Government Mechanism for
the Advancement of Women
Urszula Nowakowska
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Government Mechanism for
the Advancement of Women
Urszula Nowakowska
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In Poland, government mechanisms for the advancement of women were for the first time introduced after the UN Conference on Women, held in Nairobi in 1985. In September 1986, the Council of Ministers adopted a resolution establishing the Office of Plenipotentiary for Women, which operated until October 1989. The first Plenipotentiary - in the rank of under-secretary of state - was Anna Kędzierska. Although the Office of Plenipotentiary for Women was attached administratively to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, it was independent within its mandate and had a separate budget. An agenda of activities for the social and professional advancement of women, based on the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies, was implemented by the Plenipotentiary’s Bureau. Individual ministries were assigned special tasks and were obliged to undertake actions aimed at the professional and social advancement of women. The Plenipotentiary had jurisdiction to exact from the respective ministries the performance of assigned tasks. Every year, selected problems related to the advancement of women were presented at the government sitting, and subsequently were included in the government work agenda. Despite the fact that the first Plenipotentiary was very active in government structures, the public was not generally aware of her efforts because of a lack of media interest. After 1989, in the so-called Third Republic of Poland, the government policies for gender equality and the advancement of women went through many changes. The position, powers and even the name of the office of Plenipotentiary have undergone several modifications. Political turning points and subsequent changes of ruling coalitions brought about changes in the attitude towards women’s rights. The trend towards belittling women’s problems was reflected in the modifications of the name of the office of Plenipotentiary. These names included: plenipotentiary for women, for women and family, for family and women, and in the end - for family. Plenipotentiaries were appointed by a resolution or by an executive order of the Council of Ministers, and the role of plenipotentiary was limited due to a meager budget and low position in the government structure. No plenipotentiary was a member of the government although as an under-secretary of state (at present, secretary of state) belonged to the government administrative structure. No plenipotentiary had the right to introduce bills or had direct influence on the social policy of government. The role of plenipotentiary was mainly advisory. In the government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first government of the Third Republic, first Helena Góralska and then Aleksandra Wiktorow - both under-secretaries in the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy - were appointed plenipotentiaries. In April 1991, the government of Jan Krzysztof Bielecki passed a resolution establishing the office of the Plenipotentiary for Family and Women, which operated until January 1992. Anna Popowicz, then the Government Plenipotentiary, undertook vigorous actions for the advancement of women. On the base of a Seym resolution, she prepared, inter alia, a government program for the improvement of the situation of women, children and families. Anna Popowicz protested also against the introduction of legal restrictions on abortion and family planning. Shortly after having addressed a letter to the Main Medical Council, in which she asked for caution in introducing changes to the Medical Ethics Code that in reality were limiting women’s access to abortion, Anna Popowicz was recalled by the prime minister, Jan Olszewski. Hanna Suchocka, first women-prime minister in Polish history, despite numerous petitions by women’s organizations and circles, did not appoint the plenipotentiary for women. She answered openly that she did not see any need for actions for the advancement of women or for the nomination of a plenipotentiary. The post of the government plenipotentiary for women and family was vacant till December 1995. The Plenipotentiary’s office operated but in fact it did not address issues concerning women and concentrated on issues relating to youth. Undoubtedly, a catalyst for the re-establishment of the office of the plenipotentiary was the 1995 UN Conference on Women in Beijing, China. In December 1994, due to the pressure from women’s circles, the coalition government of the Democratic Left Alliance and Polish Peasants’ Party appointed Barbara Blida to the office of Government Plenipotentiary for Family and Women. That decision was rather controversial. The appointment of Barbara Blida, who was at the same time the Minister for Constructions, to the office of plenipotentiary was considered by women’s organizations as a sign of disregard and marginalization of women’s rights and gender equality issues. The new plenipotentiary made no secret of the fact that she was not interested in women’s rights and that she agreed to be the plenipotentiary only because the prime minister asked her to be. At a meeting with representatives of women’s organizations and Parliamentary Women’s Group, she admitted frankly that she would gladly transfer that “deadwood” to somebody else. In May 1995, there was a change in the post of the plenipotentiary and in the name of the office. By a resolution of 12 May 1995, the Council of Ministers established the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Family and Women, which replaced the office of the Plenipotentiary for Women and Family. Jolanta Banach, a deputy from the Democratic Left Alliance, was appointed to the post. Although the modification of the name of the office might have suggested other priorities, the advancement of women and gender equality constituted the priority in the plenipotentiary’s activities. On the eve of the Beijing conference, Jolanta Banach embarked on the difficult task of preparing a government report on the situation of Polish women. For the first time, Polish NGOs were invited to take part in the preparations of a government document. This initiative was publicly criticized by Catholic organizations, which first joined the Preparatory Committee, but soon left it, accusing the committee of not taking their position into consideration. Catholic NGOs were against discussing the issues of abortion, family violence and sexual education in the report. The decision of Catholic organizations to leave the Committee was a political statement. The co-operation between the plenipotentiary and NGOs, which began before the UN Beijing Conference, was continued during the conference, and, in May 1996, resulted in the establishment of Standing Forum of Co-operation between NGOs and Government Plenipotentiary for Family and Women. Regular meetings of representatives of the Plenipotentiary’s Bureau, often with the participation of minister Banach herself, gave the NGOs better access to information. The were able to participate in the process of creating laws, by presenting their opinions and undertaking activities to support specific legal solutions. The participation in the Forum’s activities also helped the NGOs get better acquainted with each other and exchange experiences. The Catholic organizations also took part in the work of the Forum. One of the first initiatives of the Forum was the National Plan of Action for Women, prepared in accordance with the final recommendations of the Platform of Action and the Beijing Declaration. The Polish National Plan of Action was an adaptation of the recommendations enshrined in the Beijing document to the specific needs of individual ministries, local governments and NGOs. An agenda of activities to be carried on by respective entities was prepared. The program included specific objectives: human rights of women, women in power and decision-making, education, economy, women’s health, women and the environment, violence against women, women and the media, mechanisms of co-operation of government administration with the NGOs, research strategies and gender-disaggregated data collection systems. The main long-term strategic objective of the program is the promotion and protection of women’s human rights, respecting the principle of gender equality, and non-discrimination, de jure and de facto, in all spheres of public life. The detailed program tasks are designed to improve the situation of women via equalizing opportunities of women and men in all spheres of public life.The suggested actions also include temporary measures giving women preferences to allow for the realization of gender equality. A weak point of the program was the fact that the government did not appropriate additional funds for its implementation. Ministries obliged to implement the program were to get funds for its implementation from their yearly budgets. The NGOs taking part in the work of the Forum were asked to present their opinions of the program and additional recommendations. Some of them were included in the final version of the program. The Plan was adopted by the government on 29 April 1997 and until the change of government, it was, step by step, implemented by appropriate ministries. Another government initiative was a program designed to counteract family violence - “Combating Violence - Equalizing Chances” which was to be realized together with the UNDP Office in Warsaw. The aim of the program was to create a comprehensive system of support for victims of family violence. It consisted of training of activists from more than ten organizations, which were selected through a competition from among groups involved in support for victims of crimes. After the termination of the project, those organizations were to be funded by local governments. An innovative element of the program was the establishment of loans for abused women. The purpose of the loans was to help women who suffered violence to become economically independent.Unfortunately, the program was not fully implemented before the parliamentary elections in 1997 won by Electoral Action Solidarity. The efforts of the SLD government aimed at establishing, at the voivodeship1 level, local structures for the advancement of women, inter alia, plenipotentiaries for women, was wasted. In November 1997, after the parliamentary elections, the office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Family and Women was replaced with the office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Family. Kazimierz Kapera, from the Christian-National Union - a party well known for its extremely conservative views on social roles of women and men and the family - was appointed the Plenipotentiary. It is worth mentioning here, that a few years before the nomination, Kazimierz Kapera was recalled from the post of vice-minister for health. He was removed because hr compared people of different sexual orientation to mentally ill patients and because of his statements against the use of contraceptives. The change of the name of the office and appointment of Kazimierz Kapera as plenipotentiary reflected the trend in the government policy concerning family and women. Very soon after his appointment, all members of the staff in the plenipotentiary’s bureau were dismissed. New staff members represented ideological opinions consistent with minister’s views. The NGOs co-operating within the Forum with the Bureau of the Plenipotentiary for Family and Women intended to continue its work but the cooperation was terminated by the minister. The mandate of the Government Plenipotentiary for Family does not include working for the advancement of women. Nevertheless, the new minister was obligated to continue to implement the tasks undertaken by the Government Plenipotentiary for Family and Women, including the Plan of Action for Women. The office of Government Plenipotentiary for Family is located within the structure of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. The Plenipotentiary does not have