From: beijing-conf-digest-owner@mail.edc.org To: beijing-conf-digest@mail.edc.org Subject: Beijing Women's Conference Digest V2 #65 Reply-To: beijing-conf@mail.edc.org Errors-To: beijing-conf-digest-owner@mail.edc.org Precedence: Beijing Women's Conference Digest Tuesday, 29 August 1995 Volume 02 : Number 065 In this issue: Beijing Used as Political Football NGO Forum shaping up as milestone Earth Times covers Beijing process The Micronutrient Initiative The Micronutrient Initiative Wages Due Lesbians Action Alert Dharamsala condemns Beijing meet Unesco contrib re: MOSCOW_-_WOMEN 23.8 See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the Beijing Women's Conference or Beijing-Conf-Digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.org (Debra Guzman) Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 10:56:00 +0100 Subject: Beijing Used as Political Football ## author : 75570.421@compuserve.com ## date : 21.08.95 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 21, 1995 Press Release.....Press Release.....Press Release..... Contact: National Women Count Network Margaret Prescod, P.O. Box 86681 Los Angeles CA 90032 (213) 221-1698, fax (213) 227-9353 Phoebe Jones Schellenberg, P.O. Box 11795 Phila PA 19101(610) 668-9886, fax (610) 664-8556 e-mail: 75570.421@compuserve.com UN WOMEN'S CONFERENCE USED AS POLITICAL FOOTBALL The needs and interests of women, in particular women of the grassroots, are being sacrificed to political jockeying in Washington DC, where the attendance of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing has come under question, and in fact has become a centerpiece by politicians who are making power plays at women's expense under the guise of championing the cause of human rights. Are human rights violations really the motive of those urging Mrs. Clinton to stay home ? Or are there other agendas? Data worldwide has clearly established that the human rights of women, particularly those at the bottom of the economic ladder, are violated the most. Those who are serious about addressing the problems women face worldwide, including human rights violations, recognize such posturing for what it is: a cynical maneuver by those who would make political hay at women s expense, and who have little or no interest in sexism or the daily deadly mix when sexism combines with poverty, racism, ageism, homophobia, industrial and military violence, that millions of women and girls face on a daily basis. What seems more to the point of the public effort to restrict Mrs. Clinton's movements is an attempt to derail public attention and focus from the shocking examples of women's overwork and underpayment as well as other inequities -- also human rights violations -- including those most recently brought to light in the 1995 UN Human Development Report the UN Development Program released on August 17: that world economies are dependent on the unvalued and undervalued work of women which many governments seem to be quite happy to let happen behind their backs, while women continue to be treated by policy makers as charity cases. Mrs. Clinton remarked at the launch of the UNDP Report, "Women care for most of the world s children. And women do more than their share of the world's work." At an earlier press conference launching the US Department of Labor s Working Women Count survey she prefigured this UNDP report when she said, "The split between working women and homemakers is a misnomer. All women work." The 1995 UNDP Report quantifies in detail the inequities women face, concluding that $11 trillion is unaccounted for in official measures of the world's economy because women's work is unvalued and undervalued, which puts women at a tremendous disadvantage in all areas of life in this world: economic, social, legal and political. Women are fed up with those in governments who ignore the burdens we bear, despite their feminist-laced rhetoric. Women s work is largely not officially measured and valued, as shown by the UNDP Report, and other studies and statistics, yet women are counted on to keep every economy going. Those trying to restrict the First Lady from participating in the UN Fourth World Conference on Women are not counting the work of thousands of NGO staff, volunteers and grassroots women living in the US and elsewhere who have put in years of fundraising, organized community-based conferences and meetings, drafted documents, and done other preparatory work to ensure that the voice of women, including those from the bottom, not only the voice of governments, are heard at this crucial juncture in history, which the Conference signals. Proposals will be made at this Conference which will affect women and girls into the next century, a matter that women, unlike some in policy-making positions, can t afford to take lightly -- their survival and their children's survival depend on it. Whether or not the First Lady, the Honorary Chair of the US Delegation to the UN Conference, goes to the Beijing Conference determines whether the US is serious about sending a strong message, not only to China, but to governments around the world that the US government at the highest levels takes seriously and is ready to work for the human rights of Harry Wu as well as the human rights of hundreds of millions of women and girls who suffer worldwide, including in the US; such a message can be conveyed by Mrs. Clinton's presence and participation in the official US Delegation. The National Women Count Network is a network of organizations and individuals who support measuring and valuing women's unwaged work, and includes prominent women's, labor, civil rights, human rights, and other organizations. It is part of the International