From: Center for Womens Global Leadership
CENTER FOR WOMEN'S GLOBAL LEADERSHIP
The global focus on women's human rights was accompanied by an
insistence that all issues are women's issues and that women's
equality, development and peace cannot be discussed in isolation
from the global economic, political, and cultural forces rapidly
re-shaping the world. Thus, as a "post-Cold War" conference,
major divisions that had marked earlier women's conferences, such
as divisions between Northern and Southern women over what were
women's issues or over Israel and Palestine, were replaced by
political differences over issues like the global economy or the
role of religion. And these debates crossed geographical and
cultural boundaries.
The challenge for women's movements in Beijing was to forge a
coherent approach that would both accommodate a range of diverse
views and provide enough unity to face down those who sought to
utilize the event as a way to counter feminism and the growing
influence of women in global debates. The idea that this
conference was about defending and promoting the human rights of
women provided just such a cohesive umbrella for many. That women
succeeded not only in holding the line on gains from previous
world conferences but also in advancing on some issues and in
creating new networks and strategies in the process is a
testament to the fortitude of women. It is also a sign of hope
for the future. That we succeeded in the face of well-financed
opposition from major religious forces, indifference and
lack of adequate funding on the part of the UN, a host country
uncomfortable with non-governmental organizations, frequent
competition among NGOS, and some governments that were either
antagonistic or seeking to coopt women is almost a miracle.
But this miracle did not come out of nowhere. In the ten years
between the World Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985 and
Beijing, the global women's movement has become a force
to contend with. At the Nairobi conference, women from third
world countries demonstrated that they were creating vibrant
local feminist movements offering new perspectives on many
issues which also provided the basis for solid global networks to
develop. This networking has forcefully emerged in the
cross-cultural alliances formed to influence recent UN world
conferences.
In 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit, women won acknowledgment of
their critical role in sustaining the environment. In Vienna in
1993, at the World Conference on Human Rights, women gained
recognition of women's rights as human rights and of violence
against women as a human rights issue. At the Cairo
International Conference on Population and Development in l994,
women confronted abusive population policies and lobbied for a
Declaration that recognized the centrality of women's empowerment
in population and development policy. At the 1995 World Summit
on Social Development in Copenhagen, women forced governments to
acknowledge the devastating impact of economic policies on
women and to commit to involving them in efforts to eradicate
poverty.
Participation in these international arenas has enabled women
from diverse regions to define common agendas and to formulate
coordinated strategies for lobbying governments. Corresponding
dialogue at the NGO Forums has intersected with lobbying
strategies and allowed women to air differences, to elaborate new
ideas, and to deepen links with one another. Women have also
strengthened networks through electronic mail, newsletters,
telephones, faxes, meetings and other events - all of which have
been used to expand alliances, negotiate differences, mobilize
coordinated actions, and confront governments and international
institutions.
The connections made among women from 1985 to 1995 were reflected
in women's actions even before they arrived in Beijing. For over
two years, women organized at the local, national, regional, and
international level to influence this conference. In
unprecedented numbers, they participated in regional preparatory
meetings, held numerous NGO events, and formed coalitions to give
voice to diverse concerns. At the two UN international
preparatory meetings held in New York, caucuses formed on topics
ranging from human rights to peace and economic justice as well
as around constituencies like lesbians and older women. Many
of these caucuses included networks with experience at previous
world conferences. They converged in the Linkage Caucus, a sort
of caucus of caucuses, which sought to develop agreed upon NGO
proposals for the Platform.
The world learned about the strength of women's global
connections when the Chinese government moved the NGO Forum out
of Beijing and sought to isolate it in Huairou. UN
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's office was flooded with
calls, faxes, petitions, and letters from around the world.
Women engaged in a global conversation about strategies to
ensure an adequate site while simultaneously debating whether to
boycott the Forum. The alacrity with which women responded to
calls for action and the numbers who entered the debate reflected
how seriously women took this event. Understanding the need for
global solidarity, women decided to show the strength of the
movement by attending, in spite of the obstacles posed by the
site. Over 38,000 people registered for, and at least 30,000
attended the Forum, making this the largest UN gathering in
history.
NGO FORUM
Women's determination to do their work was reflected in the
dialogue and networking that took place in Huairou despite
logistical problems created by rain, the forum's disorganization,
harassment by Chinese and other government agents, and the
overwhelming size of the event. The story that too often did not
make it into the press was how, despite difficult conditions,
women succeeded in holding their events, learning from each
other, and building their movements.
The Forum included a plethora of some 3,000 events that served to
educate, involve and inspire at many levels. Women's rights as
human rights was a palpable presence throughout. Banners and
posters demanding recognition of women's human rights were
visible at every turn, and the program listed hundreds of
workshops related to the topic. Panels encompassed the human
rights dimensions of everything from structural adjustment
programs to education, health, sexuality, and violence against
women. Migrant women highlighted human rights violations by
countries of the North; comfort women demanded increased
accountability from the Japanese government for World War II
human rights abuses; lesbians insisted on recognition of the
human right to control one's sexuality; and women from East
Timor, Tibet, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia utilized human
rights concepts to describe violations of women in conflict
situations. Sessions also addressed international legal
instruments and UN agencies and mechanisms, examining their
utility in advancing women's human rights.
Among the multitude of issues discussed, certain themes resonated
across regions. The prevention of violence against women in all
its forms was clearly of great urgency as was advancing women's
health and reproductive rights. Other priorities included
reversing the negative impact of international economic policies,
countering the rise of religious and secular conservatism, and
giving women a greater voice in policy making.
The global dialogue about violence against women ranged from
discussions of private acts of incest and domestic abuse to state
violence in conflict situations and military prostitution.
Women's determination to end all forms of violence is reflected
in the transformation of this issue from Nairobi to Beijing. Ten
years ago, governments had only begun to acknowledge domestic
violence and rape as social problems in the Forward Looking
Strategies. By the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, women
had organized a global campaign and tribunal that politically
positioned violence against women in its many forms squarely on
the international human rights agenda.
Tribunals, panels, workshops, and demonstrations held at the
Forum revealed the enormous burden violence places on women's
lives and how different constituencies like immigrants and
refugees, or ethnic, racial and religious minorities, indigenous,
lesbian, disabled or older women experience specific forms of
violence. Thus, women have moved from making this issue visible
to demanding accountability for it from governments and the U.N.
As Pierre San, Secretary General of Amnesty International and
one of the Judges at the Global Tribunal organized by the Center
for Women's Global Leadership in Huairou put it, "What we want
from governments is not simply to give their assent to the need
to protect and promote women's human rights in yet another piece
of paper. If it is to achieve anything, the Beijing Conference
must be ... a genuine catalyst for action and the swift delivery
of real protection."
The pressure that women's organizing in this area has put on
governments was evident when it emerged as a priority at all the
regional preparatory meetings. In the Beijing Platform, the
eradication of violence against women was one of the least
controversial objectives and governments acknowledged that it was
a state responsibility which called for more action. A Worldwide
Campaign to End Violence Against Women was launched by UNIFEM
with several NGOs and a number of governments who made concrete
commitments to work on this issue. Many agreed to meet with NGOs
when they return home to develop national plans of action against
gender-based violence.
The impact on women of the globalization of the world economy was
another central concern at the Forum. Women from North America
and Western Europe discussed economic restructuring with its
cutbacks in social services and health care in ways that echoed
the devastation of structural adjustment policies described by
women from the Third World. And the new voices of women from
Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union that emerged at
this conference also reported their negative experiences in the
transition to market economies. In sharp contrast to Nairobi
where this issue divided more on North-South lines, women from
all regions saw international economic and trade policies as
placing increasing burdens on them. Still, women from the South
tended to understand the economy as connected to other problems
like violence against women, while Northern women more often
approached these as separate issues.
Despite broad consensus among many NGOs and documentation of how
economic globalization is harming women, governments were not
willing to address this topic substantially. The Beijing
Platform does acknowledge the negative impact of structural
adjustment and calls for recognition that women's unwaged work
constitutes a large percentage of national economies. But no
effort was made to address the causes of these problems and
governments remain engaged in practices that perpetuate them.
Another issue that resonated with women from all over the world
was the danger posed by the backlash against feminism and the
growing power of secular and religious conservatism. Discussion
of how to counter these forces politically was interwoven with
intense conversation about culture, religion, ethnicity and
nationality in women's lives. While there was resistance to the
ideologies of religious fundamentalists and the secular right,
passionate debates took place about whether women should organize
within religious frameworks or from entirely secular space.
Such questions of identity politics formed a sub-text throughout
the forum. Many wanted to affirm their distinct identities
around race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, age, sexual
orientation, disabilities, etc. and to identify areas where their
perspectives or problems were often ignored. Some of the tents
based on region and diverse identities became lively arenas
serving this purpose. Of particular note was the mobilization of
disabled women who faced extraordinarily difficult conditions at
the Forum and utilized these to educate women about the issue.
Nevertheless, many did not want to be isolated in a group based
only on identity and sought to bring identity based perspectives
into other issues. The struggle to recognize differences while
also finding areas of commonality was a recurring theme
throughout the Forum, as it is in women's movements locally.
Women from regions torn by ethnic or religious warfare discussed
their responsibilities in the conflicts and often sought to go
beyond nationalistic divisions. For example, feminists from
countries of the former Yugoslavia met frequently, ate, sang and
protested together; then they formed a network to continue
contact across national divisions even though the war often
makes this difficult. The Women in Black vigil at the Forum
spoke loudly with its large numbers of diverse women - often from
countries at war with each other - gathered together in silence
to protest male warfare and domination around the world. Again,
the transformation of the movement from Nairobi to Beijing was
evident. In Nairobi, conflicts between women often degenerated
into screaming matches. In Beijing, many women negotiated painful
divisions with respect, even if not agreement, which underscored
the urgent need for more women in positions of power if the world
is to move toward peace.
Sessions at the Forum dealt with many other topics, such as
political participation, health and reproductive rights, literacy
and women's studies, media and communications, appropriate
technologies, etc. Many of these included human rights
questions, such as what conditions are necessary for women to be
able to fully exercise their human rights and how to establish
government accountability in a time of growing privatization.
Overall there was recognition that women must address all aspects
of life, not just woman-specific topics as some had argued in
previous UN women's conferences. Indeed many sought
transformation of the global debates of our day, building on
women's organizing at the Rio, Vienna, Cairo, and Copenhagen
conferences. In part, this requires that women both enter
mainstream debates, such as that represented by the government
conference, as well as challenge its premises.
Many who attended the governmental conference, which began midway
through the NGO Forum, sought to bring the challenging
discussions and the strength of women's presence in Huairou to
that arena in Beijing.
THE UN INTER-GOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE
The governmental conference in Beijing was mandated to produce a
consensus Platform for Action that would implement the goals set
forth in l985 in the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies and
advance the conference themes of Action for Equality, Development
and Peace. Over 4000 NGO delegates who were accredited to that
conference lobbied, as many had at the regional and international
preparatory meetings, to get our perspectives reflected there.
Human rights language permeated both the Beijing Declaration and
the Platform for Action agreed to by all 181 States present.
The women's human rights caucus was a collaboration of NGOs who
lobbied government delegates around human rights throughout the
negotiations on the Platform for Action. The caucus grew out of
the success of the Global Campaign for Women's Human Rights at
the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna and built on
both global and regional alliances developed with other caucuses
in Cairo and Copenhagen, as well as during the two-year
preparatory process for Beijing. In addition, a number of
governmental delegations included feminists and women involved in
both health and human rights networking over the past few years
who promoted these concepts from the inside. The distance from
the NGO Forum in Huairou made it difficult for many women who
wanted to lobby during the first week to get to the government
conference. Nevertheless, caucus efforts were strengthened by the
high visibility of women's human rights activities at the NGO
Forum and especially by activities that brought the spirit of the
Forum to Beijing, such as the delivery to the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights of over one million signatures to a
worldwide petition demanding that the UN act urgently to promote
and protect women's human rights.
The combined effect of all these activities was a groundswell of
support for making the entire Platform a document about the human
rights of women, including women's right to education, food,
health, and freedom from violence, as well as to the exercise of
citizenship in all its manifestations. Previous UN women's
conferences were seen as primarily about women and development or
women's rights rather than being about human rights. This
expansion of what is generally considered to be "human rights,"
and its usage to frame a wider set of women's concerns reflects
organizing done over the past several years.
In this sense, Beijing saw the mainstreaming of women's human
rights. Previously, women had to make the case that our issues
are a legitimate part of the international human rights agenda.
In Huairou and Beijing, this legitimacy was assumed. The
incorporation of human rights language into their work by
governments and women's organizations from all regions indicates
more than a rhetorical gesture. It signals a shift in analysis
that moves beyond single-issue politics and identity-based
organizing, and enhances our capacity to build global alliances
based on collective political goals and a common agenda. Moreover
since human rights has legitimacy amongst many governments, the
appeal to human rights agreements and international norms can
fortify women's organizing.
Overall, the Platform asserted the universal and holistic nature
of the human rights of women. Specific language and commitments
that human rights advocates gained in Beijing include the
reaffirmation and extension of commitments to promote and protect
women's human rights, including the right to be free from
violence, the right to sexual and reproductive health free
from discrimination or coercion, access to information about
sexual and reproductive health care, equal rights to inheritance
for women and girls -- although not the "right to equal
inheritance," and the obligation of governments to pursue and
punish perpetrators of rape and sexual violence against women and
girls in situations of armed conflict as war crimes. Universal
government ratification of CEDAW (the women's convention) and
limiting reservations to it were urged, along with consideration
of an optional protocol to strengthen its implementation. In
this process, commitments to women from previous conferences were
maintained, and even expanded in the cases of: protection of
human rights activists; the acknowledgement that systematic rape
during armed conflict is a war crime, and in some cases a crime
against humanity; the recognition of the rights of women to
control over their sexual and reproductive health; that parental
rights must be qualified to ensure they respect privacy and
access to information by adolescents and children; and the
importance of systemwide integration of women's human rights
throughout the UN.
However, clear gaps remain. This is most evident in the lack of
strong interaction between development and human rights
discourses. As the sub-group on women's economic rights
noted, the human rights section of the Platform reflects largely
a concern for women's individual rights rather than the
collective, systemic or development rights associated with
women's economic concerns, particularly around globalization,
economic restructuring and structural adjustment. Similarly,
there is not adequate discussion of the relationship between
human rights and peace and militarism. Even within the standard
rubric of human rights, there were some disturbing losses: no
explicit reference to sexual rights or sexual orientation; the
replacement of explicit references to race and ethnicity with
"demographic factors" in some sections; the use of "indigenous
people" rather than the term "peoples"; and weak language about
the various forms of "family".
Some major controversies illustrate both what women gained and
the limitations of the Platform. For example, in the contested
area of sexual rights, many thought it could not be won and the
phrase per se was rejected. However, these boundaries were
expanded in the health section of the Platform which states in
Paragraph 97 that "the human rights of women include their right
to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters
related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive
health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence."
Similarly, explicit support for the rights of lesbians and the
term "sexual orientation" were excluded from the document in
final late night negotiations. Nevertheless, the door was opened
with this first open discussion of the issue in the UN, which
also exposed the virulence of homophobia among those who
manipulate it to oppose women' human rights generally. At least
some governments in each region supported the issue, and a number
stated that their interpretation of the prohibition of
discrimination on the basis of "other status" in several human
rights documents applies to lesbians and gays.
Another major debate centered on the term "universal" and the use
of religion and culture to limit women's human rights. Women
sought to maintain the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights'
recognition that women's human rights are universal, inalienable,
indivisible and interdependent. The Vatican, its supporter
States, and some Muslim governments attempted unsuccessfully to
limit the extent of universal application of women's human
rights. However, they used this debate to claim that there is a
feminist imperialism that reflects disrespect for religion and
culture, an over-zealous individualism, and an effort to impose
Western values which destroy the family and local communities.
This isn't a new debate, but more thought must go into how to
argue for universality of rights without implying homogenization,
especially around religion and culture, aspects of which can also
be positive for some women.
Of course, each movement forward for women was met with
resistance. For instance, 19 States entered reservations to text
that was not in conformity with Islamic law, particularly
references to reproductive health and rights, inheritance,
sexuality and abortion. The Holy See put forward their
interpretation of much of the Platform, especially the Health and
Human Rights sections, as expressing "exaggerated individualism."
The extensive reservations on religious and cultural grounds
reflect on-going debates about the human rights of women which
could not have been resolved in Beijing but they do lay out the
contours of future collaborations and confrontations.
In the critical area of implementation and resources, the
promises of the Platform are not backed up with adequate
commitments from either governments or the UN. While the
Platform includes strong language about gender integration and
coordination within the UN, these are rarely assigned to specific
agencies or actors, and there is little clarity about which
institutional tasks are the responsibility of whom. The idea of
making this a conference of commitments was proposed by Australia
and promoted by many NGOs, but did not get widespread government
acceptance. NGOs nevertheless kept track of commitments referred
to in government speeches, and these can form a basis for
demanding accountability from our governments.
Throughout the Platform, paragraphs call for reevaluation of all
policies using gender analysis which might ultimately lead to a
fundamentally different way of constructing programs, and
certainly provides guidance for action. Paragraph 297 notes that
States should, as soon as possible, develop strategies to
implement the Platform. Member States should be reminded
of this as the next stage begins of translating the Platform into
concrete strategies and ensuring that its promises are carried
forward. How much the Platform for Action advances women's human
rights ultimately depends on how much women are able to use it to
further their efforts to influence policy and action at all
levels from the local to the global. For now, it provides us
with a global affirmation that the rights of women are human
rights and that they are in urgent need of world attention.
=================================================================
Subject: Beijing '95: A Global Referendum on the Human Rights of Women
=================================================================
Beijing '95: A Global Referendum on the Human Rights of Women
by Charlotte Bunch, Mallika Dutt, and Susana Fried
=================================================================
One of the more striking aspects of the IV World Conference on
Women in Beijing was the way in which it focused world attention
on the human rights of women. Women's human rights permeated
debates at both the official UN intergovernmental conference and
at the parallel NGO (non-governmental organizations) Forum held
40 miles away in Huairou: in the speeches given by many heads of
delegations, including Hillary Rodham Clinton's adoption of
the theme "women's rights are human rights;" in the vehement
opposition on the part of some governments to what they called
the "creation of new rights" in the Platform for Action; in the
many workshops and demonstrations at the NGO Forum and in the
efforts of the Chinese security to contain that event.
(C) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
=================================================================
For more information please contact:
CENTER FOR WOMEN'S GLOBAL LEADERSHIP
Douglass College, 27 Clifton Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08903 USA
Tel:(1-908)932-8782 Fax:(1-908)932-1180 E-mail: cwgl@igc.apc.org
DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS
=================================================================