the right to initiate legislation, but with the consent of the Prime Minister can submit drafts of proposed legislation to the Council of Ministers for approval. The Plenipotentiary has mainly an advisory role in the matters concerning family and children. He is also responsible for the implementation of the conventions and international agreements, to which Poland is bound, especially the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the recommendations of international organizations working for children and youth. The plenipotentiary has a separate budget for the implementation of selected programs and is obliged to submit yearly reports on his activities to the Council of Ministers. In practice, the implementation of the National Plan of Action for Women, the Program “Combating Violence - Equalizing Chances” and the development of local structures for the advancement of women have all been suspended. In some voivodeship offices, the posts of plenipotentiaries for family have replaced plenipotentiaries for the advancement of women (heads of divisions for the implementation of the national action plan). Those offices do not undertake any activities to promote the equal status of women and men. Although the plenipotentiary was formally obligated to implement the National Plan of Action for Women for almost two years, the plan, in practice, has not been implemented. To date, neither NGOs nor the general public have received any reports on the implementation of the program, and all inquiries on the subject from the NGOs have been ignored. Even the report of June 1998, which the plenipotentiary tried to keep secret, reflects the vary narrow extent to which that National Plan of Action has been implemented. Sections presenting the results of the efforts undertaken by the central institutions shows that only the National Labor Office and Central Statistical Office have pursued the objectives of the national plan. Some ministries did not submit information about the results of their efforts to implement the National Plan. The fact that in the report there is no information on the implementation of the Program by the Plenipotentiary for Family shows explicitly his attitude towards the action plan and calls into question his credibility as the co-ordinator of the activities of other central and regional agencies. Women’s Association for Equal Gender Status Beijing 1995 planned to conduct a study of the extent of implementation of the National Plan of Action at central and local levels. As expected, the number of responses to the questionnaires received from central and voivodeship administration agencies was very low. The Association sent 80 questionnaires and received only five answers (from the Central Statistical Office, Ministry of Culture and Arts, Ministry of Health and Social Care, Ministry of Economy and Ministry of State Treasury). Some other short answers received from central agencies confirmed that the National Plan of Action was either unknown or marginalized. According to information received from the central agencies, only the Central Statistical Office, Ministry of Health and Social Care and Ministry of Economy implemented, in a limited way, the National Program of Action. It is worth mentioning that minister K. Kapera issued a written recommendation to the territorial administration agencies, stating: “it is not advisable to provide answers to the questionnaire sent by Women’s Association for Gender Equal Status”. Lack of answers from the central and local government agencies to the questionnaire sent by Women’s Association for Gender Equal Status is not the only example of a common practice of some central and local government agencies to ignore letters and petitions by NGOs. The government also ignored a UN questionnaire on the implementation of the Platform for Action that was to be returned by 30 April. After a long break, the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Family launched a modified version of the Program “Combating Violence - Equalizing Chances”. The program will be implemented through the end of 1999. The program, whose purpose was to help victims of family violence to leave their perpetrators and obtain economic independence, was replaced with a program “helping families and young people being endangered by or being victims of interpersonal aggression.” According to its authors, the main aim of the program is to prevent pathology (whose manifest is violence in families and between young people), inter alia, by the elimination of its causes, and consolidation of family bounds.” Model centers will be opened. They will implement programs of support for families and young people facing or affected by violence. In the program, except in the case of violence against children, there is no clear definition of a perpetrator and a victim of violence. The violence is considered a gender-neutral phenomenon: any member of a family may equally be a victim of violence and a perpetrator. It is difficult to assess such a new program but its guidelines may be a cause for deep concern. If the program’s ideological guidelines are strictly implemented it may really harm women and children - victims of violence. The NGOs hoped that accession negotiations with the European Union will force the government to carry on an active policy for equal status of women and men, but those hopes have not been realized. Poland has done nothing to adjust its legislation to EU standards in the field of equal status of women and men and that issue is probably the last item on the government priorities list. Even the directives binding EU Member States have not been reflected in the Polish legislation. It is hard to tell the extent to which the situation is influenced by the attitude of minister Kapera who is responsible in negotiations for equality policy. The current situation supports the assumption that EU negotiators, concerned with the harmonization of laws also do not prioritize the policy of equal opportunities for women and men. Analyzing the government work and its policies, one may conclude that Polish authorities do not