Women Count Network, whose delegation to the UN Conference will present governments with a strongly-worded paragraph signed by over 600 NGOs representing millions of women and men worldwide, including in the US, urging that unwaged work be measured, valued and included in satellite accounts of the gross domestic product of countries throughout the world. ------------------------------ From: DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.org (Debra Guzman) Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 11:59:00 +0100 Subject: NGO Forum shaping up as milestone ## author : theearthtime@igc.apc.org ## date : 21.08.95 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- NGO Forum shaping up as milestone By Jack Freeman Earth Times News Service BEIJING--It's 32 miles from this city, the site of the Fourth World Conference on Women, to Huairou, where nongovernmental organizations of the world are meeting at the NGO Forum being held in conjunction with the Conference--but nobody can say for sure how that distance will affect either meeting. Or indeed, whether the physical distance will have any effect at all. When the Chinese government announced that it was moving the NGO Forum from Beijing to Huairou, after finding what it said were structural faults in the stadium originally scheduled as the site, many NGO leaders objected, arguing that the distance between the two sites would make it difficult if not impossible for them to lobby the delegates attending the UN Conference. But when the Forum's organizers announced--after receiving assurances of improved transportation--that the Huairou site would be satisfactory, such objections faded away. Gertrude Mongella, Secretary General of the Beijing Conference, told The Earth Times in an interview that 2,000 NGOs have been accredited to attend the Conference and another 1,000 NGO people will be admitted each day as observers. "If those 3,000 NGOs cannot influence 180 governments," she said with a chuckle, "well, how many do you need?" The central fact about NGO involvement in UN conferences is that it has been growing rapidly ever since NGOs were invited to participate--in a limited way--in the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, better known as the Earth Summit. People who attended that Conference, or the concurrent NGO Forum, recall that there was a considerable physical distance between those two events too, with the Conference held at Riocentro and the NGO Forum in Flamengo Park. In Rio the two events ran on parallel tracks, with hardly any interaction. The NGOs even produced an alternative "NGO Summit" document that differed substantially from the document signed by the heads of state in Riocentro. At various times during the Summit, selected NGO representatives were given briefings by delegations, including the US delegation, to let them know what was happening in Riocentro. At each of the UN conferences since Rio, the interaction between the NGOs and the "official" conference has increased. At the Vienna Conference on Human Rights, NGOs were allowed to address the plenary meeting. And current plans for the Habitat II Conference, scheduled for Istanbul next year, call for virtually identical treatment for NGOs and government delegates. At the Cairo Population Conference last September, some reporters covering the Conference came to realize that they could glean valuable insights into its inner workings by attending the daily briefings of the Women's Caucus, which was attended chiefly by NGO women who were also members of national delegations. That, according to some observers of the UN scene, is a reflection of the key change that has taken place in the way conferences are run. In the three years since Rio, many NGO people have moved from the role of observers and lobbyists--that is, outsiders--to participants in the process either as members of national delegations or as NGO delegates accredited to the conference. At the same time, the role of the NGO Forums has been transformed. Even in Rio, NGOs were able to do relatively little lobbying of the national delegations, and that chiefly at cocktail parties and other after-hours social events. Reporters who covered the Cairo Conference say its outcome shows how effectively the NGOs--and the women's NGOs in particular--were able to make their presence felt. The NGOs at Cairo had little if any incentive to issue an alternative document. On the other hand, the NGO Forum held in conjunction with the World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen last March did issue its own program of action. The organizers of the NGO Forum in Huairou say they do not expect it to issue anything similar. ------------------------------ From: DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.org (Debra Guzman) Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 12:00:00 +0100 Subject: Earth Times covers Beijing process ## author : theearthtime@igc.apc.org ## date : 21.08.95 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Earth Times covers Beijing process An Editorial To people who have attended United Nations conferences in the past, The Earth Times needs no introduction. We first appeared as a daily newspaper for the final Preparatory Committee Meeting before the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, better known as the Earth Summit. (Our original name was The Earth Summit Times.) We were there in Rio de Janeiro, publishing daily editions through the Summit's duration. We have also published daily editions to cover other important UN conferences, including the Population Conference in Cairo and the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen. And our people were on the scene to cover