Distr.
GENERAL
CEDAW/C/COL/4
28 August 1997

ENGLISH
ORIGINAL: SPANISH

COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN
(CEDAW)

CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER
ARTICLE 18 OF THE CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL
FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN

Fourth periodic reports of States parties

COLOMBIA*

FOREWORD

As a contribution to the building of knowledge on the status of women in the world, Colombia has prepared its fourth general report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), thus becoming one of the few countries to have taken action to collect valuable information for the attainment of the Committee's objective, in the spirit of the United Nations.

The present report is a diagnostic tool which updates the information on the lives of women in our country since 1991, the year in which the new Constitution came into force. It thus offers an analysis of the advances and of the political, economic, social and cultural obstacles which Colombians have encountered over the last six years. It was prepared jointly by five consultants specializing in the various topics dealt with in the report, working under the leadership of the National Office for Equality for Women, and it was revised by the Ministries of Education, Agriculture, Employment and Foreign Affairs. It was finally approved by each of these Ministries and by the responsible minister of the National Office's Advisory Commission and was endorsed in its entirety by the Foreign Ministry's Office of Special Affairs.

In order to achieve greater clarity and internal consistency and to bring together in a single text knowledge about women which is generally fragmented and dispersed, the report was constructed on the basis of a comparison of the reality of social practices and the new constitutional framework, as it affects women, with each of the articles of the Convention. This approach, which is consistent with the methodology proposed by CEDAW, facilitates a more detailed assessment of the fulfilment of Colombia's commitment to the Convention and demonstrates its firm intention to compile additional information on the topic, which will provide the country's various agencies and institutions with a clearer understanding of the purposes of equality for women. In short, this report constitutes not only an effort by the Colombian Government to reaffirm its ratification of the Convention but also the most up-to-date study of the situation of women in our country.

Even though the third report described the constitutional framework, it was thought essential to include it in the fourth report as well, in order to provide a more detailed picture of the progress made in recent years. In fact, many of the principal legal developments have been consolidated only since 1994, which is why the statistics presented relate mainly to the period 1993-1995.

The report is not intended for CEDAW alone: it also seeks to establish a dialogue with every one of Colombia's institutions and citizens. It is thus written in such a way that any reader may consult it without needing to refer to the preceding reports and will find that the report can be used as a composite tool for learning about the situation of Colombian women.

In addition, in order to facilitate the work of consultation and research, the report has an introduction which summarizes the overall content and is subsequently amplified for each of the articles of the Convention. The sections on individual articles are drafted so as to constitute self-contained and complete units. The fact that they sometimes approach a single topic from different perspectives makes some repetition inevitable. But this seemed preferable to running the risk of presenting incomplete information on the various points discussed. The result is a truer picture of the legislative and programmatic aspects and of the social reality of Colombia's women.

The compilation of a coherent and unified body of knowledge about Colombian women is in fact the main contribution of this report, which of course constitutes a useful tool for changing this social reality, not only in Colombia but throughout the world, for the framework of the struggle for equality for women stretches far beyond frontiers drawn on maps.

INTRODUCTION

ADVANCES IN THE SITUATION OF WOMEN IN COLOMBIA

SUMMARY OF THE REPORT

In recent years the situation of Colombian women has undergone fundamental changes as a result of the adoption of the new National Constitution and an economic development model based on the internationalization of the economy, and as a result of the recent formulation of policies on equality for women and the creation of specialized State agencies to promote and apply these policies and ensure that they are followed up.

According to the 1993 national census Colombia has 35 million inhabitants, 51 per cent of them women; it has a modern urban structure, and 70 per cent of its population lives in towns and cities; it has modern nation-wide production and financial systems and extremely capable business leaders, and it has taken important steps to improve living conditions, in particular with respect to access to education, health, public services and low-cost housing.

As a result of its economic performance and low population growth Colombia has enjoyed a rapid increase in per capita income, to about $US 1,650 in 1995, even though this figure remains low in the Latin American context.

Life expectancy has increased and illiteracy has declined to very low levels; the workforce has become more skilled and major progress has been made in the scientific sphere and in the production and use of sophisticated technology; women have entered the labour force in very large numbers and in higher education they have numerical equality with men.

However, the improvements in the situation of women in Colombia have been due more to far-reaching policies for the country's democratization and modernization than to specific policies for the achievement of equality. Furthermore, although Governments have set targets in terms of both quality and cover, the progress has been quantitative rather than qualitative.

In fact, although the changes over the past five years have taken place against a background of a good economic performance, it cannot be denied that there are many paradoxes and contradictions connected with the exacerbation of violence of every kind. The country has an extremely unequal regional distribution of income, and half of the population has been left untouched by the benefits of modernization. The development plans have in fact given priority to quantitative growth on dubious assumptions of redistribution and have encouraged the concentration of income and the social inequality apparent in the high levels of poverty.

The crisis in the public administration, the corruption, impunity and widespread violence are rooted in a chain of causes and effects within the prevailing social system. This fact and the persistence of alarming levels of poverty, together with the widening of the incomes gap between urban and rural areas and the persistence of manifestations of violence point to the urgent need to promote alternative models of development to facilitate the participation of the whole population in the country's progress.

In recent years economic policy decisions have been designed to consolidate the internationalization of the economy and the reforms of the State required for that purpose. The social-policy measures have been basically designed to alleviate the burden of poverty borne by large groups of the population.

The Government which came to power in August 1994 proposed a sharp change of direction in the development model. Although it regards market liberalization and competitiveness as useful incentives in the economic process, it recognizes that, given the existing economic and social inequalities, these incentives do not in themselves operate as efficient and fair distributors of resources. The State has therefore made a firm commitment to equitable social development based on the new constitutional and legal mandates which address the development of the economic, social and cultural rights of the whole population.

Accordingly, the 1994-1998 National Development Plan: the Social Leap Forward contains strategies designed to foster economic growth with social equity and proposes major increases in public social expenditure, which is to rise from 10 per cent of GDP (1991-1994 average) to 13 per cent in 1998. The acceptance of the social aspect as an indispensable component of economic development and as a premise of human development marks an important conceptual step forward in the approach to public policies and the role of the State in the attainment of the targets.

But the attainment of the targets depends on macroeconomic decisions and the demonstration of the political will to counter the historical tendency to cut social budgets in response to changes in the economic and/or political climate. The initial results of the Plan illustrate the difficulties faced by the State in taking this approach in our country, given the confluence of internal and external factors with an enormous capacity to destabilize the economy and society.

Within the proposed approach the policy of equality for women is one of the seven social development strategies: the educational and cultural leap forward; comprehensive social security; housing, urban development and disaster prevention and relief; the policy for equality and participation of women (EPAM); policies for young people, indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian and ethnic communities; small landowners; economic solidarity and justice, human rights and public safety. Basic importance is thus attached to women in the dialogue maintained by the State in this field. However, it must be admitted that the translation of the strategy of equality for women into programmes and social services is being affected by the current economic slowdown.

PROGRESS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEGISLATION

Through actions by all three branches of public power Colombia is continuing to strengthen the trend in its constitutional and legal system towards equality between men and women and equality of opportunity for both sexes.

In this way, and always in accordance with our democratic Constitution, important social laws have been enacted on education, social security, dissolution of religious marriage, and protection of women heads of household, as well as the more recent laws designed to prevent and punish violence in the family. All of this legislation implies a direct or potential benefit for Colombia's women.

Actions of tutela are being increasingly used by women as a constitutional means of immediate protection of their basic rights; in addition, the Constitutional Court has developed important legal precedents on the protection of the rights of girls and women.

The following have been the main advances in legal equality:

* The incorporation of the legal equality of men and women in the 1991 Constitution, with special measures to help groups suffering discrimination or marginalization, pregnant women and women heads of household, and with a mandate to achieve the appropriate and effective participation of both sexes at the decision-making levels of the public administration.

* Where family relations are concerned, today men and women enjoy the same constitutional and legal rights and have equal obligations as couples and as parents. These rights are stated expressly in the laws on the dissolution of religious marriage, the distribution of property in de facto marriages, the recognition of the value of domestic work at the time of such distribution, and the equality of children born in and out of wedlock.

* Women have political rights on an equal footing with men; they possess the same legal capacity as men in civil matters; and they enjoy equality with respect to freedom of movement and choice of residence, as well as with respect to the acquisition, loss and restoration of nationality and the transmission of nationality to children.

* Both the Congress and the Executive have made progress with important social reforms, especially in education, health, employment and access to public housing and services. These reforms do not always have a specific intention of favouring women, but they do not contain any discriminatory measures and do benefit women in the sense that the National Office for Equality for Women and women's organizations press for the removal of the obstacles to women's access to the resources and services which the reforms are consolidating.

* The use of actions of tutela and the decisions of the courts have helped to correct situations which discriminated against women.

Despite the advances made in legislation with respect to equality and equity, various kinds of obstacle to the effective application of this legislation persist:

* The enormous gaps in the establishment and functioning of machinery to monitor and control the application of the laws.

* The existence of cultural factors which have a practical effect on the application of the regulations in all areas, for the patriarchal culture is a serious constraint on the introduction of changes which will diminish its predominance. The influence of this culture manifests itself in many different social practices: in most cases it is the man who determines where the family lives; there are moral prejudices against the new forms of family life; violence against women remains a means of wielding power; pregnant and breastfeeding mothers often encounter difficulties at work; women are at a disadvantage in separation and divorce proceedings; and in the exercise of political rights, despite their high level of participation in party organizations and as voters very few women - in comparison with men - are nominated and elected to public office, represented at the managerial levels of the parties or appointed to decision-making positions in the public sector.

* The persistence of an institutional culture which, taken as a whole, does not endorse any clear intention to eliminate the inequalities suffered by women.

* The lack of effective machinery for enforcement of court decisions, owing to the poor training of police and court personnel in the regulations and procedures applicable to family disputes and conciliation.

* The failure adequately to publicize the regulations and rights so that women can have recourse to them or claim them and so that the legal and other authorities can effectively apply the regulations and protect the rights.

* Colombia has a poorly developed legal and social culture of affirmative action, which is still viewed with suspicion, as if - ironically - it amounted to discrimination. The collective consciousness is dominated by the idea of a formal equality which denies the specific differences of women and their social disadvantages. Accordingly, the positive action stipulated by the Constitution concerning women's participation in the public administration has not been translated into legislation, despite the efforts of some members of the Congress and the women's social movement.

PROGRESS IN INSTITUTION-BUILDING

Colombia has made considerable progress in creating institutions to deal with women's and gender issues in application of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and fulfilment of other international commitments.

The State now has several institutions for this purpose:

* The National Advisory Commission on Equality and Participation, a body which advises the President of the Republic; it is headed by a minister appointed by the President and its membership is drawn from high-level civil servants and representatives of women's organizations.

* The National Office for Equality for Women, which was created by Law 188 of July 1995 as a top-level Government agency responsible for coordinating activities to promote the equality and participation of women. It began functioning in January 1996 as an agency attached to the Office of the President but with an independent structure and its own budget.

* The National Network of Women's Agencies, made up of 32 offices or similar bodies at the departmental and municipal levels.

* The Parliamentary Network, made up of congresswomen of various political affiliations.

* The specialized women's offices or other bodies responsible for promoting the application of sectoral policies (Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Investment Cofinancing Fund (DRI), Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Health).

The following factors facilitate the work of these bodies:

* The existence of a basic body of knowledge about women and the obstacles to their advancement.

* The experience of women's organizations and NGOs.

* The strength which earlier circumstances invested in the progressive positions which Colombia has taken at world conferences, in particular the conferences on women, population and development, and human rights.

The following are some of the difficulties encountered by these bodies in carrying out policies to secure equality for women:

* The shortage of human and financial resources, which affects the capacity of the National Office and its advisory organs to provide technical assistance to the sectoral agencies and delays the mainstreaming of women's needs and interests in policies and programmes for women.

* The lack of personnel specializing in the issues of equality for women.

* The fact that the National Office is an advisory and not an executive agency means that it and its subsidiary organs can merely make proposals and that the implementation of proposed activities depends exclusively on the attitude of other ministries and State agencies.

* The institutional requirements of decentralization with respect to the character and dynamics of local processes and the human and financial resource needs.

POLICY FOR EQUALITY AND PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN (EPAM)

Since 1990 successive Governments have drawn up specific policies for women which have been approved by the National Economic and Social Policy Council (CONPES), the country's principal policy-making body. The Government which came to power in 1994 established the policy for equality and participation of women (EPAM), which was not only approved by CONPES but also incorporated in the National Development Plan and converted into a Law of the Republic (Law 188 of 1995), thus demonstrating the State's firm political intention to promote the equality of women and equal rights for women in the economic, political, social and cultural spheres.

The central and local strategies include research, education and training, information systems, development of legislation, support and technical assistance for central and local agencies responsible for planning and implementing programmes, and communications. They also cover linkage, dialogue, discussion and negotiation with women's organizations and NGOs and, of course, the management of international cooperation.

In practice, progress in policy formulation is impeded by many difficulties which stem from the State itself, threaten the effectiveness of its political intention and impair the implementation of the programmes:

* Macroeconomic decisions which limit public expenditure and affect primarily the social programmes.

* The lack of political will on the part of central and local agencies to accept and support the programmes. This attitude illustrates the gap between ideological discourse and practice.

* The embryonic nature of the culture of institutional support for equality and equity.

* The rigidity of the administrative systems and the systems for participation of civil society at all levels.

* The gap between discussion of the transversality of the dimension of equality for women in public policies and the instruments of social policy, given the persistent focalist and residual conception of activities designed to improve the situation of women.

With a view to overcoming these difficulties, the National Office has given priority to the sectoral work with the Ministries of Education, Health, Environment and Agriculture, the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, the National Planning Department, and the National Training Service (SENA). Each of these bodies has established a coordination unit and a joint working group and has initiated new activities or strengthened existing ones in the education and training of civil servants, research into specific situations by sector, and planning of institutional alternatives for mainstreaming the issues of equality for women, and the respective mandates of each body under the National Development Plan.

During the 1990s a major effort was made to give effect to the constitutional mandates for universal access to basic education, decentralization of education services, and participation of civil society in educational activities.

As part of this policy the Government promulgated Law 115 of 1993, whose principal mandates were set out in the National Development Plan 1994-1998, and drew up the Ten-Year Education Plan 1996-2005. This Plan gives special emphasis to the objective of eliminating all the situations of gender discrimination or isolation with respect to entering and remaining in the education system.

The 1990s have also seen achievements which are improving the situation of women. These achievements include:

* Maintenance of the tendency for more women to enrol in the various levels of education. In 1993: girls accounted for 52.5 per cent of the preschool enrolment, as against 50.7 per cent in 1991; girls provided about 50 per cent of pupils in basic primary education, without any great change from previous years; in secondary basic and secondary vocational education girls accounted for 52.9 per cent of enrolments, an increase of 3.7 per cent over 1990; and in higher education women made up some 52 per cent of the student population.

* The rates of female dropouts from the various levels of formal education and the numbers of female graduates continue the trend of earlier years of greater efficiency in the education of girls in relation to boys, as measured by retention in the system. However, the causes of dropouts remain closely linked to gender stereotypes which, as noted in the section of this report on article 10, have a negative impact on both sexes, but especially on boys.

* The trend towards employment of more women teachers in the initial levels of the system has continued, but the proportion of women declines through the levels up to higher education. However, in the present decade women have increased their representation in higher education by two percent.

* Gender stereotypes have a strong influence on vocational options but this influence is declining, as can be seen from the enrolment figures for the various special subjects of secondary and higher education.

* There has been a slight reduction in the rate of female illiteracy from 9 per cent in 1990 to 8.4 per cent in 1993.

* The Ministry of Education, the women's offices which have operated under the Office of the President under various organizational schemes, and the present National Office for Equality for Women have achieved progress in the institutional efforts to introduce the dimension of equality for women in the education system. A number of activities have been carried out to this end:

* Research and consultation to document the issues of equality between women and men in the education sector with respect to the State examinations in secondary education; review of the Sex Education Programme of the Ministry of Education; systematization of information relating to the training of teachers in the subject of gender discrimination in schools; and analysis of the National Development Plan to identify the strategic areas of education policies for gender equality.

* The Ministry has a unit dealing with this topic, but it has not been given adequate status or logistical support. Today, in order to strengthen this work, a programme on equality for women has been initiated with the cooperation of UNESCO, and an internal working group has been set up. The Ministry and the National Office are drawing up short- and medium-term action plans to form part of the policies and programmes.

* Where programmes are concerned, the Ministry has developed an interesting procedure for awareness-raising and training for civil servants in the central administration responsible for promoting the integration of the policy of equality within the Ministry, and for the personnel of the departmental education offices. It has also designed and published a teacher-training manual on the question of sexist content, compiled nationally and internationally produced teaching materials on gender and education, and introduced an experimental methodology for in-service teacher training, which it has tested with more than 500 teachers, head teachers and university professionals.

* The Ministry, the National office, the People's Network for Women's Education (REPEM) and UNICEF are developing a strategy of awareness-raising and incentives for publishers of school textbooks, with a view to securing changes to help to eradicate gender stereotypes from such books.

This sectoral work has encountered difficulties of very different kinds, but without doubt the most decisive ones are the resistance of civil servants and teachers to changes in favour of equality for women and the tendency of senior officials of the Ministry of Education to make commitments more in words than in deeds. However, there has recently been a greater political will to support progress in these areas.

During the 1990s this sector has made significant progress on the following fronts:

* In 1995 the life expectancy of women was 72.3 years, an increase of 10 years over the last three decades. The average life expectancy of men was a little lower at 66.4 years.

* In 1994 the maternal mortality rate fell to 78.2 deaths per 100,000 live births from the 1986 figure of 119.82. At present the Ministry of Health, with international assistance, is implementing an action plan to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality and a plan to promote the comprehensive health of women.

* The fertility rate calculated for the period 1990-1995 was 2.7, representing a decline of almost 23 per cent over the 15 preceding years.

* Infant mortality has declined by 48 per cent in the last 20 years from 54 to 28 deaths per 1,000 live births.

* Major improvements have been made in the regulations governing health and social security, including the promulgation of Law 100 of 1993 on comprehensive social security, which establishes a contributory system and a subsidized system designed to provide universal access to primary health care by 2000. Today the Executive is making progress with the enabling legislation for this Law, and institutional arrangements have been made for furnishing advice and support to the departments and municipalities in the certification procedures for the decentralized and independent handling of resource transfers.

* Another important step forward was taken with the promulgation of Law 63 of 1993 on decentralization, which provided, amongst other things, for the transfer of health and education resources from the State to the municipalities. In addition, CONPES has been taking important decisions on various aspects of social security, particularly with respect to subsidy funds, amounts and beneficiaries.

* The Ministry of Health and the National Office for Equality for Women have created a sectoral working group to draw up a plan of action to ensure that a culture of equality is introduced and institutionalized in all the Ministry's activities.

* Colombia is making considerable efforts to help women, especially working women, with the care of their children and is developing innovative strategies for this purpose. The following programmes have been drawn up for this purpose:

* Maternal and child care (Ministry of Health, Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF), Social Support Network). This programme promotes the enrolment of pregnant and breastfeeding women and their children aged under 12 months in the subsidized system of basic health care and provides equipment for the first-level hospitals. At present a third of the women in the target group and the hospitals have been covered.

* Families, women and children (ICBF). This programme is aimed at pregnant and breastfeeding women in the poorest groups and their children aged under 12 months. In 1994 it reached 373,000 persons.

* Mother and child nutrition (ICBF). This programme covers indigenous women and children aged under seven years living in rural areas. In 1994 it reached about 290,000 persons.

* Community welfare centres (ICBF). There are about 60,000 of these centres catering for 900,000 children.

* Awareness-raising and training for civil servants. ICBF is carrying out this work with a group of civil servants from the Family Unit and the regional offices, with a view to initiating the mainstreaming of equality for women in this institution.

The health sector is encountering difficulties of various kinds:

* The process of decentralization has proved difficult in practice, both because of the stiff requirements imposed by the central administration for confirming the independence of a municipality or department and because of local technical deficiencies.

* The application of Law 100/93 is encountering great difficulties at the local level, especially with respect to the change of outlook and approach which a municipality must make in response to a mandate to provide universal cover of services and in response to the introduction of private services under various schemes. This resistance to decentralization does nothing to improve the health indicators.

* There are significant differences in the levels of development and managerial capacity of the institutions providing health services in the municipalities and big towns, as well as in the qualifications of their personnel and in the institutional response to the people's demands. This situation affects the specific care required by women and the cover provided by the less developed municipalities.

* The structure of the health system, based on a contributory scheme and a subsidized scheme, tends to discriminate against women: where the contributory scheme is concerned, the reality is that there are more women working in the sectors which do not have social security; in the case of the subsidized scheme, women are the most seriously affected by national and local fiscal problems and by the consequent cuts in social investment.

