 
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Saturday, June 10, 2000
By Ann McFeatters, Post-Gazette National Bureau
Women: Work In Progress
UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. General Assembly special session assessing the state of gender equality ended this week's "Beijing-plus-five" conference yesterday without breaking much new ground but without retreating from the goals set five years ago in China.
Many of the 10,000 to 12,000 women attending the conference and its satellite meetings concluded that they had made no bold, new steps on the road to gender equality because of basic disagreements over abortion, the need to change cultural patterns of behavior between men and women, whether there are "sexual rights," the extent of government involvement in family planning and anger over the U.S. refusal to drop economic sanctions against Iraq and Cuba.
Issue 11: Wartime rapists being prosecuted in international court
Nancy Hahn: Opening of low-power TV spectrum opens door
Issue 12: Women rising higher in television, radio
Dr. Sajma Suler: Johnstown doctor intimately familiar with issue of war and women
For those who took part, the changes were profound
Help for women in poverty gets a failing mark
Ugandan delegate warns U.N. parley on failure to act
Women still are victims of violence
Many women worrying final report will be weak
After 25 years of international women's conferences, "it is a sad and sobering reality that women continue to be deprived of basic and fundamental rights because of measures imposed in certain countries," Janet Bostwick, the Bahamas' minister of foreign affairs, told the General Assembly in the waning hours of its 23rd special session.
Many delegates and representatives from international women's groups expressed frustration that the Vatican, which has permanent observer status at the United Nations, and some Islamic countries spent much of the conference trying to weaken provisions of the Beijing conference's platform for action on such issues as family planning, criminalizing marital rape and violence against women. These same opponents also were demanding new expressions of support for traditional motherhood.
U.S. delegates expressed relief that major changes were not made to weaken goals toward women's rights set forth in the Beijing action plan, but they also expressed regret that a week of intense wrangling behind closed doors did not result in strengthened statements.
As the conference wound down, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was concerned about the lack of consensus and demanded that the delegates not renegotiate the 150-page Beijing document. Also concerned, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke began lobbying delegates yesterday morning to prevent major changes.
The special session ultimately produced a consensus document that calls for "gender equality, development and peace and an agenda for the empowerment of women," such as equal pay for equal work or work of equal value.
"Beijing was not rolled back," insisted Angela King, assistant U.N. secretary-general for gender issues and advancement of women. And on some topics, she said, there were new specifics, such as a call for universal criminalization of violence against women in the domestic sphere and declarations about how globalized markets hurt some while rewarding others and about the need to make technology available to the poor.
Some attendees had been concerned about what the consensus document would say, including lesbians who did not get special language giving them "sexual rights," and it was not always clear who won what. But King recalled that, at the first women's conference in Mexico, there was not a document adopted at all.
Now, women are eating better, learning more and living longer under laws that call for an end to discrimination, she said.
Christine Kapalata of Tanzania, who was officially in charge of the negotiations among delegates regarding the 60-page-plus document, said that after a week of sleepless nights, she and others were determined not to have a "Beijing Minus Five document."
Leticia Shahani, who was in charge of the Nairobi women's conference in 1985, reminded delegates at yesterday's closing session that apartheid and the Cold War still existed 15 years ago, yet women nonetheless got together to form a consensus document. "We have to remember how precious our gains have been," she said.
Gertrude Mongella, who was secretary-general of Beijing's 4th World Conference on Women in 1995, yesterday said, "What would have happened to the women of the world if we didn't have the United Nations? It has helped the women of the world become one political party, if I might say it -- one trade union."
Beijing was the biggest conference (40,000 women) the United Nations has ever held, she said, but "it was important because we worked as women to identify our common threads in 12 specific areas, despite our differences, and we got a commitment from every government [189 participated]. We made it very clear we would not be divided because of our diversity."
After the conferences in Copenhagen, Mexico City, Nairobi and Beijing, it is distressing that the United Nations has not honored all its commitments made in Beijing because of competing governments, Mongella said. But when she goes back to Africa and sees the progress, she said, "nobody can ever destroy that."
Most of all, she said, the United Nations has broken the taboo in many countries against talking about rape, female genital mutilation, child marriage and other issues.
Shahani said governments around the world now take women's issues seriously, instead of making them the exclusive domain of non-governmental organizations.
"Women's issues are legitimized now, and women around the world have a real network," she said. "The United Nations make sisterhood global."
She and dozens of others said they were thrilled to see women in all forms of cultural garb, many clutching cell phones and laptop computers, filling the halls of the U.N. Secretariat.
Mongella said that as a black African woman, "I used to worry about whether I belonged on the planet. Now, here I am, and you all know who Mama Mongella is."
A Spanish woman who said she had attended all 25 conferences expressed disappointment in the conference that she was leaving without a final document in her hands.
"It seems to me that we are still a long, long way from holding the power," she said. "The governments still hold the power, negotiating behind closed doors. I think this is a dark moment for women's rights."
But Mongella countered: "You may feel you are in a seat on a train moving backward. But this started in the Industrial Revolution. And now, our concerns are on the Internet. We just have to persist."
Shahani said that in many of the negotiating sessions, it was only the few male delegates who spoke of globalization and changing the structure of the present-day world.
"It's time for women to take on the tougher issues of business and politics," she said.
Mongella said her message now is: "Sell us in Africa technology. Don't sell us arms; it is immoral."
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.