UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
|
| UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) |
|
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This newsletter is being made available by the Population Information
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Internernational. For further information please contact
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INTERNATIONAL DATELINE
A Population and Development News and Information Service
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 1995
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER WORLD POPULATION UPDATE:
5,730,900,000
(Population Reference
Bureau )
SPECIAL DOUBLE ISSUE ON THE UNITED NATIONS
FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN & NGO FORUM '95
BEIJING AND HUAIROU, CHINA: 30 AUGUST - 15 SEPTEMBER 1995
1. GENERAL BACKGROUND
TWO EQUALLY IMPRESSIVE CONFERENCES ON WOMEN DREW TENS OF
THOUSANDS OF DELEGATES TO CHINA IN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER. The
conference of non-governmental organizations--known as both NGO Forum
'95 and the NGO Forum on Women--began on August 30 and continued its
bustling assemblage until September 8. The United Nations Fourth
World Conference on Women--attended by 181 governments and
approximately 4000 NGO observers--opened on September 4 and wrapped
up its work on September 15. Under the banner of "Action for
Equality, Development and Peace," both conferences focused on the
conditions and contexts in which women live all over the world.
THE U.N. CONFERENCE AND THE NGO FORUM ON WOMEN PRESENTED
STRIKINGLY DIFFERENT FACES TO THE WORLD--as have similar pairs of
U.N./NGO international gatherings which preceded Beijing: the 1992
Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the 1994 International Conference on
Population and Development in Cairo, the 1995 Summit on Social
Development in Copenhagen, etc. Despite frequent all-day rains, NGO
Forum '95 was a characteristically exuberant ten-day festival of
activities, including panel discussions, workshops, demonstrations,
performances, and general non-stop gathering and communicating. The
United Nations meeting, on the other hand, featured closed-door
meetings, speeches, meticulous negotiations on the language and ideas
contained in the Platform for Action--the U.N. conference document--
and a parade of government statements outlining their views on women
in society. Many delegates at both conferences put forth a great
deal of energy to articulate and bridge gaps in understanding and
opinion. And in both the NGO and U.N. contexts, face to face
interaction between delegates featured respect for others' beliefs
and points of view.
IN THE END, THE GOVERNMENTS ATTENDING THE FOURTH WORLD
CONFERENCE ON WOMEN PRODUCED a 38-paragraph Beijing Declaration and
a 345-paragraph Platform for Action, while the NGO representatives
who attended Forum '95 in Huairou departed from perhaps the greatest
women's networking opportunity to date--despite the difficulties
presented by the site. Negotiations in Beijing on both of the
conference statements were influenced considerably by the tightly
organized lobbying efforts of the NGO observers accredited to the
U.N. conference. In the final meeting session, several dozen
countries registered reservations on certain parts of the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action, but all nations joined the
consensus to adopt and implement either most or all of the document,
which is, as stated in its first sentence, "an agenda for women's
empowerment."
2. NGO FORUM '95: 30 August - 8 September
THOUGH THE NGO FORUM ITSELF WAS RELEGATED TO THE REMOTE RURAL
TOWN OF HUAIROU, a tourist town near one of the Great Wall sites, the
opening ceremony for Forum '95 took place in Beijing's modern outdoor
stadium. Limited ticket availability kept many NGO delegates from
attending the kickoff event. Chen Muhua, President of the All-China
Women's Federation and member of China's National People's Congress,
opened the afternoon's brief statements. She said that this women's
conference was critical, and that women should demand actions to
match the words. Next to speak was Gertrude Mongella, Secretary-
General of the Fourth World Conference on Women. Mongella said she
was happy to join NGO leaders in welcoming NGO delegates who made the
journey to Beijing. She emphasized the contribution of NGOs to the
conference process, noting that their long-term commitments to the
issues at hand helped refine the ideas taken up in the Platform for
Action. Mongella said she honored the power of NGOs, including their
energy, independence and perseverance. The next speaker was Helvi
Sipila, Secretary-General of the First World Conference on Women,
which took place in Mexico City in 1975. Sipila focused on women's
contributions towards peace. So far, she said, in her mind women
have done "absolutely nothing" for peace. She argued passionately
for this to change. "Women must start making serious and firm plans
towards friendly relations among nations and safeguarding world
peace," Sipila said, noting that if all the women in the world join
for a common good, "that would create a force which the world has
never seen before."
"A CHINESE CULTURAL EXTRAVAGANZA" WAS THE BILLING FOR THE
SECOND PART OF THE NGO FORUM'S OPENING CEREMONY in which NGO
delegates were feted with a 60-minute parade of music and
choreography. The performance featured: the Philharmonic Women
Symphony Orchestra; the Central Ballet Symphony Orchestra; the
Philharmonic Orchestra of the Ethnic Groups Attached to the China
Radio Symphony Orchestra; members of the Central Conservatory of
Music and Beijing School of Traditional Operas; the Central
Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra Chorus; the Song & Dance Ensemble of
the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army; the
Sparetime Chorus of the Beijing Municipal Works Company; colorful
choreographed field formations, including the NGO Forum logo; huge
aquamarine and gold banners fluttering around a moving stage; the
Lion Dance; the Miao ethnic Drum Dance; an entire field of pint-sized
children in a flawlessly synchronized kick and drum dance; a
representation of doves soaring over the ocean, and, finally, the
release of hundreds of real doves into and out of the stadium.
THE LARGE STADIUM IN BEIJING WOULD HAVE BEEN WELCOME IN
HUAIROU the next morning when thousands of NGO delegates wanted to
attend the NGO Forum's opening plenary/welcome session. One estimate
put the crowd that morning in the 1500-seat auditorium at 4000, and
many more NGO delegates were unable to gain entrance to the
dangerously packed hall. Delegates were drawn to the event to hear
a videotaped keynote speech from Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San
Suu Kyi, the head of the national movement for democracy in Burma who
was recently released from six years of house arrest. Suu Kyi
declined to actually attend NGO Forum '95, in keeping with her
commitment to stay in Burma. In her NGO Forum statement, she
emphasized that tolerance means actively valuing something, not just
allowing it to exist. Intolerance breeds insecurity, Suu Kyi said,
emphasizing that without lasting security, there can be no lasting
peace. Women, she said, must not merely be tolerated, they must be
included and integral to societies. The democratic leader noted that
an intelligent rooster knows that he crows because the dawn comes,
not the other way around, asserting that "it is not the prerogative
of men to bring light to the day." There are no gender barriers that
can't be overcome, Suu Kyi said, and women must work for a broader
role in societies--to match the nurturing, caring and protecting role
they have always played in the home.
THOUGH THEY FACED DAUNTING OBSTACLES BOTH GETTING TO AND
FUNCTIONING AT THE NGO FORUM IN HUAIROU, NGO delegates were
characteristically energetic during the ten-day forum. The over-
20,000 participants in Forum '95 presented and took part in an
enormous array of workshops and panels on topics ranging from the
accountability of international financial institutions to women's
entrepreneurship; communication in the family; local agricultural
knowledge; education, in many different contexts; political
leadership; post-colonial studies, and the plight of refugees. Other
topics oriented to women were racism, religion, healthcare, mass
media, war, government, art, environmental degradation, and many
other themes both esoteric and broad.
MANY PRESENTERS AT FORUM '95 WORKED IN THEIR SESSIONS TO
PRODUCE CONCRETE GOALS and resolutions to guide their work in the
years ahead. On most of the Forum's ten days, over 350 two-hour
workshops were scheduled to take place in Huairou--not including
daily plenary sessions and performances. Usually, 50-60 sessions
each day were devoted to economics and employment alone--one of 13
themes under which forum sessions were classified. Other themes of
the presentations included: governance and politics; human/legal
rights; peace & human security; education; health; environment;
spirituality & religion; science & technology; media; arts & culture;
race & ethnicity, and youth. The 9:00 a.m. time slot often offered
over 120 scheduled events. This over-abundance of riches was Forum
'95's best and most extraordinary feature--as it reflected the
incredible and diverse reality of so many thousands of women
travelling to one place to meet, trade information, and organize
their efforts in so many different areas. While early September
rains caused many outdoor workshops to be automatically canceled when
tents collapsed in a sea of mud, over 2,000 workshops were presented
at Forum '95. And for ten days, the small town of Huairou virtually
hummed with energetic communication and sharing. Official and
unofficial translators helped everyone keep up with spirited
exchanges across international and cultural boundaries.
[For some details on NGO workshops, see section five.]
3. UNITED NATIONS FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN
The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW)
held its opening session in Beijing on Monday afternoon September 4.
Delegates quickly moved through several procedural details: electing
Chen Muhua, Vice Chair of the Standing Committee of the National
People's Congress of the People's Republic of China, President of the
conference; adopting the agenda, and electing several other officers.
After a brief statement from Gertrude Mongella, Secretary-General of
the conference, the Plenary session began to hear statements from
heads of governments. Falling under the agenda heading, "General
Exchange of Views," these speeches rolled on one after another all
day, every day throughout the conference. Besides all the government
leaders who spoke, there were a few openings each day for NGO leaders
to address the plenary.
TO TAKE ON THE TASK OF NEGOTIATING THE DISPUTED TEXT IN THE
PLATFORM FOR ACTION, the Main Committee, chaired by Patricia Licuanan
of the Philippines, formed two official "working groups," plus an
official "contact group" for each working group. All of the
remaining text in dispute was marked in the draft Platform by square
brackets ([ ]). Chaired by Nana Amma Yeboaa of Ghana, Working Group
I was assigned to negotiate the brackets out of chapters I (the
Mission Statement), II (the Global Framework), III (Critical Areas
of Concern), V (Institutional Arrangements), VI (Financial
Arrangements), and Sections C (Health), J (Mass Media) and L (The
Girl Child) of Chapter IV (Strategic Objectives and Actions).
Working Group II--chaired by Irene Freudenschuss of Austria--was
assigned to eliminate brackets from the remaining sections in Chapter
IV and the entire Beijing Declaration. The two contact groups, which
focused on particularly stubborn issues or language, were chaired by
Mervat Tallawy of Egypt and Olga Pellicer of Mexico. And when the
contact groups got stuck on a particular phrase or idea, "informal
groups" were formed to consider the problem, then report back to the
contact group.
NGOs FORMED CAUCUSES AROUND ISSUES AND GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS TO
DIRECT THEIR LOBBYING EFFORTS IN BEIJING. Over the course of the
conference, over 30 caucuses met to discuss the status of
negotiations in their respective areas of interest and lay out plans
on how to influence the process. Regional caucuses included Latin
America/Caribbean, Asia, Africa, Arab, Asia/Pacific, European/North
American, and European/Eastern European. Issue caucuses: health;
economic justice; women in political decision-making; grassroots
organizations; older women; count women's work; trade union women;
environment; peace; disability; indigenous peoples; lesbian; refugee
women/women in areas of conflict; youth; women of colour; Muslim NGO;
Japanese NGO; Philippine NGO; European Union international
development; poverty and economics; human rights; the girl child;
grass roots; science and technology; institutional and financial
arrangements, etc. The largest caucus that met daily in Beijing was
the Women's Linkage Caucus. Organized by the Women's Environment and
Development Organization (WEDO), the linkage caucus worked to build
on gains made at previous United Nations conferences--and make sure
no ground was lost in the Beijing Platform for Action. In the daily
sessions, lobbyists tracking the negotiations in both working and
contact groups reported on the previous day's progress and got
briefed on important issues coming up that day. Those NGOs with more
experience in organized lobbying were able to successfully monitor
negotiations and work to influence the outcome of many debates. For
those with less experience, the intricate process was often difficult
to track.
IN THE CLOSING PLENARY SESSION, OVER SIXTY DELEGATES TOOK THE
FLOOR TO COMMENT ON THE PLATFORM FOR ACTION. The following states
noted reservations to text that was not in conformity with Islamic
law, including paragraphs on reproductive rights, reviewing punitive
laws for illegal abortions, reproductive health, the right to control
sexuality, and inheritance: Kuwait, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Oman,
Brunei, Yemen, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Lebanon,
Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Djibouti, Qatar, Syria, Comoros and
Jordan. Many of these states interpreted references to reproductive
rights in the context of marriage. Iran expressed concern about all
but the references to inheritance, which do not contradict its
economic system. The following states noted they did not condone
abortion and expressed reservations to paragraphs on the right to
control sexuality and the review of punitive laws for illegal
abortions: The Philippines, Malaysia, Ecuador, Malta, Peru,
Argentina, Venezuela, Mali, Nicaragua, Togo, Honduras and Niger.
Malta also noted that it reserved on references to the use of
international human rights instruments. The Holy See indicated that
it would submit formal reservations in writing, but expressed regret
about the document's exaggerated individualism. Several states,
including Malaysia, Peru, Argentina and Nicaragua, noted that they
would interpret "family" in a traditional sense of union between man
and woman. Indonesia noted that certain paragraphs were not
consistent with the national interests of the individual. France
stated that a paragraph on sustainable development, with a reference
to testing nuclear weaponry, did not correspond to its record of the
results of the Main Committee. Several states, including the
Dominican Republic, Iraq, Vanuatu and Nigeria, promised to implement
the document in conformity with their constitutional and cultural
principles. Benin noted that certain paragraphs were not in
accordance with its legislation and religious practices, including
a paragraph on the right to control sexuality, reproductive rights,
and the review of punitive laws for illegal abortions. Liberia noted
that it could implement 90-95% of the Platform for Action. Pakistan
objected to the lack of a clear definition of the term "sexuality,"
and entered a reservation on the term and on paragraphs on
reproductive rights and the right to control sexuality. The Maldives
noted that certain terms were not in conformity with the Maldives
traditional values, specifically in paragraphs on the right to
control sexuality and reviewing punitive laws for illegal abortions.
A number of countries, including India, Bolivia, Colombia, Cambodia,
South Africa, Tanzania, Panama, El Salvador, Madagascar and Cameroon,
stated that they had no reservations on the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action.
AFTER SPEAKING ABOUT THE PLATFORM FOR ACTION, DELEGATES WERE ABLE TO
TAKE THE FLOOR ON THE SUBJECT OF THE CONFERENCE. The Philippines, on
behalf of the G-77 [a developing-country coalition], expressed
gratitude for all who had made the meeting a success. Spain, on
behalf of the European Union, noted a number of significant areas in
the agreements, including human rights, health and sexuality, and
unremunerated work. Senegal, on behalf of the African Group, noted
that the African States recognize that they are the first and
foremost entities responsible for implementing the Platform for
Action. They are convinced that their partners in development will
stand by them. Papua New Guinea, on behalf of the Asian group,
recalled Secretary-General Mongella's comment earlier in the
conference that she felt like an expectant mother, and noted that,
once the baby is born, the pain of labor is forgotten but the
responsibility to nurture and care for the child begins. The
Ukraine, on behalf of the Eastern European countries, noted the lack
of Russian interpretation and documents, and stressed the need to
participate on an equal basis, but noted their pleasure with the work
that had been achieved in Beijing. Barbados, on behalf of the Latin
American and Caribbean States, noted that, although the group was
diverse, a spirit of goodwill and compromise prevailed and they will
leave Beijing with resolve and determination to implement the
Platform for Action. Malta, on behalf of the Western European and
Others Group, noted satisfaction with the success achieved through
dialogue with governments and NGOs. The United States stressed its
commitment to women's empowerment, and noted that Nairobi should be
thought of as a compass and Beijing as a detailed map for achieving
equality, development and peace. Canada stated that here in Beijing
the world's women moved the agenda for global equality forward. In
her closing statement, Conference President Chen Muhua said that the
success of the conference demonstrates that governments have a shared
political will and determination. She called for effective follow-up
measures to turn the commitments into reality.
4. PLATFORM FOR ACTION
THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE PRODUCED A DOCUMENT CALLED THE
PLATFORM FOR ACTION that identifies, analyzes and invites action on
many different issues and problems facing women and girls throughout
the world. Governments attending the FWCW adopted the Platform for
Action as it emerged after the final negotiations sessions in
Beijing, but according to a well-established provision, they were
able to register reservations on specific parts of the text.
According to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, the combination of
consensus language and reservations can be viewed as a status report
on the issues for women in different parts of the world.
AT THE OPENING OF THE FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN, MORE
THAN ONE FOURTH of the Platform for Action remained in dispute.
Delegates in pre-conference negotiations had resolved certain
economic and human rights issues, including structural adjustment
programs, sustainable development, international human rights
instruments and economic rights, but remaining sticking points
included references to the concept of equity vs. equitable and the
entire chapter on health.
THE DOCUMENT CONSISTS OF SIX CHAPTERS: the mission statement;
the global framework; critical areas of concern; strategic objectives
and actions; institutional arrangements; and financial arrangements.
Following are some quotes from each chapter of the Platform for
Action:
From Chapter I (Mission Statement): The Platform for Action
is an agenda for women's empowerment...the principle of shared power
and responsibility should be established between women and men at
home, in the workplace and in the wider national and international
communities. Equality between women and men is a matter of human
rights and a condition for social justice and is also a necessary and
fundamental prerequisite for equality, development and peace. ...the
human rights of women and of the girl child are an inalienable,
integral and indivisible part of universal human rights.
From Chapter II (Global Framework): The Platform for Action
recognizes the importance of the agreements reached at the World
Summit for Children, the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, the World Conference on Human Rights, the International
Conference on Population and Development and the World Summit for
Social Development... ...Grave violations of the human rights of
women occur, particularly in times of armed conflict, and include
murder, torture, systematic rape, ...forced abortion, in particular
under policies of "ethnic cleansing". ... democratization has opened
up the political process in many nations, but the popular
participation of women in key decision-making as full and equal
partners with men, particularly in politics, has not yet been
achieved. ...One fourth of all households worldwide are headed by
women and many other households are dependent on female income even
where men are present. Female-maintained households are very often
among the poorest because of wage discrimination, occupational
segregation patterns in the labour market and other gender-based
barriers. ...In many countries, the differences between women's and
men's achievements and activities are still not recognized as the
consequences of socially constructed gender roles rather than
immutable biological differences. ...On average, women represent a
mere 10 per cent of all elected legislators worldwide and in most
national and international administrative structures, both public and
private, they remain underrepresented. The United Nations is no
exception. ...global communication networks have been used to spread
stereotyped and demeaning images of women for narrow commercial and
consumerist purposes. ...Women's health and their livelihood are
threatened by pollution and toxic wastes, large-scale deforestation,
decertification, drought and depletion of the soil and of coastal and
marine resources, with a rising incidence of environmentally related
health problems and even death reported among women and girls.
...the major cause of the continued deterioration of the global
environment is the unsustainable pattern of consumption and
production, particularly in industrialized countries, which are a
matter of grave concern and aggravate poverty and imbalances.
...Throughout their entire life cycle, women's daily existence and
long-term aspirations are restricted by discriminatory attitudes,
unjust social and economic structures, and a lack of resources in
most countries that prevent their full and equal participation.
...More than half the world's population is under the age of 25 and
most of the world's youth--more than 80 per cent--live in developing
countries. Policy makers must recognize the implications of these
demographic factors...
From Chapter III (Critical Areas of Concern): The twelve
critical areas of concern of the Platform are: [paraphrased, not
quoted] women in poverty; education; health care; violence against
women; effects of conflict on women; power-sharing and decision-
making; mechanisms to promote the advancement of women; human rights;
mass media; women's management of natural resources and the
environment, and the girl child.
From Chapter IV (Strategic Objectives and Actions): [This
chapter is divided into twelve sections, one for each critical area
of concern] Section A. (Poverty) Review, adopt and maintain
macroeconomic policies and development strategies that address the
needs and efforts of women to overcome poverty within the framework
of sustainable development. ...Revise laws and administrative
practices to recognize women's rights to economic resources and to
ensure women's access to economic resources. ...Provide women with
access to savings mechanisms and institutions and to credit.
...Conduct research in order to enable women to overcome poverty.
Section B. (Education) Ensure equal access to education.
...Eradicate illiteracy among women worldwide... ...Improve women's
access to vocational training, science and technology and continuing
education. ...Develop non-discriminatory education and training.
Section C. (Access to Health and Related Services) Increase women's
access throughout the life cycle to appropriate free or affordable
and good quality health care and related information and services.
...Strengthen preventive programmes that address threats to women's
health. ...Undertake gender-sensitive multisectoral initiatives that
address sexually transmitted diseases, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and
other sexual and reproductive health issues. ...Promote research and
information dissemination on women's health. ...Increase resources
and monitor follow-up for women's health. Section D. (Violence
Against Women) Take integrated measures to prevent and eliminate
violence against women. ...Study the causes of violence against
women and effective methods of prevention strategies. ...Adopt
special measures to eliminate trafficking in women and to assist
female victims of violence due to prostitution and trafficking.
Section E. (Advance Peace, Promote Conflict Resolution and Reduce the
Impact of Armed or Other Conflict on Women) Increase and strengthen
the participation of women in conflict resolution and decision-making
and leadership in peace and security activities and protect women in
armed and other conflicts... ...Strengthen the participation of
women in processes of national reconciliation and reconstruction
after all forms of conflict. ...Increase and hasten, as appropriate,
subject to national security considerations, the conversion of
military resources and related industries to development and peaceful
purposes. Promote non-violent forms of conflict resolution and
reduce the incidence of human rights abuse in conflict situations.
...Promote women's contribution to fostering a culture of peace.
...Provide protection, assistance and training to refugee and
displaced women... Section F. (Economic Structures) Enact and
enforce legislation to guarantee the rights of women and men to equal
pay for equal work or work of equal value. ...Conduct reviews of
national income and inheritance tax and social security systems to
eliminate any existing bias against women. ...Take positive action
to facilitate women's equal access to resources, employment, markets
and trade. ...Provide business services and access to markets,
information and technology to low-income women. ...Strengthen
women's economic capacity and commercial networks. ...Eliminate
occupational segregation and all forms of employment discrimination.
Section G. (Power-Sharing and Decision-Making) Protect and promote
the equal rights of women and men to engage in political activities
and to freedom of association, including membership in political
parties and trade unions. ...Increase women's capacity to
participate in decision-making and leadership. Section H.
(Mechanisms to Promote the Advancement of Women) Ensure that
responsibility for the advancement of women is vested in the highest
possible level of government; in many cases, this could be at the
level of a Cabinet minister. ...Integrate gender perspectives in
legislation, public policies, programmes and projects. ...Collect,
compile, analyze and present on a regular basis data disaggregated
by age, sex, socio-economic and other relevant indicators, including
number of dependents, for utilization in policy and programme
planning and implementation. ...Promote the further development of
statistical methods to improve data that relate to women in economic,
social, cultural and political development. Section I. (Human
Rights) ...promote and protect all the human rights of women,
through the full implementation of all international human rights
instruments, especially through the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women. ...Ensure equality and
non-discrimination under the law. ...Achieve legal literacy.
Section J. (Mass Media) Increase the participation and enhance the
access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the
media and new technologies of communication. Encourage gender-
sensitive training for media professionals, including media owners
and managers, to encourage the creation and use of non-stereotyped,
balanced and diverse images of women in the media. Section K.
(Women's Management of Natural Resources and the Environment)
[Ensure] opportunities for women, including indigenous women, to
participate in environmental decision-making at all levels, including
as managers, designers and planners, and as implementers and
evaluators of environmental projects. ...Ensure adequate research
to assess how and to what extent women are particularly susceptible
or exposed to environmental degradation and hazards, including, as
necessary, research and data collection on specific groups of women,
particularly women with low income, indigenous women and women
belonging to minorities. Establish or strengthen mechanisms at the
national, regional and international levels to assess the impact of
development and environmental policies on women. Section L. (The
Girl Child) Eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl
child. ...Eliminate negative cultural attitudes and practices
against girls. ...Generate awareness of the disadvantaged situation
of girls among policy makers, planners administrators and
implementors at all levels, as well as within households and
communities. ...Eliminate discrimination against girls in education,
skills development and training...health and nutrition. ...protect
children from economic exploitation and from performing any work that
is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education,
or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental,
spiritual, moral or social development. ...Take appropriate
legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to
protect the girl child, in the household and in society, from all
forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or
negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual
abuse. ...Educate the girl child about social, economic and
political issues and problems.
From Chapter V. (Institutional Arrangements): The Platform
for Action establishes a set of actions that should lead to
fundamental change. Immediate action and accountability are
essential if the targets are to be met by the year 2000.
Implementation is primarily the responsibility of Governments, but
is also dependent on a wide range of institutions in the public,
private and non-governmental sectors at the community, national,
subregional/regional and international levels.
From Chapter VI (Financial Arrangements): Financial and
human resources have generally been insufficient for the advancement
of women. This has contributed to the slow progress to date in
implementing the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the
Advancement of Women. Full and effective implementation of the
Platform for Action, including the relevant commitments made at
previous United Nations summits and conferences, will require a
political commitment to make available human and financial resources
for the empowerment of women. This will require the integration of
a gender perspective in budgetary decisions on policies and
programmes, as well as the adequate financing of specific programmes
for securing equality between women and men. To implement the
Platform for Action, funding will need to be identified and mobilized
from all sources and across all sectors. The reformulation of
policies and reallocation of resources may be needed within and among
programmes, but some policy changes may not necessarily have
financial implications.
5. CONFERENCE OF COMMITMENTS
CHAPTER FIVE OF THE PLATFORM FOR ACTION CALLS FOR COMMITMENTS
BY GOVERNMENTS AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY for the implementation
of the goals set in Beijing. Responding to this paragraph, and to
a campaign led by Australia and many NGOs, numerous governments used
their Plenary statements to make pledges about activities and
resources they would dedicate to the goals of the Fourth World
Conference on Women. Following is a partial list of commitments.
Australia: Working women's centers in all states; Task Force
on women and communication technologies; address health inequalities
for indigenous women. Austria: nationwide women's counseling
centers; enact law against family violence; extend constitution to
include equality and affirmative action for women. Belize: include
unremunerated contributions of women in the gross domestic product;
develop laws to protect women from sexual harassment. Cambodia:
achieve gender parity in peace negotiations and conflict resolution;
eliminate discriminatory economic laws. Central African Republic:
create network of women ministers and parliamentarians for follow-up.
Chile: implement equality policies with an equal opportunities plan.
Cote d'Ivoire: create a development fund and women's bank for women's
agriculture and business, and achieve 100% enrollment of girls in
schools by 2000. Cyprus: strengthen national women's rights
machinery. Denmark: continue 1% of gross national product
development assistance commitment focusing on poverty elimination and
emphasizing women's roles. Equatorial Guinea: create laws to
protect women in marital separation, widowhood, inheritance, family
planning, forced marriage and childlessness. Estonia: implement the
Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW); establish the legal basis for equal salary conditions.
Fiji: achieve 50% participation of women in representation, training,
appointments and promotions at all levels of government; allocate
additional resources for women's self-employment through expanded
government credit. Finland: enact comprehensive plan for preventing
and eliminating violence against women, healing victims and
rehabilitating offenders. Germany: budget US$10 million per year for
four years for legal and socio-political counseling in developing
countries focusing on women, and a national follow-up conference.
Ghana: legislate to protect women's property rights; promote adult
literacy classes for women. Iceland: Prioritize and direct measures
to implement legislation to improve the status of women. India:
increase education investment to 6% of gross domestic product with
focus on women and girls; set up a commissioner for women's rights.
Ireland: mainstream gender in increasing overseas development
assistance. Italy: incorporate gender policies into activities
funded by public development aid. Jamaica: prioritize poverty
alleviation in the national agenda; ensure women's equality and full
participation in all aspects of national life. Japan: pursue an
"Initiative on Women in Development" regarding educational standards,
health and social participation; strengthen Asian Women's Fund to
combat violence against women. Kenya: improve the quality of women's
and girls' education. Democratic People's Republic of Korea:
consolidate and follow up successes already achieved. Latvia:
appoint an official to monitor adherence to CEDAW; amend labor codes
related to childcare, welfare for mothers and other areas. Lebanon:
increase the number of women in decision-making positions to at least
30% and women who own wood plots around homesteads to 90% by 2000.
Lesotho: remove restrictions on women's ability to obtain credit and
do business; incorporate gender issues into the school curriculum.
Liechtenstein: promote NGO work on women's equality; eliminate
discriminatory legislation concerning citizenship. Luxembourg: open
a center for young women victims of violence or sexual abuse;
increase overseas development assistance to 0.7% of the gross
domestic product by 2000. Mongolia: reduce maternal mortality by 50%
and infant mortality by 33% from 1990 levels by 2000; convene
national assembly on women's development in 1996 to formulate a
national implementation strategy for the Platform for Action.
