ISO: SYR
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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


THE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC
STATEMENT BY THE HEAD OF THE SYRIAN DELEGATION
DR. SALHA SANKAR
MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 4TH. WCW
BEIJING, 12 SEP. 1995


Madame Chair Person,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are meeting today while the eyes of the world are looking towards
Beijing, the city of history and civilisation, hosting this important
event, where the world states and nations are discussing women
questions and future at the beginning of the 21st. century.

On behalf of the Syrian delegation, allow me please, first of all, to
express our deep gratitude to the People ' s Republic of China,
government and people, for organising and hosting this great
Conference representing the world governments and hundreds of NGOs
concerned with different aspects of development questions. This is an
indication of the Chinese government cooperation with and support to
the UN's activities for achieving equality, development and just
peace for all the peoples of the world.

I also thank Mr. Butrus Butrus Ghali , the Secretary General of the
UN, for the excellent planing and efforts exerted for the success of
this Conference. I also express a special appreciation for Mrs.
Gertrude Mongella, the Secretary General of the Conference, for the
distinguished role she played at different stages of preparing and
organizing this conference which, we hope, will be a lightsign and a
reconciliation point in mankind civilization, a field of equality
between women and men and a call for a complete development in which
all peoples participate in the development of their societies on the
bases of a just peace based on the invariable principles approved by
the international laws, so that women live in a more secure and just
world.

We want this Conference to be special in its results in the light of
the objectives it specified : Equality, Development an Peace, and in
the light of the approach it adopted for setting programs of action
and machinations.

Three World Conferences were convened before this Conference: Mexico
Conference in 1975, Copenhagen Conference in 1980 and Nairobi
Conference in 1985, in addition to other specialized conferences on
women which discussed women issues within the framework of
environment, human rights, social development and population and
development. No wonder that women are given such attention. They are
the longest revolution history ever known.

We want this Conference to reflect the hopes of women all over the
world, hopes of bringing about equality, equal opportunities and the
strengthening of right values and legitimacy firm principles which
allow all peoples to live in peace. We want this Conference to
complete the previous conferences in clarifying the real vision of
human beings and help peoples determine their present and future. All
these conferences ascertained that equality of both sexes is one of
the national priorities and. They reflected the world conception of
social, economical and political problems. The secret of development,
now and in the future, lies in human beings, and they themselves are
capable of facing the accelerated challenges.

The Syrian Arab women stand proudly while living their humanity,
freedom and equality which were accorded to them by the Corrective
Movement which removed all obstacles hindering their advancement and
prepared constitutional and legislative conditions helping women to
participate in public life. This advanced woman towards leading
positions.

The economical development in Syria led to the achievement of human
development for both sexes. Education became a national issue making
available for each individual his/her need of knowledge as a human
being without sex discrimination Therefore, women education was
promoted in order to motivate their awareness, elevate their
thinking, develop their knowledge and qualifying them for choosing a
suitable work in which they participate creatively.

Syria comes in the forefront of the developing countries which paid
attention to all stages and forms of education. The percentage of
illiterate women in Syria dropped from 55.2% in 1981 to 30.6% in
1993. In 1980, the percentage of female students was 26.12%, and in
1993 it went up to 39.8%, and in the same year, the percentage of
female students in higher studies ( post graduates ) became 44.25%.

University female students prefer to study applied sciences and
specializations which will give them more job opportunities when they
are graduated. Attention paid to education was accompanied by a
similar attention to health care which was positively reflected on
women, so that the general fertility rate went down from 7.5% in 1978
to 4.3% in 1993, and mothers mortality rate went down from 18% in
1960 to 7% in 1993. The expansion of mother care and family planning
centers and the national comprehensive campaigns of vaccination
against infantile paralysis helped in providing a good healthy
environment in which women and children have the biggest share.

Women education and health care come within the framework of
appreciation her role. Because women are the base of human civic
heritage. They are the influencing factor in bringing up the
forthcoming generations. They strengthen their children respect of
moral values and abidance by the firm principles. They give them
determination and hope. Therefore, women should be enabled to perform
their full role in building the homeland and advancing the society,
and the amelioration of women life conditions will undoubtedly be
positively reflected on family life.

Madame Chairperson,

The Corrective Movement enabled women to enter the world of work and
guaranteed them several benefits, such as kindergartens and paid
maternity leave in order to concile work and family responsibilities,
so that the family status will be strengthened and mothers can
perform their role correctly.

The mass organizations, specially the General Federation of Women in
Syria, combat illiteracy among women, educate them, train them and
qualify them in order to play their role at work and in decision
making, in such a way as to maintain family unity and protecting it
from disintegration. We are endeavering to update the legislations
pertaining to family regulations in order to be in coherence with
reality and present time facts, so that they will guarantee the
family development opportunities and ability to participate in the
comprehensive development process and in building the economical base
on which social life stands. In doing so, the family is assisted by
work organizing, income distribution, increase of economical linkage
and technical qualification of women for new forms of work, the
development of production and the endeavour to find additional
resources .

In most countries, women wage is three quarters of men wage, but the
working women in Syria are paid the same wages as men, because we see
that paying women less wages does not only mean their economical
deterioration, but it also means the undermining of their social
position .

The economical plurality system, adopted by Syria, helped open
opportunities for women participation in several industrial fields in
order to perform a new economical role. This, in many cases, requires
the development of legislations and the reorganizing of resources to
fit the methods of production and styles of consumption.

We give increasing attention to women health care and work safety and
provide more service utilities for them at the sites of work.

The participation of women with men at work field laid the way for
women participation in power and decision making, politically
economically and socially : in parliament, in ministries, in party
branches leadership, in local administration councils, in
jurisdiction and in diplomatic work at the foreign ministry. It is
enough to say that the percentage of Syrian women in the
parliamentary life amounted to 9.6% in 1994. This is an indication of
the maturity of women and society and the firmness of democracy in
Syria.

Madame Chair Person,
Ladies and gentlemen,

The Conference Program of Action discussed the phenomenon of violence
against women. In our country, family violence does not constitute a
significant phenomenon due to our values, norms and traditions which
bring about social control over anything which is morally
unacceptable. But the Syrian women in the occupied Syrian Golan
Heights, in south Lebanon and in the occupied Arab lands suffer the
violence of occupation , displacement, armed conflict, environmental
catastrophes and economical crisis.

We urge the international community and the international
organizations interested in establishing a just and comprehensive
peace to support Syria in her just defence of her legitimate rights,
and we appeal to peace loving countries to demand the implementation
of the resolutions issued by the Security Council, the General
Assembly and all other UN` s bodies, specially resolutions 242, 338
and 425, and we insist on the full withdrawal of Israel from the
occupied Arab territories till pre-1967 lines, and we request their
support to the Arab women under the Israeli occupation yoke and to
protect them from political violence which should be ended, and to
eliminate armed conflicts by solving them peacefully. We also confirm
that the national struggle against occupation is a legitimate right
of the peoples, and the concept of struggle is absolutely different
from the concept of terrorism. we condemn terrorism and support
national struggle for the restoration of the legitimate rights of the
Arab people. We demand that action be taken to make our region free
from all mass destruction weapons. We also demand international
monitoring over countries possessing nuclear weapons and to ban the
burial of dangerous wastes and radio active materials in the Arab
region in order to protect the lives of the citizens, specially women
and children. We ascertain that dealing with women should be based on
respect to human rights and international conventions. We condemn all
forms of suppression, blockade and starvation policies followed by
Israel against the Golan women for their rejection of the I Israeli
identity and their adherence to their Arab Syrian identity .

Madame Chair Person,
Ladies and gentlemen,

The seminars, researches and work groups which we witnessed during
this conference are healthy indication embodying the attention given
to women questions with their social, economical and political
dimensions. Women constitute half of the society of any country, and
while we thank each and everyone who worked for making this
conference a reality, we hope that it will enrich the conception,
clarify the position and ameliorate the programs and machinations
aiming at the development of women and the evaluation of their
position concerning equality, development and just and comprehensive
peace.

While we mark the 50th. anniversary of the foundation of the UN
organization, which was founded for peace and which shaped the
principles of human dignity and the respect to human rights, we
confirm our commitment to the major causes for removing the obstacles
which hinder the work of women. They are commitments  emanating from
the principles approved by the Conference Program of Action in order
to affect qualitative change in the roles of women in Syria. It is
our opinion that efforts should be concentrated and directed towards
activities, paying special attention to the category of women who
will play a future role, such as young women or women who invisibly
participate in development, such as the rural women and housewives,
in addition to the attention paid to special categories of women who
suffer from problems or disabilities that necessitate their
assistance in order to overcome their problems and strengthen the
fabric of the society, maintain national unity and stability which
Syria enjoys.

Setting an international strategy by the sponsors of the conference
in order to activate women and strengthening the ties of solidarity
among the women all over the world and the development the entire
mankind require the advanced country to reconsider their policies and
economical strategies towards the developing countries in such a way
that will help the solidification of an international effective co-
operation based on equality and mutual respect.  Let us unify our
efforts for equality, development and peace, for commitment to human
rights and laws, and for creating a more secure, stable and
prosperous world and for combating a 11 forms of violence and for
strengthening human rights, men, women and children.