Speech

Ensuring gender equality by alleviating discrimination against women.

Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world located in East Africa.
Because of being an underdeveloped country, Burundians have a difficult life,
and especially the issue of gender discrimination is widespread here.

There are three main causes of discrimination against women and girls in
Burundi. The first cause is violence.

In Practice
Violence
Despite the adoption of a repressive Penal Code, cases of sexual violence
are widespread.
According to information obtained by the United Nations Integrated Office in
Burundi (BINUB).

 In 2009 the great majority of cases of sexual violence were attributable

to civilians (between 80 and 100%), with minors being the main victims
(between 67 and 72% of cases).
 The main perpetrators of sexual violence are police officers. Some of
these violence even happened in the police department.
Obstacles to access to education
90 per cent of the Burundian population live in rural areas, including a
large proportion of women.
Because of the persistence of patriarchal attitudes and deep-rooted
stereotypes regarding the role and responsibilities of men and women in
society.
Live limits their access to adequate education, health services, social security
and land and banking services.

 In secondary and higher education, there remains a large disparity

between boys and girls.
 In the labour market, women are discriminated against
in terms of security of employment, payment of leave entitlements and
maternity allowances.
Obstacles to access to health
  In Burundi, women have very little access to adequate health services.
In particular to information on prenatal and postnatal care and family
planning.
 The maternal mortality rate is high because of the lack of obstetric care
 The significant number of early pregnancies and the practice of non-
medically supervised abortions. Addtionally, family planning centres
often lack qualified personnel.

Solution

Burundi needs the following solutions to reduce gender

discrimination

1. Raise people’s awareness on the provisions of the new Penal Code, in

particular as concerns the repression of sexual and domestic violence
and of sexual harassment.
2. Intensify efforts to encourage women’s participation in political life.
3. Improve access of women to family planning and to the use of
contraceptive methods and legalizing abortion.
4. Harmonise the minimal age of marriage for women and men and
eliminate the status of the husband as the head of the family
5. Guarantee women’s equality in law in matters of succession, marriage
regimes and gifts, especially in rural areas.
6. Take all necessary measures to guarantee equality of access of women
and men to all levels of education and employment, and to eliminate
deeply-entrenched patriarchal and stereotypical social behaviour
regarding women’s role and responsibilities.
7. Improve access to health services and healthcare, notably by
intensifying efforts to improve health infrastructures; by improving
access to prenatal, postnatal and obstetrics services; and providing
family planning centres with adequate resources and qualified
personnel.
Motion:
Child marriage is most common in South Asia. Sub-Saharan Africa, Niger,
Bangladesh and India. Child marriage is common in poor, agricultural
countries and has traditional and cultural backgrounds so it is difficult to
change. There are 16 million newborn babies are born to mothers between
the ages of 15 and 19 in the world.
The harmful effects and effects of child marriage
They lose opportunities to study and work. Affecting health ( both physical
and mental).
Reproductive health of women, especially underage girls.
The main reason is that the difficult life leads people to not have enough
knowledge to know the harms and consequences of child marriage. In
addition, child marriage also causes social problems such as population
growth and genetic decline.
Solution
1) Empower girls with information, skills and support networks.
2) Provide economic support and incentives to girls and their families.
3) Educate and rally parents and community members;
4) Enhance girls’ access to a high-quality education.
5) Encourage supportive laws and policies. In order for the next generation of
development programs to make ending child marriage a priority,
policymakers must pay attention to these strategies while continuing to test
innovative approaches and evaluation techniques.
How the govt can motivate young ladies to take a role in the community
Ways to empower women