see the need to introduce any institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women and gender equality. The Polish government does not participate in international undertakings concerning equal status of women and men and violence against women. One example of government’s disdain for these issues is the fact that no representative of the Polish government attended a conference on violence, which took place in Köln last March. The conference was organized by the German government, within the framework of the EU Year of Combating Violence against Women. The conference was a very important event - many countries sent delegations led by Ministers of Justice. The conference was a follow-up to a seminar organized by the government of Austria in December 1998. During that conference, recommendations prepared earlier were improved. The recommendations adopted by the conference are considered recommendations for governments to be implemented at the national level. Governments were obligated to present reports on implementation of the assigned tasks at the next conference that will be organized in December by the government of Finland. Although those recommendations are not legally binding for governments, it seems that in the context of Poland’s aspirations to join the European Union, it is very important for it to take part in various activities undertaken by the Union. The Plenipotentiary’s views on the status of women, as reflected in the report on family policy, adopted by the Council of Ministers. One of the principal assumptions is “indissolubility of marriage” and introduction of special salary for women (and only in exceptional cases for men), who would decide to stop their professional career and dedicate themselves to bringing up their children. According to a definition of family prepared by the plenipotentiary, a divorcee with children is not considered a “family”. The debate on the bill on equal status of women and men also reflects the Polish government attitude towards equality. The bill on equal status of women and men was submitted to the Speaker of the Seym in June 1998 (and earlier in December 1997). It was modified many times because of critical comments by the group of experts chosen by the Seym Presidium, and was also criticized by the government. Apart from the quota system, one of the most criticized elements of the bill was a provision to appoint a commissioner for equal status and a parliamentary committee. This critism reprents an explicite expression of the Government and the Parliament negative attitude towards introduction of institutional mechanisms of gender equality. For years, women’s organizations have been calling on subsequent governments to carry out an active gender equality policy. There have been suggestions to appoint a plenipotentiary for equal status of women and men, or even to raise the rank of the agency involved in gender equality issues to a ministry. One of the suggestions pertained to the appointment of a commissioner for gender equality or establishment of a special division in the Bureau of the Commissioner for Citizen’s Rights. Women’s organizations lobbied for special provisions in the Constitution, but that intent failed. At present, the only institutional form of activities supporting women is carried out by the Parliamentary Group of Women (PGK). The Group came into being in April 1991. In the beginning women-deputies from all parliamentary caucuses of the Seym and the Senate joined the Group. This supra-party initiative was based on the common need to protect women’s rights and interests. Now the Group consists mainly of deputies from the Democratic Left Alliance. There are also a few deputies from the Freedom Union. The group is currently composed of 34 deputies and 4 senators, which constitutes 64% of all women-parliamentarians. The main purpose of the Parliamentary Group of Women is to introduce legislative changes which would ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and mechanisms of enforcing claims in cases where women’s human rights vave been infringed. The Group has also attempted to increase participation of women in power structures and has supported initiatives for the improvement of women’s health conditions as well as initiatives for the elimination of all forms of violence against women. The members of the Group have submitted the bill on equal status of women and men. They have carried on a campaign for the right of women to freely decide on their motherhood, including access to safe abortion, sexual education and contraceptives. Since the very beginning, the Parliamentary Group of Women has been co-operating with women’s organizations. On the Group’s suggestion, the Forum of Co-operation between Parliamentary Group of Women and Women’s Organizations has been established. The Forum discussed, among other things, the bill on equal status of women and men, the institution of separation, the extent of preparations for the harmonization of Polish legislation with EU standards in the context of Poland’s efforts to join the European Union. The Parliamentary Group of Women has prepared a project and wanted to propose a set of amendments to the Standing Orders of the Seym aimed at the establishment of the Standing Committee for Equal Status of Women and Men. The purpose of this committee is to address issues originating from the constitutional principle of equal rights of women and men, including the observation of equal opportunities principle in all bills and acts. Special attention was planed to be paid to labor law and social insurance, Family and Guardianship Code, and culture and education. An important task of the committee was also the adjustment of Polish legislation, in regard of gender equality, to the standards of the European Union”. According to the authors of the draft resolution, the committee should also perform an advisory and controlling functions vis-a-vis the government in the equality activities. The proposal to establish the committee was however rejected by the Seym. References:
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