Rights of Women and Children Essay Example for Free

Rights of Women and Children Essay Around the world, women and children aren’t able to have the same basic rights as men. Unfortunately, the problem of inequality is broader. Inequality is often extreme against women and is part of their daily lives. Inequality is often justified by men as part of their culture or religion. Women and children face brutal situations each day. Harsh acts like child labor, slavery, forced marriage, and prostitution are suffered by millions. Child labor is full-time employment of children who are under the minimum legal age. Throughout the world, an estimated number of 218 million children were working in 2006. Children are bought and sold, forced into prostitution or work without getting paid any money. Besides these acts, children aren’t able to receive a good education. Women are also bought and sold as slaves, for labor and for sex trade. Not only are women banned from attending school, but women are denied the right to vote. Unfortunately, in some countries, women can be beaten or abused by their husbands legally. As Shirn Ebadi, a human activist said, â€Å"Not only is a woman a citizen, but she is also a mother who nurtures future generations. In my opinion, the conditions toward women around the world are prejudicial, but in certain places, they are worse than others. Success for women is when prejudice is removed everywhere in the world. † The problem of unequal rights of women and children needs more global attention because women and children are suffering. The golden rule in the bible teaches us that it is important to treat everyone the way you would want to be treated. Being bought and sold, forced into prostitution, working without getting paid any money, banned from attending school, being Dunham 2 enied the right to vote, or even getting beaten or abused by your spouse is not the way anyone would want to be treated. Women and children rights should be equal to the rights of men. Some stakeholders are Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and PeaceJam. These stakeholders are all working to stop unequal rights of women and children. They work to protect the human rights of people around the world. This problem is unresolved because some families make their children work because they need the money. As child laborers get older and become adults, they are usually working for a job that doesn’t pay very much money. As a result, their children will also be made to work to supply more money for their family. This shows that poverty and child labor is passed down from generation to generation. Developing countries are countries that are still developing and aren’t fully developed yet. Developing countries are very poor compared to first world nations and developed countries. The distribution and conditions of child labor vary from region to region. World Bank household or living standard surveys show that children, in some countries, help their families get more money. In Ghana, children supply one-third of household earnings for their family. Children supply one-fourth of the earnings for their families in Pakistan. In these families, children are always working and are not attending school. Some families are very dependent on their children to get money. Women in developing countries are lagging far behind men. Enrolment rates for education are only a third of those in Sub-Saha ­ran Africa. In other developing countries, women have fewer job opportunities. The employment rates of women are an average of only fifty Dunham 3 percent those of men. In South Asia it is twenty-nine percent and in Arab States it is only sixteen percent. Women also tend to work much longer hours than men. Developed countries are countries that are fully developed. Developed countries are also affected by the problem of unequal rights. But these acts occur less than they do in developing countries. For example, child labor, prostitution, and other horrible acts occur in developed countries too. They might not be as horrible as they are in less developed countries because fully developed countries have better securities to stop the acts. But in most countries the economy is bad and it is getting harder to earn money or even have a job. This leads to families feeling like they have no other choice but to become a prostitute, or make their child work. The United Nations is working to stop the problem of unequal rights on women and children. UN-WOMEN (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women) works to support gender equality across a lot of issues related to human rights and human development. UNICEF (United Nations  International Childrens Emergency Fund) works to help build a world where the rights of every child are realized. Both organizations travel the world helping women and children. UNICEF helps by feeding children, giving children vaccinations, giving them an education, protect children from violence and other helpful acts. UN Women works with the government and non-governmental partners to help them get new policies, laws, services and resources to move towards equality. Bosnia is a developing country which means it is not fully developed yet. In 2007, The United Nation’s Development Program reported that twenty percent of the population lives below the poverty line which is one dollar and twenty five cents in U. S. dollars per one day of Dunham 4 work. Thirty percent of the population lives just above it. This shows that Bosnia is a very poor country. Bosnia became a country with a lot of horrific violence. In particular, rape and sexual violence of Bosnian women during the course of the war has continued to occur today. This also means child labor, prostitution, forced marriage, and slavery still occur today. One developing country is Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is one of two countries in the world where women cannot vote in any elections. All females must have a male guardian, typically a father or husband. Women of all ages are forbidden from traveling, studying, or working without permission from their male guardians. Also in Saudi Arabia, Only 85% of children attend school. Unfortunately, child abuse is fairly common in Saudi Arabia. About 70 cases are reported annually and many are ignored. One developed country is Germany. In Germany, one in every six children lives in poverty. 50,000 victims of violence and 20,000 sexual abuses are recorded in Germany. Most of the time, these abuses are carried out by their parents. UNICEF believes 2 children die every week as a result of violence. The United Nations has done a lot to improve the inequality of women and children in the world. One suggestion that I think would improve women and children’s rights in Bosnia is to make the penalty of prostitution, child labor, slavery, forced marriage, and more acts more severe. This would work because people would stop knowing the consequences are higher.