PRESS BRIEFING ON 'WOMEN 2000'

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON 'WOMEN 2000'

"Nations and leaders have come to recognize that it is imperative to address the gender dimension in their quest for solutions to a whole range of national problems", correspondents were told this morning, in an extensive background briefing on the upcoming General Assembly special session, at Headquarters 5 to 9 June, that will review global conditions for women.

It was clear that no one policy would ensure gender equality; a comprehensive policy was necessary, Angela King, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, said by way of explaining the raison d',tre for the gathering next week of an anticipated 10,000 delegates from governments and non-governmental organizations at Headquarters to review the progress that has been made in the past five years on gender issues since the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing. Gender was increasingly identified as a core concern of every issue, be it human rights, growth and development, or peacemaking and peace-building, she said. What were once called women's issues had now been transformed into issues of national and international importance.

Theo-Ben Gurirab (Namibia), President of the General Assembly, who led the briefing and will preside over the week-long special session, told correspondents that there was an ingrained attitude of discrimination and stereotypical conditioning that said women's roles were defined by tradition and custom. "We menfolk have been very slow in doing what we must do", he said. In spite of the fact that women have the vote and can change things, we still are the ones wielding the political power. If there was political will, we would have gone a long way towards meeting the objectives and goals set in Beijing. We think the status quo serves our interest and we seem not to be inclined to tinker with the power we enjoy but whether we want it or not, things are changing. It's good that we are enlightened enough to lead that change instead of being pushed aside by it."

Also participating in the briefing for the session entitled "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-first Century" were Yakin Erturk, Director of the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women; Christine Kapalata (United Republic of Tanzania), Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women acting as Preparatory Committee for the Bejing +5 special session; Afaf Mahfouz, President of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO); and, Sudha Acharya, the focal point within CONGO for the Beijing +5 Conference. Therese Gastaut, Director of the Public Affairs Division of the Department of Public Information, moderated the briefing.

Both Mr. Gurirab and Ms. King, in opening statements, gave background information on the Beijing Conference and explained why the current follow-up conference was considered so important.

Mr. Gurirab said the 1995 Conference had pointedly focused worldwide attention on the imperative need to address the specific concerns of women for gender equality, development and peace. It had also considered the serious ramifications of the failure by Member States and civil society to act. At next week's special session, governments would consider what practical actions they could take, both individually and collectively, to further the global agenda for the advancement of women through inclusive governance, empowerment and gender equality.

Mr. Gurirab, like the other speakers, hailed the strides that had been made, but cautioned about the amount that remained to be done. He cited the longer life spans and better health of women, as well as greater access to nutrition and employment, as examples of the progress. Furthermore, rape in armed conflict had been declared a war crime and there was greater recognition of the link between women's full involvement in decision-making and development and eradication of poverty.

On the other hand, women's concerns were still treated as a "second priority" and in some cases, their needs were ignored altogether, he continued. Women continued to face discrimination and marginalization, both subtle and blatant, and they constituted 70 per cent of the world's poor.

Ms. King noted that women still lagged behind men in virtually all aspects of life. For example, although women's employment had increased, their wages were only 50 to 80 per cent of the wages for men and many women were still unpaid for their labour. Most of the world's illiterates, as well as refugees, were women. Domestic violence claimed the lives of many women in both the North and the South. Every minute of the day, a woman died from direct complications from pregnancy and childbirth. Maternal mortality rates remained at unacceptably high levels. There was still a poor representation of women in leadership roles in politics and parliaments.

Mr. Gurirab, who identified lack of political will and failure to provide the necessary financial resources as the chief obstacles to implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, said at the end of the session on 9 June, the conference would adopt an outcome document in which they were expected to recommit themselves to the Beijing Platform. He added that it was his hope that the issue of mobilizing human and financial resources would be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Ms. King, also highlighted the contribution the Beijing Conference had made, pointing out that 17, 000 men and women had participated in the event and 189 countries had unanimously adopted the Platform for Action. Adding to Mr. Gurirab's comment that since the 1995 Beijing Conference a further 16 countries had ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, she said the total number of ratifications was now 165.

For Ms. King some of the major remaining obstacles to advancement included traditional stereotyping of women, obsolete laws and institutional arrangements, as well as the lack of resources needed to carry the Platform for Action forward. In emphasizing the importance of regular review conferences, she said that better information based on more reliable data on social and economic indicators -- gathered and broken down by sex and age -- could lead to better planning and more accurate assessments of progress or lack of progress.

