Constitution: Using gender-sensitive language

'Agendering' refers to gender-neutral bodies in which women and men have equal opportunities, equal access to resources and power, and are equally safe and secure.  Agendering in a constitution refers to democratic principles which include rule of law, gender equality and human dignity of both women and men, girls and boys and include equal rights for women and men.

  WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND INTEREST IN THE CONSTITUTION: A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents in accordance with which a state  is governed. The Constitution of Bangladesh has provided very progressive and gender-friendly governance institutions for all Bangladeshis in general and women in particular.  It covers all aspects of equal rights of women with men in public and private life, equal opportunity for all citizens irrespective of men and women.
The Bangladesh Constitution is gender-senssitive, because it stipulated incorporation of specific space for women's rights explicitly and   integration of women's rights   in different Articles of the Constitution as found in South Africa and Uganda.  The 'constitution' of the UK includes both equality and non-discrimination, and the constitution of India includes only non-discriminatory provision, while the constitution of the USA does not mention women.  Hence all these constitutions are not considered agender in true sense.  
 GENDER NEUTRAL LANGUAGE: A constitution, though agender in nature, has differential impacts   on both women and men. In some provisions such as    ensuring equal opportunity, distribution of wealth, basic necessities of life and    opportunity in public employment, the gender-sensitive in nature,  term 'citizens' has been used.  The use of such gender-neutral term 'citizens' tends to privilege men and discriminate against women and may not guarantee gender equality. Hence, to confirm women's rights, the words "men and women" need to be incorporated instead of 'citizens'
MASCULINE GENDER BIASED LANGUAGE:  The Constitution framers had the feelings to have equality in the socio-economic field and build an exploitation-free society.  They were not gender-sensitive due to their patriarchal attitude. That is why in the case of removing socio-economic inequality, the Constitution has used the expression, "men and men". There is also a reflection of masculine language such as "free from exploitation of man by man" for establishing  a socialist economic system. The use of masculine gender-biased language in the Constitution goes against women's rights and privileges.  In practical life, there are examples of inequality between "men and women" and exploitation of females by males especially in the garments, fish processing, rice husking factories, etc.  Hence the masculine language may be replaced by gender-specific words "men and women" in the case of socio-economic inequality and "women by men" to mean "free from exploitation" in the case of socialist society.
The Constitution indicates that men and women have equal rights to contest for the offices of the President, Prime Minister and Member of Parliament. But the inadvertent use of the word 'person' coupled with a 'he' pronoun reinforces its gender bias. In respect to being qualified for election as President and vacation at office of the Prime Minister the Constitution uses also 'he' which are glaring instances of a masculine gender-biased language.  Besides, the Constitution uses 'him' 27 times, 'his' 18 times, 'man' 4 times  as opposed to 'her' for not a single time and 'woman' 8 times . The use of masculine gender or pronoun like 'he',   'him' and 'man' in the Constitution smacks of gender inequality. The South African constitution was thoroughly revised from gender perspective.
RESERVED SEATS FOR WOMEN:  The Bangladesh Constitution has entrenched the principle of affirmative action for   fifty reserved seats for women in parliament.  The reserved seats have raised questions about the effectiveness of women's participation in parliament. Women occupying the reserved seats can only play a subservient role.  Hence women's representation in parliament should be a democratic and effective one; as such, the number of seats for women, whether it is sixty-four or one hundred, should ensure effective representation. There is now the utmost necessity for taking concrete steps to amend the Constitution for effective representative of women in Parliament.
 GENDER DISCRIMINATORY LAWS: The Constitution in Article 27 states: All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection.  In that sense the personal laws, based on religions, are discriminatory in the areas of marriage, divorce, guardianship of children, alimony and property inheritance which is inconsistent with the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) ratified by Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Constitution allows these (personal) matters to be guided by personal laws of each religion.
The Citizenship Amendment Act 2009 entitles Bangladeshi women to transmit their citizenship to their children born out of foreign husbands but they cannot claim citizenship of foreign husbands. Men are allowed to claim citizenship of their wives of foreign origin. This is inconsistent with CEDAW article 9 - "Equal rights to change or retain Nationality of men and women" ratified by Bangladesh. This is also discrimination with regard to citizenship rights between men and women.  
GENDER ARCHITECTURE: The gender-political 'architecture' of a country includes the governance structures to tackle gender inequality and discrimination. A variety of models or approaches are in operation: ombudsman, National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), and the gender equality commission.
Ombudsman: The Bangladesh Constitution has a provision (in Article 77.1) for the establishment of the office of the Ombudsman. It states that the Ombudsman  shall exercise such powers and perform such functions as parliament may, by law, determine, including the power to investigate any action taken by a ministry, a public officer or a statutory public authority. The post of the Ombudsman has not yet been established.  A mechanism like that related to the Ombudsman is essential to investigate, among others, a ministry's performance on gender equality and direct the officers concerned to take appropriate action against a public officer at fault or who neglects to discharge a duty on protection of women's human rights.
NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION: The NHRC of Bangladesh, a statutory institution, has been established in 2009. The mandate of the NHRC is to protect, promote and foster human rights as envisaged in the Constitution and to contribute to the embodiment of human dignity.  However, women's protection from violence, women's equal opportunity in socio-economic life is not explicitly reflected in its mandate. The countries such as the Netherlands and Sweden have established specialised NHRIs to address discrimination, inequality and or women's rights. The NHRC has recently come up with unsolved cases where both women and children have been victimised through rape and murder. Independence of the NHRC is not, however, upheld both in spirit and practice. Hence, NHRC should get constitutional  status to signify its commitment to human rights in general and women's human rights in particular.
COMMISSION ON GENDER EQUALITY (CGE): The CGE needs to be incorporated in the Constitution to ensure it effectively addresses the needs of women and promotes gender equality in society. CGE can monitor implementation of all policies and activities and exert influence on executives for compliance of decisions, if any, on women's rights and interest and  make recommendations on any legislation affecting the status of women and transform society by exposing gender discrimination in laws, policies and practices.  The CGE can co-operate with the NHRC and work closely with the government. In South Africa, parliament passed a legislation to create a National Commission on Gender Equality.
There  is need to form a constitutional review committee with representation from constitutional lawyers, teachers of law, prominent parliamentarians, representatives of women's rights and human rights organisations  and gender experts  to examine, review  and suggest amendments to the constitution. The amendments need to ensure making the Constitution gender responsive in all aspects to reflect women's issues and true aspirations of women and men.
The writer is retired Joint Chief, Planning Commission.
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