PRESS CONFERENCE BY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S HEALTH COALITION

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S HEALTH COALITION

It was absurd in the year 2000 for delegations to be nitpicking on questions around the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which was originally signed in 1979, Gita Sen, Professor at the Indian Institute of Management and a member of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, told correspondents yesterday at a Headquarter’s press conference organized by the International Women's Health Coalition.

The Coalition was concerned over what it described as delaying tactics in the “Beijing +5” outcome document negotiations by some delegations, particularly the observer mission of the Holy See, she said. The Holy See wanted to make a distinction between health care and health services, which was incomprehensible to most people. The NGOs were fed up with those actions and wanted the small minority of delegations that were delaying progress to know it. She said that the countries involved in the delay did not agree on everything, and that she expected Egypt and Pakistan to change their positions.

She called on United Nations agencies to show more presence and visibility in the negotiations in order to indicate the Organization's commitment to moving the negotiations forward in a positive way. She also hoped that they would support the chairs and delegations in the negotiations and not allow a small minority to obstruct the consensus. Consensus in United Nations documents did not mean that everyone had to agree. She added that it was time for the tiny minority to take their reservations on issues they did not agree with and allow things to move on.

"We would also like to call on governments and Chairs of the working groups and the bureau for the negotiations to take the consensus and move on so that the tyranny of this miniscule group can be ended", she said.

Ana Cristina Gonzalez, physician and researcher with the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network in Colombia, said that since Beijing, there had been much progress in sexual rights and reproductive health programmes in her country. Colombia had had no reservations about Beijing and had joined other Latin American countries in taking a progressive position during the present negotiations. However, there was currently much concern over the pressure being exerted by the Catholic Church over the Colombian Government to change its position.

"I would like to call on the Colombia delegation to stand by the commitment which was made in Beijing and in ‘Cairo +5’. I also want to make it clear that Colombia is not one of the countries obstructing the present negotiations", she added.

Turkey was very eager to participate fully in the implementation of the Platform for Action and had already signed the anti-discrimination Convention, Dr. Nalan Sahin Hodoglugil of the Hacettepe University Medical Faculty in Ankara told correspondents.

Health Coalition Press Conference - 2 - 8 June 2000

She said that there were concerns specific to Turkey and the Middle East, such as violence against women, which was still a very important problem, and they had therefore wanted to be specific about the definitions of different forms of domestic violence, particularly marital rape. It was import for it to be defined as a form of domestic violence so that measures could be taken against it.

"We are really disappointed over this because, for example, marital rape was already in the Platform for Action and now it is just in brackets. There is no sound justification why it has not been included. It has been said that governments wanted to avoid listings. We know that we cannot be too specific at a certain level, but if specific issues are not addressed, the bottom line is that equality between men and women means nothing", she added.

Women subjected to violence still had very little support in Turkey and the general statement contained in the document was useless to those groups helping them because it could not be used to advocate with the Government of Turkey for more services.

Bene Madunagu, co-founder and Chair of the Board of Girls' Power Initiative in Calabar, Nigeria, said it was baffling that there was an attempt to reduce language on the issue of collaboration when governments had reiterated that the Platform for Action, which contained more than 200 paragraphs on partnership and collaborative action, was a given and would not be renegotiated.

"We find that in many instances where debates and discussions are going on, at the point where consensus is almost reached, one country would simply lift up their flag and stall the discussions with sometimes no reason offered. Even paragraphs dealing with facts on adolescent health have been bracketed. People are preventing further discussions on finding the root causes of what contributes to the problem of trafficking in girls and women, which is a global issue", she said.

She said that given that delegations had come from countries where the Platform for Action was already being implemented, those who objected to its contents should move on and be accountable to their citizens.

In response to a correspondent’s request to name the group that was responsible for the delay in completing the document, Ms. Sen named Libya, Sudan, Nicaragua, the observer mission of the Holy See and Iraq. She said that although other countries had voted with the group, their positions had become fluid in recent days. Globalization paragraphs contained in the document were still under negotiations, but she expected agreement on compromise language. However, she said that as far as the Holy See was concerned, abortion would always be a contentious issue, and the issue of sexual rights and what constituted a family were also problem areas.

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