the Human Rights Conference in Vienna and the Small Islands Conference on Barbados. At the same time, we have been publishing our regular twice- monthly editions covering, on a regular basis, the "beat" that is uniquely ours in the world of journalism: important news about the environment, development, human rights, population, women's issues, health and other topics of global interest.. These issues are, of course, all interrelated. And all will be directly affected by whatever happens at the Fourth World Women's Conference. As Timothy E. Wirth of the US State Department has observed, the issue of women's equality has been the thread unifying all the UN conferences held since Rio. The Earth Times was there in Rio to report how the women's claims, stated so forcefully by the Women's Environment and Development Organization and other NGOs, came to overshadow some of the "traditional" issues of environment and development. We were there in Vienna to report on the impact of Unifem's campaign to ensure that "women's rights are human rights." We were there in Cairo to report on the shift from numerical population "targets" to emphasis on the reproductive rights and reproductive health of women. We were there in Copenhagen to report on the global acceptance of the principal that eliminating poverty would be impossible without raising the status of women. Now we covering the Fourth World Conference on Women. It is still too soon to say what it may or may not accomplish. What we do know, however, is that whatever happens in Huairou and Beijing is certain to make important news, not only for the UN or the NGOs, but for everyone on our planet, now and for generations to come. And The Earth Times is proud to be a part of it. --Jack Freeman ------------------------------ From: DAzimi@idrc.ca Date: 24 AUG 95 16:42:01 EDT Subject: The Micronutrient Initiative The Micronutrient Initiative (MI) was established in 1992, as an international secretariat within the IDRC in Canada, by its principal sponsors: Canadain International Development Agency (CIDA), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Bank. The MI's mission is to advance global efforts to eliminate micronutrient malnutrition (MNM). The MI aims to raise awareness about the significance of the problem of micronutrient deficiency in women, and the possible solutions to the problem by highlighting the significance of MNM in diminishing the capacity of women to benefit from, and contribute to, sustainable development. More than 2 billion people globally suffer from micronutrient malnutrition - the deficiency of nutrients such as iron, iodine, and vitamin A. The majority are women. For social and biological reasons, women and girls are especially vulnerable. Reducing micronutrient malnutrition can have a profound effect on women's health, child survival, educational attainment, worker productivity and economical development. Immediate actions are needed to apply the well-known and economical solutions available. For additional information, please contact The Executive Director, The Micronutrient Initiative, c/o International Development Research Centre, 250 Albert Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1G 3H9, Canada. Tel: 1-613-236-6163 Ext. 2118, Fax: 1-613-236-9579; Internet: TGUAY@IDRC.CA **** Attachment message(s) will follow in 1 separate transmissions. ------------------------------ From: DAzimi@idrc.ca Date: 24 AUG 95 16:42:01 EDT Subject: The Micronutrient Initiative **** Main message start ... too long to be included **** Main message end **** An attachment message follows ... Influencing the agenda for the UN Conference and the NGO Forum: 1. During the final Commission meeting in March/April 1995 and the weeks before The UN Commission on the Status of Women has the responsibility of drafting the main document to be adopted at the Conference. There will be a change for NGO input... MI has: * Prepared an information kit (includes a 24 -minute video, a set of postcards, wallchart, etc), * Prepared Suggested Amendments to the Platform for Action document so that it will better address women's nutrition concerns, and has widely distributed theses documents to other agencies and promoted that they too endorse the statements and raise the issues in opportunities that might arise. 2. In the moths preceding Beijing * Mount a targeted campaign distributing strategic communications materials (video and written materials) through a mailing list comprised of delegates to the UN Conference, and to the NGO Forum. *Networking through e-mail (forums and conferences are being organized) and personal contacts. 3. At Beijing * The MI will organize Workshop on "Women and Malnutrition", * International broadcast of the video through WETV, * The video on "Women and Ending Hidden Hunger" will be shown during the videofest. ****************************************************************************** Women: Prisoners of Hidden Hunger SUPPORT THESE AMENDMENTS!!! Comments and suggested amendments to the UN Draft Platform of Action for Women (version dated May 24, 1995) Major omissions The section on health (section C) must adequately address nutrition. This was not done in the earlier drafts of the Platform, and is still a serious weakness in the document. At the very least, the Platform for Action for Women must fully acknowledge the existence and significance of the nutritional deficiencies that affect women worldwide. Strategies and actions to help solve nutritional problems, and specifically to address micronutrient deficiencies, are indeed available and well-known and have been accepted at a number of international fora and are supported by over a hundred countries, UN agencies such as