on the situation of women and children in the developing countries

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the motions for resolutions by:

.Mr Pons Grau on the working conditions of women and children in developing countries (B3-1297/90),

.Mrs Muscardini and others on aid for school systems in Third World countries (B3-0679/90),

.Mr Kostopoulos on the protection of children's lives (B3-1930/90),

.Mrs van den Brink and others on child labour (B3-1959/90),

.Mr Taradash on the situation of children in the world (B3-1988/90),

.Mr Arbeloa Muru and Mr Sapena Granell on emergency aid for children in Nicaragua (B3-0034/91),

.Mr Alvarez de Paz and Mr Arbeloa Muru on vocational training in the ACP countries (B3-0178/91),

-having regard to the recent reports published on this subject by the World Bank, the FAO, UNICEF, UNESCO, the ILO and the OECD,

-having regard to the Council declaration on human rights of 30 June 1991, calling for greater attention to be paid to the most vulnerable categories of the world population such as children, women, the elderly, migrants and refugees,

-having regard to the Charter on the Rights of the Child drawn up by the United Nations in 1989,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Development and Cooperation and the opinions of the Committee on Women's Rights and the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media (A3-0146/92),

A.whereas women have an irreplaceable role in the economic and social processes of the developing countries, particularly in agriculture and the informal sector,

B.whereas the great majority of women in developing countries work in agriculture, and the difficulties experienced by these women in obtaining access to land, credit, new technologies etc. result in a steady decrease in food production,

C.whereas development presupposes recognition of the role of women in the development process and respect for fundamental rights,

D.whereas the constant deterioration in economic, social, political and ecological conditions in the developing countries has immediate repercussions for women and children, who suffer the adverse effects of inadequate economic programmes, adjustment policies that overlook the social dimension of development etc,

E.whereas the unacceptable health conditions in which women work and the lack of social welfare in the developing countries are an affront to their dignity and contribute to their social marginalization,

F.whereas several thousands of women from developing countries are victims of a modern form of slavery, namely prostitution, pornography and 'sex tourism' and whereas the roots of this phenomenon are to be found in the industrialization of prostitution networks, increasing poverty in the developing countries and the ever more precarious situation of women,

G.whereas some of the cultural traditions of the developing countries relegate women to a minor role in the social and institutional dynamics of the developing countries,

H.whereas the terrible conditions in which children in the Third World live deprive them of any future worthy of human civilization,

I.whereas children are often ruthlessly exploited by the labour market, organized crime and the war industry which enlists them by the thousand, and whereas child mortality rates in the Third World are still very high,

J.horrified by reports of the sexual exploitation of children in the developing countries, which not surprisingly is most frequent in countries where the economic situation is worst;

K.shocked by the corroborated evidence of a substantial trade in organs removed from children in the developing countries, all for the benefit of industrialized society;

1.Points out that there can be no real development in the South without the active social, political and economic involvement of women and unless promotion of improved living conditions for children in the developing countries becomes an ethical and moral as well as political priority for people and democratic institutions throughout the world; a major cultural and financial mobilization effort at all levels is needed to attain these objectives;

2.Is convinced that any improvement in the present intolerable living conditions of women and children in the developing countries is closely bound up with the development of the South and consequently with a thorough structural reform of the iniquitous rules of the world market and international political and economic democracy that are the underlying cause of poverty in the developing countries;

3.Is alarmed by the inadequacy of the structural adjustment programmes promoted by the IMF and the World Bank that overlook the social dimension of development and that are typified by consistent cuts in national budget allocations for social expenditure, education and cultural and social betterment of the more vulnerable strata of society;

4.Calls on the Community to devote particular attention to the education, health and housing sectors when drawing up its own adjustment policies;

5.Considers that the only way to create an economic climate favourable to the developing countries is to alleviate their debt situation and guarantee their earnings from commodities. Therefore calls on the Community to promote policies to cancel the debts of developing countries and in particular the ACP countries, and at the same time calls on the Council to review its stance on ACP debts. Calls on the Community and the Member States to act together in international financial institutions so that the developing countries can regain powers of co-decision over commodity prices;

6.Calls on the Council to include human rights clauses in the regional or bilateral agreements it concludes with third countries or groups of countries and calls on the Member States to put an end to arms sales to developing countries, to take steps in respect of those countries which spend more on weapons than on schooling or health care and to support developing countries that cut back on defence spending in order to invest more in education, health and job creation;

7.Urges those developing countries and European travel and tourist organizations that practise, encourage or protect child labour, sex tourism and bonded labour to put an end to such practices and calls on Interpol to regard such practices and child trafficking as being among its primary responsibilities, since the illegal networks concerned come within its remit;

WOMEN

8.Considers that women should participate actively in the creation of democratic, political and economic structures and calls on the developing countries to ensure that women can effectively exercise their right of association;

9.Calls for the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted by the General Assembly in 1979, to be respected, and any violation of this convention considered as a violation of human rights;

10.Urges the Community and its Member States to give priority to implementing the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, within the context of defending human rights at international level;

11.Welcomes the fact that Lomé IV has expanded the provisions concerning the role of women and stresses the importance of Article 153 as the basis for negotiations with the developing countries, as well as that of the regulation on financial and technological aid and economic cooperation with the developing countries;

12.Considers that projects to promote the involvement of women in the development process should form part of an inter-disciplinary approach in which aspects such as vocational training, agriculture, environmental protection, family planning and the position of women in their own environment are taken into account;

