PRESS CONFERENCE BY NGOS ON REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY NGOS ON REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

Reproductive and sexual health and rights were essential to women’s equality and to the overall development and health of nations, a group of non-governmental organizations told correspondents this afternoon at a Headquarters press conference held to call upon governments to face those issues head on.

Speaking at the press conference, given in connection with the Beijing +5 review process, were: Amparo Claro, General Coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network (Chile); Shanthi Dairiam, Director of International Women's Rights Action Watch (Malaysia); Anika Rahman and Kathy Hall Martinez, Director and Deputy Director, respectively, of the International Program of the Centre for Reproductive Law and Policy (United States); Bene Madunagu of Girls' Power Initiative (Nigeria); and, Mihaela Poenariu of the East European Institute of Reproductive Health (Romania).

Ms. Rahman said that while there had been some improvements in the past few days in the outcome document being negotiated, she said the fear of many non- governmental organizations was that because of a few countries’ sensitivity to the issue of women’s reproductive and sexual health and rights, the issues would be sacrificed for the sake of consensus. Those issues were crucial to the 12 areas of concern in the Beijing Platform for Action, as well as to the everyday lives of women around the world, she said. Unplanned and unwanted pregnancies prevented young women from pursuing an education and often pushed them further into poverty. The fact that women did not have control over their bodies and their lives had implications for society in general.

Such harmful traditional practices as early marriages, forced marriages, female genital mutilation and female circumcision were the issues at stake and went to the core of women’s equality in society. She urged governments to make a commitment to fully addressing those problems, but added that the global women’s movement would be moving forward no matter what governments did this week at the United Nations. “The only real question is, will governments join us in that march or will they stand silently by while the global women’s movement moves forward?”

Ms. Martinez said the non-governmental organizations present supported the Beijing Platform for Action and called upon Member States to adopt a forceful outcome document with an unqualified commitment to gender equality and women’s human rights, including their right to reproductive and sexual rights. Non- governmental organizations had been frustrated by such factors out of their control as the weak document the Conference had begun with and the reluctance of some of the chairs of the negotiating groups to compel the tiny minority of dissenters to enter reservations if they couldn’t join the consensus.

Many women were at risk of sexual abuse, Ms. Madunagu said, arguing that there should be services to protect them and to provide information to them that might help reduce the risks they face. There was a misguided notion being promulgated at the conference that the concept of rights was Western and that Western countries were forcing the countries of the South to debate particular

NGO Press Conference - 2 - 8 June 2000

issues. That view was very disrespectful to the delegates of the South, who were here representing the realities of the lives of their citizens in the various countries. “There are no separate set of rights for the West and another for the South,” she said.

Ms. Dairiam expressed concern that there was a lack of recognition between the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women -- a human rights treaty -- and the Beijing Platform for Action. The two could not be separated. The Convention provided the legal framework for women’s equality, while the Platform for Action provided the content and substance of the Convention. The Convention was legally binding and had an accountability mechanism. It set the standards for equality and non-discrimination. The Platform for Action was being implemented on the basis of those standards.

Ms. Poenariu said the negotiating process had been slow and the document appeared weak. She urged governments to live up to the commitments promised in Beijing and to adopt a strong outcome document.

The group pointed out that there had been gains during the review process. Among them they listed the paragraphs on: adopting and revising health legislation policies to better address the HIV/AIDS pandemic and its impact on women; legislation and the strengthening of mechanisms to punish marital rape; and the decision to incorporate a gender element into national immigration and asylum policies that would allow gender-related persecution and violence as legitimate grounds for granting refugee status or asylum.

Ms. Claro added that the fact that the “Group of 77” developing countries and China had agreed, because of their differences, not to negotiate as one bloc had had a positive effect on the negotiations. That decision had enabled those Latin American and Caribbean countries that supported the Platform for Action to come together and join others, like the European Union and the Southern African Development Community, in providing an important progressive voice regarding women’s sexual and reproductive rights.

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