* The last 10 years have seen a gradual deterioration of the country's vital statistics, because the institutions are not provided with any clear definition as to responsibility for collecting such statistics and because there are problems both in the information systems and in the extent of their cover.

* Improvement of the poor quality of health service personnel and enhancement of a human approach, especially in areas relating specifically to women, remain an unattained target for the sector, despite the awareness-raising and training efforts which have been made.

Urban women: women have made some significant progress with respect to urban employment; they have joined the tertiary services sector, participate in the globalization of the economy, and have overcome many problems of inequality vis-à-vis men. However, the circumstances which channel women toward the jobs and branches of activity of lower socio-economic status, lowest incomes and least job security still persist.

Against this background, the following points summarize the situation of urban women:

* The processes of economic adjustment manifest themselves in a decline in the number of women workers in the economically active population and the employed population. Some of the employment gains of earlier years have thus been lost.

* Gender stereotypes persist in employment by branch of activity.

* Most women are employed in the services sector, with a representation of 57.5 percent.

* The proportion of women employed in low-status jobs such as unpaid worker or domestic servant is over 50 per cent and rising.

* There has been an increase in the number of women classified as own-account workers. This category is of course the main component of the informal sector. There is a corresponding decline in the proportion of women classified as independent worker/employee, positions of relative stability. In fact, although the informal urban sector underwent a decline in 1992, it is currently taking in very large numbers of women workers.

* More women than men are taking the new jobs, but there has been no improvement in the quality of the jobs obtained.

* Women constitute the lowest-paid group and the tendency for women to belong to this group is increasing.

* The proportion of women in the economically inactive population remains constant at about 70 per cent.

* Employed women are showing significant improvements in their standard of education, but these improvements are not matched by gains in terms of employment. For example, women with secondary and higher education obtain lower-paid jobs than men with the same qualifications.

* As a result of the employment situation there was an increase in poverty as measured by the real purchasing power of incomes, although poverty measured by unsatisfied basic needs declined.

* Colombia is making progress with legislation in favour of women workers, but an additional effort is required by the State to publicize the regulations among women and employers and to establish machinery to monitor and control the application of the regulations.

* The wide gap between the legislation and the social practice is illustrated by the difficulties encountered by pregnant workers, in the limited access of women to better-paid jobs and in the salary differentials which persist between women and men.

* The national employment policies do not allow any discrimination against women, but nor do they set targets for the integration of women or for facilitating their work by taking into account the requirements of their reproductive functions. Employment programmes for women focus basically on women heads of household and their cover is limited.

* Cultural factors rooted in the division of labour by sex continue to impose a double day's work on women workers.

Rural women: rural women are at a disadvantage vis-à-vis rural men and urban women; they are among the country's poorest people; they bear heavy work burdens and receive low pay; they work long days; they have poor qualifications; they suffer more problems of unemployment; and they are one of the most vulnerable social groups in the situation of agrarian crisis, violence and armed conflict in Colombia. In short, their quality of life is very poor.

The following factors must be mentioned with respect to their employment situation and incomes:

* There is an increasing trend towards waged employment, particularly in services and commerce.

* The 1994 figures show a higher level unemployment for women (11.37%) than for men (3.23%).

* The proportion of workers holding second jobs is much bigger for women (79.45%) than for men (20.6%).

* In rural areas virtually all domestic work is done by women.

* Women make a big contribution to the survival of the nuclear family, for in addition to their biological-reproduction and social functions they hold paid jobs.

Social policy for rural women has secured some fundamental advances in recent years:

* The theme of equality for women has begun to establish itself formally in the Ministry of Agriculture and the sector's other bodies. In fact, there exists today an institutional base which can be consolidated but which requires support if it is to play a decisive role in matters of equality.

* There is a broader political consensus that rural women are a group requiring special attention, and this consensus has led to the approval of specific policies and laws which mention women as direct beneficiaries. However, the cover is still very limited in terms of services and access to resources.

* There is a greater awareness in institutions of the need to devise instruments and machinery for incorporating women. Unfortunately, the development and use of such instruments and machinery are very slow owing to a bureaucratic culture which does not look kindly on the interests of women.

* Greater coordination with a view to strengthening the rural family has been established with bodies such as ICBF.

* The Rural Women's Office of the Ministry of Agriculture has drawn up a plan of action for rural women, as well as other specific programmes for women heads of household and women displaced by the violence and armed conflict.

The difficulties of the social programmes for women include:

* The fact that the programmes have a greater impact on raising awareness of women's problems and the organization of women than on their productive capacity and economic advancement.

* The instability of the lead institution in the agricultural sector and the unpredictability of the resources for the implementation of policies for the integration of women in the labour market.

* The still-limited cover of the services and programmes in relation to the numbers of poor and vulnerable people.

* The lack of information broken down by sex in the national data base and the sectoral information systems.

* The constraints associated with the prevailing social and cultural factors and the ignorance of women's rights, which influence not only rural society but also civil servants. As a result, women do not truly have information about their rights or about the sectoral plans and programmes.

* The limited cover and possibly the lack of suitable training methods mean that civil servants do not know how to incorporate equality for women in their daily work.

Training for work: the National Training Service (SENA) has made progress in the discussion and integration of this topic in various ways: documentation of the situation in the Service; a awareness-raising and training plan for civil servants, head teachers and students at the national and regional levels, a programme to promote the participation of women in non-traditional areas; and the production of materials.

The Ministry of the Environment created its project on equality and participation of women with a view to promoting a strategy for mainstreaming the topic in its activities.

To this end the Ministry made a diagnosis of the situation in terms of the awareness of its personnel about the participation of women in the management, use and benefits of environmental resources. On the basis of this diagnosis a proposal was agreed at the national and regional levels for the incorporation of the Policy for Equality and Participation of Women (EPAM) in the National Environmental System, including the design of a communication strategy to promote gender equality in environmental projects and in the production of the guideline materials used in these projects.

Since 1994 the National Planning Department (DNP) has had an adviser responsible for reviewing the theme of gender equality in the analysis, approval and monitoring of the development projects and policies presented by the Department, for which it acts as lead agency. Before the submission of the National Development Plan 1990-1994 to the Congress, DNP issued recommendations for the explicit integration of women's needs. These needs were in the end included, in a piecemeal manner.

In 1995 awareness-raising and training programmes were introduced for senior DNP staff with a view to incorporating the gender dimension in the planning procedures.

DNP does important work in documenting the national situation as part of its function of drafting public policies. Thanks to this work, the ample information about sectors such as health, small enterprises, education and employment gives a picture of the specific situation of women. However, DNP still does not have a policy for dealing systematically and independently with women's issues.

Colombia lives in an atmosphere of widespread conflict which makes it one of the most violent countries in the world. As a result, women are victims of various forms of violence and violation of their rights, and their situation is tending to deteriorate further, for women not only suffer sexual violence and violence in the family but are also denied justice, and women prisoners are subject to greater restrictions than men with regard to the access allowed to their cells and visits by their husbands.

Various institutions are working in a number of areas:

* The Government signed the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights and the Plan of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994), committing itself to respect and promote the sexual and reproductive rights of women.

* The National Office for Equality, the Ministry of Justice, the Ombudsman's Office (Defensoría del Pueblo) and the Presidential Council for Human Rights (CPDH) have played an active role in the Congress in the discussion and adoption of legislation punishing violence in the family (Law 294 of 1996) and of the Inter-American Convention for the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (Law 248 of 1996).

* The Congress has enacted laws protecting the rights of ethnic minorities.

* The Ombudsman's Office, the Attorney General's Office (Procuraduría) and ICBF have carried out studies of the prostitution of women, particularly minors, and are promoting specific programmes for them.

* The Constitutional Court has established important precedents for the protection of the human rights of women, especially with respect to conjugal and other domestic violence.

* CPDH and the Ministry of Education have established a university chair of democracy and human rights. In collaboration with other institutions CPDH has held 600 local workshops to impart information about the Constitution and provide training in democracy and conflict resolution.

Respect for the human rights of women is becoming part of a broader human rights policy in Colombia, which is experiencing serious and enormous difficulties in attaining its targets in a country in which all possible fronts are open for violation of human rights by guerrilla fighters, paramilitaries, the army, drug traffickers, and common criminals. As if that was not enough, the family constitutes another theatre of violence against women, but this type of violation of women's human rights is not even recognized as such.

Stereotypes persist in Columbia; they have an impact on the poor participation of women in the management and control of the mass media and reinforce the sexist content of the messages. Since 1990 the Women's Unit in the Office of the President of the Republic has been analysing the media, promoting meetings and workshops for discussion and awareness-raising about the media's role in the creation and perpetuation of stereotypes, and publishing studies on this topic. Other bodies such as the Ministry of Communications and the Colombian Radio and Television Institute (INRAVISION) are making some timid efforts to secure changes in this direction.

In 1996 the National Office for Equality for Women, in collaboration with FEMPRESS, held a meeting to debate the topic "Let's talk about non-sexist communication", at which participants made a number of key contributions to exposing the lack of a culture of equality in the mass media.

There has been little change in the situation of women in this area during the 1990s. Against the background of the country's high abstention rate, many women do actually vote, but only a very small number of women are elected. In the last two presidential elections 30 of the candidates were women but only one of them obtained more than one per cent of the vote.

In 1994 the representation of women declined in the Senate and increased slightly in the Chamber. Their representation increased significantly in the regional bodies, although without exceeding 11 per cent of elective posts. In the civil service, three women ministers have been appointed to the Cabinet. In the civil service list, only 19 per cent of the administrative posts are held by women. Furthermore, there are virtually no women magistrates in the courts: no posts in the Supreme Court of Justice or the Constitutional Court and four of the 26 seats in the Council of State.

No local decision-making body, community action board, trade union or cooperative has more than 10 per cent women among its management staff. The national offices of the political parties have had one or two women (out of eight to 10 officials), and the statutes of one of the parties provides for one woman for every five senior officials in its regional and municipal offices. Neither the Government, nor the courts, nor the political parties have on their agenda affirmative action to increase the participation of women. An attempt to give effect to article 40 of the Constitution concerning adequate and equitable representation in the civil service was shelved in the Congress. Only the isolated voices of a few women members of the Congress and of women's organizations give the problem any airing.

THE ORGANIZATION OF WOMEN

Colombia has many women's groups, associations, networks of organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Many of them are working on a broad front and have played an important role in the changes which have taken place in the country with respect to regulations, institutions and programmes. Some of the organizations, of women or otherwise, are independent; others, promoted by the State, have acquired differing degrees of independence over time.

The diversity of their objectives means that they engage in very different types of work and achieve different results:

* The organizations and groups promoting research into and discussion of the situation and status of women are engaged in a far-reaching process of theoretical and practical documentation resulting in the publication of many books and papers; some groups have succeeded in consolidating their work by setting themselves up as research centres in the universities or establishing specialized postgraduate programmes. This is the case, for example, of the master's degree in gender and development of the National University of Columbia.

* NGOS such as Casa de la Mujer, PROMUJER and Cinemujer and many regional centres do important work in the promotion of women and/or provision of services which make good to some extent the deficiencies in the State's provision, even though they receive no, or only very intermittent, support from the State.

* There are many organizations and groups seeking to satisfy basic needs or generate incomes, but they have great difficulty in surviving owing to the restrictions on access to loans, technology and technical assistance.

* The organizations and groups concerned with meeting social needs have achieved important successes in projects on the care of children (community mothers), public housing and public services (FEDEVIVIENDA), and income generation (Foundation for Higher Education, Restrepo Barco Foundation, and Social Foundation).

* The organizations and groups promoting women's organizations as such have made progress in the rural sectors (ANMUCIC) and in the formation of federations of organizations, for example the National Women's Network and the National Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights.

The participation of women's organizations in the determination and monitoring of policies and programmes is still scant and merely formal, even though by law women must be represented on the national, departmental and municipal planning councils, and by decree on the Advisory Commission on Equality and Participation of Women. The National Office for Equality is proposing as one of its policies to promote the organization of women and strengthen the existing groups and machinery for their participation in political and civic life.

INSTITUTIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN

The various bodies created for this purpose have been carrying out strategies connected with the determination of their own organic structure, orientation and operation and with the programmes of the National Office for Equality for Women.

Since 1994 in particular the national machinery for the advancement of women (initially the Women and Gender Department and then the National Office for Equality and its advisory bodies) have made progress on the following fronts:

* Start-up of the various agencies forming part of the national machinery for the advancement of women: the Advisory Commission, and the sectoral, local and parliamentary networks of thematic working groups.

* Establishment of working groups in conjunction with the agencies, which have given priority to the drafting of action plans.

* Technical and financial support for studies on the situation of women in various sectors: education, health, justice, human rights, civil safety, employment and working conditions, environment, integration of women in the country's competitiveness strategies, and participation of women in the national civil service.

* Publication of studies, documents and the results of experiments.

* Support for draft legislation produced by the Government and by the Congress, especially legislation on violence against women, political participation, informal associations, regulation of property, reproductive health, and protection of women workers.

* Preparations for Colombia's participation in the Fourth World Conference on Women: regional activities for the production of Colombia's national report, preparation of the official delegation to the Conference and participation as members thereof, organization of meetings and workshops, and publication and distribution of materials on Colombia's international commitments.

* Promotion of and participation in the publicizing of the rights of women, raising awareness of the topic of equality in the communication media, and production and transmission of audiovisual materials.

* Support for the local network of women's offices in the 22 departments and 10 main cities, by means of:

- Meetings and/or workshops for the analysis of the EPAM policy, the achievements and difficulties of its application, and problems and needs of these offices.

- Advice on the restructuring of the offices so that they will be able themselves to provide advice on the introduction of the EPAM policy in the departmental and municipal agencies responsible for the implementation of the sectoral programmes.

APPLICATION OF THE ARTICLES OF THE CONVENTION ON THE

ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION

AGAINST WOMEN

ACTION TAKEN BY THE STATE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN

(arts. 1, 2 and 3)

"For the purposes of the present Convention, the term `discrimination against women' shall mean distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field."

"States Parties condemn discrimination against women in all its forms, agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women and, to this end, undertake:

(a) To embody the principle of the equality of men and women in their national constitutions or other appropriate legislation if not yet incorporated therein and to ensure, through law and other appropriate means, the practical realization of this principle;

(b) To adopt appropriate legislative and other measures, including sanctions where appropriate, prohibiting all discrimination against women;

(c) To establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis with men and to ensure through competent national tribunals and other public institutions the effective protection of women against any act of discrimination;

(d) To refrain from engaging in any act or practice of discrimination against women and to ensure that public authorities and institutions shall act in conformity with this obligation;

(e) To take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women by any person, organization or enterprise;

(f) To take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women;

(g) To repeal all national penal provisions which constitute discrimination against women."

 

"States Parties shall take in all fields, in particular in the political, social, economic and cultural fields, all appropriate measures, including legislation, to ensure the full development and advancement of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men."

THE COLOMBIAN CONSTITUTION AND WOMEN

The 1991 Constitution is a broad and ambitious charter of the rights of the individual which recognizes the inalienable primacy of the individual, rejects any kind of discrimination, and affirms the rights of the family as the basic institution of society (art. 5).

Where fundamental rights are concerned, the concept of equality (art. 13) is perhaps one of the biggest advances in the new Constitution, for the Constitution does not merely embody the formal equality of all persons before the law and the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, national or family origin, language, religion, or political or philosophical opinions, but also establishes true equality, i.e. equality of treatment and protection by the authorities. In addition, the Constitution enjoins the State to promote the conditions for true and effective equality, to take action to help groups suffering marginalization or discrimination, and to provide special protection for persons in situations of obvious economic, physical or mental disadvantage.

Political rights, which are regarded as fundamental in the Constitution (art. 40), are posited as equal rights for all citizens, with a specific reference to the obligation of the authorities to guarantee adequate and effective participation of women at all decision-making levels in the civil service.

Furthermore, where social, economic and cultural rights are concerned, the Constitution pays particular attention to women: it stipulates the principle of equality of rights and opportunities between the sexes, expressly prohibits any kind of discrimination against women, deals specifically with the situation of pregnant women, including their right to receive special protection and assistance from the State and a maintenance grant when they are unemployed or unprotected and, lastly, enjoins the State to provide specific support for women heads of household (art. 43).

The Constitution establishes the rights of the family, including the freedom of men and women to establish natural families by means of de facto marriages or legal families by means of marriage, and it bases family relations on the equality of rights and duties of the couple and on the respect of family members for each other (art. 42).

Lastly, the Constitution enjoins the Legislature to issue labour regulations paying particular attention, as a minimum fundamental principle, to the special protection of women and motherhood (art. 53).

Accordingly, the Colombian Constitution constitutes the legal basis for application of the Convention, not only by embodying rights which prohibit discrimination against women and enhance their status in various areas of Colombian life but also by attaching importance to the international human rights treaties ratified by Columbia: such treaties take precedence in domestic legislation and constitute a criterion for the interpretation of the Bill of Rights (art. 93).

Thus, as an international treaty promoting women's right to equality the Convention, which was ratified by Law 51 of 1981, takes precedence in the juridical order. When a conflict of laws arises the Convention is given priority and it functions as the most important criterion for interpretation of the rights embodied in the Constitution.

According to the majority view of the present Constitutional Court, since the Convention is a treaty ratified before the entry into force of the new Constitution, the principles of international law require that the Convention should be observed and applied without any discussion as to its content. And according to the minority view, since the Convention is a multilateral human rights treaty, in that it promotes women's right to equality and prohibits discrimination against them, its rules take precedence in the domestic order.

Accordingly, both views of the Constitutional Court support the preeminence and precedence of the Convention.

CONSTITUTIONAL MACHINERY FOR PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

One of the most important constitutional mechanisms for the protection and effective exercise of rights is the recourse of tutela (art. 86), by means of which any person can seek before the courts the immediate protection of his or her fundamental rights when they are harmed or threatened by an act or omission of the authorities.

Although it is a requirement for bringing such an action that the person affected has no other means of legal protection, its use is allowed as a temporary recourse to avoid irremediable harm. The judge must issue an order requiring the authority in question to act or refrain from acting.

The following are the practical advantages of tutela for the protection of fundamental rights:

* Proceedings may be brought by any person, including children, without a lawyer or other legal intermediary.

* The procedure is brief and is given priority, for the judge has a maximum period of 10 days in which to take a decision.

* The decision must be complied with within the following 48 hours, and the judge can sanction a failure to comply by arrest and fines on the ground of contempt of court, without prejudice to any criminal liability.

* Decisions can be appealed before the higher courts, and the Constitutional Court may review them.

In exceptional cases actions of tutela can be brought against individuals in the circumstances specified in Decree 2591 of 1991 on the recourse of tutela. In some such cases women, or any other persons, may defend their rights against private education institutions on the ground that education is a public service, or against enterprises or other individuals when the plaintiff is a subordinate or defenceless.

This means of recourse has become in practice the main instrument for the protection of fundamental rights; it has proved its effectiveness and people turn to it because of the flexibility of the procedure; it has helped to generate a social awareness of such rights. It is important to acknowledge the role which the Constitutional Court has come to play in the protection and promotion of rights and in the creation of a culture of respect for rights among judges, other authorities and society at large.

In concrete terms, with respect to the right to equality and in the battle against discrimination tutela is a fundamental legal recourse which women are learning to use to defend their rights, as will be seen in the discussion of the subsequent articles of the Convention.

The findings of a national study on the use of tutela in the period 1991-1993 provide eloquent testimony: during this period 22,658 actions were brought, 6,514 (28.8%) of them by women. The five rights most frequently cited as violated were the rights of petition, education and employment, and due process, and the rights to life and equality. Of all the actions brought, 5,299 were successful. Of this number, 1,894 were brought in protection of the fundamental rights of women.

The 1991 Constitution created the institution of Ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo): his general function is to attend to the promotion, exercise and publicizing of human rights. His specific tasks include submission of draft legislation, appearing before the Constitutional Court in connection with human rights legislation, and bringing actions of common cause and tutela.

The Ombudsman's Office has a unit for the rights of children, women and the elderly, which advises the Ombudsman and his regional and sectoral offices, as well as working to raise awareness and improve motivation and support in institutions in which problems connected with the situation of these groups have been identified. It also coordinates research and formulates recommendations.

With respect to the rights of women and the fight against discrimination against women, the Ombudsman's Office plays an active role by appearing before the Constitutional Court to seek the review of decisions on actions of tutela with a view to the protection of women's rights and by publicizing such rights at seminars and in publications.

