country.

The Committee decided to call before it the Minister of Finance to account to the Committee on what progress has been made with regards to the following:

• The implementation of the Finance Ministry's commitments in the 1996 budget speech with regards to -
  1. "the development of a statistical database which will provide information on the impact of expenditures disaggregated by gender;
     
  2. the implementation of targets and indicators of gender equality and equity in spending; and
     
  3. the development of a performance review mechanism to evaluate progress and report to Parliament."
  
  
• The evaluation of the impact of the Governments Growth Employment And Redistribution policy (GEAR) on women - particularly working class and poor women.
  
• Progress made on the pilot project to engender macro-economic policy and the budget undertaken by Government and sponsored by the Commonwealth.
  
• The extent to which the Women's Budget Initiative research reports on engendering the budget are being utilised by all Ministries, especially Finance and State Expenditure.
  
• The extent to which the budget is being reprioritised to include the needs of women, and the extent to which budget reform is effected to implement the constitutional right of Parliament to amend money bills.
  
• The Finance Ministry presented the MTEF as a mechanism to ensure that policy choices and priorities of Government drive expenditure, and which will enable Parliament to debate the Government's expenditure priorities in advance. The MTEF must reflect integrated gender analysis and policy priorities
  
• Other relevant ministries for example labour, trade and industry and agriculture wil be called before the Committee in 1998.

Public Service:

The transformation of the public service critically affects the Government's ability to deliver services to the public, and needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. Women within the public service and women as recipients of public services must be considered in determining the nature, content and pace of transformation. The two structures critical in this regard are the Public Service Commission and the Department of Public Service and Administration. Thus far, the Public Service Commission has been called to account to the Committee, and the Committee plans to call the Department before it in 1998. The Committee highlighted two critical areas to be considered -

• The PSC has produced various reports and research papers on the position of women in the public service - these need to be taken forward as a matter of priority by the Department of Public Service and Administration; and
  
• The Department of Public Service and Administration needs to urgently give effect to their commitments in relation to the Beijing Platform for Action and to CEDAW. The Department needs to present a written report to the Committee on the relevant programmes, institutional and legislative changes that they are putting into place, the time-frames for this, and the budget allocated to implementation of the above by February 1998.

National Machinery:

The Committee decided to focus broadly on national machinery that has been established to ensure the advancement of democracy - with a specific focus on national gender machinery.

The Committee's role is to monitor and assess what progress has been made with regards to the establishment of national gender machinery; how such machinery is functioning - specifically whether there are sufficient resources and whether they have sufficient influence to implement their programmes; and to call the relevant authorities before the Committee to account on what progress has been made in this regard.

Thus far the Committee has called before it machinery inside and outside of government to account on their programmes and how they are working to empower and improve the quality of life and status of women.Specifically, the Committee has called before it the Office on the Status of Women and the Women's Empowerment Unit that are located within Government; and the Commission for Gender Equality, the Human Rights Commission and the Public Protector from outside of Government.

The Committee highlighted the following critical areas that Government need to consider with regards to national machinery. These include -

• A critical component of the national machinery is the independent Commission on Gender Equality (which was established by the Constitution and by Act 39 of 1996). It received R2 million for the 1997/98 financial year. In addition to this funding, the R1.9 million of roll-over funds which was promised when the Committee was constituted did not eventuate. Subsequently, the Treasury Committee has decided to defer making adequate funding available until January 1998. This prevents the CGE from employing staff, establishing offices, paying Commissioners, and hampers the implementation of the CGE's programme of action.

  The CGE has the least funding of all the Commissions, and the Commissioners are the lowest paid of all Commissioners. The failure to adequately resource a body established by the Constitution and an Act of Parliament could raise serious Constitutional and legal implications, as well as throwing into question the Government's commitment to advancing gender equality. The Committee therefore recommends that this be addressed by Government as a matter of urgency.

• The OSW in the Office of the Deputy President recommended that CEO's be accountable for engendering the work of their Department and that this form part of their job description, training and performance appraisal. The Deputy President's Office needs to co-ordinate and table a report to the Committee based on the reports of the CEO's of all Departments in this regard.

• The adequate resourcing and level of authority of gender machinery so that the objectives set out by the various structures and institutions can be achieved. At present, most gender desks are located within human resources departments instead of within policy departments where they can impact on policy formulation - this needs to change.

