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Friday, June 09, 2000
By Ann McFeatters, Post-Gazette National Bureau
Women: Work In Progress
UNITED NATIONS -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright yesterday arrived four days late to the United Nations' conference on women that she had pushed to convene, alarmed at the dissension and tense negotiations over adoption of a final consensus document.
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Speaking to a General Assembly special session focusing on progress toward gender equality in the five years since nearly 40,000 women met at a U.N. conference on women's concerns in Beijing, Albright admonished those who are trying to prevent a provision that would criminalize violence toward women from being included in the final report to be adopted today.
"It is no longer possible, after Beijing to argue that abuses against women are merely cultural, and that there is nothing any of us can do about them," she said, "because when a woman is raped, beaten or mutilated, it is not cultural -- it is criminal. And no government, after Beijing, can deny its responsibility to stop these crimes."
Later, a caucus of women who want tough language putting the U.N. imprimatur on governments that adopt new laws punishing violence against women complained their views were being disregarded. They said their concern was being compromised by tradeoffs that would water down provisions in the Beijing conference document regarding reproductive rights.
But other delegates are worried that if such language is included in the final document, it could result in governments being denied U.N. aid or services if cultural violence in their countries doesn't diminish. And other groups fear that the United Nations could be starting to "meddle" in member nations' internal affairs.
Albright conceded that in the United States, some Republicans in control of the U.S. Senate won't permit ratification of a 1979 treaty called the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. At least 165 countries have ratified it, but the United States is one of the few that have not -- a source of rancor among conference delegates this week.
"Some senators would like us to give up," Albright said. "But we will not, because there is no weariness in a cause that is just. Have no doubt: We will be back again and again until this convention becomes the law of our land."
With 10,000 to 12,000 women in New York City for the five-year review of the status of gender equality, there is general discontent that the document is being written behind closed doors and is a week late in being finished. As a result, there is considerable frustration among groups that have not been able to get what they want included in the final report.
For example, lesbians were among the angered interest groups, arguing that recognition of their "right to sexual identity" was being left out. Tang Suvarnananda of Thailand told a group of about 150 lesbians among the conference's non-governmental participants, "Even though we are tired and frustrated, we are not going to stop and not going to be intimidated."
The delegates, who represent their governments, and those representing other groups also are upset that they have not been able to devise a way by which they can help to prevent wars. Jordan's Queen Noor is among those who are trying to create new ways to link women's groups with international security concerns. She and others argued that women should be part of all stages of peacemaking, and that women too often are not included at the peace table.
"Women and men can experience conflicts differently," said Angela King, the U.N. special adviser on gender issues, arguing that without the female perspective in peacemaking, the peace won't be adequate.
Other women this week have been arguing for more female involvement with the international war crimes commission.
Navanethem Pillay of South Africa, the only woman on the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, noted that after nearly 500,000 Rwandans were killed within 100 days on orders of some government leaders, the tribunal has been able to arrest 42 people and convicted eight of genocide. But she noted that when that tribunal began its work, no international crime of rape was recognized.
Partly because of Pillay's efforts, there is now an international definition of rape that is gender-neutral: It is defined as a physical invasion of a sexual nature of a person under coercive circumstances, including threats and intimidation.
But she noted that the only other existing tribunal, which was convened to look into genocide in Yugoslavia, has so far had no convictions. and most of the people it has charged with war crimes have not been arrested.
Pillay and Mary Robinson, U.N. high commissioner for human rights and former president of Ireland, believe that women will get more redress from international law than in any other way. Both said they were heartened that there has been some improvement. For example, Robinson said, she argued a case on behalf of an Irish woman which set the precedent that a government has a duty to assure its citizens legal aid if they can't afford it.
But, like Albright, Robinson said: "I am distressed to hear that some delegates are moving away from [goals previously adopted in] Beijing. I regard this as crucial, because a failure to respect women's rights encourages discrimination. If [the United Nations] does not endorse the repeal of laws making homosexuality a criminal offense, it will create intolerance."
Meanwhile, at least 24 GOP members of Congress wrote the U.S. mission at the United Nations, conveying their "alarm" that increased access to abortion and provisions regarding "sexual rights" will be included in the conference's final document. The lawmakers called "sexual rights" a "new and dangerous term, to which there are virtually no limits."
There is increasing doubt that there will be another major women's conference sponsored by the United Nations; U.N. leaders have indicated that these conferences are costly and they don't think another one is necessary. Worried about that, delegates and non-governmental representatives this week have been trying to organize e-mail lists and Web sites to stay in touch and working on providing Internet access to women in developing countries.
Sarah Murison of the U.N. Development Program on Gender said getting Internet access for women is, after poverty and violence, the third-most-important problem women face globally.
Richard Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, saw that itself as a sign of progress, noting that five years ago in Beijing there had been no talk of a "digital divide."
The series continues 
A Work In Progress
The Post-Gazette today continues to look at how women's lives have changed -- for better or worse -- in a dozen key categories identified at a U.N.-sponsored conference in Beijing five years ago.