LEGISLATION GIVING EFFECT TO THE CONSTITUTION

The proclamation of the Constitution set in motion the enactment of legislation to give effect to its provisions. This legislation facilitates the application of the Convention in the following specific areas:

* Regulation of the termination by divorce of the civil effects of religious marriages (Law 25 of 1992).

* Regulation of the acquisition, renunciation, loss and recovery of Colombian nationality (Law 43 of 1993).

* Regulation of voluntary military service by women and compulsory service when exceptional circumstances affecting the country so require and the Government so decides (Law 48 of 1993).

* Support for women heads of household (Law 82 of 1993).

* Creation of the social security system by Law 100 of 1993, which stipulates the principle of the universality of health care and social security without any kind of discrimination and the principle of support for vulnerable groups.

* Establishment of the pension support fund for women running small businesses, community mothers and women workers in the urban and rural informal sector (Law 100 of 1993, art. 25).

There is another series of laws which carry a social impact and may potentially benefit women and promote their advancement, although these laws do not envisage any specific regulations or measures in favour of women:

* Establishment of the principle of respect for equality as a purpose of education (Law 115 of 1994).

* Restructuring of the National Training Service (SENA) in order to expand its objectives and functions and modify its internal structure so as to facilitate the decentralization of its services (Law 119 of 1994).

* Establishment of the principle of the democratization, without discrimination, of sports, recreation and leisure activities (Law 181 of 1995).

* Establishment of the protection of young people, children and the family and respect for the values of equality (Law 182 of 1995 on television services).

It must be pointed out that Colombian legislation is generally designed to secure respect for and promotion of equality between men and women.

NATIONAL AND LOCAL INSTITUTIONAL MACHINERY FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN

Since 1990 Colombia has had a governmental office for women in the Office of the President of the Republic; this office has operated under various administrative arrangements and titles: Council for Youth, Women and the Family; Secretariat for Women's and Gender Affairs; and Department of Equality for Women.

The Government which entered office in 1994 decided to expand the institutional base for dealing with matters of equality for women, for which various national, local and sectoral agencies had been created. In 1994 it established the Advisory Commission on Equality and Participation of Women (Decree 2055 of 1994), the Secretariat for Women's and Gender Affairs in the Office of the President, and the Gender Affairs Unit of the responsible minister. The latter two bodies operated as technical units of the Advisory Commission. These arrangements lasted until the end of 1995, when the National Office for Equality for Women came into being.

As mentioned in the introduction, the present institutional arrangements include:

* The National Advisory Commission on Equality and Participation, headed by a minister or other official and including the Director of the National Office for Equality for Women and representatives of the National Planning Department, the Presidential Council for Social Policy, the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, and civil society, together with members appointed by the President of the Republic and experts on the topic, as well as two representatives of women's organizations with two deputies. The Commission advises the President and the National Office.

* The purpose of the National Office is to help to strengthen the State as guarantor of women's rights, promote the mainstreaming of policies for women in programme execution agencies, provide the technical advice required by this process, and encourage activities to facilitate a cultural change in institutions and in society, in order to render the practical application of equality increasingly more visible.

Law 188 of 1995 on the National Development Plan 1994-1998 created the National Office for Equality for Women as a special administrative unit in the Administrative Department of the Office of the President; it has administrative independence and its own resources and its purpose is to promote policies of equality for women and, in a broader framework, to develop tolerant attitudes in society at large and to contribute as part of its specific mandate to the strengthening of the State as guarantor of the political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights of women.

The establishment of the National Office marked a qualitative advance towards attainment of equality, since for the first time Colombia now has an institution created by law for the permanent planning, monitoring and coordination of the activities of the various agencies working for the equality and participation of women. Its objective is to carry out the policy determined by the National Economic and Social Policy Council (CONPES) with a view to promoting the equality of women in the various areas of social life and including this new cultural perspective in State policies.

In accordance with Decree 1440 of 1996, giving effect to the legislation creating the National Office, the Office's fundamental purpose is to promote and provide technical support and advice for the coordination and discussion, design, programming, monitoring and permanent development of the activities of the national and local agencies carrying out the equality policies.

To this end the National Office has focused its work on the formal incorporation of equality for women in the country's agenda for social economic, political and cultural development. This work is based on an approach to equality and equity which seeks to integrate the specific needs of women in macro-policies and secure recognition of the social, cultural and economic differences between men and women and acceptance of the sexual division of labour both from the practical and from the cultural and symbolic standpoints.

* The Office of the Attorney General (Procuraduría General de la Nación) has a minors' and family unit whose main function is to protect the rights of minors, the disabled and the family in general (Law 201 of 1995).

* The Ombudsman's Office has a unit on the rights of children, women and the elderly.

* Some ministries have shown a special interest in working on topics connected with the equality of women, albeit through women's offices, as in the case of the Ministry of Agriculture, or by appointing staff members to take a particular interest in this topic, as in the case of the Ministries of Employment, Economic Development and Education.

* Since 1990 institutions have been developing at the local level; this has entailed a commitment by governors and mayors to give special attention to women's and gender problems within their administrative structure. At present there are 32 women's agencies in departments and municipalities with differing levels of legal, technical and administrative development.

POLICIES FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN

Since 1990, when the process of institutionalizing women's and gender issues began in Colombia, the treatment of these issues has depended on ad hoc social circumstances and the political will of Governments. The decisive factors which have helped to consolidate this process include the claims successfully pursued as a result of the work of women's organizations, the guidance and support provided by international technical cooperation, and the juridical, constitutional and legal developments in Colombia itself.

Colombia has made important progress in the integration of women in socio-economic life and public affairs as part of the modernization of policies and institutions and the effort to attain the national targets of social equality. There is no doubt that women have benefitted from these developments, while at the same time taking on new tasks and responsibilities which are not always matched by access to resources and services. The removal of the barriers to the full participation of women has been the objective of the institutions working for their advancement since 1990.

To this end, policies, programmes and mechanisms have been designed in the light of various theoretical and programmatic concepts and differing views about the ways in which macro-policies should operate and at the same time respond to the specific requirements of equality for women. Progress has been made in the formulation of public policies, which are slowly being translated into action for the attainment of equality.

Over a period of seven years there has been a transition from a demographic concept (women as a group subject to specific actions) to a concept of public policies which give priority to affirmative action for women; institutional arrangements which supported ad hoc initiatives have been abandoned in favour of a transversal approach which promotes and supports the integration of the topics of equality for women in sectoral policies and programmes.

The development of broader concepts of social policy which respond to the specific needs of women and men has created major difficulties and resistance in Colombia, for it implies recognizing that marginalization and discrimination are not problems affecting women alone but stem from the failure to secure equitable development, and that the set of social modernization instruments which is being promoted (decentralization, demand subsidies, social investment funds, and privatization of services) can have adverse results for women and must be revised from that standpoint.

During the period 1990-1997 successive Governments have made commendable efforts to place the issues of equality for women on the public policy agenda. In 1992 the National Economic and Social Policy Council (CONPES) approved the Integrated Policy for Colombian Women: it was the first time that this top-level body had concerned itself with a national policy for women.

Also in 1992 the Ministry of Health created the policy "Health for women, women for health", whose purpose was to help to reduce the existing inequalities between men and women in the area of health and improve women's quality of life by tackling their specific health problems. What was needed was an instrument to strengthen action for women in this specific system by means of the participation of women as subjects of the decisions which affect their lives, their bodies and their sexuality. The policy was divided into several subprogrammes: promotion of women's health and personal care; reproductive health and sexuality; prevention of abuse and care for the victims of violence; and promotion of mental health care and prevention of mental illness among women. At present this programme has ceased to deal specifically with women and is being carried out by the municipalities with the support of the Ministry as part of the decentralized health system.

In 1984 CONPES had approved a sectoral policy for rural women which was revised in 1994. In 1994 the new Government submitted to CONPES for approval the Policy for Equality and Participation of Women (EPAM), which is currently being carried out and directs the revision of policies for women from the standpoint of a model of equitable development.

* To secure an institutional commitment to the incorporation of the concept of equality for women in the planning and management of development programmes and projects carried out by public agencies.

* To improve women's quality of life by removing obstacles which place them at a disadvantage with respect to opportunities and the resources and benefits of economic and social development.

* To seek the equitable participation of women in State management and decision-making bodies and in social organizations.

* To promote a cultural change which will revalue the role of women in society and encourage the building of relationships of equality between men and women, both in the family and in the other areas of society.

* To institutionalize the topic and the new cultural outlook which it implies at the national and local levels by creating agencies responsible for managing the policies and by appointing sectoral agents.

* To establish the concept of equality for women at the sectoral level by integrating it in the planning and management of the corresponding programmes in order to provide an effective response to the needs of women and men.

* To establish the topic at the local level in order to promote the implementation of the policy in departments and municipalities.

* To support the development of legislation on equality between men and women and the advancement of women.

* To help to strengthen the organization of women in order to promote their participation and training and encourage affirmative action for women in the life of the country.

* To increase the awareness of society and the authorities by means of training and through the communication media.

* To research and document the situation of women in the strategic areas of their advancement.

Up to December 1995 the EPAM Advisory Commission concerned itself basically with the following matters:

* Definition of the priority governmental programmes with a view to the mainstreaming of equality for women.

* Study of the proposed regulations governing the National Office for Equality for Women and make recommendations concerning its legal status, functions and structure.

* Proposal of machinery for coordination and negotiation with sectoral bodies.

Since January 1996 the Commission has been operating as a top-level adviser to the National Office.

With respect to the fulfilment of international commitments, the Minister responsible for EPAM:

* Directed the preparations for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and Colombia's participation in the preparatory meetings; she acted as head of the official delegation and together with its members analyzed the draft Platform for Action and prepared the document which Colombia submitted to the Conference: "Colombia pays its social debt to its women: national report of the Government of Colombia". She later submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a report on Colombia's participation in the Conference.

The Sectoral Network met in 1995 in order to:

* Prepare an "institutional map" of women's issues, which included a break-down of the civil service list by grade and sex and subsequently served as the basis for the study on the participation of women in the national civil service, published in 1995.

* Report on the progress made in the establishment of EPAM and formulate proposals for streamlining the process.

The National Office has given priority in the sectoral incorporation of EPAM to the introduction of procedures to increase the awareness and improve the training of civil servants and to promote research in the Ministries of Education and the Environment and in the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, the National Planning Department, the Social Support Network and the National Training Service (SENA), which are making efforts to integrate the concept of equality for women in their activities and the work of their staff.

The Ministry of Education has carried out the following research work to document gender problems in education:

* Analysis of the results of the examinations in State secondary schools from the gender perspective.

* Gender factors in sex education.

* Sex content of textbooks.

* Plan for equality of opportunities for women in education.

At the same time training activities have been carried out at the national level for the Ministry's personnel in order to encourage the establishment of EPAM and secure greater attention for equality for women in the education sector, and advice was provided to the Deputy Minister for Youth about training workshops on integration of the gender variable in the National Sex Education Project.

At the departmental level a training strategy for teachers designed to stimulate discussion and thinking about the topic of education and gender was designed, implemented and evaluated.

The Ministry of the Environment created a project on equality and participation of women, developing a strategy of diagnosis and awareness-raising by means of regional workshops on the situation and participation of women in the management and control of and access to the benefits of the exploitation and use of natural resources and the environment. The resulting diagnoses constituted the starting point for the national and regional negotiation of a proposal for the incorporation of EPAM in the National Environmental System. This included the design of a communication strategy to promote equality for women in environmental projects.

In order to provide guidance for the process of establishing EPAM, the Ministry produced the following documents, amongst others:

"Proposed guidelines on equal participation of women in sustainable development";

"Networking, gender and equality, a means of creating culture";

"Project on the development of strategies for the establishment of EPAM in national environmental policy";

"Women: gender and equality: policy for participation and equality in sustainable human development".

The Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) also carried out awareness-raising and training activities with a group of staff members of its Family Unit, thus initiating the mainstreaming of the gender perspective in this agency. With a view to consolidating the gender perspective, a document on EPAM was published and distributed to the national and regional agencies. In addition, an awareness-raising strategy was formulated for the staff of the regional ICBF offices, and a handbook containing information to facilitate a revision of the materials produced by ICBF was issued, with the result that the non-sexist depiction of men and women is becoming increasingly common.

In the National Planning Department an adviser responsible for the topic of gender equality analyzes, approves and monitors the development projects and policies presented and led by the Department. In 1995 awareness and training activities were begun for its senior staff with a view to integrating the dimension of equality for women in its planning procedures. Through the Department, research has been carried out on the situation of women in health, small businesses, education and employment sectors.

Lastly, SENA produced a plan to increase awareness about the analysis of gender issues and equality for women for civil servants and trainees at the national and regional levels, together with a training plan for teachers and civil servants responsible for establishing EPAM in the SENA. Encouragement was also given to the participation of women in training programmes traditionally regarded as existing for men, and the following documents were prepared in order to provide guidance for the establishment of EPAM:

"Promotion of the participation of women in technical and vocational training";

"Towards gender equality: institutional diagnosis".

In 1995 the National Network of Women's Agencies met in order to:

* Learn about EPAM and lay the foundations for formulating a local strategy for its establishment.

* Analyze the achievements and the difficulties faced by staff responsible for establishing EPAM in the various agencies, so as to determine the various kinds of support which these agencies need from the National Office for Equality.

Where the establishment of EPAM in local agencies is concerned, in 1995 activities were carried out in 22 departments, nine departmental chief towns and the District of Santa Fe de Bogotá.

Progress has been made at two levels in the establishment of EPAM in the departments and municipalities:

More advanced regions. As of today there are seven departments and five municipalities in which the administrations have units responsible for EPAM and for action plans, including studies and projects on equality for women in the various public sectors; they have achieved some progress in the systematization of information broken down by sex;

Less advanced regions. In 23 departments and in the Capital District of Santa Fe de Bogotá discussion meetings have been held with the governors and mayors, and programmes are being carried out for groups of women with specific needs, but there are no nominated agencies or an action plan for the establishment of EPAM.

At present the National Office is restructuring its relationship with the local women's offices so that they will be able to carry out advisory, coordination and technical support functions for the departmental and municipal units responsible for carrying out EPAM, in order to make EPAM into a transversal policy permanently incorporated in all the institutions.

The Parliamentary Network has carried out a number of activities, including a parliamentary forum, which studied the commitments made by the Government at various international summits and conferences.

One of the National Office's priorities in 1996 was to establish the Network on a formal basis and prepare a programme of work to support the development of legislation and regulations on the equality of women.

PROGRAMMES FOR WOMEN

The National Office for Equality for Women has carried on the work done by earlier presidential units responsible for promoting women's and gender issues. In this context it provided the necessary support for the finalization of a number of pilot programmes and their permanent establishment in the agencies concerned; after evaluating the programmes it accepted the ones whose continuation or expansion was regarded as necessary. It has defined the focus of its activities and formulated a programme of work for the performance of its functions as the agency responsible for research and dissemination and for discussion and negotiation with other bodies and with civil society.

Between August 1994 and December 1995 the national agency at the time, the Secretariat for Women's and Gender Affairs, was active in the following areas:

* It analyzed the gender perspective in the National Development Plan: the Social Leap Forward in the sectors of education, health, justice, human rights, civil safety and employment, with a view to incorporating the topic transversally in each sector.

* It produced thematic documents to provide the bases of the equal opportunities plan for females in the following areas: environment and gender, employment and working conditions, competitiveness, education, legislation and justice, poverty, rural women, health for women, and violence against women.

* It made studies of the situation of women with respect to their participation in the national civil service and the communication media, and their situation as victims of violence.

* It promoted two fundamental pieces of legislation until they were approved: the law protecting women against domestic violence, and the law on Colombia's accession to the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women.

* It scrutinized draft legislation on its passage through the Congress on such issues as the political participation of women, reproductive health, regulation of de facto marriages, and re-employment of working women following pregnancy or periods of breastfeeding.

* It promoted until its approval the bill preventing the alienation of a family's home against the wishes of one of the spouses or permanent cohabitants.

* It held seminars and issued publications on the human rights of women.

* It attended the periodic meetings of the EPAM Advisory Commission.

* It promoted joint activities with the gender unit of the Minister responsible for EPAM.

* It participated in the preparatory meetings for the Fourth World Conference on Women and in the preparation of the relevant documents.

* It coordinated the production of the "institutional map" with the Sectoral Network.

* It supported activities of the Parliamentary Network such as the forum held in August 1995 and the discussion of the legislative agenda for women.

* It set up sectoral consultation groups.

When the National Office for Equality for Women was established in January 1996 as part of the institutional machinery for the advancement of women in Colombia, it took as its point of departure the analysis of the development model and Colombia's current political and cultural organization, and gave first priority to education, health, employment, justice, and rural development policies. In each of these areas it has promoted:

- Management of the policies, plans and programmes for the gradual incorporation of equality for women. To translate the will of the State into concrete commitments to equality for women is one of the most important activities of the National Office. To this end it concentrates on the public agencies, undertaking promotion, negotiation and coordination and providing assistance and technical support to enable these agencies to formulate, plan, execute and evaluate sectoral and local policies designed to consolidate equality as a basic assumption of democracy.

- Recognition of women's rights both in new legislation and in State plans and programmes. In this task, derived from the mandates of the 1991 Constitution, decisive importance is attached to publicizing women's absolute equality of rights, and to the adoption in conjunction with the relevant institutions of flexible machinery for protecting and promoting these rights as essential preconditions for women's full exercise of their citizenship.

- Management of policies and programmes to help to eliminate violence against women. The total about-face required in Colombia with regard to acts of violence means that the very concept of violence against women and the many forms which it takes must be redefined as a matter of urgency. In order to provide a more comprehensive and accurate picture of this phenomenon, the National Office is supporting the development of theoretical and methodological frameworks which reflect the realities faced every day by Colombian women in this respect and reveal the routine functioning of everyday life. In addition, the National Office is committed to expanding and adapting the services for the victims of violence and encouraging the machinery for putting an end to impunity. This work is being done in the conviction that it is not merely a part of the population which is affected but that the quality of life of all Colombian men and women is impaired when women suffer violence without society intervening to prevent it.

- Equitable representation of women in the taking of political and social decisions. This commitment of the National Office with regard to people who from time immemorial have been denied access to public affairs means that the Government has begun to strengthen the machinery by means of which women can not only vote but also be elected to representative office and participate in decision-making, the planning and execution of public policies, and the exercise of political power.

Access to resources, goods and services, and in general to better living conditions, as well as the training which strengthens independence, the empowerment of women by means of their active organization, and the exercise of their leadership in civil and other institutions are equally vital aspects of the quantitative and qualitative change in the participation of women in political and civic affairs.

These priorities were converted into the National Office's action policies. Significant progress was made in this area between January and September 1996:

The National Office:

* Held workshops in nine of the local agencies responsible for establishing EPAM and incorporating the gender perspective in planning.

* Drew up six action plans for the local establishment of EPAM in Boyacá, Sucre, Cesar, Guaviare, Tolima and Córdoba. The plans for Quindío, Bolívar and Cartagena are being finalized.

* Revised 20 local development plans: Antioquia, Córdoba, Quindío, Bolívar, Meta, Sucre, Cauca, Amazonas, Risaralda, Atlántico, Nariño, Santander, Guaviare, San Andrés, Magdalena, Vaupés, Tolima, Valle del Cauca, Caquetá and Santa Fe de Bogotá, in order to promote the gender perspective in these plans.

* Participated in the following events: preparatory workshops for the fourth CORPES forum on the Atlántico department coast; workshop seminar on "Training for community activists and leaders in the department of Caldas"; workshop seminar on "Public policies for women and national and international commitments"; workshop on "Ratification of the project on rural and indigenous women in the department of Casanare"; "First forum on the organization and participation of Atlántico coast women" at the meeting of Commission IV of the Chamber of Representatives of Quibdó; workshop on "Participation of women in manufacturing industry" and "Establishment of the inter-institutional committee for the women's office in Valledupar".

* It held four workshops to train trainers, at which a total of 61 professionals from four of the country's regions (17 departments) received training in policies of equality for women.

* Held a seminar workshop on awareness-raising for personnel of the justice system with the participation of international jurists and of magistrates and judges from 10 of the country's regions.

* Formulated, with the support of the United Nations Population Fund, an information and communication strategy designed to enhance the awareness of the national, regional and municipal authorities.

* Held two national meetings of women's offices.

* Furnished technical advice to the Rural Investment Cofinacing Fund with a view to the incorporation of the gender perspective in its planning, programming and management systems.

The National Office also contributed to or achieved progress with respect to the following agreements:

* Agreement between the National Office for Equality for Women and the Ministry of Economic Development.

* Draft agreement between the National Office for Equality for Women and the Ministry of the Interior (Women's Community Network).

* Draft agreement between the National Office for Equality for Women and the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (programme for displaced women).