UNICEF and the WHO, and by international technical groups such as the International Council for the Control of Iodine deficiency disorders, the International Vitamin A Consultative Group and the International Nutritional Anaemia Consultative Group. The magnitude and importance of the problem of malnutrition in girls and women must be explicitly addressed. Over 2 billion people worldwide suffer from nutritional deficiencies. The majority is female and most live in developing countries. Energy, proteins, vitamins and minerals are essential for normal growth and development, and for preventing premature death and disabilities such as blindness and mental deficiencies. Poor nutrition affects activity, growth, health, learning ability, work performance and overall quality of life. Women are vulnerable to malnutrition, for social and biological reasons, throughout their life cycle. There is an urgent need to ensure good nutritional status so that women can enjoy better health and participate more fully in society, and so that the education and learning goals for girls and women can be attained. Iodine deficiency disorders, nutritional anaemia and vitamin A deficiency must be mentioned in the document. Not to do so would be a grave omission. In this draft, there is NO mention at all of iodine or vitamin A deficiencies, and only slight reference to the problem of anaemia for women. Up to 159 countries have signed Declarations produced at three international conferences-- ie., the World Summit for Children (1990), Ending Hidden Hunger (1991) and the International Conference on Nutrition (1992)--in support of the achievement of the following three goals by the year 2000:  The virtual elimination of iodine deficiency disorders  The virtual elimination of vitamin A deficiency and its consequences, including blindness  The reduction of iron deficiency anaemia in women by one third of the 1990 levels. Actions to address these micronutrient deficiencies are well known and often technically easy to apply--dietary improvement through education and increasing the availability of and access to micronutrient-rich foods, supplementation and food fortification. The costs are low and the payoffs large. This document does not give enough attention to promote these solutions; and, in some instances--eg., section C2 which should discuss preventive programmes--very superficial and inadequate attention is given to actions that can be taken to alleviate malnutrition in girls and women. Statements that describe the practical and feasible actions must be mentioned in the Platform for Action. Suggested amendments and additions- Section C. para 94, line 9. After sentence ending in "..have an adverse impact on their health" begin next sentence with: "Lack of food of adequate quality and quantity and inequitable distribution of food for girls and women in the household leads to poor nutritional status in women, and millions of girls and women worldwide suffer from deficiencies in energy and nutrients such as iron, iodine and vitamin A, with well-recognized and severe health, social and economic consequences." Continue next sentence as per the draft, ie., "Inadequate access to safe water, sanitation facilities,...." para 98, line 9. Revise the bracketed text as follows, to ensure that anaemia is specifically mentioned. "[Most of these deaths, health problems and injuries are preventable, [through improved access to adequate health-care services including safe and effective family planning methods and emergency obstetric care, and the prevention and control of anaemia.]" (Delegates please note: Almost half a billion women are anaemic, largely due to an inadequate quality and quantity of iron in the diet. 50% of pregnant women worldwide have anaemia, and in some countries this reaches as high as 80%. Anaemia has serious effects on women's health and contributes to intrauterine growth retardation, low birth weight and increased maternal and perinatal mortality. Each year around 500,000 women die in pregnancy-related causes; 20% of these deaths are directly attributable to the effects of anaemia.) para 95, line 7. Add after sentence ending with "...nutrition services as they mature." "Malnourished adolescents are especially vulnerable to pregnancy and childbirth complications which can even end in loss of life." para 99, line 4. Amend to read: "....social, developmental, nutritional and health consequences of HIV/AIDS...need to be seen through a gender perspective." Strategic objective C1. para 107, (b). Amend the paragraph to read as follows. "Reaffirm the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health and nutrition,..........review existing legislation, including health legislation, as well as policies, where necessary, to reflect a commitment to women's health and nutrition and to ensure...wherever they reside." para 107, (w) Amend paragraph to read as follows. Promote and ensure household and national food security, as appropriate, and implement nutrition interventions and services in order to improve the nutritional status of all girls and women and honour the commitments made in the World Declaration and Plan of Action for Nutrition, the Policy Conference on Micronutrient Malnutrition and the World Summit for Children to achieve the following goals by the year 2000, namely: the reduction worldwide of severe and moderate malnutrition among children under the age of five by one half of 1990 levels, giving special attention to the gender gap in nutrition; the reduction of iron deficiency anaemia in women by one-third of the 1990 levels; the virtual elimination of iodine deficiency disorders; and the virtual elimination of vitamin A deficiency and its