PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE TO STATUS OF WOMEN COMMISSION
Press Briefing
PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE TO STATUS OF WOMEN COMMISSION
19970321
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
The representative of the United States to the Commission on the Status of Women, Linda Tarr-Whelan, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference yesterday afternoon, 20 March, that her delegation was releasing an executive summary of the work that had been accomplished in the United States and where the country was headed regarding the Beijing Platform for Action. The summary had been presented to the President of the United States at an Oval Office ceremony at the White House on International Women's Day.
Ms. Tarr-Whelan said she was impressed with the excitement she had found among women across the United States in local follow-ups to the Beijing Conference. That was evident in responses such as a satellite teleconference given one year after the Beijing Conference where over 100,000 women from 30 States had participated. It represented the newest mobilization of women on a very comprehensive agenda.
"Beijing is not a question about women's issues. It is a question of all the issues that are before the country", she said. Beijing meant leaving behind the sense of women as victims or as just a special group and enhancing the view of women as equal partners, she added.
Ms. Tarr-Whelan said she had seen an enormous change in the work of the Commission on the Status of Women this year compared to the last three in which she had participated as a delegate. The Commission was being seen as a much higher-level concern among governments around the world. Many delegations were being headed by ministers and ambassadors. The institutionalization of many of the Beijing agreements was also beginning to occur. She noted that Secretary-General Kofi Annan's address to the Commission had been only the second such address by a Secretary-General to the Commission in 50 years.
The United States had today introduced a draft resolution on mainstreaming a gender perspective in humanitarian assistance, she said. The Commission needed to give a voice to those women in Afghanistan who were restricted from receiving aid. One way the Commission would be effective in the future would be by giving a voice to women who were in the most difficult circumstances and whose voices could not easily be heard.
The United States was also very interested in the Secretary-General's intention to create a deputy secretary-general post and consider a woman to fill it, she said. The Commission had urged the Secretary-General to include a woman at that high level as part of a set of agreed conclusions, she added.
U.S. Press Conference - 2 - 21 March 1997
In response to a question on whether there was any move to deny recognition to the present Afghanistan Government as long as women were treated so terribly, Ms. Tarr-Whelan said the Commission had a long tradition of not doing country- specific resolutions. She hoped a set of issues would be adopted around the idea that humanitarian aid could not be provided if there was discrimination against women and girls.
What was "the protocol" reporters had been hearing about? a correspondent asked. Ms. Tarr-Whelan said that it was an optional protocol of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women currently being drafted by a working group that was essentially an implementing mechanism for it.
Asked what she thought were the negatives involved in the Commission's follow-up to Beijing, Ms. Tarr-Whelan said there were some issues that were being argued all over again, such as the question of the inheritance of land. It was hard to move those issues forward towards implementation. There was also internal political discussions occurring that would be better held in other parts of the United Nations system. She noted that it was important for the issue of gender to be mainstreamed.
Did the United States favour a candidate for the suggested deputy secretary-general post? a correspondent asked. Ms. Tarr-Whelan said that the United States did not have a candidate and would like to see the position created first.
What did she think of the issue of using quotas for the representation of women? a correspondent asked. Quotas had worked very well to "to get a real say at the table" for women in some countries but the United States did not agree as a matter of policy with the use of quotas. Many people see quotas as working against women, she noted.
In response to a correspondent's question about her position on the question of inheritance, Ms. Tarr-Whelan said she did not have expertise on the subject but noted that the United States had played a major role as a negotiating "broker" in Beijing for countries with differing positions on inheritance in order to see that women's rights were protected.
* *** *