* Draft agreement between the National Office for Equality for Women and the Ministry of Agriculture.

* Draft agreement between the National Office for Equality for Women and the Ministry of the Environment.

* Draft agreement between the National Office for Equality for Women and the

Cundinamarca regional social security office.

* Draft agreement between the National Office for Equality for Women and the

Colombian Family Welfare Institute.

* Draft agreement between the National Office for Equality for Women and the

Ministry of Labour.

* Draft agreement between the National Office for Equality for Women and the Higher School of Public Administration (training of civil servants in the gender perspective).

* Draft agreement between the National Office for Equality for Women and the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Civil Registry.

* Draft agreement between the National Office for Equality for Women and the Ministry of Economic Development, the National Federation of Public Housing Organizations (FEDEVIVIENDA) and the Women and Habitat Network.

* Draft agreement between the National Office for Equality for Women, the Lara Bonilla School and the Ministry of Justice.

* Preparation of a draft agreement between the National Office for Equality for Women, the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Civil Registry designed to promote the registration of women.

The National Office has carried out the following activities:

* Implementation of the development programme for families headed by women (National Office, Restrepo Barco Foundation and Foundation for Higher Education (FES), which has reached 9,500 women heads of household throughout the country and granted loans totalling 4,769,500,000 pesos. The programme is currently operating in 23 departmental chief towns and in the town of Barrancabermeja.

* Five regional forums attended by 350 persons from bodies such as the National Urban Housing Institute (INURBE), ICBF, law firms, savings and loan associations, and women's offices. These forums emphasized the publicizing of Law 082 of 1993 on women heads of household and Law 258 of 1996 on allocation of family housing.

The National Office:

* Held the first national meeting of women's groups and organizations, which was attended by 70 of their representatives and representatives of NGOs.

* Organized the Andean Subregional Forum, which formulated the follow-up arrangements for the Beijing Platform for Action. The Forum was attended by 40 invited representatives of women's organizations and NGOs from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

* Formulated a policy of support for parliamentary initiatives and women's groups, with a view to furnishing technical advice on the drafting of legislation on women. An advisory unit is currently being established to strengthen and improve the proposal for affirmative action to secure equitable political participation of women. In addition, Germany provided technical support for strengthening the institutional management of women's groups and organizations.

In this area the National Office has carried out the following activities:

* Distribution to women's groups of the text of Law 294 of July 1996.

* Creation of an inter-institutional committee to formulate strategies for the elimination of trafficking in women, with the participation of the National Office, ICBF, the Ministry of Justice, INTERPOL, the Administrative Department of Security (DAS), the Office of the Attorney General, the Ombudsman's Office, and the Advisory Commission on Human Rights.

* Commemoration of International Mental Health Day with a forum on violence against women organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Pan-American Health Organization.

The National Office has carried out a number of measures in the departments:

* In Nariño it strengthened the consultative group known as the Departmental Council of Women of Nariño (CODEMU) and established EPAM in the municipalities.

* In Guajira it created the Guajira Women's Centre and publicized the gender perspective by means of play activities at dance and theatre workshops.

* In Magdalena it trained rural women heads of household in the municipalities of Piñón, Plato and Banco.

* In Cesar it made a socio-economic study of women heads of household.

* Periodic visits to regional women's offices, organizations and groups to follow up departmental or municipal plans in Cali, Medellín, Villavicencio, Rionegro, Condoto-Istmina, Suan, Valledupar, Armenia, Fusagasugá, Montería, Ibagué, Cartagena, Sincelejo, and San José del Guaviare.

The sectoral activities for women are summarized in the corresponding section on each sector and in the part of the report on article 13 of the Convention.

PROGRESS AND DIFFICULTIES

Colombia has made significant progress with regard to the institutionalization of the issues of equality for women, in accordance with the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and other international commitments.

Obviously, the creation of the National Office for Equality for Women as a top-level State agency and the approval by the Government and the Congress of a policy for the advancement of women as part of the National Development Plan demonstrate the Government's determination to promote equality for women in all areas of the country's life.

Despite the progress which Colombia has made with respect to legislation on equality and equity, there remain cultural obstacles to the comprehensive development and effective application of the law, and large gaps persist in the establishment and operation of machinery for monitoring and controlling the application of the law. Furthermore, in practice there are operational difficulties in the State itself which impede the development of the procedures for the advancement of women. Although they have been mentioned earlier, it is worth reiterating such difficulties as the macroeconomic decisions which limit public expenditure, the still-embryonic incorporation of the notion of equality in the institutional culture, the merely advisory and non-executive status of the National Office, which means that it can only make proposals and is dependent on the will of ministries and other agencies, and the shortage of resources, which impedes the mainstreaming of women's interests in State policies and programmes.

MEASURES AIMED AT ACHIEVING EQUALITY BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

"1. Adoption by States Parties of temporary special measures aimed at accelerating de facto equality between men and women shall not be considered discrimination as defined in the present Convention, but shall in no way entail as a consequence the maintenance of unequal or separate standards; these measures shall be discontinued when the objectives of equality of opportunity and treatment have been achieved.

2. Adoption by States Parties of special measures, including those measures contained in the present Convention, aimed at protecting maternity shall not be considered discriminatory."

SPECIAL TEMPORARY MEASURES

The Policy for Equality and Participation of Women (EPAM) is a governmental policy for the promotion of equality of opportunity which is supplemented by the activities of other public authorities (the Legislature and the Judiciary).

With the exception of different pensionable retirement ages, Colombia has no special rules such as affirmative action, preferential treatment or quota systems to promote equality between men and women, although there are programmes targeted specifically on women's sectors.

The 1991 Constitution envisages the possibility of action to affirm equality for women, for it enjoins the State to establish the conditions to make such equality real and effective and to adopt measures in favour of groups suffering discrimination or marginalization.

The Constitution specifically encourages the political participation of women when it enjoins the authorities to guarantee that such participation is adequate and effective at the decision-making levels of the public administration. However, the draft legislation which the Congress had been processing in order to give effect to this constitutional rule has been shelved; this demonstrates the lack of political will to grant women the participation stipulated in the Constitution.

Where the family is concerned, the Constitution likewise establishes the obligation to provide special support for female heads of household. The Congress enacted law 82 of 1993, which defines "head of household" as the person who, regardless of his or her civil status, has permanent charge of children or incapacitated persons, either by reason of the total absence or incapacity of the spouse or permanent cohabitant or owing to a substantial shortfall of assistance from the other members of the family.

Amongst other measures designed to support female heads of household, this Law envisages machinery to facilitate the education of their children, their access to the social security system, the acquisition of housing, access to loans, and the promotion of small businesses.

Although this Law has still not been put into effect by the Executive, the National Office for Equality for Women created and is coordinating a commission charged with formulating a proposal for the enabling legislation. Pending the application of this Law, programmes are being developed to support female heads of family, but they are not systematic and do not provide broad cover (see the section of this report on article 13).

Perhaps the only regulations which can be regarded as a kind of affirmative action in Colombia are the ones contained in the social security legislation, which provide for differential treatment of men and women in respect of the age of receipt of the old-age pension (arts. 33 and 36 of Law 100 of 1993). For men the minimum age is 60 years, while for women it is only 55 years; these ages will be raised in 2014 to 62 years for men and 57 for women. The Constitutional Court judged this differentiation in favour of women workers to be justified because it is intended to correct the de facto inequality of women and offset chronic situations of injustice and social disadvantage.

SPECIAL PROTECTION FOR PREGNANT WOMEN

The Constitution orders the State to provide special protection for women during pregnancy and the postpartum period and to grant them a maintenance grant if they are unemployed or unprotected. Although there is no legislation to give effect to this legal obligation, since 1993 the Constitutional Court has maintained that women have the right to claim such assistance from the competent authority, subject to proof of unemployment or lack of protection. If the assistance is not granted, a woman may bring an action of tutela to secure effective protection of this right.

Colombia has signed all the international instruments dealing with pregnant workers: the Convention, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the ILO Convention on maternity protection, which was approved by Law 129 of 1931.

Colombia's labour legislation protects pregnant women by means of: the granting of maternity leave, which was increased from eight to 12 weeks and now provides for the possibility of leave for the spouse or permanent companion to attend the birth; the approval of paid breaks of two periods of 30 minutes during the working day for breastfeeding mothers; the right of female workers who suffer a miscarriage or non-viable premature birth to paid leave of two to four weeks; and the prohibition of dismissal of pregnant women or any requirement for them to prove that they are not pregnant at the time of hiring, except in the case of high-risk activities.

The paid leave of 12 weeks granted to women for the childbirth period is also available to mothers who formally adopt a child aged under seven years. It is also available to a parent who adopts without a spouse or permanent companion. If an employer fails to fulfil the obligation to grant any of the periods of leave or rest described above, a female worker is entitled to compensation of double her remuneration for the periods not granted.

In addition, the labour legislation prohibits women from working at night in industrial enterprises, at any time in underground mines, with industrial paints, or in jobs which involve the use of white lead, lead sulphate or any product containing these substances, or in hazardous or unhealthy work in general, or in work requiring great physical effort. In specific terms, pregnant women are prohibited from doing work which requires them to lift weights, remain in a fixed position or in continuous movement, or demands good physical balance, as in the case of work on ladders, or the operation of heavy machines or machines with dangerous operating points.

However, there are no studies available in Colombia which evaluate compliance with the legislation or with the international instruments. Nor are there any commissions to monitor the domestic legislation, so that it is not possible to measure its true application.

Since 1990 there has been a prohibition on the dismissal of women workers without permission of the authorities by reason of pregnancy or breastfeeding, when the dismissal occurs during pregnancy or during the three months following childbirth. In such cases female workers are entitled to compensation equivalent to 60 days wages or salary and to payment for the 12 weeks of paid leave, if they have not taken it. This prohibition extends on the same terms to adoptive fathers and mothers.

In 1994 Bill No. 065 was submitted to the Congress; it ordered the immediate reinstatement of female workers dismissed during pregnancy or the breastfeeding period, but it was shelved, demonstrating the lack of political will to ensure compliance with the legal regulations. Recently, however, in a happy decision, the Constitutional Court amended its earlier ruling and ordered that all women dismissed during pregnancy should be reinstated in their jobs.

At present actions of tutela are the only means of measuring the effectiveness of the application of the international agreements and of the labour legislation. Up to 1996 the Court had not granted protection in cases of the dismissal of pregnant women, arguing that proceedings should be brought in the labour courts. It did not take into account that the immediate requirements of the situation could not be postponed until the ordinary courts reached a decision with their usual tardiness.

Tutela has helped to correct discrimination against pregnant women in education. According to the Constitutional Court, pregnant women or single mothers cannot be expelled from or forced to leave school by reason of this personal situation. The rights to education, equality and the free development of the personality have thus been protected.

In addition, legal protection has been provided for women who have to suspend their university studies owing to health problems connected with pregnancy. According to the Court, pregnant women are entitled to have their places kept for them even when the university regulations do not allow for such an arrangement.

With regard to the fulfilment of family obligations, following actions of tutela the Court has ordered fathers-to-be to comply with their obligation to contribute to the medical costs of the birth, thus protecting unemployed pregnant women.

Lastly, with regard to the rights of pregnant women who are arrested and the rights of their minor children, it has been found on occasion that the prison authorities have not complied with the regulations concerning detention in hospital and the establishment of nurseries in prisons. The recourse of tutela has been used to ensure application of the law and provision of the care which pregnant women require during and following childbirth, as well as compliance with the obligation to establish nurseries for children aged under three years so that they can remain with their mothers in prison.

PROGRESS AND DIFFICULTIES

The main advances in the application of this article of the Convention have been:

* The introduction in the 1991 Constitution of a concept of real equality and equity which provides for the establishment of special measures of care and protection specifically for groups suffering discrimination or marginalization and persons in circumstances of manifest weakness.

* The constitutional mandate guaranteeing women adequate and effective participation at the decision-making levels of the public administration.

* The constitutional mandate providing special protection for pregnant women and women heads of household.

* The constitutional developments embodied in the law protecting women heads of household and the law establishing preferential treatment for women workers in respect of the age of receipt of the old-age pension.

* The recourse of tutela, which has become an important constitutional mechanism for providing immediate protection of the fundamental rights of women, especially pregnant women.

The difficulties in the application of this article have to do with the poorly developed legal and social culture of affirmative action. Such action is still regarded as discriminatory, because the collective consciousness is dominated by the idea of a formal equality which denies the specific differences of women and their social disadvantages. In addition, no procedures have been established for publicizing these rights in a sufficiently widespread and continuous manner, as is required by affirmative action to achieve equality.

ELIMINATION OF SEXIST STEREOTYPES

"States Parties shall take all appropriate measures:

(a) To modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women;

(b) To ensure that family education includes a proper understanding of maternity as a social function and the recognition of the common responsibility of men and women in the upbringing and development of their children, it being understood that the interest of the children is the primordial consideration in all cases."

SEXIST STEREOTYPES IN THE FAMILY, EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

Sexist stereotypes persist in the family, manifesting themselves in the separation of roles and distribution of work. The father is the provider of the household's resources, and the mother, although she may make an economic contribution, remains solely responsible for domestic work and the daily tasks of raising children.

The stereotypes are more marked in rural families. Women are tied to the land and although they do most of the work they receive very little recognition. However, young women are exhibiting a generational change: they wish to delay childbearing and have different job expectations which prompt them to migrate to the towns. Generally speaking, domestic work is done by mothers with the help of their daughters, and in families where women do not perform paid work, the division of roles in the household is sharper. The meaning of a woman's life is still defined by the role of mother and wife.

In the case of urban family life, the entry of women into the world of employment provides an economic support but can also cause conflicts owing to the perception of husbands or companions of the work performed by their wives or companions, in which stereotypes about the relations between the sexes persist.

In 1995 a study was carried out to determine the true impact on society and the family of the legislation on divorce in the case of civil and religious marriages (Law 25 of 1992) on the basis of surveys of family court judges in the country's main towns. The views of the judges on the attitudes of each of the spouses to work performed by the other demonstrate the sexist conception of roles in family relations.

According to these judges, most of the men feel themselves emotionally abandoned or consider that their wives are neglecting their family obligations. This shows that they believe that women are responsible for the household and must attend to the needs of their husbands and children. It is also interesting to note the lack of trust in their wives displayed by the husbands since, again according to their judges, when their wives go out to work the husbands see this as an opportunity for unfaithfulness. Women, in contrast, regard their husband's work as an excuse for his not helping with daily household tasks.

OPINIONS OF SPOUSES ON THE OTHERS' WORK

The survey heading "others" refers, according to the judges, to the spouses' appreciation of the others' work. Women take a positive view of their husband's work, while men regard the fact that their wife works as negative.

Colombia has recently achieved a relative equality between males and females with respect to literacy and enroling and remaining in education. However, sexist stereotypes persist in the primary and secondary schools, manifesting themselves in differential treatment for boys and girls, in the content of curricula and in the educational texts and other materials.

Male and female teachers have different expectations with regard to the performance and behaviour of boys and girls, some activities are divided according to sex, and some subjects are regarded as more appropriate for one sex than the other:

* Expectations of intelligence and verbal expression are generally greater for boys.

* Technical workshops are usually reserved for boys.

* Aesthetic awareness, personal care, the concept of service to others and "morals" are cultivated more among girls.

Despite the fact that most teachers are women, the senior posts in many schools are held by men.

School textbooks contain many stereotyped images and representations of the sexes. A 1993 analytical study on gender relations in 15 school textbooks on various subjects for the tenth and eleventh grades produced by several publishing houses illustrates this situation:

* Make-up of characters and type of participation by gender. A quantitative analysis demonstrated that only 17.7 per cent of all the characters in the texts (10,713) were women. A qualitative analysis shows that in these representations the role of men is always positive, outstanding and worthy of imitation, whereas the few appearances by women create the idea that women and their role are invisible. The male body is the one generally used to explain the functioning of the various organs, while the female body is depicted only in connection with childbirth and breastfeeding.

* Participation by gender in the private sphere. Domestic work is depicted as the business of women. In 77.7 per cent of cases women are shown doing domestic work. In contrast, only 16.7 per cent of women are shown participating in household activities traditionally regarded as "masculine" (provision of resources, management, decision-making, investments). The situation is similar with respect to the raising of children: men are depicted engaging mostly in socializing activities such as the establishment of rules and values. A qualitative analysis shows that domestic work and the raising of children are the responsibility of women, being their "natural functions". The texts reaffirm the identification with and dependence on the activities performed by the characters in terms of their sex, as if a kind of natural distribution was operating.

* Participation by sex in the public sphere. Women are shown engaging in productive work in only 7.7 per cent of cases, while they do domestic work in 88.2 per cent. The world of productive occupations is regarded as essentially masculine except for the occupations traditionally identified as feminine: nursing, secretarial work, cooking. The political sphere is depicted as basically masculine. The same is true of the history and philosophy texts: the makers of history and the philosophers are men.

* Participation in children's games. The representation of the characters reflects a gender division based on stereotypes. Boys play out in the open and perform leadership roles in mixed groups of children; girls remain indoors and play passive roles.

* Features of personality, interests, attitudes and aptitudes. Men are depicted by stereotyped images of the masculine character (independence, aggressiveness, authority, reliability, conversational skills, etc.), while women exhibit these characteristics in only 13 per cent of cases. The same is true of the stereotypes of female characteristics (dependence, subordination, uncertainty, intuition, emotiveness, etc.). The two traditional views of the sexes create an exclusive dichotomy of personality which prevents persons from conceiving of themselves as integrated beings with feminine and masculine characteristics.

The attitude persists that there are areas of employment suited exclusively to men. A military career has traditionally been considered as typically masculine, since war has always been assumed to be "the business of men" even though it affects women as well. According to the available information, in 1993 the armed forces as a whole had 150,000 active members, of whom only 2,530 (1.7%) were women: 281 officers, 779 non-commissioned officers and 1,470 police officers. The military forces had 621 women members (488 in the Army, 83 in the Air Force and 50 in the Navy), while the national police had 1,909 women members.

The women officers in the military forces are career professionals (lawyers, doctors, nurses, architects, psychologists, social communicators, economists, business administrators, engineers and bacteriologists), but their work is usually limited to the services area and they belong to the administrative and logistics corps. They are not used as combatants or leaders of troops. They can be promoted only as high as the rank of colonel because the higher ranks require courses in counter-guerrilla tactics and command of troops, which women cannot take. In contrast, in the National Police women follow the same career and have the same responsibilities as men, for it is assumed that they can work closer to the community; in theory there is no limit to the promotion of women, and they can rise to the rank of general.

This discrimination against women in the armed forces was rejected by the Constitutional Court. In 1995 it upheld the right to equality of opportunity of a woman who wanted to pursue an officer's career in the Marines against the refusal of the only school in the country offering the relevant training to allow her to take the courses on the ground that she was a woman.

Generally speaking, women's work is not valued as highly as men's; women are relegated to work in the informal sector with the accompanying disadvantages with respect to access to resources, loans, etc. (see the sections of this report on articles 11 and 13 of the Convention).

The sexual harassment of women at work is a real but invisible problem in Colombia. There are no studies on which to base an evaluation of the dimension of the problem or ways of combatting it. Draft legislation on the topic was submitted to the Congress in 1994 but shelved.

In education, article 125 of the General Education Law punishes for the first time in Colombia the sexual harassment of pupils by teachers. This Law regards such sexual harassment as misconduct on the part of the teacher, who may be temporarily suspended without pay during the disciplinary procedures. Teachers found guilty are struck off the rolls, in accordance with the statutes of the teaching profession. However, there is no research on which an evaluation of this problem in the education sector or the practical impact of the legislation can be based.

WOMEN IN THE MASS COMMUNICATION MEDIA

The sexist stereotypes persist in Colombia's communication media, manifesting themselves both in the kind of media work done by women and in the content of the messages which are put out.

A 1994 study on the situation of women in the mass communication media shows that although the numbers of women have increased, there are still very few of them holding senior posts:

According to a 1994 survey of 14 newspapers, the participation of women was increasing, except in senior posts. In fact, there were only three women editors, and there were always fewer women section-editors than men, except for the social page, where 88 per cent of the editors were women, as befits an area traditionally regarded as "feminine". Women accounted for 30 per cent of the journalists and held 21 per cent of the technical posts (designers, artists, photographers and language editors).

It is remarkable that the newspaper with the biggest national circulation did not have a single woman among its permanent columnists.

According to a survey of seven national magazines, there were two women editors and two women subeditors. Women accounted for 41 per cent of the journalists. They were more numerous in production posts, accounting for 55.5 per cent.

A survey of 24 programming companies revealed a large number of women in managerial (45%) and journalistic (45.5%) posts, but only five per cent of technical posts were held by women (camera operator, lighting technician, stage manager, editor, sound engineer). Some of the production jobs such as make-up, wardrobe, sound effects, and production assistant were mostly held by women.

