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Women 2000: Beijing +5 Review

By Stacey Ashby, Pace University Model U.N.

A revolution has begun, and there is no going back. There will be no unraveling of commitments--not today's commitment, not last year's commitments, and certainly not the commitments of the last decade. This revolution is just, too important, and long overdue.

-Secretary-General Gertrude Mongella at the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995

HISTORY

The Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in September 1995, welcomed over 45,000 people assembled to work towards women achieving equal rights and developing their full potential throughout the world. Since the First World Conference in 1975 in Mexico City, Mexican women and men have vowed to involve themselves in a struggle to eliminate all forms of discrimination towards women and girls that have prevailed for centuries. Five years later, activists met again in Copenhagen, and adopted the "Decade of the Woman" for the 1980's. Then in 1985 at Nairobi, Kenya, a mid-decade evaluation was held on the progress of the social, economic, and political developments for women around the world. Unfortunately, most of the goals of the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies (NFLS) were not achieved by 1995. Barriers to women's empowerment still remain, despite efforts of governments, NGO's, and men and women everywhere. Since the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace, the international community has made a major effort to promote greater equality, through governmental and non-governmental action, between men and women on the one hand, boys and girls on the other. Gender equality means an equal visibility, empowerment and participation of both sexes; it gives women and men, girls and boys, the same opportunities to participate in the development of their societies.

The Platform of Action established at the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) reaffirms the fundamental human rights of women and girls. The Beijing Conference builds on the accomplishments made since Mexico City as well as focusing on the challenges from Nairobi. It also builds on the cycle of world conferences convened by the United Nations in recent years: the Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), the Conferences on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993) and Population (Cairo, 1994) the Summit on Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995) and Habitat in Istanbul. There emerged from each of these global conferences a more powerful recognition of the crucial role of women in every aspect from sustainable development to protecting the environment; from human rights to adequate housing; women were acknowledged to be the primary force upon which empowerment and change would depend.

It has been five years since FWCW was convened. In June 2000 the United Nations General Assembly will meet in special session to develop a framework for further action that will be considered during the special session of the General Assembly entitled "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-first Century." January 25, 1999, paragraph 8 (E/CN.6/1999/PC/2.)

The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action (PFA) is contained in a 38-paragraph document. It was unanimously adopted by all 189 delegations. <http://sunsite.wits.ac.za/law/humanrts/instree/bejingdec.htm>

The PFA is contained in Six Chapters.

Chapter I, Mission Statement

http://sunsite.wits.ac.za/law/humanrts/instree/bejing1.htm

Chapter II, Global Framework

http://sunsite.wits.ac.za/law/humanrts/instree/bejing2.htm

Chapter III, Critical Areas of Concern

http://sunsite.wits.ac.za/law/humanrts/instree/bejing3.htm

Chapter IV, Strategic Objectives and Actions

http://sunsite.wits.ac.za/law/humanrts/instree/bejing5.htm

Chapter VI, Financial Arrangements

http://sunsite.wits.ac.za/law/humanrts/instree/bejing6.htm

The crucial areas for our simulation purposes are contained in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. In Chapter 3, paragraph 46 the PFA explicitly states, "To this end, Governments, the international community and civil society, including non-governmental organizations and the private sector, are called upon to take strategic action in the following critical areas of concern." (PFA)

The twelve critical areas of concern and the description of the Beijing+5 process are taken from the website of the International Institute for Sustainable Development(IISD). The IISD is one of the very best sources for information in areas of the environment and development. http://www.iisd.ca/linkages/4wcw/csw44/background.html There are excellent sites on the Beijing+5 process at the official UN site http://www.un.org. Go to the conference sites and use the tremendous amount of information available.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/update.htm. This site, and related womenwatch sites, are necessary for your research.

TWELVE AREAS OF CONCERN (PFA)

Poverty: Develop macroeconomic mechanisms to improve access to economic resources.
Education and Training: Ensure equal access to education and promote lifelong education and training for girls and women.
Health: Increase women’s life-long access to affordable, appropriate, and quality health care, and to information dealing with maternal mortality, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health.
Violence: Adopt and implement legislation to end violence against women, ratify the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and encourage international cooperation to dismantle trafficking in women.
Armed Conflict: Increase participation of women in conflict resolution at decision-making levels, condemn ethnic cleansing and rape as a consequence of war and a violation of human rights.
Economy: Promote women’s economic rights and independence, including access to employment and appropriate working conditions and control over economic resources.
Decision-making: Ensure women’s equal access to and full participation in public sector power structures, increase women’s capacity to participate in decision-making and leadership positions.
Institutional Mechanisms: Create/strengthen national bureaucracies to ensure the advancement of women is vested in the highest possible level of government.
Human Rights: Promote human rights of women by fully implementing all human rights instruments, especially CEDAW.
Media: Promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media.
Environment: Integrate gender concerns and perspectives in policies and programs for sustainable development.
The Girl-Child: Eliminate discrimination against the girl-child: enforce rights to succession; eliminate female genital mutilation, son preference, economic exploitation of child labor; and strengthen the role of the family in improving the status of the girl-child.

BEIJING +5 PROCESS

In Resolution 52/100, the GA decided to convene a Special Session to review and appraise progress in implementing the NFLS and the Beijing PFA to take place five years after the FWCW, and to deliberate on further actions and initiatives. This review is not intended to renegotiate existing arrangements, rather it will assess successes, failures and obstacles to goals set at Nairobi and Beijing. The GA entitled the Special Session, "Women 2000: Gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century." The Special Session is scheduled to take place from 5-9 June 2000.