In terms of trends of the last few years which had brought new challenges, she said that while globalization had brought greater economic opportunity and autonomy to some women, it had made others more vulnerable to economic changes. Science and technology were transforming patterns of production and creating new jobs and ways of working. However, millions of the world's poorest women had no access to those advantages and were at risk of becoming part of the "great digital divide" and being further excluded and marginalized by the burgeoning communication revolution. The AIDS pandemic in the developing world had also had an enormous impact on the lives of women. In addition to their own high rates of infection, the burden of care for people living with AIDS, including orphans, fell on women, particularly elderly women.

The changing context of gender relations and the right of sexual and reproductive health had led to increased reassessments of gender rules, she said. There was a recognition of the need to change the stereotypical roles and identities of both women and men. Violence remained one of the main challenges, including the spread of trafficking. All those would be addressed next week by the Member States.

Ms. Kapalata, in describing the intergovernmental process leading up to the review conference, said that through the preparatory committee, 188 governments had been negotiating an outcome document which, in addition to an already agreed upon political declaration, contained an introduction, an analysis of problems, an assessment of opportunities, and recommendations for future actions. She expected the special session to provide the opportunity for an exchange of views and experiences, a "cross-fertilization" of ideas on what had worked and not worked. The major objective would be to deliberate future actions and initiatives necessary to fully implement the Beijing Platform.

A correspondent, who said the common understanding was that only 20 per cent of the outcome document had been agreed upon, asked what would happen if agreement could not be reached on the rest. Ms. Kapalata replied that delegates were trying to ensure that the follow-up document was as comprehensive and thorough as the Beijing Platform had been. On some issues, there were good agreements, on others the negotiations were difficult. "But this is what the United Nations is all about, discussing difficult issues", she said. "Previous experiences show that we've always been able to come through and I don't think that this time should be an exception. I don't think the women of the world would want to be shortchanged."

Asked to elaborate on some of those difficult issues, she said that in some cases, the issues touched upon the political, religious and cultural dimensions of governments. The diversity of Member States did not lend itself to easy consensus, as for example in the areas of family and health.

Ms. King added that certain issues tended to recur in practically all United Nations negotiations, offering as examples those connected with sovereignty, sanctions, equality and equity, and the old issue of the right of girls to education on their sexual health and in order to prevent AIDS. Sometimes delegates did not want to accept language that had been agreed upon in another forum.

Ms. Erturk, Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women, said the Beijing Conference reflected the cumulation of experiences that had gone into the international agenda on the advancement of women and gender equality. The Commission on the Status of Women had been responsible for reviewing the 12 critical areas of concern outlined in the Platform for Action and identifying new areas for actions. The Division would be presenting that compilation of agreed conclusions to the session.

The outcome document being negotiated was significant because of its emphasis on time-bound targets and monitoring mechanisms, she continued. Because of its comprehensiveness, the Beijing Platform for Action was difficult to assess. Therefore, Member States were setting more tangible targets for themselves, so that progress could be monitored in a more concrete manner.

In response to a question for examples of actual time-bound targets that had been agreed upon, Ms. Eturk said the document suggested that governments adopt their own specific times and targets for their tasks. The parameters were up to them to determine, according to their own conditions and resources. As an example, perhaps a target date could be set for the elimination of illiteracy, rather than leaving it to an open-ended commitment.

The document also looked at areas which had become more pronounced since the Beijing Conference and which affected the 12 critical areas, she said. One example was the role of men in the whole agenda of gender equality.

When a correspondent asked what was new about the role of men, Ms. King replied that there had been a great shift in thinking at the Beijing Conference. The Conference had introduced the concept of roles of women and men in gender issues. Prior to Beijing, the focus had always been on "women's issues". In Beijing, there was a recognition that women alone could not change things and certainly not without men's attitudes also being changed.

Ms. Mahfouz, speaking from the civil society viewpoint, said the non-governmental organizations had been holding parallel meetings to examine the achievements and the problems. They intended to present the results of their discussion to the session as a global alternative report.

Ms. Acharya said it was very important to the non-governmental organizations that there be no "backsliding" on the Beijing Platform. They hoped to see a stronger demonstration of political will from each government, as well as a dedication of more resources and the strengthening of institutional machineries.

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