According to a survey of 27 radio stations, the participation of women is extremely low in all posts in comparison with the other media. Only four women (14%) hold managerial posts and there are only two women newsroom heads (9%). Where journalists are concerned, the proportion of women rises to 23 per cent. Very few women hold technical posts (3.5%).

The presence of women in the mass communication media is no guarantee that the content of the messages will promote equality for women, for what is usually reflected in practice is the stereotyped view of the sexes which predominates in society. As a general rule, the image of women transmitted by the mass communication media helps to encourage sexism, since it reinforces the traditional concept of women's role in private life.

Men are depicted performing public functions and in sporting, executive and cultural roles, while women are relegated to the family, to the roles of housekeeper, wife or daughter. They are also depicted as sex objects to be seduced and used. These stereotypes are also found in advertising messages. However, it must be acknowledged that some people, the creators of television series for example, are making exceptional efforts to introduce non-traditional images of the sexes in the media.

Since 1988 the Ministry of Communications has been carrying out a women, children and communication programme designed to generate a new culture supportive of Colombia's children, women and young people by developing information and education communication procedures which reinforce the protection of the rights and welfare of these population groups. This programme is currently operating in two areas:

* The media. The aim is to use different parts of the national, regional and local media to transmit messages to the mass of the population, as well as particular or direct messages on the rights of children and women, and to promote activities for their comprehensive development.

* Education. The aim is to develop educational procedures and advisory and research services to support the sectors working with these population groups.

In 1996 the National Office for Equality for Women, with the collaboration of the women's NGOs, held a forum entitled "Let's talk about non-sexist communication", which dealt with a number of fundamental matters:

* The media continue to use underlying bipolar categories in their articles and programmes on the female and male roles, such as the private/public categories in reference to the gender division of labour and the separation of roles, or intuition/emotion and reason/abstraction to indicate different gender psychologies.

* Although fairly large numbers of women work in the media, it is not known what role women journalists play in the building of the images of non-stereotyped reality which help to create a culture of equality for women.

* In order to establish a non-sexist ethic in the mass communication media, it would be advisable to impose a constant practice of analysing the representation in the media of the different realities and secure a consensus on reevaluation of the roles of female and male journalists in the formation of a social imagery.

* Women are still depicted in advertising as sex objects or servants.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Article 42 of the Constitution states that any form of violence in the family destroys harmony and unity, and it stipulates that it shall be punished by law. In addition, in 1994 Colombia signed the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, ratifying it by Law 248 of 1995. In implementation of the constitutional mandate (art. 42, para. 5) the Congress enacted Law 294 of 1996 on sexual abuse and violence in the family. This law characterizes as crimes the various ways in which violence is inflicted, establishes procedures and measures of protection and assistance for the victims of abuse, and invests the Colombian Family Welfare Institute with responsibility for policies, plans and programmes to prevent and eradicate this kind of violence.

Among the measures contained in the Law special attention must be drawn, in view of their impact in favour of women, to those providing judges with the means of protecting women, ordering the aggressor to move out of the home which he shares with the victim, and characterizing sexual violence between spouses as a crime. However, it is regrettable that the Law establishes a less severe penalty for sexual violence between spouses (six months to two years imprisonment) in comparison with the penalties provided in the Criminal Code for the crimes of sexual intercourse with violence (two to eight years imprisonment) and other sexual acts with violence (one to three years).

The problem of domestic violence is not new in Colombia, but it was not until the 1980s that it began to be discussed and studied, although the investigative aspect still needs to be expanded and strengthened.

Historically, the roots of this violence lie in the authoritarian patriarchal structure which has determined family relations, with the result that men, as the providers of the family income, hold power over the women, who sometimes find themselves in situations of subordination and inferiority.

The modernization of society and the entry of women into the world of employment have helped to alter the traditional concept of the family, causing an imbalance in the traditional structure and new conflicts in the relations between couples which unleash violence, against women and children in particular.

A 1995 demography and health survey investigated domestic violence and found a high level of abuse of women and children. Of the married or cohabiting women surveyed, 52 per cent had been abused by their husbands, more than half insulted, and more than a third beaten. These figures are similar to the ones obtained in the 1990 survey.

The women who had been insulted (33%) indicated the causes as bad temper (28%), jealousy (20%) and bouts of drunkenness (17%). The women who had been beaten by their husbands (19%) also attributed this to drunkenness (33%), jealousy (28%) or outbursts of temper (11%). The lower the level of education and the greater the number of children, the greater the verbal or physical violence.

Of all the battered women, 27 per cent had reported the facts to the authorities; this figure is somewhat higher than the one found five years earlier in the 1990 survey, when only 11 per cent of the women victims of physical violence had reported it. Ten per cent visited a police station, eight per cent a family commission, and five per cent the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF).

The reasons given by the women for not reporting the domestic violence included: belief that they could solve the problem without any help (31%), fear of retaliation (22%), and belief that the husband would change (17%).

The family commissions were created by the Minors' Code as a special means of tackling the problem of domestic violence. They perform policing functions and are organized by the municipal councils as part of the family welfare system. They are conceived as the most appropriate means of combating this kind of violence, since they have the services of lawyers, psychologists, social workers and doctors who can give immediate attention to the victims of abuse and/or the perpetrators. They also perform functions of conciliation but only with respect to family maintenance payments.

The Presidential Council on Youth, Women and the Family of the 1990-1994 Government created a programme to promote the family commissions, which, once it came into operation, dealt with the training of personnel, including support for the provision of equipment and management and information systems. As a result, the number of commissions increased from two in 1990 to 180 in 1994 for the whole country. This programme was transferred to ICBF when the 1994-1998 Government entered office, but unfortunately it has lost its initial impetus and has ceased to be implemented. At present, there is no national body supervising the family commissions.

Actions of tutela have also become an important means of defence against domestic violence and is used by women in particular. In several such cases the Constitutional Court has decided that the women and/or their children are defenceless against the men and has ordered the police authorities to take the necessary measures of protection and supervise the behaviour of the defendants, who are prohibited from committing acts of violence.

Violence due to armed conflict

In recent years the female population has been a direct victim of the political violence augmented by guerrilla and paramilitary actions and by the connexion of such actions with drug trafficking; but women also suffer as indirect victims owing to the violent deaths of their husbands and companions, displacement, and the greater burdens which they have to take on in the zones of armed conflict.

The following table shows the numbers of female victims of political violence in 1989, 1991 and 1993:

FEMALE POPULATION VICTIMS OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE*

* The figures for 1989 and 1991 include political violence (murders, disappearances, kidnappings, torture, wounding, detention, attacks and threats) and violence assumed to be political. The figure for 1993 includes violations of the right to life and personal integrity committed by State and non-State agents.

A 1993-1994 study by the Bishopric of Colombia estimated that 341,204 of the country's 586,261 displaced adults were women, i.e. 58.2 per cent of the total. The figure for men was 245,057 - 41.8 per cent of the total.

But women are not only direct victims of the political violence. They also suffer more from its effects: it is the widows and abandoned women who suffer greatest psychological damage when they suddenly become heads of family, uprooted from their homes and living in conditions of absolute poverty.

The displacement of families as a result of the violence in Colombia is difficult to measure because people are clearly afraid of reporting the facts, and fear of retaliation is widespread. According to the latest figures of the National Statistics Department (DANE) from the 1993 census, 822,258 of the 1,023,117 Colombians who have lost a spouse are women, i.e. 80 per cent of the total. The departments of Antioquia and Valle del Cauca, which have the highest figures for violence, also have the largest numbers of widows; this fact, taken together with the evidence that more than half of these women are young, prompts the conclusion that their widowhood is due to the violence.

The impact of displacement on women can be summarized as follows:

* Most of the women become heads of household following widowhood or breakdown of the spousal relationship. The Episcopal Conference estimates that among the displaced population 24.6 per cent of households are headed by women.

* The loss of a husband or companion or of a son, in addition to forced displacement, causes severe psychological trauma.

* Displacement shifts on to women almost total responsibility for the family economy.

* Displaced women have enormous difficulty organizing their lives owing to the trauma suffered and the low standard of education of rural women, which most of them are.

* Displaced women are more vulnerable to sexual attacks and may fall more easily into prostitution owing to their lack of social, psychological and economic protection.

In order to tackle this situation the Colombian government drew up the National Integrated Programme for the Population Displaced by the Violence (CONPES No. 2804 of 3 September 1995), which sets out strategies for prevention (information and early-intervention systems, creation of agencies such as the regional and municipal security councils), strategies for emergency action (emergency assistance, institution-building, and community participation), and strategies for socio-economic stabilization and consolidation (agrarian reform, promotion of small businesses, health, education, housing and employment).

Although this programme is not targeted specifically on displaced women, the Rural Women's Office of the Ministry of Agriculture has drawn up a framework for action directed specifically at women as one of the strategies of this national policy. In turn, the Ministry of the Interior has submitted to the Congress a bill on measures to help to prevent forced displacement and provide care, protection and rehabilitation for the country's displaced persons.

According to the Association of Relatives of Detained and Disappeared Persons (ASFADDES), about five per cent of the 549 victims of forced disappearance in 1994 were women. But the most serious effect of this form of violence is the role which women have to play as heads of household, coping with the needs of survival and becoming political subjects totally mistrustful of the State (Presidential Council on Social Policy, 1995).

According to the figures of the Political Prisoners' Support Committee, in 1994 Colombia had 600 political prisoners, including 48 women.

According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, there are some 10,830 guerrilla fighters on Colombian territory. Although the number of women insurgents is not known exactly, it is thought to have increased in recent years.

The fact that the activities of women guerrilla fighters are unlawful is no reason for leaving the discrimination which they suffer in the guerrilla forces out of consideration. Although they take part in the fighting for tactical reasons, since they create less suspicion and are repressed less severely by the authorities, they generally take no part in policy decisions and do not usually hold posts of command. their role is always secondary and consists mainly of "domestic" work.

In addition, women who are reintegrated in civilian life also encounter serious problems with respect to their gender identity and the legitimacy of their new status, for they are doubly rejected by civil society, which holds their political past against them to a greater extent than against men in identical circumstances.

SUMMARY OF ACTION TAKEN

A start has been made on documenting sexist stereotypes in the texts and illustrations of school books; this work has served as the basis for the publication of a handbook to instruct teachers on this topic and to secure preliminary agreements with the publishers of school books (see the section of this report on article 10 of the Convention).

Studies have been made on the numbers of women holding professional and technical posts in the various media and on the male and female stereotypes which the media present. Forums on women in the media have also been held. The Ministry of Communications has a programme to promote research on women and the media and the publicizing of women's rights.

A study was made on the number of women in the armed forces and the restrictions which they encounter.

PROGRESS AND DIFFICULTIES

With regard to the task of eliminating sexist stereotypes and the violence persisting in various areas of social life, Colombia has made important progress in:

* Documentation of the problems.

* Initiation of teacher-training in the sexist content of education.

* Negotiation and conclusion of preliminary agreements with publishing houses on the production of school books free of sexist content.

* Adoption of laws to prevent and punish violence against women.

* Conduct of studies to identify the situation, causes and consequences of family, sexual and political violence affecting women in particular.

* Increasing numbers of women reporting abuse by their husbands or companions to the competent authorities.

* Adoption by CONPES of a policy for persons displaced by the armed conflict, and the start-up of a support programme targeted on women heads of household in particular.

* Recourse by women to actions of tutela as a fairly effective and available means of protection against violence in the family.

The following difficulties are encountered in the efforts to eliminate sexist stereotypes:

* The deeply rooted patriarchal culture, which has traditionally placed women in a position of inferiority and subordination in relation to men.

* The widespread violence in the country, which affects women both directly and indirectly.

* The inability of the State to ensure application of the legislation punishing domestic violence, and the limited conception of the scope of possible action, which makes it difficult to tackle the problem in a comprehensive manner.

* The inadequate reach of the programmes for publicising women's rights, which makes it difficult to generate greater awareness of the problems.

* The shortage of human and financial resources preventing the proper functioning of the family commissions.

PROSTITUTION

"States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women."

LEGISLATION

Articles 12 and 17 of the Constitution prohibit inhuman and degrading treatment, slavery, servitude and traffic in persons.

Furthermore, since it embodies the fundamental rights of children, the Constitution orders that they shall be protected against any form of abandonment, physical or mental violence, kidnapping, sale or sexual abuse, as well as against exploitation in employment or in some other economic manner or employment in hazardous work.

Prostitution is not a crime in Colombia and, unlike procurement, which is punishable by law, the regional and local authorities can regulate it.

Under the heading "Crimes against freedom and sexual decency" the Criminal Code punishes sexual intercourse and other sexual acts committed with persons aged under 14 and stipulates the aggravating circumstances (arts. 303-306). It also punishes procurement and forced prostitution and stipulates the aggravating circumstances: when the victim is a child aged under 14 if the purpose is to transport him or her abroad, or if the victim is pregnant (arts. 308-310). Lastly, it punishes trafficking in women and incitement of children and young people to prostitution (arts. 311-312).

In the international sphere, the Protocol additional to the 1949 Geneva Convention (ratified by Law 11 of 1992) concerning international armed conflicts enjoins States to respect individuals and prohibits any violation of personal dignity, particularly humiliating and degrading treatment, forced prostitution and any other violation of decency. In addition, the regulations on issue of visas and control of foreigners (Decree 666 of 1992) authorize the expulsion of foreigners if they engage in procurement.

The National Police Code (1970) and the Local Police Code (1989) regulate establishments where prostitution is carried on and authorize the temporary detention of persons obtaining profits from procurement. They also provide for the rehabilitation of persons who have fallen into prostitution through the offer of non-compulsory health care and job training.

APPROACH TO PROSTITUTION IN COLUMBIA

Historically, prostitution has been an invisible phenomenon in Colombia, tolerated and generally disregarded by the country's institutions and society at large. Up to 1993 there were no figures or studies by which the national extent of prostitution could be measured. Nor had child prostitution been investigated, even though it is a serious violation of human rights, implying the abandonment, abuse and exploitation of minors.

Even the relatively recent studies on prostitution contain only dispersed and fragmentary data about its extent in Bogotá and other towns, and they were in any event insufficient for the purposes of analysing modalities and trends or for establishing programmes of action.

Some of the studies were carried out in the 1990s by the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, on prostitution in general and on children suffering sexual exploitation in central Bogotá. The most alarming conclusion was that the number of children in this situation had doubled in three years, for the total of 1,200 minors aged between nine and 17 found in this situation in 1990 had increased to 2,959 by 1993.

The international traffic in women, closely linked with prostitution and run by organized networks, to which just as little attention had been paid in the past, is on the increase in Colombia. The Interinstitutional Committee has taken various measures to prevent and punish trafficking in women in our country.

Research and institutional and civic awareness-raising activities were initiated in 1994, together with programmes on prostitution whose results can not yet be evaluated. The Office of the Deputy Attorney General for the Protection of Children and the Family and the Ombudsman's Office made separate studies, the first with a broader geographical and programmatic scope, and the second in individual towns selected on the basis of the seriousness of the problem.

This study covered more than half of the country. It found that the activities of the institutions responsible for diagnosis, prevention and intervention with respect to prostitution amounted virtually to nothing, and there was a lack of interinstitutional coordination in tackling the problem. A number of religious orders and NGOs were carrying out isolated and inadequate activities without the cooperation of the authorities.

The Office initiated a national programme targeted specifically on the prostitution of minors: the first stage was carried out in Bogotá, the second in 18 departments, and the third, currently in operation, was designed to ensure the continuity of the programme in these places.

* In Bogotá the population engaging in prostitution was estimated to total at least 60,000. The care provided by institutions (Renacer Foundation, Hermanas Adoratrices, and the Administrative Department of Social Welfare) was also evaluated, and a proposal was submitted to the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, which drew up a programme of action for child and juvenile prostitutes.

* As part of the national implementation of this programme, field visits were made to 18 departments, (Atlántico, Antioquia, Caldas, Cauca, Chocó, Guajira, Huila, Magdalena, Meta, Nariño, Norte de Santander, Quindío, Risaralda, San Andrés, Santander, Tolima and Valle), and it was proposed that the authorities and the communities should begin preventive work and make studies of the situation with a view to establishing a local model of intervention.

The general study produced the following results:

* Of all the departments studied, the ones with the largest numbers of child prostitutes are Antioquia and Santa Fe de Bogotá (22.2%), followed by Caldas, Huila, Meta, Risaralda and Tolima, which together have 44.4 per cent.

* The main reasons for taking up prostitution in urban areas are: unemployment (80%), domestic violence and lack of income (70%), and lack of training (60%). In the middle-sized towns and rural areas the main reasons are: widespread violence and unemployment (70%) and domestic violence (60%); and in the black and indigenous communities family break-up and Western cultural influences (70%) and unemployment (55%) were the main reasons.

* Confirmation was found of the existence of national and international networks trafficking in women, of importers and exporters of children and adults, and of recruiting organizations operating at the interdepartmental level.

* 95 per cent of the children and young people engaging in prostitution had been abused or came from broken homes (mother-stepfather, father-stepmother, single mothers, or no parents).

* Prostitution of boys is less common than prostitution of girls.

* The study found a large number of young adults who wanted to stop working as prostitutes but who had no viable alternatives.

* Most of the girls and young women had little information about sexual diseases, sexual protection or methods of family planning.

This study enabled the Office to confirm the need for differential treatment for every individual working as a prostitute:

* It is difficult to rescue the more adult women from prostitution, and it is recommended that the efforts are targeted on the children by means of integrated care, interinstitutional coordination, establishment of an intervention model tailored to the needs of each region, special training for the persons operating the programme, including the minors' police, and monitoring of the migration of children in order to prevent them falling into the hands of procurers. According to the study, prostitutes regard the police as their main enemy, accusing the police of maltreatment, blackmail and abuse of power; accordingly, corrective action must be taken against the irregularities committed by some members of the police forces and they must be trained to behave so as to change the community's image of them. The study's conclusions recommend terminating the sweeps by the police which terrify the girls and make the work of other institutions more difficult.

* With regard to procurement, the study emphasized the lack of serious research on the impunity of non-organized procurement and on the impunity protecting national and international networks. In addition, it stressed the need to involve the Public Prosecutor's Office in the programmes so that it can investigate and punish the many crimes committed in connexion with prostitution.

* With regard to the clients of prostitutes, the study established the importance of improving sex education and carrying out campaigns in the mass communication media to make the people more aware of the problem and its legal consequences (corruption of minors) and health consequences (sexually transmitted diseases). In addition, it emphasized the importance of publicizing the ICBF programmes carried out by NGOs with a view to securing the people's collaboration.

* Agreements were signed by 77.8 per cent of the departments on the establishment of networks for the care of minors and prevention of their maltreatment, with the assistance of various local authorities. These networks include a subcommittee on prostitution (made up of staff members of ICBF, the health offices, the Ombudsman's and Public Prosecutor's Offices and INTERPOL, as well as prosecutors from the family courts); the effectiveness of the subcommittees depends on the interest and the coordination capacity shown by the local authorities. ICBF has initiated action programmes in seven departments.

This study was carried out in three main cities (Barranquilla, Leticia, Pereira) and in two areas of Bogotá in which it had been established that the problem was most serious. Although the study was limited in extent, it did produce important results for the identification and measuring of the problem and helped to prompt the competent agencies to search for comprehensive solutions:

* The sexually exploited child population numbered 488, including 445 girls and young women.

* Most of the children and young people engage in prostitution in towns away from their homes, and the women travelled to these towns initially to work in domestic service. Most of them have little education and have not completed the secondary level; and many of them have not even completed their primary education.

* Most of these minors are in the 14 to 18 age group, although some become prostitutes as young as 10.

* The main cause which leads them into prostitution is violence in its various manifestations (47.2%): psychological (20.8%), physical (19.3%) and sexual (7.1%). The second commonest cause is family break-up (35%).

* The problems mentioned by the prostitutes included: fear of contracting sexual diseases (17.4%), violent treatment by the police (17.2%), insecurity (15.8%) and abuse by clients (15%).

* With regard to the solutions mentioned, 24.7 per cent of the prostitutes were considering the idea of earning money in some other way, 18.5 per cent wanted to study, and 10.3 per cent wanted to abandon prostitution.

The general conclusion of the Ombudsman's Office on institutional management in 1994 was that there was a lack of programmes targeted on sexually exploited children. At that time the ICBF programme was only just beginning.

This ICBF programme, aimed at prostitutes aged under 18 and implemented under agreements with a number of NGOs, is designed to introduce prevention, training, assistance and comprehensive care activities at the national level. The strategies involve:

* Establishment of institutional participation, discussion and awareness- raising.

* Training of the project managers.