In Resolution 52/231, the GA designated the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to act as the Preparatory Committee to the Special Session during its 43rd and 44th sessions in March 1999 and March 2000. The GA invited the Commission to propose the agenda and documentation for the Special Session and to focus in particular on the report requested from the Secretary-General that will contain suggestions on further actions and initiatives. The Committee was asked to pay particular attention to mainstreaming a gender perspective and common trends and themes across the twelve critical areas of concern set out in the PFA. To enhance participation in the Beijing +5 process, ECOSOC invited those NGOs that were accredited to the FWCW to attend the 43rd and 44th sessions of the CSW.

Regional reviews of PFA implementation conducted by the UN Regional Commissions also contribute to the Beijing +5 process. UN agencies have been invited to supply information to the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) for the assessment of the implementation of the System-Wide Medium Term Plan (SWMTP) for the advancement of women (1996-2001). This assessment will be submitted to the CSW in March 2000 as part of the review and appraisal.

The DAW has been analyzing reports from Member States and reports from observers on national implementation of the PFA in order to prepare the comprehensive review and appraisal document to be submitted to the Committee in March 2000. The review and appraisal is made up of three parts: Part I: background and overview of trends in the implementation of the PFA; Part II: critical areas of concern, institutional and financial arrangements; Part III: trends and challenges of global change. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/44sess.htm.

THE OBJECTIVES AT PUMUNC--Committee Directive

The UN Conferences that have taken place during the last decade have created a curriculum for international policy making. With their action-oriented platforms, a process of decision-making replaced the non-decision making that characterized so many years of conferences of speeches, theories, and words. The Beijing +5 Special Session of the GA is an extraordinary opportunity for students to access what countries are doing around the world to strengthen the rights of women and girls. Information or progress reports about most countries are available at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/beijing+5.htm

Each delegation will be asked to research the actions taken in their country during the past five years to implement the Platform for Action of the Beijing Conference. Because time is limited, we will be asking the delegations to focus on only the three areas of concerns:

education and the training of women;
women health issues;
elimination of violence against females;

Education and training of women

"Education is a human right and an essential tool for achieving the goals of equality, development and peace." More than half the world’s population is women and girls, yet females are still being deprived of even the most elementary education. In 1998, the Commission on Human Rights appointed a Special Rapporteur on the right to education (Resolution 1998/33 of April 1998). Her mandate included "[taking] into account gender considerations, in particular the situation and needs of the girl child, and [promoting] the elimination of all forms of discrimination in education." Non-discriminatory education benefits both girls and boys and thus ultimately contributes to more equal relationships between women and men. Equality of access to and attainment of education is necessary if more women are to become agents of change. The situation is dramatic in many parts of the world’s poorest regions and unless there is a radical change in the current trends, according to a UNDP World Report, around 876 million people, the majority of whom are women are going into the 21^st Century illiterate. Literacy of women is important in areas of health, nutrition as well as the education of the family and the empowerment to take part in decision-making processes. The investment of formal and informal education for women only has positive results. It is the best means of attaining sustainable development and economic growth.

Each delegation must try to define the aspects of education that have been implemented to enhance the access of girls and women to achieve literacy in their countries. The FWCW Platform for Action on Education and Training of Women identified six strategies to improve the situation:

Ensure equal access to education;
Eradicate illiteracy among women;
Improve women’s access to vocational training, science;
Develop non-discriminatory education and training;
Allocate sufficient resources for and monitor the implementation of educational;
Promote lifelong education and training for girls and women.

What did your country do since FWCW in 1995 to promote education for women and girls? How well did your country achieve these educational objectives? Were programs started in education? Has there been an increase in spending for education that reaches women?

Health

Health is defined in a very broad way. It is not only the absence of disease, it also denotes the social, political and economic resources that enable females to receive adequate health care and related services. There are five areas of action that are focused upon in this category.

Increase women's access to appropriate, affordable, and quality care.
Strengthen preventive programs that promote health.
Undertake gender-sensitive initiatives that address sexually transmitted disease, HIV/AIDS, and sexual and reproductive health issues.
Increase the research about and disseminate information on women's health issues.
Increase resources allocated to women's health and monitor the results of increased spending on women's health.

Again, how well did your country do in this category? What examples can it share that can be replicated in other countries? How did your country improve women's health?

Violence

Finally in the area of violence against women, the PFA defined violence as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological suffering, including the threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in private or public life." (PFA, Chapter 4, para.113) Sadly, the majority of violence against women occurs in the context of the family by a husband or significant other person. There are systemic acts of violence committed against women in war and in corrupt governmental systems. The three strategic objectives to reduce violence against women are as follows:

governments must reform and have no institutional or governmentally sanctioned actions against women;
governments must reform and have no institutional or governmentally sanctioned actions against women; increase the country's knowledge of specific causes of violence against women by conducting research and implement effective measures to reduce violence once the causes are determined;
eliminate all forms of trafficking women and assist victims of violence including violence related to prostitution.

What actions did your country take to comply with this PFA? Did your country change any practices that have reduced violence? Has violence against women been reduced in your country? What practices should be shared with the world?

This committee will draft resolutions to be presented to the General Assembly Special Session Women 2000.

Good Luck and Good Studying!