UNITED NATIONS

UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF

WOMEN

31th​ ​January, 2021

Original:
English.

WORKING PAPER

AUTHOR: REPUBLIC OF ICELAND

1. Affirms ​Investment in the infrastructure of a country in order to help the economy

with faster development and stable growth along with generation of strong inflow of
liquidated funds;

2. Affirms the importance of bilateral programs with countries who have a higher share
of migrant workers with each other, to initiate dissemination of information in their
regional language to create a more safe and friendly environment for international
migrants;

3. Reaffirms faith in the medium-to-long term scenarios to introduce economic model as

those of Nordic countries, which will allow for better workforce protection for women
as it will provide children's day care services to everyone for free, leave of absence
with 6 months salary to start new business as long as it is not direct competition to an
individual's current employer. System also allows in the long run to keep the national
debt well below current global averages of many countries;

4. Recommends creation of a global body 'Digitalization and Technology Board' under

similar precedent as Financial Stability Board, which will work towards review of
global policy and regulations regarding data and digitalization systems, and how we
can introduce them for advancement of the global workforce;

5. Calls upon countries to support the other governments in issuing bonds and running
modest monetized fiscal deficits and Funds High-level expertise and technical inputs,
as needed and requested by the governments, to help strengthen weak economic
management;
6. Calls upon all countries conduct 'Emergency market labor assessment' for the
pandemic context with the existing Computable General Equilibrium(CGE) economic
models used to map and generate socio-economic forecasts future epidemics or
outbreaks;

7. Urges UNDP to review our communication patterns and channels,and act as a

platform for inclusive public communication messaging and mental-health awareness
in all local languages which considers religious,cultural and societal norms and
expectations in order to spread awareness at local level across countries;

8. Recommends member nations to include the Gender Responsive Budgeting on their

annual budgeting and to set up analysing committees that could ensure correct use of
Gender Responsive Budgeting;

9. Urges states to use the Gender and Development (GAD) Plan of action which is a
Gender Responsive Budgeting policy of nordic which has developed from more than
20 years for efficient implementation of Gender Responsive Budgeting;

10. Further recommends multilateral workers evaluation committee that shall work in
collaboration with the women worker unions to evaluate the status of the workers
where workers can take the issues to a public platform via a media sub unit;

11. Urges upon need to formulate a treaty or international agreement to prohibit

revocation of any beneficial Labour legislation until May 2021, understanding that
ILO is a body which issues guidelines and conventions for various nations to abide
by;

Recommends ​introducing the poorer class to digital remittance as most of them are
paid in cash which is not possible during this pandemic situation and urges that the
companies hiring these workers should explain all the necessary details regarding
digital banking so that it becomes easier for them to get their respected salaries;

12. Requests all countries to fully and steadily implement action plans to incorporate
gender equality in the private sector:
a. by encouraging corporations and organisations to have a gender-balanced board of
directors, as well as a gender-equal staff, either through a quota or merit;
b. by encouraging formation of trade unions of women;
c. by integrating an equal pay and equal hours plan for all genders in the workplace;
d. by taking swift action to seek criminal justice for victims of sexual harassment and
violence at work;
e. by providing mental health, counselling and physical health services and benefits as
employment benefits, especially to women workers;
f. by developing a system of anonymity, through drop-boxes, for the delivery of
information regarding harassment or violation of dignity in the workplace by staff;
 13. Encourages all countries to establish a “Gender Equality Commission”, which
comprises of a gender-balanced panel, and will solely focus on discussing and
implementing policies that enhance indicators of gender equality in the country, in
accordance with the international norms for gender equality;

14. Encourages countries to enact a policy to tax the income of women workers
separately from their husbands, which will been creating an incentive for women to
work, as their income is no longer seen as part of the husband’s income, while it
supports a dual-earner family model;

15. Encourages all countries to enact a ‘Gender Mainstreaming’ policy and

‘Gender-responsive budgeting’ on national levels :
a. Gender Mainstreaming focuses on ensuring that a gender equality perspective and
analysis is part of all policy-making;
b. Gender Budgeting is the application of gender mainstreaming in the budget process,
through gender-based assessment of budgets, incorporating a gender perspective at all
levels of the budget process and restructuring revenues and expenditures in order to
promote gender equality;