• The need for a specific time-frame for the finalisation of a gender policy framework and a clear process that enables Parliament and the public to comment on this framework.

• The need for indicators and targets of gender equity to be developed and made public by February 1998.

Legislation:

The Committee decided to identify priorities for improving the quality of life and status of women within existing legislation. The two priority areas this year have been on violence against women and customary law.

• Meeting with the South African Law Commission to assess what their programme is, specifically what is being done to scan legislation currently still on the statute books and assessing which are discriminatory and need to be repealed; assessing the extent to which current and new legislation is engendered; and assessing whether or not provincial and local legislation and regulations are engendered. The SALC will be undertaking a project in 1998 to remove all discriminatory legislation from the statute books at a national level.

• Violence Against Women: the Committee has held meetings with the relevant Ministries and organisations to discuss the issue of violence against women in relation to what legislative steps need to be taken in this regard. Specific issues have been raised such as the need to amend areas within existing legislation to redefine rape and remove for example the cautionary rule; the need to draft new legislation such as sexual offences legislation, as well as the need to transform the justice delivery system with a specific focus on training guidelines, codes of conduct, disciplinary procedures and the improvement of services provided such as shelters and one-stop centres. The Committee has recommended that legislative changes in this regard be effected by 1998.

• Customary Law: the work of the Committee with regards to legislation has highlighted issues such as the need to remove discriminatory legislation that impacts negatively on women's rights, for example, to inheritance and property rights. The Committee has recommended their removal by 1998.

Communication and Media:

The Committee focused on the issue of communication as an area critical to the empowerment of women, and specifically decided to examine both the internal media of Departments in relation to communication as well as external media institutions.

Communication by every Department or agency at national, provincial or local level must be refocused so that it empowers women by providing them with useful information and not merely propaganda as in the past. External media institutions (radio, newspapers and television) need to examine how to change the way in which they portray women and women's issues.

The first step the Committee in this area was to call before it the Independent Broadcasting Authority to brief the Committee on their programme of work and specifically on the issue of women within the field of broadcasting - these include issues relating to the funding of Community efforts such as radio stations; training of media personnel; licensing agreements and how these can be used to empower women as broadcasters.

The Committee raised four key priority areas in relation to women and the media -

• Whether the South African Communication Service and the Governments Communication Policy is addressing the issue of the empowerment of women - specifically the difficulties women have in accessing information about their rights, and information on how to access resources that Departments make available. The tender system for example needs review to ensure that it does not give access only to long established suppliers. The need for the media to address issues such as the representation of women in the media, the need for women's voices to be heard through the media and the need to promote non-sexist language and portrayals of men and women..

• Engaging with technicons, universities and media institutions on their responsibility to integrate gender analysis into their education programme and to train women within the field of communication as well as in technical areas traditionally confined to men.

• What criteria is used by the Advertising Standards Bureau and whether these have been adjusted since 1994 to reflect society's commitment to ending racism and sexism. The South African Communication Service and the Governments Communication Policy in terms of addressing the issue of the empowerment of women - specifically the difficulties women have in accessing information about their rights, and information on how to access resources that Departments make available. The tender system for example needs review to ensure that it does not give access only to long established suppliers.

The Electoral Process:

Women have been disadvantaged and excluded from political information, processes and power in the past. Government has made a commitment to the empowerment of women, and in order for elections to be free and fair, issues facing women as a large part of the electorate need to be addressed.

The Committee met with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to find out what the IEC is doing to empower women as voters in preparation for the 1999 elections - both in terms of information, and in terms of the actual voting process.

In addition, members of the Committee have begun to address issues relating to the empowerment of women as electoral candidates. In this regard, members of the Committee attended an international conference on strengthening equal partnership between men and women in politics with a specific focus on women as electoral candidates. The Committee referred a key recommendation from this Conference to the Committee on Constitutional Affairs on utilising electoral funding as a lever to promote and increase women's participation in political parties.

The Committee raised the following as issues of priority -

• the need to assess the position of women within political parties, specifically issues relating to how to encourage parties to put women up as candidates, how to reward parties for doing so and what sanction can be put in place if parties do not address the issue of empowering women; and

• the need to make specific commitments to ensure that women in remote rural areas are empowered and able to participate in an informed manner in the voting process.