13.Requests that project planners in the context of development cooperation between the European Community and third countries should offer women greater opportunities for defining their priorities and participating in project design, implementation and appraisal;

14.Calls on the Commission to ensure that women are involved in the planning, approval and implementation of all water supply, nutrition and preventive medicine projects, since it is women that have the greatest incentive to ensure the success of such projects;

15.Points out that, when food is short, mothers tend to give priority to their male children, and that a similar priority seems to exist with respect to education; calls on the Commission to be particularly aware of this situation;

16.Calls on the Commission to adapt its project procedures so that all projects financed by the Commission should, in the relevant financing proposals, explicitly define the role of women in the project area concerned, their place in the land ownership system, the credit facilities and advisory services available to them, their main source of income and the extent of their influence in the decision-making process;

17.Calls on the Commission to encourage the developing countries to take steps to increase the rights of women (particularly as regards land) and make them more widely known;

18.Calls on the Commission to provide the 'women and development' unit in DG VIII and DG I with the permanent staff needed to enable it to make practical use of the existing financial resources; also calls on the Commission to provide the staff of the external delegations of the EC, and the officials concerned, with suitable training in the specific problems of women in development;

19.Calls for women's work and statistics on education and health, which are essential information for development planners, to be drawn up by sex;

20.Hopes that the EC's external delegations will establish more contacts with women's organizations and national bodies, and requests that the technical assistance teams should include experts on the problems of women in development;

21.Calls on the trade unions, the leaders of the cooperative movement and European political parties to extend greater support to women in the South and make a positive contribution to programmes to make the life of children more human and gradually abolish child labour;

CHILDREN

22.Roundly condemns the exploitation of many children in developing countries for labour by multinational industrial concerns in any sector, and reiterates the fundamental rights of the child to physical protection, respect for dignity and integrity, education, health and culture, as recognized by international conventions;

23.Points out that poverty, underdevelopment and the lack of funding for education are the direct cause of child labour, a problem that can be resolved only through constructive measures that do not exacerbate the situation of the families;

24.Deplores the fact that the Commission has not so far drawn up programmes or medium- or long-term forecasts on taking account of children in development plans, particularly in the areas of education, food aid, housing and health; calls on the Commission to devise a strategy to ensure that children are regarded as an integral part of the development process;

25.Considers that the Commission, in conjunction with the countries concerned and specialized international organizations (UNICEF, UNESCO, WHO, ILO), should formulate policies based on Convention No. l38 and Recommendation No. 146 (1973) of the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Charter on the Rights of the Child (1989);

26.Believes, moreover, that boys and girls should enjoy effective equality of opportunity in terms of systems of compulsory primary schooling and that particular attention should be paid to countries in which there is a major discrepancy between the respective rates of attendance at school of boys and girls;

27.Considers it essential to introduce legislation enabling the confiscation of profits derived from the sexual exploitation of women and children along the lines of the laws on the laundering of drug money;

28.Calls on the international community to make the elimination of child labour and the exploitation of children its priority objective, which cannot however be attained so long as a relationship of dependence exists between the poorest countries and the richest, which encourage child labour through their practices;

29.Believes that, to this end, the EC must contribute to the specific projects contained in the "intensive campaign for the progressive elimination of child labour", an ILO programme to humanize the working conditions of children in real life situations, provide them with training and ensure that the underlying reasons for their exploitation progressively disappear;

30.Considers it unacceptable for children to be used in services of a military nature and vigorously condemns military actions in which children have been exploited and forced to take part;

31.Calls for the immediate release from prison of all children and adolescents who have been imprisoned on grounds of racial or religious discrimination or for their beliefs;

32.Calls on those EC Member States that have not yet done so to ratify the United Nations Convention (1989) on the rights of the child and ILO Convention 138 on the minimum age for work and calls on those Member States that have ratified the Convention on the rights of the child to shoulder their political responsibilities and fulfil their economic undertakings to put it into effect;

POPULATION

33.Points out once again that education is a fundamental factor in population growth and that it is an established fact that the better a woman's education and knowledge of family planning the lower the birth-rate;

34.Considers that major development projects should be promoted in the developing countries to improve health conditions for women and children, given that a basic health education is essential to tackle contraception-related problems;

35.Calls on the governments of the developing countries to draw up family planning programmes that guarantee and safeguard the dignity of the men and women following them, especially without being influenced by religious or cultural stances foreign to their own country; such programmes should in fact take account of local values and be synchronized with parallel educational programmes on the subject of hygiene, health and nutrition;

36.Calls on those responsible for the planning and implementation of family planning programmes to respect the right to motherhood and fatherhood by providing men and women with adequate assistance enabling them to make informed choices on the basis of sound advice;

37.Calls for a ban on forced sterilization programmes and medical experimentation (new reproductive or contraceptive technologies etc.) involving Third World women;

38.Asks the contraceptive-producing industries to refrain, as provided in the WHO code, from selling pharmaceutical products in the developing countries that have not been properly tested, or the sale of which has been prohibited or condemned in the developed countries because they constitute a risk to health;

39.Calls on the Commission to finance only those projects which thoroughly satisfy the above criteria;

40.Recommends that demographic research units be set up within DG I and DG VIII to assist with, plan and implement demographic projects; such units should monitor and evaluate existing policies in this sector so as to increase their effectiveness;

41.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and Commission, the ACP-EEC Joint Assembly, and the International Labour Organization.