16. ​Suggests for a universal alignment system pertinent to refugees for their employment
and integration and mainstreaming into the society, the universal system will work on
certain parameters and further will suggest:
(a) Governments to accordingly support the transition to the formal economy, in line with
ILO Recommendations and this can be achieved by creating sustainable decent jobs in
the formal sector, providing incentives to transition from informal to formal work,
simplifying procedures for registering businesses, enforcing labour laws and
workplace regulations, and improving access to finance for entrepreneurs and small
businesses;
(b) Measures to allow migrant workers access to social protection is equally important,
for instance by allowing them to participate in contributory systems as well as
ensuring universal access to basic social security guarantees also emphasized under
the common european asylum system;

ANNEXURE I: EMPLOYMENT

1) ​Recommends States’ the creation of a women cell at every government office where only womens’
are employed;

2) ​Urges the United Nations to make a minimum requirement of women employment (based upon the
type of work) in any MultiNational Corporation to enter the United Nations Global Compact;

3) ​Suggests the Microfinance Institutions and Banks granting loans to Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises to do so only if they provide reservations in jobs for women; Seeing the fact, MSME’s are
almost found everywhere, it is easier for a women to go there for work;
4) ​Recommends nations like India to increase the number of judges as females to deal with their
problem of long-running cases;

5) ​Further recommends nations to foster economic independence for women refugees and other
women in order to economically support women. This would help these women to become
economically stable and settle faster;

6) States to mobilise national, regional and global aid, in accordance with the Incheon Declaration,
that is aimed at:

(a) Achieving effective and inclusive partnerships to provide equitable education;

(b) Improving education policies and the way they work together;

(c) Ensuring highly equitable, inclusive and quality education systems for all;

(d) Mobilising resources for adequate financing for education;

ANNEXURE II: FUNDING FOR SUSTAINING WOMEN

1) ​Urges all countries to enact a ‘Gender Mainstreaming’ policy and ‘Gender-responsive

budgeting’ on national levels and suggests MNC’s to correctly execute the money under CSR
(Company’s Social Responsibility) for the benefit of people; If not, they can donate this money to a
country’s government or to the United Nations for correct use;

2) ​Suggests Islamic countries to route the policy of zakat through the government so that a majority of
Taliban’s funding (Afghanistan) could be reduced and the same finances can be used to fund
initiatives by the United nations commissions on status of women;

3) ​Recommends​ organizations to intervene to simultaneously:

(a) optimize employee human capital across the lifespan;

(b) strengthen internal labor markets;

ANNEXURE III: EDUCATION FOR WOMEN

1) ​Suggests countries to implement school in a box programme of the United Nations to

ensure women at least get the primary education to sustain themselves in the future;

2) ​Urges creation of a Gender-transformative global policy which will guide develop regional
and national initiatives accelerated to analyse and overcome gender biases and inequalities in
education and the political sector;
3) ​Urges nations to make some initiatives in order to achieve educational attainment and
equal political participation of women in accordance with article number 26 and 21 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

4) Urges States to mobilise national, regional and global aid, in accordance with the Incheon
Declaration, that is aimed at:

(a) achieving effective and inclusive partnerships to provide equitable education;

(b) improving education policies and the way they work together;

(c) ensuring highly equitable, inclusive and quality education systems for all;

(d) mobilising resources for adequate financing for education.

ANNEXURE IV: VIOLENCE AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN

1) Recommends​ countries to make set up of ISVAs (Interdependent sexual violence

advisors) and SARC (sexual assault referral centre) compulsory as both the bodies
help FGM victims to come over the mental stability and provide them with healthcare
system;

2) Suggests​ the appointment of a Special Rapporteur who would work closely with the
African Commission on Human and People's Rights to mitigate forced Female
Genital Mutilations​ and believes that the committee shall be deliberating to formulate
a plan of action targeting the areas of concern presented in the rapporteur’s report;

3) Recommends​ more manpower is also to be provided for UNHCHR 24 hour hotline for
reporting atrocities against women as well;

4) Recommends​ Active Participation in Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy along with

inclusion of gender equality in elementary education. Also, suggests UN- Women
collaboration with COTLA as the Africa Strategy to be applied worldwide.
Establishment of a national Referral mechanism to address the issue of gender
violence in all its form that will include legal education psychological assistance and
police assistance;

5) Suggests​ that community interventions would assist women and empower them and
believes that community interventions would address gender norms and attitudes,
taking into consideration the combination of microfinance schemes for women and
methods that empower men as partners against gender-based violence and stresses
that the best evidence is for the IMAGE microfinance and gender equity initiative in
South Africa and the Stepping Stones programme in Africa and Asia.