consequences, including blindness. (Delegates please note: Up to 159 countries have supported all four goals at a number of international meetings on nutrition held over the past five years. Vitamin A deficiency and iodine deficiency disorders are not at all mentioned in the final draft Platform for Action, even though it is known that millions of girls and women suffer from these deficiencies and that these are nutritional deficiencies that have great potential to be overcome in the short-to intermediate term.) Strategic objective C2. para 108, (e). line 4. Amend to read: ["...can acquire knowledge about their health and nutrition....]" para 108, (p). Revise sentence to read: ["Ensure that medical school curricula and other health care training include comprehensive and mandatory course on women's health and nutrition ..."] para 108 bis. Text to be added: "Implement programmes for the prevention and elimination of malnutrition, including reducing anaemia, eliminating vitamin A deficiency and iodine deficiency disorders. Programmes to improve the delivery of iron-folic acid supplements to pregnant and lactating women, and the promotion and the consumption of foods rich in iron and vitamin A, or enriched with these essential nutrients, must be supported. The regular consumption of iodine through fortified foods such as iodized salt provides protection to present and future generations against the tragic consequences of iodine deficiency disorders, and programmes for the universal iodization of salt by the year 2000 must be supported. (Delegates to note: Iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) are a public health problem in over 110 countries and over 1.6 billion people worldwide live in iodine deficient areas. IDD is the leading cause of preventable mental disabilities in the world today.) PLEASE SUPPORT THESE AMENDMENTS!! ------------------------------ From: DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.org (Debra Guzman) Date: Mon, 28 Aug 1995 11:01:00 +0100 Subject: Wages Due Lesbians Action Alert ## author : 100010.2311@compuserve.com ## date : 21.08.95 - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTION ALERT TO THE NGO COMMUNITY RE LESBIAN ACCREDITATION TO THE BEIJING CONFERENCE >From Wages Due Lesbians, Spain, UK, USA Tel: (415) 626 4114; (610) 668 9886; (44) 171-837 7509 Fax: (415) 626 4114; (610) 664 8556; (44) 171-833 4817 E-mail: WDL 100010,2311@compuserve.com Re: Accreditation of Wages Due Lesbians to Beijing Conference Wages Due Lesbians (WDL), an international network of lesbian women based in Spain, the UK and the USA is protesting against our classification by the UN Secretariat as a national organization. This allows us only two accredited representatives at the Fourth World Conference on Women, instead of the five which international organisations are allowed. WDL is the only lesbian organisation accredited from the UK, and one of only four in total who have been accredited to attend the Conference. It is unacceptable that an international organization which has been extremely active in the Beijing process and in the Decade for Women conferences, (including having the first openly lesbian delegate as part of the US government delegation at the Copenhagen Government conference in 1980) be denied international accreditation. Over the past 20 years we have worked regularly with lesbian women and gay men in many countries, including but not only: Argentina, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, and South Africa. Lack of resources, fear of discrimination, harassment, imprisonment, deportation and persecution are among the obstacles faced by many lesbian women internationally, making it difficult or impossible for them to come out publicly as lesbian. All the issues governments will be addressing in Beijing have a specific and immediate impact on the lives of lesbian women in every country, and on their economic, legal and human rights. The issue of sexual orientation is specifically addressed in the Platform for Action, but because of strong opposition from some governments, all references to it appear in bracketed text. It is essential that our accreditation reflect our international status so that we can bring to governments attention the concerns of grassroots lesbian women from the South and the North whose voices are rarely heard in the UN, to ensure that governments reach consensus on addressing discrimination against lesbian women. We call on NGOs to support our protest by writing to: Kristen Timothy, UN Secretariat of the Fourth World Conference on Women; Fax: (212) 963 3463 and/or sending the attached statement to us: Fax: (610) 664 8556; (415) 626 41114; (44) 171 833 4817. We the undersigned organizations urge you to recognise Wages Due Lesbians as an international organisation for accreditation to the UN, in order to facilitate the issues and concerns of lesbian women being addressed by governments in Beijing. 