VN Forum 2016-3: 17 Sustainable Development Goals: en zó maken we Nederland
duurzaam in 2030!
DOOR: CARRIE VAN DER KROON (YOUNG PROFESSIONAL)
“People cannot do things I do not like. I can speak out.”
“I have learned that if someone forces me, I have to shout and call Defence for Children!”, a girl shouts
through the classroom. “We learned how to defend ourselves”. Another girl adds: “If someone is harassing
me, I know where to go.” Yet another girl says: “We learned how to report cases, if our rights get violated.”
We are in a community in the Kumasi district, Ghana, visiting a Girls’ Rights Club. Girls talk about their
rights, the different forms and signals of (sexual) violence, and the possibilities of reporting.
VN Forum digitaal tijdschrift Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Verenigde Naties
SDG 5 and promoting girls’ equal rights and
empowerment
VN Forum 2016-3: 17 Sustainable Development Goals: en zó maken we Nederland
duurzaam in 2030!
The Girls’ Rights Club is part of the Girls Advocacy Alliance Programme in Ghana. Defence for Children
joined forces in a strategic partnership with Plan, Terre des Hommes, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(2016-2020). The Girls Advocacy Alliance envisions a world wherein all girls and young women enjoy equal
rights and opportunities in 2030 and thereby directly contributes towards the implementation of SDG 5. It
acts in ten countries in Africa and Asia as well as in the Netherlands, through dialogue with the government
on Dutch foreign policy and the Dutch private sector active in our programme countries.
The road to gender equality and girls’ empowerment
In achieving the SDG’s, for example in Ghana, the participation of girls is essential. Their equality and
empowerment is both an objective, as well as part of the solution: with their newly acquired knowledge they
help themselves, as well as each other and their communities. Through their individual empowerment and
granting equal opportunities, more equality is generated.
Getting towards gender equality and girls’ empowerment is about girls, boys, females and males being
aware of the specific rights of girls and women. Subsequently, it is about girls and women claiming their
rights. Gender equality and girls’ empowerment is about girls and women being confident enough to say
what they do and do not want. It is also about community leaders and religious leaders addressing parents
and taking a stance on harmful traditional practices such as child marriage. It is about teachers not looking
away when harm is done and knowing how to address injustices and how to protect their girl students. It is
about parents knowing what their girls are worth and having enough means to send their girls to school.
Gender equality and girls’ empowerment is about the government allocating sufficient budget and adopting
gender-sensitive laws and policy-frameworks. It is about civil society organizations not only creating
awareness, but setting an example by hiring (young) women and training them to fulfil leadership roles.
Lastly, it is about the private sector giving (young) women a chance, providing decent work, and organizing
child care when necessary.
Recommendations for the Netherlands’ government to spur the implementation of SDG 5 in its
foreign policy
VN Forum digitaal tijdschrift Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Verenigde Naties
Girls Advocacy Alliance
VN Forum 2016-3: 17 Sustainable Development Goals: en zó maken we Nederland
duurzaam in 2030!
In its foreign policy and when acting in the international arena, the Dutch government should further the
implementation of SDG 5 worldwide, by:
1. Advocacy
The Netherlands should actively promote the advancement of SDG 5 amongst the international community
by advocating that governments take action to achieve SDG-targets. It should also advocate internationally
for national implementation plans for the SDGs, and to address SDG 5 specifically.
continue these efforts, as well as support or initiate efforts regarding other harmful traditional practices that
violate the rights of girls and (young) women worldwide. In that regard, it is important to commend the launch
of the global partnership of Girls Not Brides, in which the Netherlands and Princess Mabel of Orange play a
pivotal role.
2. Gender-sensitive and sex-disaggregated data
First, data on children in the Netherlands needs to be more gender-sensitive and sex-disaggregated.
Second, the government should lead by example and make public data available on the Dutch progress
towards SDG 5 and its targets, throughout the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands.
3. Education
For the Netherlands foreign policy, the rights of girls and women are already a focus area. In line with this,
the Netherlands should also encourage countries to develop gender-sensitive education, to ensure that all
girls have access to quality education. When girls are educated, they are better equipped to defend their
lives and rights.
Gender equality in the Netherlands
While for the majority of women in the Netherlands most of their rights are upheld, this is not the case for all.
Migrant women, minority women, sex workers, domestic workers, LGBTIQs, and Muslim women in the
Netherlands often fall victim to discrimination, poverty, abuse and enjoy fewer of their rights.
th
The Netherlands ranks 16
on the Global Gender Gap Index, not only after Nordic countries, that are often
seen as ‘champions’ in this field, but also after a number of countries in the Global South (Burundi,
Nicaragua, Slovenia, South Africa and Rwanda included). The Dutch government therefore still has a duty
when it comes to the realization of SDG 5 in the Netherlands as well.
Recommendations for the Netherlands’ government to spur the implementation of SDG 5
domestically
VN Forum digitaal tijdschrift Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Verenigde Naties
The Dutch government actively advocates at the UN to ban child, early, and forced marriages and should
VN Forum 2016-3: 17 Sustainable Development Goals: en zó maken we Nederland
duurzaam in 2030!
1. Ensure implementation of women’s rights throughout the Kingdom
In 2016, the UN Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women reviewed the
Netherlands’ compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW). The Committee produced Concluding Observations, in which practical recommendations
for the government are formulated to further women’s rights in-country.
The Netherlands’ government should specifically pay attention to the situation of girls’ and women’s rights on
disparities in the implementation of women’s rights persist in the different countries the Netherlands consists
of. Similarly, it pointed out that the delegation of powers to the different countries does not absolve the
Netherlands of its obligation to implement women’s rights throughout the entire Kingdom.
2. Develop gender-sensitive instead of gender-neutral policies
CEDAW is concerned that most policies in the Netherlands are gender-neutral. This however denies that
policies may (and do!) impact girls and women in different ways from men as well as that policies may affect
different girls and women in different ways. The government firstly needs to draft a unified strategy and
policy for the implementation of CEDAW nationally, and secondly mainstream gender throughout its policies.
Only then all girls and women will be able to enjoy all of their rights.
3. End stereotyped and sexualized images of girls and women in the media
The images young girls and boys are seeing and the gender-segregated toys they are raised with, shape
their thinking about and behavior towards gender. Gender-segregated toys, and the persisting discriminatory
stereotypes and sexualization of girls and women in the media does not promote a gender-equal society.
The government needs to take a more active stance in this issue and investigate the possible impact of
sexist portrayals in the media, as well as the to what extent they provoke gender-based violence.
VN Forum digitaal tijdschrift Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Verenigde Naties
Curaçao, Sint Maarten and in the Netherlands in the Caribbean. The UN Committee specifically noted that
VN Forum 2016-3: 17 Sustainable Development Goals: en zó maken we Nederland
duurzaam in 2030!
Carrie van der Kroon (Amsterdam, 1988) is a Programme Officer on Girls’ Rights and Child Protection at
Defence for Children International – ECPAT Nederland, as well as a freelance trainer, facilitator and
moderator.
Carrie has field experience in Latin America, the Balkans and Africa and graduated Cum Laude from the
Legal Research Masters at Utrecht University, specializing in international children’s rights from a socio-legal
perspective. In 2015, she published a book, titled: “I write with the right”, on indigenous migrant children from
Panama on Costa Rican coffee fields.
www.defenceforchildren.nl
www.carrievanderkroon.nl
https://nl.linkedin.com/in/carrievanderkroon
VN Forum digitaal tijdschrift Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Verenigde Naties
Carrie van der Kroon