* Ways of approaching young prostitutes and providing them with the following services: voluntary admission of children and young people to a shelter (emergency centre) and then to a treatment centre (to deal with other problems such as drug addiction, alcoholism and AIDS) or to permanent homes for those who decide to change their way of life. The treatment centres offer training workshops in various occupations.

This programme began in Bogotá with the creation of an inter-institutional committee consisting of ICBF, the Office's of the Deputy Attorney General and the Ombudsman, the Department of Health, the Public Prosecutor's Office, INTERPOL and the Ministry of Education.

The programme is operating in seven departments where ICBF has regional offices (North Santander, Antioquia, Cauca, Riseralda, Valle, Tolima and Cesar).

Despite the problems encountered, such as the lack of collaboration by official bodies, the lack of interest on the part of the populace and institutions, and the social dimension of the problem, as part of its supervisory functions the Office of the Deputy Attorney General has made a preliminary evaluation of the programme, which can be summarized as follows:

- Seven capital cities have permanent agencies caring for children in various facilities: 210 in Bogotá; 20 in Popayán; 20 in Cúcuta; 42 in Pereira; 35 in Ibagué; 40 in Cali; and 80 in Medellín.

- The six regional offices and the Bogotá office deal with 82 children a month nationally, and the monthly regional average is about 12 children.

- A start has been made on the identification of children and young people suffering from sexually transmitted diseases: 111 STD cases were found in Pereira, and 18 of HIV; in Bogotá 88 STD cases and 26 of HIV; in Popayán 12 with sexually transmitted diseases or HIV; and in Calle, where no cases of HIV were found, there were 25 children suffering from sexually transmitted diseases.

For about a year now the Bogotá Metropolitan Police has been carrying out the "Programme for life and hope", which is designed to help prostitutes and improve their living conditions by means of training programmes. Efforts are also being made to overcome the traditional hostility between prostitutes and the police based on fear and reciprocal mistrust.

The programme tries to find alternative occupations for the prostitutes, who may attend primary and secondary education courses, study computer operation, take courses in secretarial or manual work, and attend personal-improvement meetings. The programme is conducted at the Universidad del Trabajo and currently has 2,500 students.

According to this recent study, Colombia is one of the main centres of the Latin American operations of the international networks trafficking in women to work as prostitutes abroad. Girls aged between 9 and 17, in particular, are recruited by means of newspaper advertisements offering the possibility of marriage abroad or well-paid work, or by inviting individuals to go abroad to increase their earnings.

The study found that 55 per cent of the women come from villages, 35 per cent from medium-sized towns, and 10 per cent from the big urban centres.

At the international level this illicit trade is linked to European and eastern networks which have their centres of operation and recruitment in Brazil, Surinam, Colombia, Dominican Republic and the Antilles, with distribution centres in Spain, Greece, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. It is estimated that in the Netherlands alone there are 5,000 Colombian women forced to work as prostitutes.

The Ministry of Justice has decided to create an interinstitutional committee on the traffic in women with a view to building an integrated strategy to combat this scourge in coordination with the participating agencies: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Public Prosecutor's Office, INTERPOL, Administrative Department of Security, Office of the Attorney General, Ombudsman's Office, ICBF, National Office for Equality for Women, and the presidential anti-kidnapping programme.

PROGRESS AND DIFFICULTIES

In the fight against prostitution and trafficking in Colombian women progress has been made in:

* Conduct of diagnostic and evaluation studies at the national level.

* Formulation and implementation of interinstitutional programmes designed specifically to provide care for sexually exploited minors.

* Initiation of the process of increasing the awareness of the problem in institutions and among the public at large.

The main difficulties encountered by Colombia are:

* The lack of interest in the problem on the part of society.

* The limited cover of the current programmes.

* The lack of capacity in the labour market to provide jobs for prostitutes on terms representing an economically acceptable alternative for them.

* The lack of capacity of the State to combat the complex national and international criminal organizations engaging in procurement, and the widespread impunity resulting from this weakness.

PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN POLITICAL AND PUBLIC LIFE

"States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the political and public life of the country and, in particular, shall ensure to women, on equal terms with men, the right:

(a) To vote in all elections and public referenda and to be eligible for election to all publicly elected bodies;

(b) To participate in the formulation of Government policy and the implementation thereof and to hold public office and perform all public functions at all levels of Government;

(c) To participate in non-governmental organizations and associations concerned with the public and political life of the country."

 

POLITICAL RIGHTS

Women have the same political rights as men both under the Constitution and in law. Their right to vote and be elected to public bodies and their access to public functions and public office are protected.

In addition, the Constitution enjoins the authorities to guarantee the adequate and effective participation of women at the decision-making levels of the public administration.

Although the two bills on promoting the political participation of women have finally been shelved in the Congress, recognition must be accorded to the work and leadership constantly provided by women senators and representatives to encourage initiatives connected with women's rights. At present a new bill is under discussion; it is designed to expand affirmative action to provide genuine guarantees of political participation by women.

WOMEN IN PUBLIC ELECTIONS

According to the 1993 census, Colombia had about 9,519,000 women of voting age, equivalent to more than 50 per cent of the total population of voting age. Although the last decade has seen high rates of abstention, as high as 65 per cent on average, a large number of women do exercise their right to vote. However, the number elected is extremely low in comparison with men.

In the 1994 presidential elections the percentage of women voters increased in comparison with 1990 from 47 to 48.6 per cent. In the last two elections there have been five women among the 30 candidates but only one of them secured more than 1 per cent of the votes in 1994 (tables 7.1 and 7.2).

In the case of national public bodies, with a total of 102 seats in the Senate, eight women were elected Senator in 1991 (7.8%) and seven in 1994 (6.8%). In the case of the Chamber, which has a total of 161 seats, 11 women representatives were elected in 1991, and this figure increased in 1994 to 18 of the 163 seats. It should be noted that so far no woman has presided over either of the legislative chambers (table 7.3).

Table 7.1

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Table 7.2

VOTES CAST FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

Table 7.3

WOMEN IN THE CONGRESS

In 1994 there were 251 lists for the Senate, and 22 of them were headed by women; 48 of the 628 lists for the Chamber were headed by women. At the regional level, the number of women elected as deputies to the departmental assemblies increased from 10.1 per cent in 1992 to 11.35 per cent in 1994. A similar increase was seen for the posts of governor and mayor.

Table 7.4

WOMEN ELECTED TO REGIONAL AUTHORITIES

More women are found on the local administrative boards, where citizens participate in planning, determination of investment schemes and control of public services at the local level, but they are still very few in comparison with men. In 1992, in the 20 wards making up the district of Santa Fe de Bogotá only 15.6 per cent of elected representatives were women.

WOMEN IN THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

There are more women in the Executive than in the Legislature or Judiciary. In 1990-1994 three of the 15 ministries were headed by women, while so far in 1994-1998 four women have held ministerial portfolios.

Table 7.5

PERCENTAGES OF WOMEN MINISTERS AND DEPUTY MINISTERS

DURING PRESIDENTIAL TERMS OF OFFICE

* Data up to June 1996.

In 1995, under the auspices of the minister responsible for the Policy for Equality and Participation of Women (EPAM), a study was made of the civil service list by level and sex in the departments of the central public administration (ministries and their subsidiary bodies, and administrative departments).

In all these bodies the largest numbers of women were found in administrative posts, and the smallest differences in the numbers of men and women occurred in the grades of "adviser" and "professional".

Table 7.6

TOTAL CIVIL SERVICE LIST BY LEVEL AND SEX

Source: Gender unit of the Ministry of the Environment.

Although the number of women at the director level is low (19%), there are differences between the bodies: women hold 39 per cent of the posts of director in the ministries but only 17 per cent in the subsidiary bodies and 20 per cent in the administrative departments. The ministries with most women directors are Education (67%), Employment (53%) and Health (47%), whereas the Ministries of Development and Transport have no women at this level.

WOMEN IN THE JUDICIARY

The number of women magistrates in Colombia's highest courts of justice has been really very small. No woman has been appointed to the Constitutional Court established in 1991. Nor has a woman ever been appointed to the Supreme Court of Justice throughout the hundred years or more of its existence; the Council of State had one woman member in 1993 and in 1997 there are four women councillors out of a total of 26. In 1993 the Higher Council of the Judiciary had only one woman member, and in 1993 three of the 13 members were women. There are more women working as auxiliary magistrates and auxiliary lawyers. In 1996, six of the 18 auxiliary magistrates in the Constitutional Court were women and 13 of the 35 auxiliary lawyers in the Council of State were women. In 1996, 124 of the 435 magistrates in the higher district courts were women, and there were 33 women magistrates, out of a total of 114, in the administrative courts.

Table 7.7

WOMEN IN THE COURTS

Source: Ministry of Employment, 1993.

As can be seen, the lower down the judicial hierarchy, the higher the numbers of women.

WOMEN IN TRADE-UNION ORGANIZATIONS

Colombia has a very low rate of trade-union membership. In 1993, according to the census conducted by the Ministry of Labour, there were 2,817 trade unions with 912,208 members, including 293,968 women (32.23%).

Table 7.8

TRADE UNION MEMBERSHIP BY BRANCH AND SEX

Source: Ministry of Employment, 1993.

The numbers of women holding senior posts in trade unions has traditionally been low. At the second Congress of Women Workers of the United Federation of Workers (CUT), held in 1994, one of the main agenda items was the analysis of the gender perspective in trade union organizations. Attention was drawn to the discriminatory treatment of women manifested in their assignment to secondary tasks (mechanical, organizational, administrative) and the little account taken of their opinions and their managerial capacities. This situation is one of the reasons for the low female membership of trade unions, the low level of development of their management and leadership capacities, and the view of trade-union activity as a "men's business".

The difficulties experienced by women in joining and remaining in trade unions include: household duties (90%), lack of interest of their husbands or companions in the work which they do (80%), and their own lack of motivation (70%). The general problems encountered by women include: the doubling of their hours of work owing to the burden of their household tasks (90%), economic problems (80%), work problems and temporary hiring (70%), and lack of respect for their work, sexual harassment and verbal aggression (60%).

Among the successes achieved, the Congress stressed the work of the CUT Women's Department in promoting the appointment of women to managerial posts and the initiation of awareness-raising activities in trade-union organizations, which are beginning to consider the gender issue.

WOMEN IN THE POLITICAL PARTIES

It has been the tradition in Colombia to deny women participation in the management of the political parties.

According to the Liberal Party's statutes, since 1963 women have representation on its regional and municipal management boards, one woman for every five officials, and two on boards of seven members. At present only two of the eight members of the National Executive Board are women. The Conservative Party has no women in its top echelons.

WOMEN IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS

Women take part in the life of their communities, supporting activities and leading actions to protect the areas where they live. However, there are no studies or statistics providing any measurement of the numbers of women currently holding senior positions or the representation of women in such bodies as the community action boards, which are the local political bodies in which decisions affecting the interests and most immediate needs of the community are taken.

WOMEN IN THE COOPERATIVE SECTOR

In 1990 Colombia had 4,374 cooperatives, 14.7 per cent of which were managed by women. All the mutual aid cooperatives are headed by women. This figure is even more interesting in view of the fact that only 1.5 per cent of the total number of cooperatives in Colombia have exclusively female membership.

THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT OF WOMEN

Colombia has various women's organizations, both national and regional and local. They include organizations which are part of political movements, organizations providing services, organizations connected with trade unions, and organizations participating in popular and community movements.

At the national level there are the Women's National Network, Casa de la Mujer, Diálogo Mujer, the National Association of Rural and Indigenous Women (ANMUCIC), and the Colombian Association of Community Mothers for a Better Colombia (AMCOLOMBIA). There are also a number of other organizations established for various purposes which have incorporated women's programmes.

The Colombian Confederation of Non-Governmental Organizations (CCONG) has 22 affiliated national NGOs; its membership is made up of departmental federations, which in turn represent regional NGOs. Some of these organizations have the objective of supporting women or carrying out special programmes for them. The Confederation not only supports its affiliated organizations but has also functioned as an intermediary between the various women's civic organizations.

WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION AS GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES AND

IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

"States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure to women, on equal terms with men and without any discrimination, the opportunity to represent their Governments at the international level and to participate in the work of international organizations."

According to the Constitution, Colombian women may represent the Government at the international level on the same terms as men.

However, there are rather few women at the top levels of the diplomatic service: six women ambassadors out of a total of 67; six women ministers plenipotentiary out of 13; four women ministers councillors out of 20; six women councillors out of 26; 14 first secretaries out of 43; and 33 women non-honorary consuls out of 81. Thus, women hold 114 (35%) out of a total of 327 diplomatic posts; and women hold 213 (64%) out of a total of 333 administrative posts.

But it must be stressed that since 1993 Colombia has had women representatives in various international bodies: CEDAW, the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, and the Human Rights Committee.

PROGRESS AND DIFFICULTIES

The progress includes the following developments:

* The last two Governments have appointed a woman as Minister for Foreign Affairs and these women have done outstanding work.

* The participation of women in international affairs increased slightly between 1990 and 1996.

The difficulties include:

* The lack of a systematic listing, broken down by sex, of the staffing table of the foreign service or of members of delegations to international meetings and conferences; this makes it difficult to monitor the application of the Convention at the international level.

* There are no specific measures designed to increase the number of women performing international functions.

NATIONALITY

"1. States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality. They shall ensure in particular that neither marriage to an alien nor change of nationality by the husband during marriage shall automatically change the nationality of the wife, render her Stateless or force upon her the nationality of her husband.

2. States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children."

EQUALITY OF RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO NATIONALITY

According to the Constitution and Colombia's legislation, women have equal rights with men to acquire, renounce or retain their nationality and to transmit it to their children. Marriage to an alien or a change of nationality of one of the spouses during the marriage do not oblige the other spouse to change his or her nationality.

ACQUISITION OF NATIONALITY

Article 96 of the Convention provides, without any kind of gender discrimination, for two categories with respect to the acquisition of nationality: by birth or by adoption of the country.

Native-born Colombians who meet one of two conditions:

- That the father or mother were native-born Colombians or that, if the persons in question are children of aliens, one of the parents was domiciled in Colombia at the time of birth;

- That, if the persons in questions are children of a Colombian father or mother but were born abroad, they are subsequently domiciled in Colombia.

Three groups of persons can acquire Colombian nationality:

- Aliens who apply for and obtain a naturalization card, in accordance with the established legislation and procedures (Law 43 of 1993 and Decrees 1869 of 1994 and 2150 of 1995), which apply equally to men and women. The applicant must have been domiciled continuously in Colombia for the five years preceding the date of submission of the application. Men and women married to Colombians must have been domiciled continuously for the two years preceding the date of submission of the application.

- Native-born Latin Americans or Caribbeans domiciled continuously in Colombia during the year preceding the date of the submission of the application, in accordance with the principle of reciprocity contained in current international treaties. Absence from Colombia for a period of five months during the year does not interrupt the periods of continuous domicile.

- Members of indigenous peoples sharing frontier territories, in accordance with the principle of reciprocity contained in official treaties.

LOSS AND RECOVERY OF NATIONALITY

Men and women are treated on an equal footing with respect to the loss or recovery of nationality. Prior into the entry into force of the 1991 Constitution, Colombian nationality was lost on the acquisition of the nationality of another country.

Law 43 of 1993 develops the principle of dual nationality by establishing that if a Colombian by birth acquires another nationality he or she does not lose the civil and political rights accorded by the Constitution and the law and is not obliged to renounce the nationality which he or she holds by reason of origin. Nationals by adoption who hold a second nationality may have their access to public functions and posts restricted in accordance with the Constitution and the law.

In addition, the Constitution stipulates that no Colombian by birth may be deprived of his or her nationality, so that he or she can lose it only by renunciation, and that, even then, Colombian nationality may be recovered in accordance with the law. The renunciation of Colombian nationality is a right of both nationals by birth and nationals by adoption accorded equally to men and women. Nationals by adoption may also lose Colombian nationality if they commit crimes against the existence and security of the State and the constitutional order.

Persons who renounce Colombian nationality may have it restored only after a period of two years from the date of the act of renunciation. Nationals who lost Colombian nationality when the previous Constitution was in force by reason of their acquisition of another nationality may have Colombian nationality restored by submitting an application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a consulate or governor's office, in which they state their wish to accept the Constitution and the laws of Colombia. Nationals by adoption who lost Colombian nationality because they held two nationalities are additionally required to have established their domicile in Colombia one year before submitting the request for restoration of Colombian nationality.

TRANSMISSION OF NATIONALITY TO CHILDREN

Women and men may transmit their nationality to their children on an equal footing. Nationals by adoption may transmit their nationality to their children if they are minors by entering a statement to that effect in the relevant naturalization card or registration order. Such applications must be signed by the persons exercising parental authority, who will usually be the father and mother, and must include the name, age and sex of the children to whom Colombian nationality is being transmitted.

Persons who lost Colombian nationality before the 1991 Constitution came into force by reason of acquisition of a second nationality may, once they have recovered Colombian nationality, transmit it to their minor children born abroad so that they may also become Colombians by birth when they fulfil the requirement of domicile in the country.

According to Colombian legislation, children may obtain their own passport, which indicates the names and details of the identity documents of their parents, and they may leave the country in the company of a parent without producing any other document. Children aged under five years may also be included in the passport of their father or mother, in which case they must travel with the holder of the passport. If they travel in the company of only one of their parents they must present the death certificate of the other parent or evidence of his or her authorization when parental authority is exercised jointly.

PROGRESS AND DIFFICULTIES

The Constitution and laws of Colombia grant the same rights to men and women without distinction with respect to the acquisition, loss and recovery of nationality and to the transmission of nationality to children. The most important advance with respect to the application of article 9 of the Convention was the inclusion in the 1991 Constitution of the principle of dual nationality, for this allows men and women to take another nationality without losing Colombian nationality. The related legislation also embodies the principle of equality, on which the constitutional provision is based. In Colombia, nationality is one of the areas in which there are no discriminatory practices impairing the equality of women.

EDUCATION

"States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights with men in the field of education and in particular to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women:

(a) The same conditions for career and vocational guidance, for access to studies and for the achievement of diplomas in educational establishments of all categories in rural as well as in urban areas; this equality shall be ensured in pre-school, general, technical, professional and higher technical education, as well as in all types of vocational training;

(b) Access to the same curricula, the same examinations, teaching staff with qualifications of the same standard and school premises and equipment of the same quality;

(c) The elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles of men and women at all levels and in all forms of education by encouraging coeducation and other types of education which will help to achieve this aim and, in particular, by the revision of textbooks and school programmes and the adaptation of teaching methods;

(d) The same opportunities to benefit from scholarships and other study grants;

(e) The same opportunities for access to programmes of continuing education, including adult and functional literacy programmes, particularly those aimed at reducing, at the earliest possible time, any gap in education existing between men and women;

(f) The reduction of female student drop-out rates and the organization of programmes for girls and women who have left school prematurely;

(g) The same opportunities to participate actively in sports and physical education;

(h) Access to specific educational information to help to ensure the health and well-being of families, including information and advice on family planning."

EDUCATIONAL SITUATION OF THE POPULATION

Since the 1970s Colombia has made a number of efforts to improve the educational standards of its population, in particular by expanding the cover of the formal system, especially primary education. In addition, in the 1980s several literacy campaigns were carried out and significantly reduced the illiteracy rates.

In this context the educational standards of women have been improving, although no specific policies have been formulated from the gender perspective to achieve such an improvement or greater equality for women. This progress has resulted instead from the modernization of the country as part of the plans for establishing universal access to services. The educational standards of Colombian men and women remain low in comparison with those of some other countries of the region (Argentina, Chile and Cuba, for example), but they are higher than in a number of other countries.

Over the last 20 years these standards have been rising among men in urban areas, and more so among women, (table 10.1). Less progress has been made in rural areas, no doubt owing to the neglect which they have suffered in recent decades, especially in the present one, and of the exacerbation of the conflicts persisting there. In any event, despite the relative progress made, in general terms the educational standards of women remain lower than those of men.

Table 10.1

COLOMBIA: POPULATION AGED 15 AND OVER BY EDUCATIONAL STANDARD,

AREA AND SEX (HORIZONTAL PERCENTAGES), 1973-1993

Source: National Statistics Department (DANE). National Population and Housing Censuses 1973, and one per cent sample for 1985. DNP-UDS-DIOGS calculations/DIOGS BFP-calculations based on the CASEN survey, Misión Social-UDS, 1993. In DNP-UDS-DIOGS, SISD, Sistema de Indicadores Sociodemográficos para Colombia, Boletín No.10: "Género y Desarrollo".