21 August 1995 Claire Studham UK Mission to the UN Dear Claire Studham I am writing to ask for your urgent help in relation to the classification by the UN Secretariat of Wages Due Lesbians as a national rather than as an international organisation. The effect of this is to limit the number of our representatives who can attend the Government conference to two rather than five. Our basic case is outlined in the two attached letters to Kristen Timothy. In addition, at the point when we were told we had been accredited, there was no indication that we had been classified as a national organisation - had we known, we would certainly have challenged it then. As you will see, WDL is the only lesbian organisation from the UK which has been accredited, and one of only four accredited in total. We are very concerned that by denying our status as an international organisation, the UN Secretariat is perpetuating the discrimination with which lesbian women are unfortunately all too familiar. We would appreciate any intervention you might be in a position to make on our behalf. Thank you for your time and attention. Yours sincerely, Kay Chapman To: Kristen Timothy UN Secretariat of the Fourth World Conference on Women Division for the Advancement of Women Two UN Plaza 12th Floor New York, NY 10017 17 August 1995 Dear Kristen Timothy, We are writing to protest strongly about the Secretariat's re-classification of Wages Due Lesbians (WDL) as a national organization which would only be allocated two accredited representatives to attend the Fourth World Conference on Women. We want to draw your attention to the fact that the delegates named on the form we submitted were, in addition to myself, two women from the UK, Caroline Barker and Alessandra Brizi, and two from the US, Lori Nairne and Phyllis Oscar. We thought it would be easier to use our London contact address for all our delegates, and we are very concerned that this purely administrative measure on our part may have become the basis for denying our accreditation as an international organisation. I attach another form indicating the appropriate addresses, and look forward to receiving confirmation of our international status. If your denial of our international status is for any reason other than the fact that we gave only one address, we would like to draw your attention to the following. WDL is an international organisation which has a long and well documented history (since 1975) of working as an international network with bases in both the US and the UK and a wider network in several other countries as we stated on our original application for accreditation. In the US, we have groups in San Francisco, CA and Philadelphia, PA. and in the UK we have groups in London, Bristol, and Manchester. We also have a base in Barcelona, Spain. In addition, in the past 20 years we have worked regularly with lesbian women and gay men in many countries, including but not only: Argentina, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, and South Africa. Our work has focused on issues related to economic, legal and human rights, including the right to practise our sexual preference. Lack of resources, the fear of discrimination, harassment, imprisonment, deportation and persecution are obstacles faced by many of our members internationally, making it difficult or impossible to be identified as a public lesbian/gay organization. It is unacceptable that an international organization which has been extremely active in the Beijing process and in the Decade for Women conferences, (including having the first openly lesbian delegate as part of the US government delegation at the Copenhagen Government conference in 1980) be denied international accreditation. We are aware that very few lesbian groups have been given accreditation, and we feel this makes your restriction on the number of our delegates even harder to justify. If you insist on defining us as a national organisation, then we should have two places for each of the countries in which Wages Due Lesbians is based, including: Britain, Spain and the US. We are sure you will appreciate that we are very pressed with preparations for this major conference. The pressure from your office about our status is extremely undermining of our time and resources. We would like this matter resolved in an expedient manner; this situation has major implications for grassroots lesbian women who have so little to begin with and who have scraped the money together, and invested in travel, accommodation, child care and other arrangements. Please let us hear from you as a matter of urgency. Thank you. Yours sincerely, Kay Chapman cc Gertrude Mongella Jeff Meirs, US State Department To: Kristen Timothy UN Secretariat of the Fourth World Conference on Women Division for the Advancement of Women Two UN Plaza 12th Floor New York, NY 10017 21 August 1995 Dear Kristen Timothy, Re: accreditation of Wages Due Lesbians to Beijing Conference We are writing further to our letter of 17 August to reiterate our protest in the strongest possible terms against the Secretariat's classification of Wages Due Lesbians (WDL) as a national organization. This allows us only two accredited representatives at the Fourth World Conference on Women. As my letter made clear, WDL is an international organisation, with bases in Spain, the UK and the USA. We are the only lesbian organisation accredited from the UK, and one of only four in total who have been accredited to attend the Conference. It is entirely unacceptable that we are being treated in this discriminatory way by the Secretariat. The issue of sexual orientation is specifically addressed in the Platform for Action, and in addition, all the issues governments will be addressing have a specific and immediate impact on the lives of lesbian women in every country, and on their economic, legal and human rights. Lack of resources, fear of discrimination, harassment, imprisonment, deportation and persecution are among the obstacles faced by many lesbian women internationally, making it difficult or impossible for them to identify publicly as lesbian women. It is therefore essential that our accreditation reflect our international status so that we can bring their concerns to the attention of governments. This is particularly crucial for grassroots lesbian women from the South and the North whose voices are rarely heard in fora such as the UN. It is unacceptable that an international organization which has been extremely active in the Beijing process and in the Decade for Women conferences, (including having the first openly lesbian delegate as part of the US government delegation at the Copenhagen Government conference in 1980) be denied international accreditation. We are sure you will appreciate that we are very pressed with preparations for this major conference. The pressure from your office about our status is extremely undermining of our time and resources. We would like this matter resolved in an expedient manner; this situation has major implications for grassroots lesbian women who have so little to begin with and who have scraped the money together, and invested in travel, accommodation, child care and other arrangements. Please let us hear from you as a matter of urgency. Thank you. Yours sincerely, Kay Chapman cc Gertrude Mongella Jeff Meirs, US State Department ------------------------------ From: DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.org (Debra Guzman) Date: Mon, 28 Aug 1995 11:24:00 +0100 Subject: Dharamsala condemns Beijing meet ## author : otny@igc.apc.org ## date : 23.08.95 - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS RELEASE 22 August 1995 China's privatisation of UN Human Rights forum Condemned Under intense political pressure exerted by the Chinese Government, the United Nation Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) decided 21 July 1995 not to recommend Tibetan and Tibet-related NGO's, along with eight others, for accredition to the UN's fourth World Conference on Women to be held in Beijing 4-15 September 1995. That means no Tibetan advocacy groups could attend the Conference. To the parallel NGO Forum to be held some 52 km away from the conference site from 30 August to 8 September, many Tibetan women had been issued the NGO Registration Letter and the Hotel Confirmation Letter by the China Organising Committee. Under the agreement Beijing had signed with the NGO facilitating Committee, Beijing is required to issue visas to these Tibetan women. However, in gross contempt of its legal and moral obligations, all the 52 Tibetan women in exile, including eleven from India, have been told by the concerned Chinese Embassies that they had been instructed by their Government not to issue them visas. Both the ECOSOC and Chinese decisions, denying Tibetans accredition and visa respectively, were totally political. They arose from the fact that China did not want the international community to hear a truthful account of the real situation in Tibet today. The ECOSOC decision obviously did not take into account the fact that this was to be a UN world conference, not a Chinese world conference. It is hard to imagine how such a conference could claim to be a "world" conference when it would not take into account the situation of all the women in the world. The stated theme of the Conference is "Equality, Development and Peace" as a basis for the advancement of the status of women. The primary focus of the conference and the Forum should therefore be the oppressed and the underprivileged women of the world. And yet it is precisely the most oppressed and the most unprivileged women in the world who have been denied the right to be heard both at the Conference and the Forum. There is no denying the fact that the credibility and the moral authority of the UN has been considerably undermined by these decision. Such a state of affair tend to present the UN as the legitimator of Chinese oppression and human rights violations. In all the UN organised world conferences in the last several years - be it the World Conference on Environment and Development in Rio (1992), the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna (1993), the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo (1994), and the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen (1995) - the Tibetans were never denied the rights of participation on any basis, including the basis that China objected to their presence. The present decision had no legal basis and will set a bad precedent for future UN organised conferences. Tempa Tsering SECRETARY 22 August 1995 Deptt. of Info. & Int'l Rel. Central Tibetan Administration Dharamsala 176215 ------------------------------ From: spassman@capaccess.org (Sidney Passman) Date: Mon, 28 Aug 1995 20:45:13 -0400 Subject: Unesco contrib UNESCO PROMOTES EQUALITY IN EDUCATION, SCIENCE, CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION AT WOMEN'S CONFERENCE AND FORUM Paris - Since its founding 50 years ago, UNESCO has promoted equal opportunities for women in education, science, culture and communication. The Organization will emphasise their significance for attaining women's equality at the Fourth World Conference on Women and the parallel forum of non-governmental organizations this August and September in Beijing, China. Education is the key to equality, particularly for women and girls. On 8 September, International Literacy Day, UNESCO will hold a series of events in Beijing that call attention to the crucial educational needs of women and girls. Despite major advances in improving literacy, women and girls still lag behind. Today, one out of three women is illiterate. They make up two-thirds of the 885 million adults in the world who are illiterate. Of the approximately 130 million school-age children who have no access to education, two-thirds are girls. "For the millions of impoverished women in large areas of the globe, there has been little or no improvement at all," says UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor in The Education of Girls and Women: Towards a Global Framework for Action. "If anything, the deprivation is greater than ever because of rapid population