Gender Equality Policy
Summary
The Media and Migration Association (MMA) declares its firm stance against all forms of discrimination, sexual harassment, and violence to ensure gender equality. This policy document sets out the guiding principles and mandatory requirements for mainstreaming gender within MMA’s management and operations. The document states a framework that promotes gender equality and prevents gender-based violence and discrimination. MMA commits to forming a safe and inclusive working environment for all its employees, volunteers, stakeholders, and participants. The policy ensures that everyone, regardless of gender, has equal rights and opportunities. In line with this policy, all activities are conducted to take into gender-sensitive budgeting and a gender equality perspective account. The policy principles clauses are founded upon international conventions, ILO 190 and CEDAW. MMA continuously supports and advances its employees’ and stakeholders’ commitment to gender equality. The implementation of this policy is monitored and regularly reviewed. MMA enforces a zero-tolerance policy against harassment, violence, and discrimination.
Definitions
Gender: Gender, as generally defined, represents the roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society, at a particular point in time, assigns based on the gender identity attributed at birth, typically within the binary framework of men and female. Gender roles are part of a broader socio-cultural context, shaped by factors of race, ethnicity, age, class, economic status, poverty level, and geographical conditions. The socially constructed binary perception of gender gives rise to differences and inequalities in the distribution of responsibilities shaped by gender roles, access to resources, and decision-making opportunities among different gender identities. As pressures surrounding gender-based stereotypes and roles intensify, prejudice, discrimination, violence, and consequently, rights violations against individuals who do not conform to these stereotypes also escalate. Nevertheless, the concept of gender encompasses factors of gender identity, sexual orientation, and gender expression. In its commitment to gender equality and mainstreaming MMA, recognises diversity beyond the binary understanding of gender and implements its inclusion policy accordingly.
Gender Equality: Gender Equality denotes the equal visibility, power, and involvement of individuals in all spheres of public and private life, irrespective of their gender identity. Gender equality stands in contrast to gender inequality, rather than gender difference, and seeks to encourage equal participation in society.
Gender Mainstreaming: Gender mainstreaming is an approach to programming and institutional change that facilitates the implementation of global commitments to gender equality and the empowerment of women and LGBTQ+.
Gender- Sensitive Approach: Gender-sensitive approach recognises gender differences and promotes the control of resources, decision-making, and the empowerment of women and LGBTQ+. This approach aims to ensure that both women and men have equal opportunities to participate in and benefit from an intervention while encouraging targeted measures to address inequalities.
Gender Sensitive Indicators: Gender-sensitive indicators are tools designed to assess changes in gender identity, sexual orientation, and gender expression within society over a period.
Gender Responsive Budgeting: Gender-responsive budgeting is a strategy that creates budgets that work for everyone. By considering and analysing the unique and diverse needs of every person, gender-responsive budgets strive for a fair distribution of resources.
Gender Analysis: means a critical examination of how differences in gender norms, roles, power structures, activities, needs, opportunities and rights affect men, women, girls and boys in a certain situation or context. It includes collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data and gender information to understand gender differences and gaps, determine gender differentiated impacts and risks, to identify measures to avoid adverse gender impacts, and to uncover and act on opportunities to address gender gaps and inequalities relevant to the activity.
Gender Gap: Gender Gap means any disparity and inequality between women and men’s condition due to their position or role in society. It concerns inequalities in terms of their participation, their access to opportunities, rights, power to influence and make decision, incomes and benefits, and control and use of resources.
Discrimination: means constitutes a set of negative attitudes and behaviours against an individual or group driven by prejudices related to identity characteristics of language, belief, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, and philosophical, and political views. These can occur in the form of disdain, avoidance, exclusion, hatred, denial of rights, maltreatment, and various types of physical, verbal, psychological, or economic violence.
Gender-Based Discrimination: Gender-based discrimination encompasses all discriminatory behaviours and attitudes exhibited towards a person or group due to their gender identity, sexual orientation, gender expression, and/or gender traits.
Gender- Based Violence: Any form of harm caused to an individual or group on the grounds of their gender identity, sexual orientation, gender expression, and/or gender characteristics. Gender-based violence can take various forms, including sexual, physical, verbal, psychological, emotional, or socio-economic violence.
Harassment: It is the act of engaging in unwanted and distressing or obtrusive behaviour towards another person without their consent. Such conduct creates a disturbing, intimidating, hostile, and insecure working environment, resulting in the targeted individual feeling threatened and humiliated, whether this is intended or perceived. Harassment takes the form of words, gestures, or actions intended to disturb, alarm, exploit, deceive, intimidate, belittle, degrade, or embarrass another person. Harassment can be directed towards a person or multiple individuals with common characteristics or qualities, as indicated in the definition of discrimination.
Sexual Violence: Sexual violence refers to any attempted or completed sexual act directed at a person without their consent or the person is unable to give or withhold consent. Sexual harassment, assault, and abuse are also encompassed within the definition of sexual violence.
Sexual Harassment: Defined as non-consensual, discomforting conduct, words, and/or actions of a sexual nature, whether visual, verbal, or behavioural. It can occur either overtly or subtly. Continuity is not a prerequisite; a single occurrence is sufficient for it to be considered sexual harassment.