Table 10.2, on the average number of years of education, shows that the earlier gaps in school attendance have been narrowing since the 1970s as access to formal education in Colombia has become more widespread, particularly at the primary level. However, this higher rate of school attendance by females has not been due to specific governmental initiatives for them but rather to an increased interest in promoting equality with respect to the availability (but not the quality) of education on the part the population at large, at least in the towns.

Table 10.2

COLOMBIA: AVERAGE NUMBER OF YEARS OF EDUCATION OF PERSONS

AGED 15 AND OLDER BY AREA AND SEX, 1978-1993

Source: DIOGS BFP-calculations based on DANE household surveys: stage 19 - June 1978; stage 77 - September 1992; Stage 81 - September 1993. In DNP/UDS/DIOGS. SISD, Sistema de Indicadores Sociodemográficos para Colombia, Boletín No. 10: "Género y Desarrollo".

The same development has taken place with respect to the population's literacy levels, an area in which women are the main beneficiaries since the difference in the literacy rates of men and women narrowed from 2.9 per cent in 1978 to 0.5 per cent in 1993. The involvement of women in the literacy campaigns undertaken by the central Government has made a significant contribution to this development, as has the work of NGOs in their literacy programmes for women.

One point which should be emphasized in connection with the improving literacy standards of women and their greater progress in this area in comparison with men is that women have been motivated to seek education for themselves by the higher rates of school attendance by their children.

Table 10.3 shows that illiteracy is ceasing to be determined by the influence of gender discrimination, although it does remain closely linked to poverty levels.

Table 10.3

COLOMBIA: ILLITERACY RATE BY SEX AND POVERTY LEVEL, 1978-1993

Source: DIOGS BFP-calculations on the basis of DANE household surveys: stage 19 - June 1978; stage 77 - September 1992; stage 81 - September 1993. In DNP/UDS/DIOGS. SISD, Sistema de Indicadores Sociodemográficos para Colombia, Boletín No. 10: "Género y Desarrollo".

FORMAL EDUCATION IN COLUMBIA

Colombia's formal education system consists of preschool, basic primary, basic secondary and occupational secondary, and higher education, which is divided into technical, technological and university (undergraduate and postgraduate). All these levels are regulated by the Ministry of National Education, which is also responsible for non-formal education but not for the vocational training provided by the National Training Service (SENA) under the auspices of the Ministry of Employment and by the Colombian Institute for the Promotion of Higher Education (ICFES), which is a decentralized body.

As a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Colombia accords its citizens the universal right to education. The same applies to women's right to education, for Colombia is also a signatory of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. In addition, the 1991 Constitution establishes the inalienable right to education in the context of its prohibition of discrimination (art.13) "on the ground of sex, race, national or family origin, language, religion, political or philosophical beliefs", thus stating a commitment to guarantee that there shall be no discrimination in Columbia.

Article 67 states that education is a right of the individual and a public service having a social function; its purpose is to provide access to knowledge, science, technology and other cultural benefits and values.

The education system has to train Colombians in respect for human rights, peace and democracy, work and recreation, with a view to cultural, scientific and technological improvement and the protection of the environment.

The State, society and the family are responsible for education, which is compulsory between the ages of five and 15 and includes a minimum of one year of preschool and nine years of basic education.

Education is free in State schools, although tuition fees may be charged to those who can afford them.

The State regulates and is responsible for the supervision and control of education in order to guarantee its quality and the attainment of its purposes, and in order to provide a better spiritual, intellectual and physical training for the pupils and students; the State ensures that the cover of the education service is adequate and that children and young people are in a position to enrol and remain in the education system.

The central Government and the local agencies are responsible for the management, financing and administration of the State education services in accordance with the Constitution and the law.

Attendance at a preschool establishment for at least one year is compulsory under the Constitution. However, progress in this area has not yet been sufficient; the introduction of the "Grade Zero" project in some areas of the country has allowed only a small group to receive preschool education. This deficiency is made good, for the poorer population groups, by the family welfare community centres and other services for the youngest children, such as the community kindergartens, which are discussed below. And for the better-off groups the deficiency is made good mainly by private kindergartens or other preschool establishments.

Girls suffer no discrimination at this level of education, as can be seen from the enrolment figures; indeed, their attendance at preschool establishments, both in total and by grade, is greater than that of boys, as is demonstrated by the available statistics presented in table 10.4.

Table 10.4

NATIONAL ENROLMENT RATES IN PRESCHOOL EDUCATION BY LEVEL

AND SEX, AND PERCENTAGE ENROLMENTS BY SEX, 1993

Source: DANE tabulations, 1994.

Moreover, the preschool dropout rates do not show any disadvantage for girls with respect to the efficiency of the system; the opposite is in fact the case, for according to the latest (1991) figures of the Ministry of National Education, the total dropout rate in preschool education breaks down as follows:

Table 10.5

DROPOUT RATES IN PRESCHOOL EDUCATION BY SEX, 1991

Source: Statistics of the Ministry of National Education based on DANE tabulations.

There are no studies dealing with the quality of preschool education or the differences at this level from the perspective of equality. A preliminary study of the problem indicates that the socialization of boys and girls in kindergartens differs in accordance with stereotypes which reinforce what is expected of women and men.

Lastly, with regard to preschool teaching staff, the figures show a very high prevalence of women (96.4%) and the fact that they have better educational qualifications than the men working in preschool establishments. This situation is illustrated in table 10.6.

Table 10.6

TEACHING STAFF WITH ACADEMIC RESPONSIBILITIES IN

PRESCHOOL EDUCATION BY HIGHEST EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION

AND PERCENTAGE PARTICIPATION AT EACH LEVEL BY SEX, 1993

(inter-group gender comparisons)

Source: DANE tabulations, 1994.

This level of education includes grades 1 to 5 and is offered in two modes: the grade school or "traditional" primary school, found mainly in the towns; and the "new" school, found mainly in the rural areas. Primary is the level of education providing the broadest cover in Colombia: about 88 per cent in gross terms, and 75 per cent in net terms. There is equality between boys and girls in primary education with respect to enrolment and the efficiency indicators; indeed, in some years girls take a clear lead with respect to enroling and remaining in the system. Tables 10.7 to 10.9 illustrate this situation.

The lead taken by girls over boys is more apparent in the dropout rates: since the 1970s girls have remained in the education system longer than boys. Table 10.8 shows this situation in 1991: many more boy than girl dropouts.

Table 10.7

ENROLMENT IN BASIC PRIMARY EDUCATION BY SEX, 1981-1994

* Rough calculations by DANE for two regions.

Source: Catalina Turbay, 1994; Ministry of National Education Statistics, 1991, and DANE tabulations, 1994.

Table 10.8

DROPOUT RATES: GRADE SCHOOL (PRIMARY) BY SEX, 1991

Source: Ministry of National Education Statistics based on DANE tabulations.

Both groups show marked differences due to sex stereotypes in the causes of dropouts.

Table 9 shows how economic reasons, particularly reasons connected with work, and expulsion from the system are commoner among boys - a reflection of the predominance of stereotypes based on the patriarchal tradition which, in this case, work to the detriment of boys' education. It is striking that the commonest reason among girls is "Did not wish to continue"; unfortunately, the type of information available does not provide any pointers to the reasons for this lack of interest in studying. One hypothesis would be that in this case as well the patriarchal culture, with its poor opinion of the worth of academic work for girls, may be influencing this "decision".

But the situation of girls is not as rosy as might be thought. Indicators of efficiency and cover are one thing, but indicators of quality are something quite different.

Table 10.9

CAUSES OF DROPOUTS FROM PRIMARY EDUCATION BY SEX IN

SEVEN TOWNS, 1991

Source: T. Valdés and E. Gomariz. Mujeres Latinoamericanas en Cifras. Colombia. Ministry of Social Affairs/Institute on Women/FLACSO, 1993.

According to an analysis of the factors associated with success in mathematics and language carried out as part of a national evaluation of the quality of primary education, which is generally quite poor according to studies made by the SER research institute in 1992 and 1993, sex is associated with performance, in the following cases at least:

- The overall performance of boys is better than that of girls;

- There is a relationship between the sex of the pupil and performance in language and mathematics in the third and fifth grades for the total population (schools: public urban+private urban+rural);

- For third-graders in the urban public and private schools there is a positive association between a woman teacher and achievement in language and mathematics;

- In the fifth grade the sex of the pupil appears to be associated with a better performance by boys in mathematics and by girls in language.

Timetable B. It was only possible to obtain the results for the third grade, which indicate the following situation:

- Girls in all schools and in urban public schools in particular deliver a better performance in mathematics, also associated with a male teacher in urban public schools;

- The type of school (boys', girls' or coeducational) is associated with achievement in mathematics. Boys in boys' schools generally perform better in language than boys in coeducational schools;

- A female teacher makes a positive contribution to the performance of all groups in language;

- A male teacher makes a positive contribution to performance in mathematics in the general study and in the study on urban public schools.

To sum up, Colombia currently has no significant gaps with respect to the cover and efficiency of its schools which would indicate discrimination against girls in primary education. In contrast, the academic achievements do seem to indicate that boys perform better than girls in mathematics and also in language in some cases; this may point to different processes of socialization in terms of the importance attributed to the academic education of girls and boys, which would lead to a poorer performance by girls. Attention must be drawn to the large percentage of women teachers on the staff of primary schools. In contrast to what was found in preschool education, these teachers are not better qualified than the male teachers. Although the women have more first degrees than the men, they are less likely to have postgraduate qualifications, and more women have only a bachelor's degree. Table 10.10 sets out Colombia's most recent statistics on this difference between male and female teachers.

Table 10.10

ACADEMIC TEACHING STAFF IN BASIC PRIMARY EDUCATION (GRADE SCHOOL)

BY HIGHEST QUALIFICATION AND PERCENTAGE PARTICIPATION

AT EACH LEVEL BY SEX, 1993

(inter-group generic comparisons)

Source: DANE tabulations, 1994.

The secondary level has four grades of compulsory basic education (sixth to ninth) and two grades of secondary education (tenth and eleventh). It is offered in various modes, with the academic mode or traditional baccalaureate predominating (about 80 per cent of enrolments) over the technical or diversified modes. The main subjects in the latter modes are commerce, taken mostly by girls, and industry, taken mostly by boys. The net cover is barely 48 per cent, and this represents perhaps the main bottleneck in the country's education system at present. In addition, the gap between urban and rural areas is even wider at this level of the system owing to the scant numbers of rural pupils taking the baccalaureate. This level shows a greater tendency towards female enrolment. Girls are more likely than boys to attend secondary school; they make up the majority of students in all courses and remain at school longer, as table 10.11 illustrates.

Table 10.11

ENROLMENT IN BASIC SECONDARY AND VOCATIONAL SECONDARY

EDUCATION BY SEX AND GRADE, 1993

(totals and percentage inter-group participation)

Source: Based on DANE tabulations, 1994.

However, the distribution of enrolment for the various non-academic subjects shows clearly that male and female stereotypes persist: it is mostly females who take the traditionally female subjects, such as the commercial, teacher's and social work baccalaureates, while males take the traditionally male subjects, such as the industrial and agricultural baccalaureates. It is worth pointing out in this connection that academic achievement in the industrial subjects (predominantly male), evaluated on the basis of the State secondary examinations, is usually the highest of all the baccalaureate subjects. This means that males not only receive a vocational training which offers them a better future in the jobs market but also that they receive better-quality academic training.

With regard to the efficiency of this level of education, the figures also favour females. In recent years girls have remained longer in secondary education and have graduated in larger numbers than boys. The latest data available on dropouts, failures and passes confirm that this trend persists, as can be seen from table 10.12.

Table 10.12

INDICATORS OF EFFICIENCY (DROPOUTS, FAILURES, PASSES) IN BASIC

SECONDARY AND SECONDARY VOCATIONAL EDUCATION BY SEX, 1993

(totals and inter- and intra-group percentages)

Source: Based on DANE tabulations, 1994.

However, various studies on dropouts at this level indicate that there are many different causes connected with the outlook which permeates the behaviour of men and women in society. A primary source of information is provided by the data of the National Planning Department for seven main towns. According to this data, in 1992 the following were the main reasons for dropping out of secondary education:

The effect of traditional outlooks on the reasons for dropping out from school are clear in this table 10.13: for example, marriage and not being sent to school are commoner reasons for girls to drop out, while for boys the commonest reason is the need to work.

Table 10.13

REASONS FOR DROPOUT BY SEX IN SEVEN TOWNS, 1992

Source: C. Turbay and others. Causas de Deserción de la Educación Secundaria y Rutas Posteriores a la Deserción según Género. Estudios de Casos en Bogotá, Medellín y Cali. Presidential Council on Youth, Women and the Family/FONADE, Santa Fe de Bogotá, 1994.

A qualitative study carried out in three main towns of Colombia confirms the effect of the patriarchal culture on the reasons for dropping out. Although children of both sexes drop out mainly for reasons connected with the many problems of quality and organization of baccalaureate courses, an examination of the reasons stated (at the beginning of the interviews) and of the real reasons (established by the end of the interviews) shows clearly that the traditional outlooks underlie many of the reasons for dropping out. This is true both when the inter-group results are compared and when the separate data for each sex (intra-group) is analyzed. Tables 10.14 and 10.15 show some of the differences found.

Table 10.14

REASONS FOR DROPPING OUT OF SECONDARY EDUCATION.

PERCENTAGES ACCORDING TO STATEMENTS IN INTERVIEWS, BY SEX

Source: C. Turbay and others. Causas de Deserción...

Table 10.15

CAUSES OF DROPPING OUT FROM SECONDARY EDUCATION

(intra-group percentages by sex)

Source: C. Turbay and others. Causas de Deserción...

These tables show how economic causes and social problems (i.e. violence) play a more important role in the case of boys, while for girls family reasons and reasons connected with the discrimination which they suffer under the patriarchal culture carry more weight.

There are no studies, or none are known, on dropouts from this level of education in rural areas.

Lastly, in connection with the student population in basic secondary and vocational secondary education it is important to mention the quality of the education from the standpoints of gender and equality for women. The preliminary findings of an assessment made by the Sistema Saber de Evaluación de la Educación and the Colombian Institute for the Promotion of Higher Education (ICFES), which assessed the academic achievement of students of both sexes in the seventh and ninth grades of both the academic timetables, indicate a better overall performance by boys.

On the other hand, the preliminary findings of a current piece of research on the performance of boys and girls in the State secondary examinations for the academic years 1982, 1987, 1992 and 1995 show that boys generally score significantly higher marks than girls. This occurs both in the total sample and in its various subsamples. Girls tend to do proportionately better than boys in the middle range of marks and even more so in the lower range. Most boys and girls score marks in the middle range. Only in a few academic years do girls achieve higher marks than boys in language; this does not happen in every year and the difference is not very great.

In addition, the results of the State examinations analyzed by type of school traditionally show that boys-only schools usually score better marks in the State secondary examinations. Table 10.16 illustrates this situation for 1993 both for the whole country and for the capital.

Table 10.16

PERFORMANCE OF SCHOOLS BY TYPE, 1993

Source: C. Turbay. Brechas....

To sum up, despite the larger numbers of girls in secondary education and the fact that they remain at school longer, serious problems of equality persist at this level, manifesting themselves both in the vocational subjects chosen by girls, when such options are available, and in their academic achievements. It must be borne in mind therefore that a strategy to promote equality for girls in secondary basic and vocational education will of necessity have to take this problem into account and deal not only with the aspects of cover and efficiency but also, and perhaps primarily, with what occurs in the socialization and academic training provided in the classroom. Day by day, these factors seem to work in favour of a poorer performance by girls.

A recent study sponsored by the Office of the President and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation on the texts used in primary and secondary education for the socialization of boys and girls showed an overwhelming presence of male and female stereotypes and the prevalence of extremely sexist language. The indicators used for the study produced the following quantitative results:

* Fewer than 20 per cent of the characters represented in the texts are female, with respect to both leading and secondary characters.

* When domestic tasks are depicted, the traditionally female activities are mostly done by females, although 57.8 per cent of them are also shown as doing traditionally male work.

* Only very occasionally is productive work by women in the public sphere depicted, and in most cases this is a prolongation of their tasks in the private sphere in terms of the type of activity. Very rarely does women's work receive high social recognition, and women are almost never depicted in positions of power.

In contrast to what was found at the lower levels, there are many more men working as teachers in secondary basic and vocational education; however, the women have slightly higher educational qualifications. Table 10.17 illustrates this situation, which is representative of a general trend in recent years.

Table 10.17

ACADEMIC TEACHING STAFF IN SECONDARY BASIC AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

BY HIGHEST EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION AND PERCENTAGE

REPRESENTATION AT EACH LEVEL BY SEX, 1993

(intra-group gender comparisons)

Source: Based on DANE tabulations, 1994.

Higher education includes undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the technical, technological and, predominantly, university modes. The cover of higher education is still fairly low, because only a small group of the population has access to it. Nor is the rest of the population offered the possibility of vocational training leading to other options essential for young people.

Table 10.18

EVOLUTION OF ENROLMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND

COMPOSITION BY SEX, 1960-1994

Source: ICFES. Higher Education Statistics, Databank, 1991 and 1996.

The problems from the standpoint of gender and equality for women are fairly similar to the problems in secondary education. Although women are enroling in ever increasing numbers in secondary and higher education, a detailed study of the types of career which men and women tend to take up shows that gender stereotypes generated by the various sources of socialization still carry great weight in individual job options.

Statistics of the Colombian Institute for the Promotion of Higher Education (ICFES) show that more women than men enrol for and graduate from this level. This trend has been found only in recent years and it is increasing, as can be seen from table 10.18, which shows the evolution of enrolment by sex in the various undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

The figures for enrolments in 1994 by subject and mode (table 10.19) show how the proportions of women and men reflect a number of differences resulting from the influence of gender stereotypes on choice of career. For example, although according to the intra-group analysis boys choose careers such as engineering, architecture and related areas, or economics, administration and related areas, women opt mainly for economics, administration and related areas and for education sciences. In turn, the inter-group analysis shows a marked preponderance of men in engineering and agronomy and of women in health, education and social sciences, and fine arts, for all the modes. This influence of sexist education on choice of career is even clearer when the areas are broken down into subjects. Then the influence of stereotypes and the patriarchal culture is even greater since, for example in health sciences, where there are more women than men, an examination of careers shows that more women opt for jobs having a lower status, such as nurse or nutritionist, etc.

Table 10.19

PARTICIPATION BY SEX IN ENROLMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION BY

GENERAL AREA AND SPECIFIC SUBJECT, 1993

(horizontal percentages)

Source: ICFES. Higher Education Statistics, Databank, 1996.

In contrast to the lower levels, the overwhelming majority of teachers in higher education are men. Table 10.20 shows how the numbers of each sex evolved between 1975 and 1985, with a slight narrowing of the gap between women and men. This is particularly true for private universities.

Table 10.20

TEACHERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION BY TYPE OF INSTITUTION AND SEX,

1975-1985

Source: Based on Elsy Bonilla and Penélope Rodríguez. Fuera del Cerco. Mujeres, Estructura y Cambio Social en Colombia. Canadian International Development Agency, Bogotá, 1992.

This slightly upward trend in the numbers of women teachers in higher education has been constant. Between 1983 and 1993 the gap between the sexes narrowed by 5 per cent, and the number of women increased by about 60 per cent, for a variation of 68.8 per cent in the number of women's posts. The following table illustrates these variations.

Table 10.21

TEACHING POSTS BY SEX, 1983-1993

(inter-group percentages by sex)

Source: ICFES/General Planning Office. Higher Education Statistics, Colombia 1993, Annual Summary, Santa Fe de Bogotá.

TRAINING FOR WORK

Although Colombia has a broad and diversified supply of training facilities, both in terms of institutions and of quality of courses and non-formal education options, there is no national information system to provide a picture of training for work. It must be stressed that non-formal education has played a very important role in training for work, particularly for poorer women and women workers in the informal sector of the economy, although this is also true of traditional female jobs in general.

The National Training Service (SENA) of the Ministry of Employment is the institution with the broadest national cover, both urban and rural, in the provision of various kinds of job-training programme. SENA is funded by contributions from private business. Where enrolment is concerned, just as in formal education large numbers of women enrol for vocational training, in a trend which has been increasing in recent years, as can be seen from table 10.22.

Table 10.22

NUMBERS ENROLING FOR VOCATIONAL TRAINING

UNDER SENA BY SEX, 1988-1994

Numbers enroling

* Only for urban areas; in rural areas the proportion is much lower at approximately 38 per cent.

Source: Based on Luz Perla Tovar and Constanza Monsalve. Género en el SENA. Proposed work plan, progress report. Presidential Council on Social Policy/SENA, Santa Fe de Bogotá, 1995, and data of the SENA Evaluation and Statistics Division.

