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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


STATEMENT OF THE DELEGATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE SUDAN
At The Fourth World Conference on Women,
Beijing, China, 4-15 Sept. 1995

Presented By: H.E. Mrs. Mariam Osman Sir El Khatim,
State Minister for Social Planning, Head of Delegation


In the name of Allah, the most merciful and compassionate.

Madam Chairperson,
Distinguished heads of delegations,
Ladies and gentlemen and all honorable participants,

Peace and God's blessings be upon you all,

Thanks be to God, the creator of all worlds who says in the holly Koran
what can be interpreted as follows: (verily we have honoured the children
of Adam. we carry them on land and sea, and have made provision of good
things for them and have preferred them over many of whom we created with
a marked preferment) (Men and women of faith are reciprocally caring,
they ask People to do good and to stop doing evil) (The All Mighty treat
the work of both men and women equally in the weigh of judgment)

And the prophet of Islam, peace be upon him, says endorsing the
functional equality between men and women on earth (women are the equal
partners of men) and He stresses (The dignified treatment of Women) and
he mentions that (The dignity of men can only be preserved if they treat
Women with all due respect and deep cordial appreciation)

It gives us profound pleasure that this Fourth World Conference on Women
held in the Peoples Republic of China, the friendly country that has
multidimensional constructive Relations with our beloved country Sudan.
These healthy and fruitful relations are an outgrowth of historically
rooted mutual understanding between the two nations, manifesting itself
in genuine cooperation in the process of struggling against
underdevelopment in all its forms and shapes. The relationship between
Sudan and China is a model of mutual respect and deep appreciation that
should be followed between nations in all aspects especially in terms of
non-interference in the internal affairs of each other and thus realizing
and enhancing each country's sovereignty. The great nation of China is
the homeland of one fourth of women world population and in China they
are enjoying equitable rights and fully participating with dignified
enthusiasm in building their great nation.

With all this in mind Sudan extends its highest regards and appreciation
to the Government and People of China for their hospitality, their well
organized and efficient preparations to host this conference.

In the name of a country that all its concerns are about peace, I am
addressing you in this conference whose main issues are equity,
development and peace. In my country women attained equitable just
rights. The Sudanese law denies all forms of discrimination against women
and in reality the law in Sudan is in favor of women especially in the
area of labor and wages, ( equal pay for equal work ). In my country the
woman is legally qualified and she enjoys rights to property, rights to
testimony independently from the husband.

The People of Sudan are peace lovers, Sudan tried every possible mean to
realizing peace. This is because we have been suffering the misery of war
that had been initiated by colonialism. The foreign intervention into our
internal affairs widened the war scope and hampered sincere efforts aimed
at the attainment of peace and realization of development in Sudan. We
are here to declare for all peace lovers and peace makers, and to those
who don't know any way but peace as a style of human life, our sisters
women, we would like to tell you with joy and proud that our Government
persistent efforts, counter to all propaganda, have successfully resulted
in limiting the area of war and minimizing its dreadful painful impact
that you all know that it has affected most women and children. By now
hundreds of thousands war affected refugees have returned back to their
homelands in Sudan and they are substantially participating in the
development process of the southern region and hence enhancing the
developmental efforts all over Sudan.

Your sisters, women of Sudan have been playing an important and
influential role in peace realization from within the country and today
in most of the war affected areas government departments are headed by
women. This is because the Sudan government is the first to comprehend
the concern of women in the realization and preservation of peace. The
state Governor of Bahr El Gebel State, the Peace and Reconstruction
Minister of EL Bohairat State and the mayor of the Upper Nile State all
of them are women.

Sudan believes that the comprehensive development process can only be
realized through promoting human resources and that the human beings are
at the center of concerns for sustainable development. The government of
Sudan in its affirmative pursue to preserve not only the human rights but
also dignity of women. To achieve that it established a Ministry for
Social Planning which is now one of the biggest federal ministries. Three
national councils areas well established; one for the Social Planning,
the second for population issues, and the third for children affairs. As
well six ministries of Social Planning and Culture were established in
six States out of the twenty six States that comprise the Sudan federal
governing system. In all these fundamental Social activities women not
only participate but also have the upper lead in these institutions.
These institutions are functionally related to the National Economic
Planning Council and all work in harmony to pursue the set of goals
stated therein, in the ten- years comprehensive national strategy (1992-
2002). Since women concerns are multi-magnitudenal and interdisciplinary
in nature, the women of Sudan believe to promote their cause officially,
and non-officially through the whole spectrum of governmental
institutions and non-governmental organizations, instead of limiting
their efforts by establishing a ministry for women affairs.

Beside the effective participation of women in the preparation of
strategies, plans, programs and policies, ( at all levels; federal and
local ), women are also participating in legislative institutions. Women
are as well at the heart of the political machinery and its
operationalization from the grass- roots to the top. However it is worth
mentioning that Sudan High Judiciary Court is blessed by three women
membership. In the executive apparatus of the Sudan government we find
women who are ministers at both federal and state levels. Women of Sudan
are highly situated in the administrative leading positions and work in
various wide range fields of specialties; as university staff,
researchers, senior administrators, diplomats, and military service
staff. In all these professional and other levels of employment women
receive equal pay and equal fringe benefits and pensions beside their
privileged special rights that pertain to their reproductive role. Women
struggle in Sudan through history is commemorated by their full
participation in the leadership of trade unions, in the popular forums
and in the NGOs. Women of Sudan formulated the working Women Associations
whose function is to raise women awareness to fully participating in
trade unions and to protect and activate the women rights stated in
Sudan's constitution and laws. The National Salvation Revolution of Sudan
consolidated all these set of agenda for promoting women cause and
creating a conducive political environment for women to realize peace
equity and development. The Sudanese women union, the strong youth women
wing within the youth union, beside more than twenty operating women NGOs
and women popular defense forces, all are manifesting the government
commitment to the women - specific cause.

