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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.
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AS WRITTEN


Fourth UN Conference on Women
Beijing 4 - 15 September 1995
Delegation of the Netherlands
Address by H.E. Ad Melkert
Minister of Social Affairs and Employment
Head of Delegation
8 September 1995


Madam Chairperson,

I am honoured to address this Fourth World Conference on Women in
Beijing. It is attended by more government delegates, more NGO's and
more journalists than any other previous UN conference. This great
interest shows that the fight for the rights of women is in the heart of
what moves the world today.

More and more people are no longer prepared to tolerate that women are
treated as second-class citizens. They realize that our children's
future is at stake unless women are given the rights, opportunities,
resources and respect needed to enable them to participate fully and at
all levels in society. Therefore, this conference is not only about the
rights of women. It is also about the responsibility of men. The role of
women is already extensively discussed, but is is high time that we also
update the role of fathers.

Ten years ago we set our goals in the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies
and we declared our firm intent to end all forms of discrimination
against women by the year 2000. Our words were sincere but the actions
that followed were not sufficiently convincing. The facts show that
inequalities between men and women persist. Some progress has been made.
But at the same time we must recognize that in other areas we are at a
stand-still, while in some respects the position of women is worsening.

In many parts of the world the violence of war, often initiated by men,
is destroying the lives and the futures of numerous women. Recent
reports of, for example, Amnesty International show that in many parts
of the world women are maltreated, humiliated, sexually abused and
arrested, simply because they stand up for their rights. Whether it is
domestic violence, forced abortion or genital mutilation, this is still
the real world we live in. These facts are light years removed from the
principles on which the United Nations was founded fifty years ago.
Therefore, twenty years after the first world conference in Mexico, we
have no reason to be complacent.

Words have to be translated into actions, actions which empower women to
fight injustice. The recent UN World Conferences on Human Rights, and on
Population and Development have already contributed to this goal. I
believe that the United Nations can further strengthen the position of
women by establishing a right of petition and an inquiry procedure under
the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women.

In 1994 the UN already took an important step by appointing a special
rapporteur on violence against women. Her first report was very valuable
and her appointment has also encouraged women to speak up louder and
clearer than ever before. A clear example of this was the Tribunal on
Violence against Women held in Huairou. Let us not forget that for many
of the women in Huairou it was not easy and not without risks to speak
up.

Women have certainly made effective use of this conference as a forum to
voice their concerns, to publicize their ideas and to launch a call for
solidarity.

The question whether women's rights are human rights is no longer open
for discussion. At the Vienna conference women's rights were recognized
clearly and fully as an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of
all human rights and fundamental freedoms. We as Member States must hold
each other accountable for safeguarding these rights. Monitoring is
needed to know whether our words really produce effects.

How important the use of gender statistics is, is shown by the 1995
Human Development Report of UNDP. The Netherlands reached fourth place
in the overall ranking for human development. But when gender statistics
were applied we tumbled down to twentieth place. This is mainly due to
wage disparities and the relatively low labour market participation of
Dutch women. This clearly shows the world of difference which still
exists between male and female reality, between statistics and gender
statistics.

Madam Chairperson, I believe that an important key to equality between
women and men lies in the distribution of paid employment and domestic
responsibilities. Women must be enabled to be economically independent.
Employment for women is not only a question of justice. It is a social
necessity and an investment in national economic development.

In spite of twenty years of emancipation policy, women in the
Netherlands still spend twice as much time on domestic care as men.
Statistics show that more women than ever before are gainfully employed,
but still earn less and have lower positions than men. As reported by
ILO more women than ever before are bread winners for their families,
and often they are single parents. Moreover, due to inadequate education
and training many of them have a limited earning capacity and thus the
risk of feminization of poverty is real.

Madam Chairperson, what have we learned from our experience with
policies to advance the status of women? In the Netherlands we have
focused on three areas of concern.

- The first one is the stimulation of the redistribution of paid and
unpaid work while encouraging men to take greater responsibility for
caring tasks. Although both parttime work and parental leave are
becoming more common, they are still mainly utilised by women. However,
we have learned that a government can only play a facilitating role.
Employers and workers organizations themselves should be encouraged to
include issues such as the shortening of working time and parental leave
in their negotiations so that both men and women can combine
professional work and caring tasks.

 - The second area relates to the participation of women in decision-
making. Efforts to encourage positive action have yielded results. For
example, in the Netherlands women now make up one-third of the
membership of both the Cabinet and the Lower House of Parliament. These
and other positive results are also due to women’s own efforts to
infiltrate the old boys' network. When will we see the day that one
third of the captains of industry are women? Unfortunately, it still
sounds like science fiction.

 - Finally, an important area of concern has been the promotion of a
change inattitudes and in the stereotyping of women and men which has
mainly kept women in their perceived role of mother and wife. As part of
its efforts to sensitize the public, the Government launched a media
campaign about the prevention of sexual harassment; not by showing women
as the stereotyped victims but by showing men as perpetrators. The
campaign advocated that "if a girl says no she means no!".

Madam Chairperson, the reproductive and sexual rights of women are among
the most important issues of this conference. I strongly believe that
women should have control over their own fertility and sexuality. They
must be free in their choice of partners. In this respect we must not
tolerate the use of coercion and violence. Also, women should not be
discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. I sincerely
hope that these important issues will be reflected in the Platform for
Action.

Our commitments under the Platform for Action do not only concern our
national policies but a]so our international policies. We know that
women play a key role in the development of every country. That is why
in the Netherlands development cooperation programme gender equality is
a major priority. Moreover, the Development Assistance Committee of the
OECD recently adopted gender equality as a strategic priority for
development, thereby committing the donor community to play its part in
the implementation of the Platform for Action.

Madam Chairperson, this Fourth World Conference on Women reaffirms that
a shift is taking place in how we view the world. We are moving from a
focus on states towards a focus on human beings. With their inspiring
actions to put gender issues on the political agenda of the United
Nations, women have taken their responsibility and have achieved
remarkable change. Now we need more responsible men.

This Fourth World Conference in Beijing is a new inspiration for action
to remove inequality between men and women in a true multi-cultural
society. For the future of our daughters and therefore for the future of
us all.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson