PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF QUEBEC WOMEN'S FEDERATION

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF QUEBEC WOMEN'S FEDERATION

The success of the World March of Women represented the birth of an international feminist initiative that was determined to eliminate poverty and violence against women, Francoise David, President of the Federation des Femmes du Quebec, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

"Today is the end of the World March of Women, but at the same time it is the beginning of a new network, a new way to organize women all around the planet," Ms. David said. The movement originated in Quebec in the aftermath of the March against Poverty in 1995, she said. After that event, women from around the world were invited to join an international march in the year 2000.

From 8 March to 17 October, 6,000 groups participated in the World Women's March, in 159 countries and territories, in a variety of rallies, seminars, and other events. In 100 countries, the march was nationally organized. There was also a campaign to collect postcards asking governments to end poverty and violence against women. To date, 4,500,000 cards had been written. Most of those had been brought to the United Nations for the day's events.

This morning's press conference, as well as an afternoon meeting at which Member States would be hearing a Women's March presentation, was sponsored by the Canadian Mission, and was introduced by the Mission's Counsellor Ross Hynes. Ms. David also introduced three regional organizers of the Women's March, who made brief statements.

Farida El-Nakash, from Egypt, a journalist and a member of the Arab regional liaison committee, said that the World Women's March was made up of grass-roots participants from many situations. Violence and poverty knew no borders. The United Nations represented the hope that the next century could be one of human rights, which were especially important to women. Only a strongly coordinated international community could succeed in ending poverty and violence.

There would be, she said, no possible future for humankind unless women's physical and psychological integrity was respected and there was equality between women and men, as well as equal distribution of wealth between countries and between genders. Demands of the marchers included the elimination of third-world debt, the end of structural adjustment programs, and the dedication of 0.7 per cent of the Gross National Product (GNP) of wealthy countries for social development assistance.

Fatoumata Sire Diakite, of the Association pour le progres et la defense des droits des femmes maliennes (APDF) of Mali served as a liaison for seven French- speaking African countries. She said that, faced with the globalization of the world economy, the women of the world had decided to globalize solidarity. In Africa, in particular, poverty and violence against women were facts of life, including harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation. There had been much pleading at international conferences for attention to the plight of women in Africa. But in the United Nations, until now, it had not been a major issue, nor was it linked to women's rights as spelled out in the various human- rights instruments ratified by African countries.

Martha Buritica, from the Casa de la Mujer of Colombia, said that Colombian women did not want to give birth to sons who would be involved in war. In Colombia her organization was calling for an end to war and, at the same time, an end to the international arms traffic that helps fuel such conflict. Many kinds of illicit traffic, in fact, were harmful to women, including narco-traffic and sexual traffic and should also be stopped.

A correspondent asked what concrete gains had come from the World March of Women. Ms. David replied that it was too early to answer that question. It would take a few months to analyse the events that had occurred and to decide how to progress. There was a meeting scheduled to discuss those matters with non- governmental organizations on Wednesday, 18 October. Ms. Diakite added that the March represented the first time that women had organized themselves to present their views to the United Nations.

Another correspondent asked who had actually marched, and where. Ms. David replied that well over 2,000 women had come to New York from outside of North America. That was not a million, of course, but it was impressive considering the obstacles and the lack of government support. There had been many large rallies worldwide, such as one in Morocco that attracted up to 300,000 women and rallies in Argentina and Brazil that drew tens of thousands.

A third correspondent asked why the United Nations was chosen as the focal point. Ms. David replied that the United Nations was literally the General Assembly of all countries, and the March wanted to present the needs of the world's women directly to their representatives. There had been the Beijing Conference and others, but the Women's March wanted to go farther and really eliminate poverty and violence against women, while asking the Secretary-General to press all States to act according to the conventions they had signed. Ms. Diakite added that there were women in high positions at the United Nations, and the Women's March intended to build bridges to them from the grass-roots level. Going to the General Assembly was also a symbolic way of saying that women were now at the front door and that their needs were, in fact, priorities.

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