Sexual Assault: This refers to the breach of a person’s bodily autonomy through sexual conduct without their consent, or in circumstances where consent is not sought or is assumed. It can form as either a simple or aggravated sexual assault, with no requirement for continuity.
Sexual Abuse: Sexual abuse means the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions. Sexual abuse acts committed against individuals under the age of 18 are classified as child abuse.
Sexual Exploitation: Sexual exploitation means any actual or attempted abuse of position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially, or politically from the sexual exploitation of another.
Retaliation: This involves the covert or overt obstruction of a person’s work or organisational environment as revenge for refusing sexual or emotional advances, including expressing the intent to or file a complaint on perceived gender-based violence, or for expressing the intent to or reporting observed cases of gender-based violence.
The Media and Migration Association (MMA), through this policy document, declares its commitment to upholding gender equality in all its work and operational processes in line with its aims and objectives. It pledges to constitute a working environment free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination. MGD states that everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their potential under equal conditions. MMA supports equal opportunities for everyone, regardless of gender, age, race, class, religion, belief, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status, disability, or health condition, to express and utilise their potential under the principles of equality and social justice. Media and Migration Association has, through monitoring, research, advocacy, and network-building activities, worked towards constituting and maintaining objective, pluralistic, inclusive, and participatory media perspective with a focus on refugee/migrants rights, as well as actively combating discrimination and hate speech since its establishment in 2020. In this context, MMA maintains its advocacy efforts against sexist discourse, discrimination, and hate speech particularly directed towards refugee and migrant women, and LGBTQ+ individuals, considering the freedom of expression and its restrictions as set out in Articles 9 and 10 of the ECHR.
In all its activities, MMA gives priority to ensuring that rightsholders, especially in terms of ethnic and gender identity, are represented in decision-making bodies. Ensuring the redistribution of power through economic, social, and political empowerment is crucial for the achievement of gender equality. For this reason, MMA aims to provide safe culture of support and solidarity at the institutional level that allows its employees to develop, grow, and reach their full potential without any gender-based discrimination. In line with this, MMA upholds the rights of target groups and/or disadvantaged groups and other relevant stakeholders, while maintaining a zero-tolerance policy against gender-based violence, all forms of discrimination, and sexual harassment. MMA advocates for a participatory, inclusive, and pluralistic approach to constructing a fair, non-discriminatory society that advances gender equality, and it actively encourages the involvement of all its members, volunteers, employees, and stakeholders in this cause.
In this policy, the adoption of comprehensive action plans, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), ILO 190 Convention 190, and Sustainable Development Goals 5, 10, and 16, has been taken into consideration. MMA recognises that the challenges of gender inequality issues intersect with other forms of oppression based on unequal power dynamics such as patriarchy, homophobia, ethnic discrimination, racism, ageism, disability discrimination, religious and belief-based discrimination, class, and colonial history. MMA acknowledges that human rights violations and social violence in the context of migration are shaped by intersectional discrimination against refugees and migrants, women, and LGBTQ+ individuals. Therefore, it engages in media and civil society activities to reduce structural barriers to gender equality and to advance women’s and LGBTQ+ rights against discrimination for social justice, equality, and peace. In carrying out its work, MMA collaborates with human rights defenders in social movements, activists, feminist and gender-focused organisations, media stakeholders, academic institutions, public bodies, progressive private sector actors, and other key partners.
MMA represents its commitment to adopting a coordinated approach to gender equality, participation, and inclusivity with this policy paper. The purpose of this policy paper is to set out MMA’s institutional culture regarding gender equality and to define the internal and external practices, principles, and objectives it pursues to advance gender equality and reduce gender-based violence. Central to MMA’s institutional principles is the strengthening of the representation of women and LGBTQ+ individuals in the media sector, as well as the implementation of gender-sensitive projects and programs in the media. The policy paper articulates MMA’s commitment to:
The overall aim of this policy is to establish gender equality within MMA and in all its associated units, branches, and economic enterprises. Additionally, it aims to establish mechanisms, programs, processes, and practices to promote gender equality in accordance with MMA’s areas of work. In this context, this policy paper outlines the principles, scope, implementation methods, and MMA’s explicit intent, taking into consideration international conventions. This policy paper is grounded in five core principles:
MMA undertakes all its activities, projects, and programs with a gender-sensitive approach.
This policy paper implements to all units, employees, and relevant stakeholders of the Media and Migration Association. This policy paper is implemented in all activities of the MMA and will be regularly reviewed. In case of any violation of gender equality, progress will be monitored and reported in line with the identified indicators. This policy sets out the Media and Migration Association’s commitment to and determination regarding gender equality.
All employees, members, institutional bodies, and enterprises within MMA are responsible for the implementation of this policy. MMA employees, members, and service providers must make every effort to review and fully understand the implementation of this policy document. Moreover, MMA aims to provide the necessary conditions and opportunities for mainstreaming gender equality within its institutional operations under the guidance of competent experts.
This policy paper is a response to MMA’s commitment to accountability towards the communities the policy, and it is integrated into MMA’s broader framework of responsibilities. It is implemented in conjunction with other related policy documents.