Mauritania: adopt a strategy to combat women's poverty. Mozambique:
permanent support for implementation of projects and programs towards
women's development. Nepal: develop legislation giving women equal
rights related to ancestral property laws; implement a program for
universal literacy and a reduced dropout rate in the next five years.
Nigeria: consider establishing a university for women, consider
establishing an insurance scheme for women experiencing divorce,
widowhood and other unforeseen circumstances. Norway: realize a
genderized 20/20 contract as defined at the Social Summit; commit to
the entire Platform for Action. Philippines: increase annual
contribution to the United Nations Development Fund for Women
(UNIFEM); allocate a portion of government annual budget to women-
specific and gender oriented programs. Poland: fight women's
unemployment; provide equal access to managerial positions.
Singapore: offer home economics courses to both male and female
students; encourage employers to support family life programs at the
workplace. Swaziland: accelerate implementation of Nairobi Forward-
Looking Strategies. St. Lucia: encourage and involve women in
government decision-making. South Africa: ratify CEDAW; increase the
provision of shelters for battered women. Suriname: minimize
negative effects of economic crisis and structural adjustment
programs (SAPs) on women and other vulnerable groups. Tanzania: set
goals in enrollment, completion, illiteracy reduction and gender
disparities in education; revise all discriminatory laws and enact
non-discriminatory ones. Thailand: develop a plan of action to
implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform; integrate women and
social development into the eighth national economic and social
development plan. Turkey: remove legislative provisions against
gender equality; increase women's literacy by 2% by 2000. United
Kingdom: make an effort to integrate gender into policies and
programs; increase childcare by 20% (50,000 places) by March 1996.
United States: establish a White House Council on Women to implement
the Platform and a six-year US$1.5 billion initiative to fight
domestic violence and other crimes against women. Venezuela: plan
and execute programs to address and eliminate causes of violence;
guarantee women's equal opportunity in science, technology and
culture. Zambia: increase women's access to credit; achieve parity
in girls and boys school enrollment by 2005. Holy See: focus
Catholic social welfare institutions on literacy, education, health
and nutrition.
6. NGO WORKSHOPS: A MINUTE SAMPLING OF EVENTS IN HUAIROU
THE TOWN OF HUAIROU'S SCHOOLS AND HOTELS WERE CALLED INTO
SERVICE FOR THE NGO FORUM ON WOMEN. Karaoke bars, banquet rooms,
classrooms, tents and other open-air facilities were venues for
often-overcrowded workshops, meetings and performances held by and
for delegates to the forum.
"WOMEN AND PEACE" WAS THE TITLE OF A WORKSHOP GIVEN BY THE
STRATEGIC INITIATIVE FOR THE HORN OF AFRICA (SIHA), formed by a group
of women--many of whom are active career politicians--from Ethiopia,
Somalia, Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea. Their strategy includes
activities aimed at stopping the wars in Somalia and the Sudan;
reconciling warring parties and advancing democracy and peace efforts
with women in key roles; promoting the separation of church and
state; strengthening and supporting women's organizations; creating
links to share experiences; and ensuring the implementation of
"appropriate" legal, social and economic policies that include the
perspectives women and peace. The women spoke passionately about
governments in their region arming and dividing citizens, training
people to make bombs, promoting fundamentalism and extremism,
reversing freedoms for women, keeping economies in chaos, and
reducing more and more people to poverty. They emphasized that their
countries' shared experiences of long wars, drought, famine, poverty,
and external influences intensifying suffering served as a common
backdrop that would help them create stronger peace initiatives as
a group than as separate groups in each country. Fatima Ibrahim, the
first woman in parliament in both the Sudan and all of Africa, said
that her government's definition of a religious conflict is a myth.
And she said that, "too much belief in myth leads to imaginary
conflicts." In summing up, the SIHA women said they would work on
conflict management from inside their countries, try to build on
endemic cultural traditions, and promote strategies to combat
extremism.
"THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN BIO-DIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN THE
PHILIPPINES" was a workshop presented by the Philippine Women's
University and its Institute of Environment Education. Focusing
mainly on deforestation and reforestation projects, Leonora P.
Gonzales and Dolores de Quiros-Castillo discussed the Philippines'
high rate of deforestation, noting that the country has lost almost
half of its forested land in this century and is still losing forest
at the rate of 14 hectares per hour. Poverty forces people to cut
trees instead of planting them, they said, noting that conflicts
between ancestral lands and new government land designations have
been a big problem in the Philippines. Gonzalez said that the
Philippine government has learned to focus their reforestation
efforts on communities, rather than corporations, and that programs
now distinguish between producing forests and protecting them. And,
she said, government-granted timber licenses are a thing of the past.
Finally, said Gonzalez and Quiros-Castillo, NGOs are helping promote
education programs in forest communities on managing income-
generating forest products instead of practicing the slash-and-burn
agriculture that has fragmented so many forest areas.
"WOMEN AND EMPLOYMENT" IN PAKISTAN was the subject of a panel
discussion led by four members of the Working Women Association in
Pakistan. Speaking on the subject, Dr. Iftikhar N. Hassan, Director
of the Women Studies Project at Islamabad's Allama Iqbal Open
University, outlined the educational situation in both rural and
urban settings in Pakistan, emphasizing that most women who are
employed outside of the home are teachers. Young girls are usually
welcome as teachers, Hassan said, noting that if they work for the
government, they only teach in female schools--boys and girls are put
in separate schools beginning at age nine. Hassan noted that most
of the private schools have no pension systems or job security for
either men or women. Married women in Pakistan are allowed to teach
by law, but they must have the permission of their husbands and in-
laws. Schools in both the private and government sectors are
supposed to respect maternity leave, Hassan said, allowing women to
return to work after childbirth. And though there are many educated
women in Pakistan qualified to teach at the university level, there
are very few women in academic departments. Another aspect of
women's employment in Pakistan discussed by the panel, which included
Dr. Mussaret Anwar Sheikh, also from the Allama Iqbal Open
University, Dr. Shahida Naeem, of the Islamabad Science School, and
Afshan Mohsin Toru, of Raasta Development Consultants, was women
working in office jobs. Pakistan has sixteen grades of white collar
categories, and respect is accorded to workers by grade. Problems
for women in this situation, according to the panel, include
difficulties in getting this kind of job; a work environment with no
job security; sexual harassment and arbitrary dismissal by superiors;
and financial problems, especially for married women because bosses
feel less responsibility to a female employee if she is married. The
panel discussed organized efforts to promote the possibilities and
security for working women in Pakistan, including promoting female
membership and leadership in unions, creating awareness of the value
of women's work at home and in the informal sector, and promoting the
concept of equal pay for equal work. A lively discussion at the end
of the Pakistani women's panel produced the conclusion that women
should not pamper their sons.
