ISO: PAN
***************************************************************************
The electronic version of this document has been prepared at the Fourth
World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
Secretariat.
***************************************************************************
AS WRITTEN


Republic of Panama 
IV WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN 
"Action for Equality, Development, and Peace"

Address by Dora Boyd de Pérez Balladares
First Lady of the Republic of Panama

Beijing, 5 September 1995


Madam Chairman

The Panama Delegation is pleased to have your wise counsel during the 
deliberations of this Conference sponsored, with generous hospitality 
and style, by the Government of the People's Republic of China. Allow 
me, Madam Chairman, to convey, through your kind offices, our kind 
regards and sisterly greetings to all the women of China. 

Madam Chairman: 

My mission today in presiding the Panama Delegation to the Fourth World 
Conference on Women is an honour which carries the commitment to place 
ourselves above personal concerns and aspirations in order to show the 
world a sampling of the hopes and achievements of Panamanian women. My 
voice today is the voice of Panamanian women, who wish to be 
acknowledged, who wish to share their experiences and their 
accomplishments, and who wish that this world encounter will bring their 
hopes closer to reality. 

My voice is also the voice of the Government of Panama. On its behalf, I 
announce our willingness to invigorate the letter and spirit of the 
Action Plan that this Conference will be called upon to approve. 

With the creation of the United Nations, impressive progress was made to 
ensure that all nations and persons of good will join efforts in 
establishing conditions of justice and equality. Similarly, the United 
Nations also made enormous contributions in ensuring respect for the 
fundamental rights of all human beings and fulfilment of essential human 
needs. 

During this lapse of fifty years, the world has witnessed unprecedented 
growth that has modified and inordinately expanded the challenges ahead. 

The United Nations normative action has reached a unique and 
irreplaceable level. This should now be complemented with other actions 
to place women at the centre of the Agenda for Peace, Development and 
Equality. Compliance with the Action Plan we trust will be approved 
during this Conference, will redress centuries of discrimination, and 
millions of days and nights during which women were historically 
eclipsed, as a result of aberrant social and cultural fixations that it 
is now our duty to abolish. 

For this reason, Madam Chairman, we think it is important that this 
Conference address the problem of inequality between the sexes, from the 
perspective of gender. Established as an analytical category within the 
social sciences, gender allows us to identify more clearly how society 
and culture have schemed to create abysmal inequalities that go beyond 
biological differences and, in many cases, have relegated us to a 
position of disadvantage and oppression . 

“Actions for Equality, Development and Peace”, the motto that has 
summoned us here today, make us think that the moment for postulates and 
speeches has passed. 

Twenty years have elapsed since, within the framework of the 
International Year of Women, the First World Conference was held with 
women as the central axis of the problem, the debate and the solution. 
As never before in human history, during these twenty years, there has 
been extraordinary progress in terms of health, education and women's 
incorporation into the labour force. We have an International Convention 
that constitutes one of the most thorough documents for promoting 
equality, as well as thousands of laws and pronouncements that accredit 
us as beings with rights and potential. 

Nevertheless, we must admit that, at the internal level within each 
country, conditions persist that, directly or indirectly, preclude or 
hinder the effective incorporation of women in the development process 
and in the enjoyment of its benefits. 
It is, therefore, the moment for action, the moment to define what we 
should and what we wish to do in order to attain equality, development, 
and peace. 

Interpreting the feelings and wishes of important sectors of organised 
women, our National Government has created the National Council for 
Women, an authoritative and advisory body to guide in defining public 
policy with respect to women, in different sectors of society and 
institutional life. This Council, represented on an equal basis by 
government and civilian society, constitutes the highest-ranking 
organization that has ever been established in Panama to address the 
problems of women. We commit ourselves, as government, to support this 
entity, so that it becomes the true driving force in speeding up the 
demolition of persistent barriers. 

On the other hand, true to the agreements acquired in the recently-held 
Social Development Summit, we reiterate our commitment to work for the 
eradication of poverty, and this commitment necessarily includes 
allocating greater resources and designing new strategies for the 
effective incorporation of women. 

Only a new development style that is participatory, integrative, 
efficient and sustainable can guarantee that women participate on an 
equal plane. Only by offering opportunities that t allow the voices of 
fifty percent of the population to be heard, as t' well as their full 
integration in the democratic process and in building a new society, can 
we pursue development so that all human beings -men and women - become 
the ultimate goal of development.

Indigenous Panamanian women will also be a top priority in our 
government. Still largely deprived of adequate education and health 
services, they swell our poverty statistics, revealing a jolting reality 
that must be confronted with resolution, but with absolute respect for 
our cultural diversity. Indigenous Panamanian women, however, have been 
able to raise their voices, and their presence at this Conference 
completes that portrait of our national identity. 

Panama, Madam Chairman, is a small country with an untiring devotion to 
peace, unity and service, where the spirit of Contadora - cradle of the 
Central American peace process - survives. 

The end of the century provides new opportunities to honour our devotion 
to universality, pacifism and human service. We refer to the future 
establishment in Panama of a City of Knowledge, a world centre for 
research, information and knowledge that, from our strategic geographic 
position, could in turn foster a network of centres of cultural, 
scientific and technical excellence. The City of Knowledge could become 
the ideal site in which to establish an International Centre for the 
Study and the Promotion of Women, to analyse problems, search for 
solutions and take decisive actions in all matters concerning the women 
of the Americas and the world.

To place military installations at the service of knowledge and to 
rectify inequalities is our commitment and our proposal. Our territory, 
our geographical position, and those buildings that once housed soldiers 
constitute our offer. We are certain that, in this endeavour, we will 
count on the co-operation of specialised institutions and organisations 
with demonstrated expertise and efficacy in these matters. 

I have mentioned, Madam Chairman, some of the commitments of our 
government to ensure effective compliance with international agreements 
and our national commitment to fully integrate women in the development 
process. However, the most important commitment that we Panamanian women 
assume before this Conference is to continue to make our voices heard, 
to become true protagonists in our history and our destiny.-