growth and the failure of governments and international agencies to give priority to basic educational services to girls and women." On International Literacy Day, UNESCO will release this 59-page document that draws attention to the educational opportunities available to women. It highlights successful programmes in several regions. UNESCO is also organizing a debate in which education experts, policy-makers, feminists and others will exchange ideas on improving education for girls and women. Panellists will include Aicha Bah Diallo, former Minister of Education of Guinea; actress Jane Fonda; and Muhammad Yunus, Chairperson of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. On the afternoon of 8 September, UNESCO is organizing three activities with other UN agencies. Participants will examine the role of female politicians in education policy, access to schooling and innovative teaching practices. UNESCO and the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) are holding a workshop that will focus on a manifesto, written in collaboration with UNESCO, that entreats the international community to reaffirm education as a fundamental human right of girls and women. This day will culminate with the formal presentation of UNESCO's 1995 International Literacy Prizes. Mr Mayor will present the King Sejong Literacy Prize, the International Reading Association Prize and the Noma Prize to literacy projects based in Canada, China, and Indonesia. At the Beijing conference, UNESCO is also encouraging women presidents, prime ministers, Noble Prize laureates and heads of UN organizations to sign the "Statement on Women's Contributions to a Culture of Peace." This UNESCO document emphasises the crucial link between peace, development and gender equality. A workshop at the forum on 1 September will focus on the socio-cultural shifts in women's productive and reproductive lives as a result of their increased participation in the labour market, life expectancy and a decline in their fertility. Another panel on 7 September will explore and analyse women's leadership. Women's role in the media will be the theme of a 14 September round table. Journalists and other media experts will discuss follow-up to the Toronto Platform for Action, a UNESCO document that outlines strategies for improving women's representation and leadership in the media. The Organization will emphasise the importance of gender equality in science and technology during the NGO forum. It will distribute print-outs of "The Gender Dimension of Science and Technology," a chapter from UNESCO's upcoming World Science Report. Three of the authors of this report will participate in a 7 September round table co-organized by UNESCO and the Third World Organization of Women in Science. At a round table co-organized by UNESCO on the conference's Youth Day on 11 September, young leaders from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America will exchange views on youth's role in developing equal partnerships between women and men in education, development and peace. UNESCO will promote women's human rights through several events at the NGO forum including the presentation of a draft convention to combat sexual exploitation. The Organization will also be involved in advancing Platform Plus, a document that calls for a broader definition of equality, reproductive rights and other issues, written last May during a meeting organized by the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues and supported by UNESCO and the European Union. UNESCO is also participating in three separate round tables that focus on women from Islamic countries, the Mediterranean basin and the Balkans. -end- ------------------------------ From: "Civic Initiatives Advisor" Date: Mon, 28 Aug 95 17:47:56 RST Subject: re: MOSCOW_-_WOMEN 23.8 Hello! My name is Maggie Christie. I am the Civic Initiatives Advisor at the U.S. Agency for International Development in Moscow. I was wondering if there is any more/ precise information about when and where the two trains will be stopping in Russia. We've got folks all over the country who would be interested, and we might be able to conjure up a little media. Does anyone know the train stops and schedule? I am going thorugh local channels to find this out as well... but the sooner I can figure it out, the better, it seems. Thanks in advance for your help! And good luck to all of you! my email: MCHRISTIE@USAID.GOV - ------------- Original Text >From DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.org (Debra Guzman), on 8/28/95 7:51 AM: DATE=8/23/95 TITLE=MOSCOW / WOMEN BYLINE=ELIZABETH ARROTT DATELINE=MOSCOW INTRO: TWO SPECIAL TRAINS ARE MAKING THEIR WAY ACROSS RUSSIA, CARRYING PARTICIPANTS TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON WOMEN. NEITHER THE CONFERENCE, TO BE HELD NEXT MONTH IN BEIJING, NOR THE TRAINS HAVE RECEIVED MUCH PUBLICITY IN RUSSIA. BUT AS V-O-A'S ELIZABETH ARROTT REPORTS FROM MOSCOW, ONCE WOMEN IN THE RUSSIAN CAPITAL HEAR ABOUT THE CONFERENCE, THEY GENERALLY APPEAR EAGER FOR WOMEN'S ISSUES TO RECEIVE INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION. ------------------------------ End of Beijing Women's Conference Digest V2 #65 *********************************************** To subscribe to Beijing-Conf-Digest, send the command: subscribe beijing-conf-digest in the body of a message to "majordomo@confer.edc.org". If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe "local-summit": subscribe beijing-conf-digest local-beijing@your.domain.net A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "beijing-conf-digest" in the commands above with "beijing-conf". 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