"EDUCATION, LITERACY AND THE GRASS ROOTS WOMAN" was the title
of a workshop presented by the Gender and Development Center of
Kenya. Two women from the Center talked with NGO delegates about
their work. Located in Kisumu, Kenya, the Center was created to use
Kenya's rich story-telling tradition to help women learn to read and
write. The Gender and Development Center was established in 1985 as
a literature group that would assist women in publishing their
personal stories. Since then, the Center has collected traditional
and creative stories and has organized literacy classes for women and
men. Focusing on an advocacy role for the promotion of literacy
among women, the Center has published hundreds of personal stories
and poems. They also teach women how to count by using embroidered
cloths that contain colorful images of both objects and numbers. The
Center produces a newspaper entitled Kanga, which features women-
centered information on topics such as: the spread of HIV/AIDS in
their communities, health updates, information on politics, and the
local economy. The presenters in Huairou noted that one important
feature of Kanga is its interviews with older women whose remarkable
stories have never been recorded.
ON SEPTEMBER 5TH IN HUAIROU, AN IRISH GROUP CALLED "CONCERN
WORLDWIDE" presented a workshop entitled: "Education for Locally-
Based Women's Groups." Concern Worldwide is based in Dublin but
works internationally. Their presentation focused on how to inform
women about their legal rights. The presenters for the morning
session were Zinnat Afroze, Program Manager for Concern's Women's
Training Center in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Sophia Kalyango, Project
Leader of Concern's Office of Women's Programs in Uganda. Concern
Worldwide was established in 1968 in Ireland as a response to the war
in Nigeria. Today, the organization works in 14 countries in Africa
and Asia to "help the poorest of the poor in the world's poorest
countries." In Uganda, Concern Worldwide focuses on the plight of
widows who have lost their husbands to HIV/AIDS or war, and who are
struggling to know and receive their legal rights and entitlements.
Kalyango said that many women are not aware that according to
national laws, every person has a right to own land. By providing
this information along with contacts in the legal community, the
program helps women work for what is rightfully theirs. Ms. Kalyango
discussed the effects of AIDS on the Ugandan women. She said that
due to the prevalence of AIDS, many women are left behind as widows--
and often they don't know their inheritance rights. By law, these
women are entitled to 15% of their husband's income and property.
Thus, Kayango said, even those widows who do receive their
inheritances face drastically diminished household resources. And
many of those go on to contract the AIDS virus themselves. Concern
Worldwide has established a grass roots legal education program in
Uganda to identify the common legal problems of the community. The
program trains women and men in the basic aspects of the law and
provides information about legal services. Concern Worldwide also
addresses the issues of domestic and sexual violence.
In Bangladesh, Concern Worldwide is providing information to
rural women about their legal rights. Zinnat Afroze stated that
Concern's program promotes education in women's rights to counter
some of the negative practices that exist in traditional Bangladeshi
society, most notably the issue of dowries. According to national
laws, dowries ceased to be required conditions of marriage in 1983.
But a dowry is still widely demanded of a young woman when she
decides to marry. Many women cannot afford to bring a dowry to their
marriage, and the practice causes severe problems for both the women
and their families. Concern Worldwide's program in Bangladesh aims
to educate both women and men about the negative effects of dowries
and motivate men to stop forcing their brides to pay such sums of
money. In addition, the Bangladesh project assists women in their
legal battles to receive their rightful proportion of inheritances.
"RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM AND WOMEN'S CIVIL RIGHTS IN THIRD
WORLD COUNTRIES" was the title of an NGO Forum workshop presented on
September 8th by the Sociologists for Women in Society. The workshop
focused on the effects of both Islamic and Protestant fundamentalism
on women's civil rights around the world. Linda L. Lindsey, of
Maryville University in the American state of Missouri, presented for
the group and began by defining fundamentalism as a literal
interpretation of religious scripture, in which men are generally
portrayed as leaders and women as followers. Religious
fundamentalism, she said, generally reinforces the master-slave
relationship, with the husband as the dominant decision-maker of the
household. Lindsey discussed the emergence of "counter-
modernization" as a primary impetus behind the increasing power of
religious fundamentalists. Counter-modernization, she said, is a
movement to preserve tradition during times of great change and to
link present-day corruption with the decline of traditional roles and
morals. Lindsey noted that this ideology is prevalent in the words
of both Islamic and Protestant fundamentalists around the world.
According to Lindsey, religious fundamentalism has many
implications for women, including major impacts on their roles in
daily life, on their civil rights and on both physical and mental
health. She cited links between a woman's life under religious
fundamentalism and increases in infant mortality, lack of birth
spacing, a general favoring towards boy babies and an increase in
mental illness--often depression due to women's subjugated roles.
In addition, she said, marital rape is common in fundamentalist
societies, due to the view of women as property. In terms of social
and educational development, Lindsey said, women in fundamentalist
societies are more often illiterate because they are denied schooling
as young girls. In addition, there is a general denial of
opportunities for alternative income generating sources, due to the
social constraints imposed under fundamentalism. The practical
implications of Islamic fundamentalism on women's rights, according
to Lindsey, include: limiting women's activities in both the public
and private domains; restricting women's rights in terms of
employment, divorce, the rejection of polygamy and rights to
children; safeguarding a man's unilateral right to instigate divorce
without his wife's consent; prohibiting women, for example, from
possessing a driver's license, staying at a hotel without her husband
or male family member, or attending sporting events without a
chaperon; restricting women's physical movements within her
community; enforcing formal or informal codes of modesty, and
promoting formal or informal campaigns of gender stereotyping in the
media.
(Material on Beijing negotiations and government
positions from the Earth Negotiations Bulletin,
published in Beijing 4-18 September 1995; NGO Forum
and some U.N. conference coverage by PCI staff in
Beijing; Platform for Action excerpts from the
Platform for Action)
* * * * *
BACKGROUND MATERIAL RELATED TO THE UNITED NATIONS
FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN & NGO FORUM '95
BEIJING AND HUAIROU, CHINA: 30 AUGUST - 15 SEPTEMBER 1995
To help chart the course for governments, non-governmental
organizations and journalists attending the Fourth World
Conference on Women, the United Nations Department of Public
Information in New York published a series of papers under
the general heading: Focus on Women. Topics include a broad
spectrum of problems and women-oriented perspectives on them.
A sampling follows.
FROM MYANMAR TO SOMALIA TO BOSNIA, SEXUAL VIOLENCE IS ONE OF
THE MOST PERSISTENT AND DEGRADING HORRORS INFLICTED on the world's
millions of female refugees. In a paper prepared for the Fourth
World Conference on Women, the United Nations Office of the High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that three-quarters of
the 23 million-plus internally displaced persons and 26 million
refugees (those forced outside their home countries) are women and
their dependent children. Among the hardest-hit are the unprotected:
young girls, widows and single mothers. Forced out of their
homelands, they are deprived of state, community and family
protection. And wandering in search of safety, they are easy targets
for of bandits, smugglers, border guards, police, military and roving
irregulars. Even in theoretically "safe havens," displaced women and
children are vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation by camp
officials or other refugees.