Madam Chairperson,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

My country's deep concern is to achieve women equality, to secure all
their rights, to satisfy their moral, spiritual and material needs in all
aspects of social life. To secure women educational and health rights.
Sudan has priotorized women and children beginning with comprehensive
vaccination scheme in which Sudan had achieved international record in
1990. Sudan continued to keep up this standards. Moreover the federal
ministry of health established a special administration for maternal and
child welfare with counter regional administrations. In the field of
Education enrollment rate for women doubled six times in the year 1995
compared to 1989.

The number of Sudanese universities reached twenty six universities
compared with five in the year 1989. And with all pride I convey to your
esteemed gathering the Sudanese women students out-numbered Sudanese men
students in sixty six university faculties in different majoring, and
that the year 1995 is declared as the year for compulsory basic
education.

The spiritual and ethical dimensions of development are pivotal to our
country. Since family as a social unit is very important to our
developmental conceptions we introduced collective marriages through
marriage councils to create a society based on refined social values. And
to enhance family capabilities a higher council to coordinate productive
family system was introduced to combat poverty and hence provide more
employment opportunities, also along the same lines came the
establishment of a bank for social development to ensure financial
resources with simplified and flexible conditions. This with the
extension of social welfare mechanisms through the establishment of
orphans and widows support system.

The concept of a one parent mother family is an exceptional social
phenomenon in my country, The Sudanese mother will be responsible for
supporting her family in case of absence of the father due to death or
disability. and even then the extended family system which still exists
takes over the support of widows and orphans.

These sectors of the society receive the special care of the state which
has established various specialized welfare councils. Both official and
popular efforts of the society go hand in hand for the welfare of these
vulnerable groups aiming at creating a capable society depending on
itself, qualified with its own innovative initiatives.

This conference as unprecedented global gathering for women was met with
special concern from Sudan government. From the early stage a national
preparatory committee was set up to ensure the participation of all women
and concerned men through regional conferences that were concluded by a
national conference under the auspices of The President of the Republic
Omar Hassan Ahmed El- Basher and in which two sound decisions were taken
by the President of the Republic namely the release of all mothers
prisoners and the generalization of maternity and nursery units in all
work places in Sudan. The latter was meant to consolidate the role of
working mothers.

Madam Chairperson,

With all these blends of experiences and achievements in mind Sudan is
attending the Fourth World Conference on Women filled with positive
aspirations and open spirit. we regard the conference as positive
indicator for the international community's concern to improve women
status.

We are looking with great appreciation to the draft declaration, the plan
of action and the valuable efforts of the Chinese organizing committee.

We perceive that a major task is still awaiting the conference to reach a
document that will receive blessings and acceptance and achieve
consensus. several controversial issues are still ahead of us, those are
of great importance to the world community at large and to the developing
countries in particular:

First: How to tackle the persistent efforts of some groups aiming at
infringing state sovereignty and independence of other states,
interfering in their internal affairs, trying to impose acceptance of
international documents denying the right of a state to reservation upon
certain articles not only that, but also by leading a persistent efforts
to impose measures build on conventions not ratified or recognized by the
victimized states.

Second: The trend not to recognize cultural diversities on the global
level and the tendency to impose one set of cultural values as
indispensable and solitary model of values deprive the international
community from benefiting effectively from the vast and diverse human
heritage.

Third: The ongoing marginalization of the role of religion, spiritual
heritage of humanity and ethical and moral values in the process of
development in general an particularly in the development of women has to
be noted. The draft resolution is full of articles that oppose religions
in general and well known respected values like the approval of abortion
and absolute sexual freedoms.

Forth: In light of intentional confusion to the image of the family, the
role of maternity as a mean for social stability, I would like to state
in this respect that my country does not recognize any other form of a
family other than that based on marriage between a man and a woman
blessed by religions and based on refined human traditions.

Fifth: I would like to note the disrecognition of the difficult situation
of women under occupation circumstances, immigrant women and women under
the plight of war and aggression. From among this groups we would like to
point out the agony of the Bosnian women that must have deeply touched
the conscious of the whole world.

Sixth: The implementation of the platform for action requires extra
resources which many of the developed countries are reluctant to
contribute to. This will hamper the social development of women in the
developing world. These countries resist any effort to release the burden
of the accumulated foreign debts of the least developing countries as one
means of supporting women development programs.

I would like to reiterate my country's concern to draft a document that
achieves consensus and ensure women development that will maintain
equality justice and peace. The above mentioned goals can not be attained
unless we exert an endless efforts to amend the proposed platform for
action.

Madam Chairperson, distinguished members,

I conclude my statement with a sincere appeal to your excellencies to
give special consideration to draft a human document that stipulate just
rights of women, achieve equality, justice, dignity and maintains
necessary resources to reach our future strategic goals. We hope to
accomplish a document that will be a base for a new world, guided by
complimentary efforts of both men and women in harmony, coordination,
purity and peace.

The woman issue is not a clash with her partner the man, true equality
rests on equality of opportunities, duties and rights that recognize the
biological functional characteristics of the two sexes and enable each to
use her/his potentials to the maximum indiscriminately. The true freedom
is the freedom of thinking and the true happiness of the human community
can be fulfilled by the collective efforts of both women and men.

Thank you Madam Chairperson.