*************************************************************************** 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 PRESENTATION BY VIRGINIA VARGAS, COORDINATOR OF THE LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN NGO FORUM FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN Beijing, 13 September 1995 Madame President, Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, For ten days we have heard many speeches, and it would seem that my presentation here is unnecessary and repetitive. In this concert of words everything has been said. Almost everything, that is. But we have not made advances toward economic justice. Almost everything has been said, but we have not agreed on the mechanisms and resources necessary to implement this Platform for Action. Because of this, and counting on the force, vitality and commitment that characterizes the women's movement in our region, we have participated in the NGO Forum, and we speak today in the heart of the United Nations, seeking results commensurate with the expectations this conference has awakened in us. I speak from the Latin American and Caribbean region where diversity carries a concrete face, where black women, lesbian women, indigenous women, disabled women, refugee women, displaced women, persecuted women, young women, old women, imprisoned women, women of occupied and dependent territories, and women living under economic blockade mobilize themselves and demand of the world their right to have rights. Our efforts have centered on the legitimation and expansion of citizenship for this enormous diversity of women, as well as on the recognition of our human rights. Our horizon of possibility is one of democratic societies centered on people where subordination, discrimination and violence, poverty, exclusion and environmental degradation should have no place. , Despite a context of great adversity we have made gains. This broad women's movement has resisted fragmentation, marginalization and violence. The task has not been easy. Our efforts and contributions have seldom found broad acceptance. And they have almost never been supported by state policies aimed toward an equitable distribution of power and resources between men and women. We have experienced a disproportionate burden. The costs, damages and losses have been profound. We will not allow such treatment to continue, nor we will permit these patterns to continue to affect the lives of future generations of women. This Conference must take a decisive stance for equality and women's full citizenship. We have taken note, with great satisfaction, of the gains made in the face of conservative fundamentalist forces that threaten our dignity. But we have come here not only to defend that which rightly belongs to us. We have come here to affirm our full citizenship. The democracies of the world have an outstanding debt with the world's women, and we demand that this debt be paid. The women of Latin America and the Caribbean, the women of the world, deserve policies and commitment that match our contributions. No more and no less. None of the issues treated here belong only to women. And there are no issues on which we should be forbidden to speak or discussions to which we cannot contribute. We are concerned with global issues. Human rights, military and nuclear disarmament, the eradication of poverty, the expansion of democracy based on a respect for difference, sustainable development centered on those people who are the key to our future. It is most appropriate that the frameworks developed in this conference confront the hopes of women and that the international community not retreat from that which has already been accomplished. It is also critical that precise and concrete strategies to achieve gender equality be set forth by this body. In a manner never before witnessed at a conference of this sort, there are thousands of women here and millions who await us in our countries. All these women are waiting for concrete commitments and the necessary resources to carry out those commitments. We deserve more than words. We have come to this Fourth Conference to obtain firm commitments on the part of our governments and the international community. We want the means to ensure gender justice. No more and no less. We want effective mechanisms and resources that will guarantee the efficient and coherent achievement of the objectives and goals of this Conference. Women demand the removal of all the obstacles which have blocked our struggle for our rights these past two decades. We want to clear the way for new generations of women and men. And we want to broaden the democratic horizons of our societies. In this country of the Great Wall, we demand the dismantling of all those walls which block our progress. Madame President, Latin American and Caribbean women's organizations challenge the governments and international agencies gathered here to give substantive and equitable consideration to the interests and perspectives of women. Poverty, like diversity, has a thousand faces. The millions of women living without productive employment, contracts or social provisions are poor. Those who have no access to land and those who cannot act on their own behalf are poor. Those who experience family violence are poor. The young women who have no access to education are poor. Those who are discriminated against are poor. The eradication of poverty requires the formulation of economic policies centered on people. It requires that investments and expenditures be realigned and reorganized. It is unacceptable that the future, like the present, continue to rest primarily, if not totally, on the efforts of women and their organizations. I ask the members of civil society and the governments gathered here that they recognize that happiness, now more than ever, rests on human dignity. To be happy means not to be hungry. It means having the ability to decide how many children you will have. And it means having the freedom of sexual choice. It means not being overwhelmed by domestic tasks that are not well remunerated or which are taken for granted as part of our duty. It means not living under threat of toxic waste or nuclear disaster. The states and the international community have the responsibility to commit new and additional resources towards the implementation of these objectives. We want what we deserve. No more and no less. Madame President, the women of Latin America and the Caribbean demand that this Fourth World Conference on Women: - Reaffirm and strengthen the victories already gained by women; - Commit the necessary institutional mechanisms and resources to guarantee the implementation of the Conference Declaration and resulting Platform for Action; - Guarantee the human rights of women, reaffirming the universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelationship between human rights and women's rights; and - Ensure that the United Nations allocates the necessary resources to UNIFEM so that this women's agency can continue to advance the consolidation of women's citizenship. The women of Latin America and the Caribbean affirm that in order to achieve equality and equity between men and women, our participation in those spaces and processes where decisions are made must be guaranteed. It is in those spaces where human destinies are decided, where opinions are formed, and where our interests are considered. The 21st Century begins in Beijing. The new millennium is ours.