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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 to the Fourth World Conference on Women
Document submitted by: Women and Fisheries Network,
on behalf of the Environmental Caucus
11 September, 1995


We have come to Beijing this year to make history, or as some prefer to
call it, “herstory”. We have come to agree to a significant new accord in
the universal pursuits of Equality, Development and Peace. We have come
to find ways to eradicate poverty, to prevent violence against women, and
to ensure our equal representation. Above all we have come to assert that
women’s rights are human rights.

Yet, somehow in all this, we must remember that a sound and healthy
environment is crucial for the full enjoyment of human rights. Without
the foundation of an earth which can provide enough fertile soil, pure
water and diverse ecosystems to meet our most basic needs, and those of
all other species, the well-being, and even survival, of future
generations is in question. The environment is linked in a fundamental
way with virtually every issue we have been negotiating at this
conference. The Platform for Action itself fails to adequately address
the gender-specific dimensions of environmental concerns, and has
marginalised these areas from the discussion of mainstream political,
social and economic issues throughout the document. That the environment
remains so poorly integrated in the wider text is lamentable, for it is
at the very heart of Equality, Development and Peace.

Equality

Empowerment and equality must be built upon the provision of equitable
access to natural and other resources by women, and the preservation of
these. It is entirely unacceptable that so many women and girls continue
to be deprived of vital resources, and are forced to walk tens of
kilometers every day in search of clean water and fuel, or indeed to do
without these necessities altogether. It is intolerable that women have
formal rights to only 1% of the world/s land. Where women have no power
to determine how land, forests and fisheries are cared for, their
traditional ecological wisdom is being lost.

We must honour and promote traditional women-centered systems of cultural
and indigenous knowledge, fully assessing and incorporating the wisdom
and values of working in harmony with the environment. We must ensure
that indigenous peoples are the primary beneficiaries of any commercial
utilization of knowledge which they have discovered and maintained for
centuries.

Development

It has been acknowledged that poverty and environmental degradation are
deeply connected; the poor, and particularly women, are the most affected
by and least equipped to respond to environmental deterioration and
resulting health problems. The environmental and gender insensitivity of
economic restructuring policies, including structural adjustment, has
intensified the obstacles facing women globally, and has jeopardized food
security. The insidious global economic system has disenfranchised the
majority of the world's population, plunged them into crippling debt, and
deprived them not only of 80% of the world's resources, but of the right
to economic self-determination.

Economic justice requires a critical reevaluation of this system.
Environmental justice requires industrialised societies to reverse their
unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, as well as to
eliminate environmental hazards which fall disproportionately on certain
communities. It depends upon stopping the current over-exploitation of
natural resources by the few, and learning to live, with equity, within
our share of the earth's environmental space.

Peace

Human and environmental security is dependent upon the peaceful
resolution of political disputes. Warfare, and reckless military
expenditure and experimentation, are among the greatest threats to this
earth and its peoples. The insistence by some governments to engage in
nuclear testing, in spite of enormous public disapproval around the
globe, is criminal. Landmines continue to maim and destroy life
needlessly. We must reject armed conflicts and end the tragic history of
refugee flows and displaced persons, who suffer doubly, and trebly - as
they are hit with famine and epidemic disease after the cruel loss of
their loved ones.

And, as environmental problems intensify, they will increasingly become
the actual source of armed conflicts.

Call for commitments

The environmental caucus seeks commitments from all nations to take
actions to ensure that women, and all people, can exercise the right to
live peacefully in a sound and sustainable environment. In relation to
Equality, Development and Peace, we are asking for three commitments in
particular.

1. We call on governments to allow women equal rights to control over
their own lives, environment and living conditions, based on equal and
equitable access to decision-making structures, resources and formal
rights to land.

2. We ask all nations to commit to the critical examination of the
present development model, challenging the paradigm of ever-increasing
economic growth, which has actually intensified poverty and hardships to
women and their families and led to the large-scale destruction of the
ecosphere.

3. We urge all nations to seek non-violent solutions to conflict, and to
implement and enforce a comprehensive ban on the testing, production and
use of nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction.