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UN Fourth World Conference on Women
Reports from Beijing Articles Contributed by Jennifer Jackman and Christine Onyango The Good News - Platform Gains for Women's Rights Delegates to the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women approved a Platform for Action -- far stronger than prior UN conference platforms -- which includes major advances for women in the areas of violence against women. health, economic equity, and the rights of girls. The Platform for the first time calls for valuing women's unwaged work in national economic accounting systems. While the platform does not ask countries to include women's unwaged work[See Sept. 10, 1995 and Sept. 11, 1995 - Jennifer Jackman Field Notes.] in the GNP, the adopted provision does urge the creation of national satellite accounts to measure this work. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has estimated that sex discrimination costs women $11 trillion in unwaged and underpaid work worldwide. Islamic countries failed to win language in the Platform allowing a country's religious or cultural practices to supercede the Platform for Action's unequivocal commitment to women's human rights. Provisions declaring that the rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely about matters related to their own sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence advanced the Platform beyond other international documents in the areas of sexual and reproductive rights. The International Conference on Population and Development Platform did not mentionsexual rights, whereas the Social Summit Plan of Action did not include sexual health. The Fourth World Conference for Women Platform calls for the promotion and protection of the universal human rights of women, defined rape as a war crime, and condemned other forms of gender-based violence such as genital mutilation, domestic violence, marital rape, and dowry-related violence. The rights of girls and young women to privacy, confidentiality, and respect were affirmed in platform language that sought to provide protections for young women in various situations from being sold into sexual slavery to reproductive health decisions. Gender balance in governmental bodies, public administrative entities, and the judiciary is urged by the Platform for Action. In addition, the Platform aims for gender balance in lists of candidates for election or appointment to United Nations bodies and agencies, especially at the senior-level. Language from the ICPD Platform stating that unsafe abortion is a public health concern was retained in the Women's Conference Platform. In addition, a new provision urged countries to consider reviewing punitive lawsagainst women who have had illegal abortions. More Good News - Nations Commit to Improve Women's Lives For the first time, governments came to the conference with concrete national commitments for improving the status of women. Fifty-four (as of Sept. 12) governments presented commitments in speeches before the conference plenary session: Women's Equality Measures. Nations pledged to ratify (South Africa, U.S), remove reservations from (Turkey) and monitor implementation of (Latvia) the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). There also were commitments to establishing equality ombuds offices (Austria), to include the right to equality of women to men in constitutions (Austria) and to amend laws violating constitutionally guaranteed equality between women and men (Nepal). Equal education Pledges: the reduction of school fees and the distribution of free school books to ensure 100% enrollment of girls by the year 2000 (Cote d'Ivoire); extend compulsory primary education from 5 to 8 years (Turkey); increasing primary school enrollment from 18% to 100% (Tanzania). Women's Health Initiatives: provide 90% immunization coverage and reduce maternal mortality by 50% by the year 2000; implement agreements made at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (Canada, Norway); promote reproductive health programs for youth (Malawi) including school-based programs (U.S.); conduct and fund contraceptive research and development, with special emphasis on RU 486 and other promising technologies (U.S.). Women's Economic Empowerment Commitments: create a Women's Bank to increase women's access to credit (of Cote d'Ivoire); establish daycare centres (Ghana) or increase their number of (U.K); enact legislation protecting women's property rights (Nepal). Violence Against Women Measures: Grant political asylum to women who had been victims of sexual violence (Austria); pass laws to protect women against sexual harassment (Belize); open a center for young women victims of violence and sexual abuse (Luxembourg); enact domestic violence legislation (Mauritius); implement Violence Against Women Act (US). Women's Political Participation Initiatives: Bring gender parity to peace negotiation and conflict resolution delegations (Cambodia); attain 50% participation of women of boards, committees, councils and political appointments by 1999 (Fiji); and launch a foreign aid initiative to increase women's access to and participation in the political process around the world as well as promote women's legal literacy (U.S.). Financial Resource Pledges: Denmark pledged to continue contributing over 1% of its Gross National Product to international development with an emphasis of the role of women. Germany said it would spend $10 million a year for the next 4 years for legal and socio-political counseling in developing countries with special emphasis on the needs of women. Ireland will mainstream gender in its official development assistance which will increase by 5% each year. Papua New Guinea pledged to contribute 1 million (PNG currency) to a Rural Bank for Rural Credit Mini-Loan Scheme for Women. Australia promised to provide funding to NGOs in Pacific Island nations to implement the Platform for Action. And the Best News - 4,000 Youth Attend the FWCW and NGO Forum An unprecedented number of young women came to Beijing with NGO and governmental delegations, thanks in part to the support of Fourth World Conference on Women Secretary General, Gertrude Mongella, and FWCW Youth Advisor, Sherrill Whittington for youth participation. Over 4,000 young women and men under 25 participated in the NGO Forum and Conference, 85 of them on their government's official delegation. The United Nations hosted International Youth Day on September 11, to celebrate the young women and men who came to Beijing to voice their concerns, and their increasing participation at all levels of international decision making. The Bad News - Vatican, Islamic Countries Block Some Potential Gains for Women Several potential advances for women from inclusion in the final Platform for Action were blocked or seriously diluted: References to prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation were dropped from the Platform during the final hours of negotiation because of the objections of the Vatican and Islamic countries. The U.S., Canada, European Union, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and other nations had sought this language, bringing discussion of the issue of discrimination against lesbians to the conference floor for the first time. Forty-one nations announced reservations to approximately 20 parts of the Platform for Action, mostly in the areas of sexual and reproductive rights. These dissenting delegations included the Vatican and countries controlled by Catholic or Islamic religious forces. Conference General Secretary Gertrude Mongella, however, noted that the 20 reservations represented a substantial decrease in opposition from the 400 objections to the original draft document. Strong objections by G-7 countries (U.S., U.K., Japan, Germany, Italy, Canada, and France) to recognizing the negative impact of structural adjustment on women result in the absence of such language in the Platform. The same countries opposed an NGO proposal to reduce multi-lateral debt (debt owed to financial institutions rather than to individual countries or private banks) for middle- and low-income countries. The goal of the proposal was to release resources for gender-sensitive development programs. 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