THE UNHCR HAS DEVELOPED GUIDELINES AIMED AT PREVENTING AND
RESPONDING to rapes and pirate attacks on Vietnamese boat people,
Somali women in Kenya or victims of the barbaric "ethnic cleansing"
practiced by Bosnian Serbs and others. Prepared for human rights
field workers, the guidelines provide practical, non-specialist
advice on the medical, psychological and legal approaches to dealing
with sexual abuses. UNHCR has also issued policy statements to
encourage governments to broaden their definitions of what
constitutes a refugee. Grounds for refugee status would include
sexual violence committed for reasons of race or political opinion--
and particularly when such practices are condoned by the authorities
concerned. Canada, for instance, recognizes that a woman should be
considered a refugee if she fears persecution in her home country
because of her refusal to inflict genital mutilation on her daughters
or wear heavy, restrictive clothing. Similar progress to deal with
gender-based persecution has been made in Germany, the Netherlands,
Switzerland and the European Parliament.
THE CASUALTIES OF WAR ARE INCREASINGLY WOMEN AND CHILDREN,
according to the United Nations. At the beginning of this century,
about 90 percent of war casualties were military. Today, civilians
account for about 90 percent of all war casualties. Most recently,
the U.N. points out, women have been subjected to rape as part of
wars in Bosnia, Cambodia, Liberia, Peru, Somalia and Uganda. In
Rwanda, an estimated 15,700 women and girls were raped between April
1994 and April 1995. More than 1,100 gave birth and at least 5,200
had abortions.
NUMBERS OF WOMEN IN DIPLOMATIC, MILITARY AND POLICE CORPS
AROUND THE WORLD CONTINUE TO BE STATISTICALLY LOW. Among the highest
ranks of the Permanent Missions to the U.N., women are largely
absent. As of January 1994, only seven out of 186 missions were
headed by women; out of 240 U.N. delegates holding the rank of
ambassador, only 11 were women; and in the Permanent Missions of 67
Member States, there were no women at all. Out of 45 researched
countries, only 13 have more than 10 percent of women in their
military personnel. And while many countries report the presence of
women in the police force, the highest number of female police chiefs
is 13 percent. Most women police officers are assigned to units
dealing with rape and women prisoners. The U.N. points out that the
Beijing Platform for Action asks governments and other agencies to:
increase and strengthen the participation of women in conflict
resolution, decision-making and leadership in peace and security
activities and protect women in armed and other conflicts; increase
the percentage of women at all decision-making levels which may make
or influence peace-keeping policy; ensure that international judicial
bodies are able to address cases involving rape, indecent assault,
and other forms of violence against women; and strengthen women's
participation in national reconciliation and reconstruction.
(Focus on Women: Refugee Women, 1995; War and Peace Fact
Sheet, 1995; U.N. Department of Public Information, New
York)
THE PREFERENCE FOR SONS IN MANY CULTURES IS SUSPECTED as a
major factor in the mystery of millions of women demographically
unaccounted for. Harvard University economist Amartya Sen estimated
that in 1990, there were 100 million fewer women alive than
demographic studies had projected. The "missing women phenomenon
clearly implicated...abortion, infanticide and other practices
harmful to girls," says a United Nations paper titled The Girl Child.
Commenting on the low status accorded females in many cultures and
on infanticide and abortion, the U.N. adds: "[Women] are devalued as
human beings from the day they are born--and even before."
THE LIFELONG BURDEN IMPOSED ON FEMALES IN MANY CULTURES is
suggested by the experience of a 32-year-old mother of four in Nepal.
When she was a child, she recalls, she was prohibited from going to
school and instead, at the age of four or five, had to take on adult
responsibilities: caring for younger siblings, cleaning house,
cooking, fetching water and wood, and helping in the fields. At 13,
she entered into an arranged marriage. Citing statistics on lost
educational opportunities, the U.N. reports:
* Some 86 million girls--43 million more than boys--have no
access to primary-school education.
* Approximately 500 million children start primary school
but more than 100 million--two thirds of them girls--drop
out before completing four years.
* Of the world's 1 billion illiterate adults, two thirds are
women.
ON THE RELATED ISSUES OF ADOLESCENT MARRIAGE, TEENAGE
PREGNANCY AND NUTRITION, the U.N. paper attributes the high rate of
early marriage and pregnancy in the Caribbean to poverty. Twenty
percent of the region's babies are born to teenage mothers. Jamaica
has one of the world's highest rates of teen pregnancy. Elsewhere--
in parts of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia--cultures demand
early marriages and many babies to increase the chance of having
sons. In some African countries, 50 percent of women give birth
before the age of 20. As for nutrition, girls receive second-class
treatment from birth. A study in India disclosed that 51 percent of
boys were given highly nutritious breastmilk, compared with only 30
percent of girls who are breastfed. The inferior feeding and health
care suffered by girls shows up in higher mortality statistics. In
Colombia, for every 75 boys under the age of two who die, there are
100 girls who die by the same age. In Bangladesh, India and
Pakistan, every sixth death of a female infant is due to neglect and
discrimination in nutrition and health care. Even females who
survive their very early years suffer the effects of the favoritism
accorded boys throughout their lives. For example, iron-deficiency
anemia, resulting from poor eating habits, affects as high as 95
percent of girls age 15 and older in Africa and is responsible for
20 percent of all maternal deaths. And linking education to health,
a United Nations study of 115 countries found that a mother's
literacy was more closely correlated with an infant's life expectancy
at birth than any other factor. In fact, her education has a greater
impact on lowering infant mortality and improving family health than
does a father's education.
(Focus on Women: The Girl Child, 1995, U.N. Department of
Public Information)
BOTH WOMEN AND MEN PARTICIPATE IN AND SUFFER FROM
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION. According to the United Nations, survival
compels both to exploit whatever natural resources they can. And
high rates of consumption in industrialized countries--where 25
percent of the world's population uses 85 percent of all wood
products consumed, 72 percent of all steel production, and 75 percent
of all energy--help maintain the inequitable resource distribution
that keeps more and more of the world's population marginalized. In
urban areas of developing countries, the percentage of women lacking
access to sanitation services is estimated to be 20 percent in Africa
and Asia, and 14 percent in Latin America. In rural areas, women
with less education and training than men are often excluded from
traditional rural development programs, credit and other
institutional support. Ten to fifteen percent of the rural
population of developing countries live in environmentally degraded
or ecologically vulnerable areas. In highly deforested areas, women
spend up to 3.5 hours a day collecting fuelwood. In some developing
countries, women spend much of their time cooking over wood, straw
or dung-fueled fires in poorly ventilated areas, exposing them to
high levels of indoor air pollution. Acute respiratory infection and
bronchitis are common in this scenario. Throughout much of the
developing world, the U.N. says, women bear the primary
responsibility for collecting, supplying, and managing water. The
percentage of urban women without safe drinking water is almost 14
percent in Africa and Asia, and 8 percent in Latin America. In rural
areas, water scarcity affects 55 percent of African women, 45 percent
of Latin American women and 32 percent of Asian women.
AS EXAMPLES OF HOW TO BETTER MANAGE PEOPLES NEEDS' AND
AVAILABLE NATURAL RESOURCES, the U.N. cites three projects in rural
communities. In Ghana, a project initiated in 1988 works with women
farmers to re-plant trees in woodlots, alleys, farms, and along
streams. The project has improved soil fertility and should reduce
the need for expensive fertilizer. And woodlots closer to home
reduce the time women have to spend collecting fuelwood. In rural
Indonesia, a group of rural women launched a community awareness
program, including radio broadcasts about sanitation and health.
