Opinions & Interviews

Belarus suggests protecting elderly women in digital era

MINSK, 29 May (BelTA) – Belarus calls on the international community to work out measures to protect elderly women, first of all, female workers, in the digital era. This proposal to be forwarded to the United Nations was voiced by Larisa Belskaya, Head of the Department on Multilateral Diplomacy of Belarus’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a session of the National Council on Gender Policy at the Council of Ministers of Belarus on 29 May, BelTA has learned.

The session discussed the draft National Review Report of the progress made and challenges encountered in Belarus’ implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 1995. In May this year the UN member states should submit their national review reports to the United Nations. After that the United Nations regional commissions (the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in the case of Belarus) will draft regional synthesis reports. National reports and regional synthesis reports will feed into the global synthesis report.

On the one hand, since the Beijing Declaration was adopted, no country has managed to achieve gender equality. Belarus is no exception. However, over the past five years our country has made progress in promoting gender equality at the legislative level. Belarus was ranked 26th in the Global Gender Gap Index and 31st in the Gender Inequality Index (2017 data). “The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe welcomes Belarus’ efforts and achievements in the matters of population and development. They position us as a regional leader in many processes related to gender equality and other relevant matters,” Larisa Belskaya said.

Speaking about Belarus progress in the pursuit of gender equality, she focused on one little-studied matter. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs deems it necessary to approach the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the very United Nations Organization, international agencies with a proposal to pay particular attention to digitalization and protection of women’s rights, especially, those of elderly women.

With the departure of certain professions from the labor market in the wake of digitalization such women will find themselves in a vulnerable position. “We need to develop measures and strategies not only at the national but also at the regional and global levels. The positive track record of different countries is important and can be useful to others. Our national active longevity strategy, which is currently in the works, may also be of interest to partners,” she said.

Belarus’ major achievement is the use of a gender perspective in the state policies in all sectors. This means applying a gender perspective in the analysis of legislation and national programs and strategies, legal affirmative action. Belarusian women are becoming more empowered financially. The government small and medium-sized business program up to 2020 contains measures to support female entrepreneurship.

The level of registered unemployment of women is lower than that of men (almost two times in 2018). Women have now more opportunities for retraining and improvement of professional skills, and also access to flexible employment terms. In addition, the list of occupations banned for women due to harmful or hazardous working conditions has been cut shorter.

Among the challenges Larisa Belskaya named is still the gap in life expectancy between men and women, double employment of women, the gap in salaries (25.4% in Belarus, 16% in the EU), underdeveloped women's entrepreneurship. She also called for increasing the role of the father in child rearing, and promoting gender budgeting.

The National Review Report has been prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus in collaboration with other ministries and agencies, National Statistics Committee and other partners. Members of the National Council on Gender Policy at the Council of Ministers suggested some amendments to the document during the meeting. For example, they proposed to incorporate into the document the list of the regulatory measures to prevent violence against women (restraining orders) and suggested prioritizing this area of work in the next five years.

print version

make home page

add to bookmarks