Studies carried out by the Planning Office of the SENA Evaluation and Statistics Division describe the population taking the various courses offered by SENA and show that, while 53.3 per cent of persons taking short courses are women, women account for only 38.4 per cent of the enrolment for long courses. Similarly, the data of the SENA Evaluation and Statistics Division show that women do less well than men on long courses.

In addition, an analysis of training by subject shows that in the vocational training offered by SENA there is an enrolment bias caused by gender stereotypes. Women enrol mostly for traditional "female" subjects: "...the higher numbers of women are distributed among commerce (81.5%), finance (65.3%), administration (48.3%), and services (59%), in contrast with the figure of only 5.7 per cent for women in electricity. When the numbers of women taking industrial courses (48.1%) are analyzed by specific occupation, they are distributed among the textile industry (92.8%), garment industry (54.3%) and graphic arts (38.6%), with very few women taking mechanical (5.6%) or automotive (6.3%) engineering".

It may thus be stated that women opt for occupations and jobs providing them with a less promising economic future than if they opted for courses which have not traditionally been regarded as female. Accordingly, in non-formal education as well there persists a strong influence of stereotypes in attitudes as to what is appropriate for the sexes in vocational terms.

The composition of the SENA teaching staff by sex and levels of qualification discriminates against women, since they account for only 26.8 per cent, a lower proportion than in other similar institutes in Latin America.

The information on the educational qualifications of teachers has not been updated for five years. Five years ago there were the following numbers of women at various levels of education: seven (24.1%) out of 29 professionals with a master's degree or specialist training; 339 (31.7%) out of 1,069 teachers with complete university education; 209 (27.6%) out of 756 with incomplete university education; 80 (16.5%) out of 486 with complete technical or technological qualifications; 73 (19.1%) out of 383 with incomplete technical or technological qualifications; 206 (22.2%) out of 928 with complete secondary qualifications; and 111 (38.3%) out of 290 with incomplete secondary qualifications.

The most important point in this information is that the highest levels of educational qualification among teachers are complete university (27%), complete secondary (23.4%) and incomplete university (19%), and that women teachers account for 33, 20 and 20.3 per cent at these levels, compared, respectively, with the men's figures of 24, 24.6 and 18.6 per cent. This allows the conclusion that the proportion of women teachers with a high level of education is greater than that of men.

PROGRESS AND DIFFICULTIES IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR WITH RESPECT TO EQUALITY FOR WOMEN

As stated at the outset, the progress in the situation of women in Colombia has been due more to the widespread policies of democratization and modernization, especially in education, than to specific policies designed to achieve equality for women. Although Colombia has targets for both cover and quality, the progress has been achieved more in quantity than in quality.

Where policies are concerned, in the 1990s a major effort has been made to give effect to the constitutional mandates on universal access to basic education, decentralization of education services, and participation of civil society in these processes. The work done in this area includes the enactment of Law 115 of 1993 and the formulation of the Ten-Year Education Plan 1996-2005. This plan refers specifically to the goal of eliminating all discrimination or isolation based on gender with respect to access to and remaining in the education system.

The participation and equality of women is one of the strategies of the National Development Plan 1994-1998. By determining national institutional arrangements for dealing with this issue and by approving the Policy for Equality and Participation of Women (EPAM), the Government reinforced the arguments set out in EPAM on the importance of introducing changes which will produce education with a gender dimension, as one of the ways of achieving equality of rights and social equity.

Some other advances have been made in the situation of women in the 1990s, as the following summary shows:

* A slight decline from 9 to 8.6 per cent in the rates of male and female illiteracy in 1993, although the decline for women was slightly less than for men (8.4%).

* Continuation of the trend for larger numbers of females to enrol in the various levels of education. Girls predominate in preschool institutions (52.5% on average for the various grades in 1993 as against 50.7% in 1991). Girls account for about 50 per cent of pupils in basic primary education, although there have not been any great variations in comparison with previous years; in secondary basic and vocational education the proportion of female enrolment was 52.9 per cent in 1993 as against 49.2 per cent at the beginning of the decade; and women account for almost 52 per cent of students in higher education.

* The female dropout rates from the various levels of formal education and the number of graduates therefrom illustrate the trend of earlier years for greater efficiency in the education of girls than of boys, as measured by continuation in the system. However, the causes of dropping-out remain closely linked to sexist stereotypes which, as already pointed out, have a negative impact on both males and females.

* The tendency for larger numbers of women teachers to be found at the system's initial levels has continued, but the gap narrows through the other levels up to higher education. However, women teachers have increased their representation in higher education by about two per cent as the decade has proceeded.

* The problem of the influence of sexist stereotypes persists in vocational options.

* Attention is drawn to the progress made in the institutional efforts to introduce the analysis of gender and equality for women in education. Although it is only an initial effort, the women's unit of the Office of the President, which has been operating under various administrative arrangements since 1990, and the Ministry of National Education have been carrying out a number of measures to attain that objective.

The following research and consultation documents on questions of gender and equality for women in education have been produced or are currently being produced under the auspices of the Gender Unit of the Minister responsible for EPAM and of the National Office for Equality for Women:

* "Analysis of the results of the State secondary school examinations from the gender perspective." This piece of research is designed to produce a comparative analysis of the performance of girls and boys in the final State secondary examination and in its various constituent papers: verbal and mathematical skills, language, mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, and optional subjects. The analysis covers the results for the past 13 years.

* "Gender factors in sex education." This piece of research is concerned with the revision of the Ministry's sex education programme from the gender perspective. It includes an analysis of the content of the teaching and teacher-training programmes.

* "Systematization of information." This covers information gathered by the Women's Commission of the Teachers' Association of Bogotá during 10 years' work training teachers in the Capital District on the topic of sex discrimination in schools.

* "The gender perspective in the National Development Plan." This analysis of the education and health sectors is designed to identify the strategic areas of public policy in which action must be taken in order to achieve equality for women.

* "Plan for equality of opportunity for women in education." This consultation document is designed to identify the most important aspects of the joint work done by the Ministry and the National Office for Equality with a view to the formulation of a plan for the sector.

The existence of a national agency in the Office of the President for establishment of women's policies has encouraged discussion of the topics of education, gender and equality for women. Its activities, together with those of the Ministry, have led to the initiation of a process which is slow but promises to bear fruit if the Ministry shows the necessary political determination.

Since earlier times the Ministry has had a unit for dealing with this issue, but the unit has not had either the status or the logistical support commensurate with the task. However, beginning in 1994 the new institutional arrangements led to the creation, amongst other machinery, of a sectoral network for the policy of equality, with women represented at the highest levels in each ministry. The Ministry of National Education is thus able to participate in decisions on the relevant policies and a commitment is made to implement the programmes.

As part of these new institutional arrangements the Ministry appointed an official in the Office of the Deputy Minister to act as focal point and attend to coordination with the National Office and the other agencies involved in the measures designed to help to create a culture in which there really is equality of opportunity in education, with regard to both quantity and quality. The Ministry and the National Office are drawing up a plan of work for the short and medium terms.

In its programmes the Ministry has been developing arrangements for awareness-raising and training of civil servants:

* At the national level. The focus has been on the conceptualization of gender, equality and education, with a small group of officials responsible for initiating the creation of a team to promote the consolidation of the policy of equality for women within the Ministry. At the same time a larger and more representative group is promoting the incorporation of the analysis of gender and equality for women in the Ministry's policies, programmes and projects.

* In the departmental education offices. A training strategy for teachers in three pilot departments (Antioquia, Risaralda and Santander) has been developed and evaluated with a view to opening up spaces for discussion and reflection of the topics of education and gender at the local level. This strategy includes the design and publication of a training manual entitled "Mi Mamá me Mima, Mi Papá Fuma Pipa", the compilation of teaching materials on gender and education produced in Colombia and abroad, and the design of an experimental methodology for in-service training of teachers. The following results have been achieved:

- The training of more than 500 teachers, head teachers and university teachers;

- The creation of teams to explore gender discrimination in schools;

- The compilation of information on teachers' thinking and attitudes on this subject, and the approval of the teaching materials referred to above.

* As pointed out earlier, the Ministry and the National Office, in cooperation with the Teachers' Association of Bogotá and UNICEF, are also carrying out a strategy of awareness-raising and incentives for publishers of school books in order to secure changes designed to eradicate gender stereotypes.

* The Office of the Deputy Minister responsible for youth has carried out training activities for national and local civil servants, seeking specifically to incorporate the gender component in the national sex education project. So far the Ministry has recruited an adviser on the introduction of the analysis of gender and equality for women in the eight programmes for which the Deputy Minister is responsible.

* The Ministry is consolidating its activities by introducing a programme on equality for women. For this purpose it has created an internal working group and obtained the cooperation of UNESCO. Here the goals include:

- Expansion of access to basic education;

- Improvement of the quality of basic education in the context of continuing education and comprehensive human development on a non-sexist basis;

- Integration of the concepts and processes of non-sexist education in the formulation and implementation of the institutional education project which each education institute has to formulate.

Many different kinds of difficulty have been encountered in this sectoral work; the main ones have to do with the resistance by civil servants and teachers to changes in favour of equality for women and the concept of gender analysis and with the fact that the commitment of the Ministry's senior officials is more in words than in deeds. However, a more determined political will to incorporate these topics now exists.

DEVELOPMENTS IN EMPLOYMENT

"1. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights, in particular:

(a) The right to work as an inalienable right of all human beings;

(b) The right to the same employment opportunities, including the application of the same criteria for selection in matters of employment;

(c) The right to free choice of profession and employment, the right to promotion, job security and all benefits and conditions of service and the right to receive vocational training and retraining, including apprenticeships, advanced vocational training and recurrent training;

(d) The right to equal remuneration, including benefits, and to equal treatment in respect of work of equal value, as well as equality of treatment in the evaluation of the quality of work;

(e) The right to social security, particularly in cases of retirement, unemployment, sickness, invalidity and old age and other incapacity to work, as well as the right to paid leave;

(f) The right to protection of health and safety in working conditions, including safeguarding of the function of reproduction.

2. In order to prevent discrimination against women on the grounds of marriage or maternity and to ensure their effective right to work, States Parties shall take all appropriate measures:

(a) To prohibit, subject to the imposition of sanctions, dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy or of maternity leave and discrimination in dismissals on the basis of marital status;

(b) To introduce maternity leave with pay or with comparable social benefits without loss of former employment, seniority or social allowances;

(c) To encourage the provision of the necessary supporting social services to enable parents to combine family obligations with work responsibilities and participation in public life, in particular through promoting the establishment and development of a network of child-care facilities;

(d) To provide special protection to women during pregnancy in types of work proved to be harmful to them.

3. Protective legislation relating to matters covered in this article shall be reviewed periodically in the light of scientific and technological knowledge and shall be revised, repealed or extended as necessary."

This section describes the current situation of Colombian women, with emphasis on the urban labour market, as a frame of reference for assessing the progress made with respect to the gender perspective and equality for women in employment. The section has been structured as follows: general description of the political and economic context in the 1990s; description of the urban employment situation; proportion of women in the total population and the population of working age; work performance of women; women and unemployment; and progress and difficulties in the employment of women.

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONTEXT OF COLOMBIA IN THE 1990s

The approval of the new Constitution in 1991 constituted the most important political event in Colombia in the 1990s.

Together with this great legal reform, like most other Latin American countries Colombia adopted the stabilization and structural adjustment programmes of the International Monetary Fund, such as economic liberalization, legal and financial reforms, reform of the social security system, administrative reforms and privatization programme, etc.

The process of adopting the neoliberal model in Colombia began under the Barco administration (1986-1990), but it was not until the Government of César Gaviria (1990-1994) that the process became universal and determined.

The introduction of this model against a background of the technological backwardness of Colombia's production system and the accelerated urbanization which began in mid-century have had the inevitable consequence of a sharp increase in poverty. Recent studies show that in the four-year period 1990-1994 the number of people living in absolute poverty increased from 13.5 to 16 million, i.e. more than half of Colombia's population in that period. In addition, the removal of subsidies and the privatization of public services caused an increase in user costs, limiting the access to such services of large numbers of the population, including poor women.

In the economic sphere the effects of Colombia's adaptation to the new market conditions caused a sharp drop in GDP throughout the national economy. The growth rate for 1991 was barely 2 per cent, compared with 4.3 per cent in 1990 and the average of 4.6 per cent achieved in 1986-1990.

Subsequently, despite the low GDP growth caused by the stabilization policies and the decline in certain sectors (mining, coffee), this indicator improved to 3.8 per cent in 1992, 5.3 per cent in 1993 and 5.7 per cent in 1994, years in which the biggest contributions were made by non-tradeable goods and services such as the services provided by the financial, governmental, communications and construction sectors. The bulk of light industry (textiles, clothing, leather goods) declined sharply owing to its poor competitiveness in the international market.

The situation of the industrial and agricultural sectors is currently serious. In 1990 only six companies went into receivership, in 1994 the figure was 27, and in 1995 74 companies had taken this step by October and a further 70 were in such difficulties that they might have to do likewise.

The present Government acknowledges in the National Development Plan: the Social Leap Forward that administrative reforms and the modernization of the State have left the country with a large number of unemployed and that the agricultural crisis which manifested itself in 1991-1993 in the loss of some 230,000 jobs cannot be ignored.

The main features of the employment situation are determined by the dominant patterns of the urbanization and structural adjustment processes: most of the employed population lives in urban areas and works in the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy, specifically in industry, services and commerce.

THE URBAN EMPLOYMENT SITUATION IN COLUMBIA

Attention has to be drawn to the following features of Colombia's labour market in the first half of the 1990s:

* Initial increase and subsequent decline in total employment rates. In seven metropolitan areas the percentage ratio of the economically active population (EAP) to the population of working age (PWA) was over 50 per cent at the end of the 1980s; it reached a high point of 60 per cent in 1993 and since then has tended to stagnate or decline. In 1995 it fell to 58 per cent.

* Tertiarization of EAP. This situation is found in particular in the contributions of the commercial and services sectors to jobs creation. In the period referred to above, these sectors together with the financial services sector accounted for about 62 per cent of the employed population in the towns. The areas encountering the greatest difficulties include:

Social security. A total of 49.6 per cent of urban workers do not have any kind of social security;

Incomes. A total of 41 per cent of independent workers and 51 per cent of informal own-account workers have incomes below the minimum monthly wage.

The complexity of the country's current socio-economic situation has produced crises in some areas. Between 1993 and 1995 employment exhibited the following characteristics:

* Initial decline and subsequent increase in unemployment. In the 1990s urban unemployment fell to levels below 10 per cent; the lowest rate of 7.75 per cent occurred in 1993. At present, owing to the effects of poor competitiveness, smuggling and the economic crisis in some production sectors, unemployment has increased. This trend was already clear in 1995, when the rate rose to 9.37 per cent.

* Gender variables in unemployment. An examination of unemployment by sex shows that the rates for women are two times higher than for men: the women's rates were 10.95 per cent in 1993 and 12.38 per cent in 1995, while the men's rates were 5.3 and 7.1 per cent in the same two years. In December 1996, according to DANE data, the female unemployment rate was 15.1 and the male 9.6 per cent (DANE press release).

One of the fundamental aspects of an understanding of the urban employment situation in Colombia is the differentiation between the formal and informal sectors. This can be studied from several standpoints:

* Differentiation by sex. The formal sector is made up of 60 per cent men and 40 per cent women; the informal sector has a similar composition by sex: 58 per cent men and 42 per cent women.

* Differentiation by age group. The youngest workers (aged 19 and under) account for 4 per cent of the formal labour force and 15 per cent of the informal, i.e. it is the population group most vulnerable to unemployment: young people take jobs requiring less work experience and lower qualifications. They generally come from the poorer population groups and enter the ranks of the employed and unemployed on terms of greater disadvantage in respect of educational training.

This is a very sensitive area: individually it is assumed that attendance at school is associated with the minimum skills and qualifications required for the worse-paid jobs; but the fact that the education of work-seekers leaves much to be desired has an unfavourable impact on Colombia's growth possibilities, since it constitutes an obstacle to the increased productivity and competitiveness essential to effective integration in the international market.

* Differentiation by level of education. Twenty-two per cent of the population employed in the formal sector has either primary education or no education (1%) as against 50 per cent of the population employed in the informal sector.

* Differentiation by socio-economic status. Most people from the lower strata of the population work in the informal sector; two-fifths (39%) of workers in this sector are from the lower strata, in contrast with a quarter (24%) in the formal sector.

* Differentiation by income. In the informal sector average incomes are only 56.5 per cent of earnings in the formal sector. The informal sector is so precarious that only 13 per cent of its workers have incomes in excess of two minimum monthly wages (table 11.1).

Table 11.1

PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYED POPULATION BY INCOME

AND ECONOMIC SECTOR, 1992

(minimum wages)

Source: Patrick McEwan, 1995.

Employment in Colombia exhibits two contradictions which affect its structure: the first is the decline in urban employment; the second is connected with a structural characteristic of unemployment: the imbalance between the qualifications required for certain jobs and the qualifications of the applicants. This is an important factor because it limits the possibility of equal access to jobs carrying status and social and work recognition for large numbers of Colombia's urban labour force.

Analysis of this topic is an extremely complicated exercise. Like any social phenomenon, it has to be viewed from many different standpoints, including the following:

The relevant indicators show a decline in poverty in Colombia in the period 1985-1991 and a slight increase in 1993. However, the gap between the rural and urban sectors persists. Some of the indicators used to determine the extent of poverty, such as unsatisfied basic needs (UBN) and numbers living in extreme poverty, show this development (table 11.2).

In 1985 the proportion of rural households having unsatisfied basic needs was 2.2 times greater than the proportion of urban households, and by 1993 this gap had increased to almost three times. In other words, while one in five urban households has unsatisfied basic needs, this situation affects three in five rural households. Moreover, the current trends in this respect in rural areas are the same as the ones exhibited by urban areas two decades ago.

Although the UBN figure has fallen, it cannot be denied that the purchasing power of workers' incomes has also fallen. This purchasing power declined in the 1990s from the 1980s figure as a result of the resurgence of inflation in 1985-1986, when most of the losers were in the informal sector of the economy. Own-account workers and small businesses suffered losses of about 10 per cent.

Table 11.2

EVOLUTION OF UBN POPULATION AND POPULATION LIVING

IN EXTREME POVERTY, 1985-1993

UBN population

Population in extreme poverty

Source: El Salto Social. Bases para el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo 1994-1998.

Other indicators such as the population living below the poverty line and the population living below the destitution line (persons who cannot obtain the necessary resources to purchase the basket of foodstuffs supplying the essential nutrients) point to an almost static or even worsening situation, as shown in table 11.3.

Measurements using the poverty line show that more than half the total population is living in poverty and highlight the differences between urban and rural areas. In rural areas about 70 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, and their situation has been aggravated by the fall in real incomes and the current increase in unemployment.

The population living below the destitution line also exhibits different characteristics in the urban and rural sectors of the country, for most of the destitute people live in rural areas. The percentage differences in comparison with the figures for urban areas remain in a proportion of about 3 to 1. In addition, between 1988 and 1992 this indicator showed an upward trend: in the towns the number of destitute households rose from 11.6 to 13 per cent and in rural areas from 36.3 to 37 per cent.

Lastly, unemployment rates are high in rural areas, as can be seen from the low income levels of the employed population and the indicators of poverty and destitution mentioned above.

Table 11.3

EVOLUTION OF THE POPULATIONS LIVING BELOW THE POVERTY LINE

AND BELOW THE DESTITUTION-EXTREME POVERTY LINE, 1988-1992

Population below the poverty line

Population below the destitution line

Source: El Salto Social. Bases para el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo 1994-1998.

PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN COLOMBIA'S LABOUR MARKET

Women's participation in the labour market has increased in recent years: in 1992 women accounted for 41.9 per cent of the economically active population (EAP) in urban areas and for 42.7 per cent in 1995. In rural areas this figure rose from 27.8 per cent in 1992 to 28.8 per cent in 1995.

Similarly, the women's employment rate grew constantly: it was 34.5 per cent in 1992 and 35.7 per cent in 1995, in contrast with the male rate, which fell from 65.5 per cent in 1992 to 64.2 per cent in 1995.

Table 11.4

EAP, EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT, 1992-1995, BY SEX, AREA

AND LEVEL OF EDUCATION

Source: DNP, SISD. Boletín No. 13 de Empleo, 1996. Table 1.

Out of a total of 4,921,455 employed women in 1995, 37 per cent worked in services, 28.6 per cent in commerce, and 18 per cent in manufacturing. Although most women continue to work in traditionally female branches of the economy, there has been a significant increase in their participation in non-traditional jobs such as construction, the financial sector and electricity (table 11.5).

Table 11.5

EMPLOYED POPULATION BY BRANCH OF

ACTIVITY AND SEX, 1988-1995