Political Party Guidelines Eng

3.6 Discrimination
The CEDAW Convention (see Chapter 1) defines discrimination against women
”...any 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.” 26
Discrimination can be direct, or it can be indirect. Direct discrimination has the intention of discriminating.
If a person is treated unfairly by someone simply because of who she or he is, this is direct
discrimination.
Forms of direct discrimination can be classified as:
1. Current discrimination;
2. Past discrimination – historical discrimination;
3. Intersectional discrimination – multiple forms of discrimination faced by subset groups
of people based on their sex, ethnicity, religion, caste, language, social or economic status,
geological location.
Indirect discrimination is more difficult to define. Indirect gender based discrimination is action or
inaction that has the effect of denying women their ability to exercise their rights. Usually it is connected
to practices, policies or rules which apply to everybody in the same way, and which place one
person or some persons at a disadvantage.
If, in your political party, you are in the habit of holding important meetings in the evenings, meetings
which go to the late hours, this can be called indirect discrimination. Why? Because there may
be mothers of young children, who really would like to attend, but they cannot as they have to be at
home putting their children to bed. (It is also worth remembering that these mothers of young children
might be able to contribute a lot. Without them, talent is being wasted.) So, to avoid the pitfall of
indirect discrimination, it is better to agree to have meetings at such times that all can attend.
There is also discrimination that we are not aware of ourselves. This kind of behaviour was researched
at Yale University. 27 Scientists working for the university were given an application by
a student applying for a lab manager position. A part of the scientists got the application with a male
name, another with a female one. The result was that the “female” applicants were rated clearly lower
than “male” applicants. The “female” applicants were also offered a much lower pay. The scientists
doing this rating were both men and women. Scientists generally take pride in being objective, but
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GUIDELINES FOR POLITICAL PARTIES IN MYANMAR