Attracting a large listening audience, many community members
installed latrines and improved the quality of drinking water,
leading to a reduction in waterborne diseases. And in Honduras, a
group of women trained other women and men about deforestation and
soil erosion, building wood-conserving stoves, planting trees in
deforested areas and building outdoor lined sinks. Erosion was cut
in half and water quality improved. At the end of its fact sheet on
women and the environment, the U.N. notes that the Beijing Platform
for Action encourages governments and other agencies to: reduce risks
to women from environmental hazards at home, in the workplace and
other environments; ensure that clean water is available and
accessible to all by the year 2000; create rural and urban training
to disseminate environmentally sound technologies to women, and
increase the proportion of women involved in programs for natural
resource management and environmental protection and conservation.
(Women and the Environment Fact Sheet, 1995, U.N.
Department of Public Information)
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE RANKS HIGH AMONG ABUSES INFLICTED ON WOMEN-
-including those of the presumably enlightened and affluent
industrialized nations. Speaking of the situation in his own
country, Joseph Biden, former chairman of the United States Senate
Judiciary Committee, reported that one woman is physically abused
every eight seconds, and one is raped every six minutes. Also in
America, spousal abuse is more common than automobile accidents,
muggings and cancer deaths combined. The senator said that if the
press announced a new disease that afflicted 4 million Americans in
the past year, few would fail to acknowledge the magnitude of the
crisis. Yet when the same number of women are victims of violence
each year, he added: "The alarms ring softly." That observation was
corroborated by a study published in American Psychologist, which
found that a mere five to eight percent of adult sexual assault cases
are reported to police. And in a study of 420 women conducted in
Canada, 25 percent who were physically assaulted said that their
partners explicitly threatened to kill them. In 1987, 62 percent of
women murdered in Canada died at the hands of their spouses. In
Norway, a domestic-violence study found that 25 percent of
gynecological patients had been sexually abused by their partners.
IN ADDITION TO MORE 'TRADITIONAL' ABUSES OF WOMEN, DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IS OFTEN ROOTED in deeply entrenched
cultural attitudes and practices. In India, "bride burning" by
family members or in-laws is a well-known practice; official police
records show that 4,835 women were killed in 1990 because of their
families' failure to meet demands for money and goods. In greater
Bombay, one of every five deaths among women aged 15 to 44 was listed
as a case of "accidental burning." Female infanticide is an old and
widely practiced form of family violence in Asia, where girls are
often killed within a few days of birth. In South Asia, according to
one survey, 58 percent of known female infanticide was committed by
feeding babies the poisonous sap of a plant or by choking them by
lodging rice hulls soaked in milk in their throats. The culturally
dictated practice of genital mutilation of young girls, obligatory
in much of the Middle East and Africa and in some Asian countries,
has been carried to the U.S. and Canada by immigrants. Globally, at
least 2 million girls a year experience the violence demanded by
their societies and approved by their families. And every day, there
are 6,000 new cases--or five girls genitally mutilated every minute.
As for "traditional" family violence against women, in Costa Rica 95
percent of pregnant hospital clients under 15 were found to be incest
victims. At a police station in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 70 percent of all
reported cases of violence against women took place in the home.
Similarly, in Santiago, Chile, some 75 percent of all assault-related
injuries of women were caused by family members. In a hospital in
Peru, researchers found 90 percent of young mothers 12 to 16 years
old were victims of rape, often by a father, step-father or other
close relative. Violence during pregnancy is a major reason for
miscarriage. A Mexico City sampling found 20 percent of battered
women reported blows to the stomach by their partners.
THE FIRST SUBSTANTIVE INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR ACTION TO DEAL
WITH THE VIOLENCE-AGAINST-WOMEN SYNDROME was sounded at the Third
World Conference on Women in 1985 in Nairobi, Kenya. It was only
after that conference, the U.N. says, that violence against women,
"as old as human civilization...became a matter of international
concern." The Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the Year
2000 identified violence as a major barrier to achieving global
equality, development and peace. The June 1993 World Conference on
Human Rights in Vienna underwrote the appointment of a special United
Nations rapporteur on violence against women to report annually to
the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Six months later, the U.N.
General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of
Violence Against Women. It defined what constitutes such abuses and
called on governments to take measures against violations, pointing
out that: "Violence against women derives from the lower status
accorded to women in the family and in society."
(Focus on Women: Violence Against Women, 1995, U.N.
Department of Public Information)
SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL FACTORS CONTAIN THE ROOTS OF THE
DISCRIMINATION WOMEN FACE IN HEALTH, including access to adequate
nutrition and health services and the habits of daily life that
promote or discourage illness. According to the United Nations, this
has led to a gap in preventive and curative services for diseases
biologically tied to women. The health of women 15-45 years of age
is mostly influenced by their reproductive and maternal roles.
Despite progress in a number of areas, the U.N. says, morbidity and
mortality rates related to reproductive health remain unnecessarily
high in many parts of the world. Maternal mortality rates vary
widely. An African women's lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy or
childbirth-related causes is 1 in 23, while in North America, the
chance is only 1 in 4,000. Maternal mortality rates in central and
eastern Europe, apart from Romania and Albania, are about twice as
high as the European average. But in Romania and Albania, maternal
mortality rates have fallen dramatically since the legalization of
abortion. In developed regions, where abortion is most often legal
and safe health services are accessible, the risk of death from
abortion is 1 in 3,700. In developing regions, the risk averages 1
in 250. According to the U.N., the risk of death from an unsafe
abortion is 100 to 500 times greater than the same procedure
performed under safe conditions.
IRON DEFICIENCY IS A MAJOR FACTOR IN WOMEN'S SUSCEPTIBILITY
TO ILLNESS, PREGNANCY COMPLICATIONS AND MATERNAL DEATH. According
to the U.N., 43 percent of all women and 51 percent of pregnant women
suffer from iron-deficiency anemia. And besides its health-related
impact, anemia also reduces physical productivity and the capacity
to work and learn. India, with an estimated 88 percent of pregnant
women suffering from anemia, is one of the few countries which have
taken national action to eliminate iron-deficiency anemia. 1994
reports indicate that over 70 percent of Indian women are now being
reached with at least three months worth of iron supplement tablets
during pregnancy. In another pregnancy-related health need, prenatal
care has been increasingly included in primary health services, and
is widespread in southern Africa, Eastern Asia, and the Caribbean--
where about 90 percent of women are covered--and in Latin America--
where about 70 percent of women are covered. But low rates of
prenatal care in South Asia, a region which also has one of the
highest rates of maternal mortality, bring the average of women in
developing countries receiving prenatal care to only 59 percent. In
industrialized countries, 98 percent of all pregnant women receive
prenatal care. The U.N. says that using contraceptives to limit and
space the number of children can improve the health of both women and
children considerably. But they also point out that concern about
health complications is by far the most common reason why women stop
using contraceptives--much more than lack of access, husband
disapproval, social pressure, or religious beliefs. The Beijing
Platform for Action, the U.N. points out, encourages governments and
other agencies to: provide women with access to affordable, high-
quality primary health care; eliminate harmful or coercive medical
interventions and inform women of their options in medical treatment;
close the gender gap in morbidity and mortality and reduce infant and
child mortality; and enact legislation to alleviate and eliminate
environmental and occupational health hazards.
(Women's Health Fact Sheet, 1995, U.N. Department of Public
Information)
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