Delegation
Report on the United Nations General Assembly Special Session ‘Women 2000: Gender
Equality, Development and Peace in the 21st Century’ or ‘Beijing +5 Review’,
New York, 5-10 June 2000
Ms
Roselyn Tor and Dr Shirley Randell AM
“The
future of this world’s planet depends on women” Kofi Annan
July
2000
Vanuatu and Other Pacific Government Delegations
Membership Fees for the United Nations
Women in Power and
Decision Making
Education and
Training for Women
Institutional
Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women
Women in Peace
Keeping Negotiations and Armed Conflict
Contribution of
Non-Government Organisations
Recommendations
The
following recommendations arising from the United Nations General Assembly Special
Session are made in order to implement Vanuatu’s ratification of the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Many of
these recommendations are in line with the gender equity component of the
Comprehensive Reform Program that have yet to be implemented.
It is
recommended that the Government give consideration to the following
recommendations.
·
Introduce
a quota system to ensure representation of women in future Parliaments.
·
Consider
the Family Protection Bill in the August session of Parliament.
Women and the Economy
·
Require
the Department of Womens Affairs to prepare a gender audit of the national
Budget 2000.
·
Continue
to give priority to reducing maternal mortality and population growth.
·
Continue
to give priority to reducing the gender gap between females and males in
education.
·
Ensure
gender equity in all training programs for media and the new communication
technologies.
The Head of the Republic of Vanuatu Delegation to the United Nations
General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) Women 2000: Gender
Equality, Development and Peace in the 21st Century or Beijing +5 Review
on 5-9 June in New York was Ms Roselyn Tor, Director of the Department of
Women’s Affairs (DWA). This report
was prepared by Ms Tor and Dr Shirley Randell AM, whose participation was on a
private basis at her expense. Dr Randell’s attendance was facilitated by the
Director General, Ministry of the Prime Minister after a last minute cancellation
by one of the earlier participants, and has no connection with her work for
Uniquest Pty Ltd / AusAID.
The objective of UNGASS was to assess the progress on women’s issues
since the landmark Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Ms Tor attended all scheduled
UNGASS meetings on country reports held in the General Assembly Hall 5-9 June.
An extraordinary meeting was convened on Saturday 10 June to finalise the Outcome Document. Dr Randell monitored
this session on Ms Tor’s behalf, having joined her for some of the other
country reports, particularly on countries in the Asia Pacific Region.
In
addition, Dr Randell monitored meetings of the two negotiating Working Groups
of the UNGASS Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole on the Outcome Document, which
ran parallel to the Assembly’s plenary meetings. She also attended Contact
Groups whose task it was to craft language on which every country could agree
for contentious sections. The Ad Hoc Committee was responsible for
reaching an agreement on the text of the final Outcome Document and Political Declaration, one group
reviewing progress and one setting future directions. Dr Randell also attended
forums on issues of relevance to Vanuatu, and participated in the Asia Pacific Region
assemblies, South Pacific Countries (SOPAC) meetings and Australian Government
briefings for Australian non-government organisations (NGOs). A large number of
relevant documents were collected for DWA and VNCW. The delegation attended
receptions hosted by the Australian, New Zealand and Japanese UN Missions and
the Secretary General.
Participants at
UNGASS included high-level political representatives from Governments and
Observer States, and representatives of the UN system, intergovernmental organizations
and NGOs. Over
10,000 women from 188 nations and 1250 NGOs gathered to attend UNGASS,
representing millions more women in every region of the world, together with
many male delegates.
UNGASS is
a major international conference for women, which occurs only once every five
or ten years. Most Pacific countries had at least three government delegates
and often many more representatives of NGOs. Vanuatu had the smallest
delegation from the region. Government members of delegations, including
advisers, were New Zealand (15), Australia (13), Tonga (10), Papua New Guinea
(10), Marshall Islands (9), Cook Islands (7), Micronesia (7), Solomon Islands
(3), Samoa (3), Nauru (3), Tuvalu (3) and Vanuatu (2). Some of these countries
also had additional NGO representatives who were not part of the Government
delegation. The Fiji delegation was limited because of the current political
situation – the Minister for Womens Affairs in the Chaudhry Government was still
held hostage. Nevertheless, the Fiji Ambassador to the UN was head of the
government delegation and there were four NGO representatives.
Most
delegations were headed by their Minister for Womens Affairs (the Prime
Minister in the case of Namibia). First Ladies of several countries were
included in delegations. The Vice President of Uganda, who is a woman, headed
the Ugandan delegation. Many of the delegations included Ambassadors/
representatives from their country Mission to the UN. In the absence of the
Vanuatu Head of UN Mission it may have been appropriate to include the
Secretary, Evelyn Adams, on this delegation.
There was some criticism from Pacific
Island Government delegations about the limited facilitation of the Secretariat
for Pacific Communities (SPC) to ensure that coordination and preparatory
services were implemented well before and during the participation in New York.
The preparatory period leading up to the 23rd Special Session, was
considered to be totally invisible and the SPC has been asked to further define
the role, functions and responsibilities of the Pacific women’s development
programs. A letter has been forwarded to the Director General SPC from two of
the Ministers in the Pacific delegations (Solomon Islands and Cook Islands)
expressing these concerns (available on request). The statement by the Solomon
Islands Mission to the United Nations on behalf of members of the Pacific
Islands Group of Countries to the Commission on the Status of Women 44th
Session to follow up the Fourth World Conference of Women is at Attachment 1.
In particular concern was expressed about the ‘hard issues that are the very
core of our livelihood and existence as small island states:
·
Intellectual
Property Rights
·
Transboundary Movements of
Hazardous Waste
·
Nuclearisation and Militarisation
·
Decolonisation.”
A paper
on every desk at the first meeting of UNGASS indicated that Vanuatu was one
of the 38 States whose payments to the UN were in arrears and were therefore
unable to vote at the meeting. Some of these countries paid the necessary
fees during the meeting.
The
objectives for UNGASS were spelled out by the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi
Annan, who, in his opening speech, called for the full implementation of the Beijing
Platform for Action. This had been passed unanimously by 189 member states
during the Fourth International Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995.
"I believe that implementing the Beijing Platform will be crucial in
achieving all the Millennium goals I have asked the world’s leaders to adopt on
behalf of all the world’s peoples," he said. The Beijing Platform for
Action contains the agenda for women’s empowerment, spelling out the
strategic objectives and actions to be taken by the year 2000 by governments,
the international community, NGOs and the private sector for removing existing
obstacles to women’s advancement.
The Beijing Platform for Action
identified 12 critical areas of concern, considered to represent the main
obstacles in achieving the goal of women’s advancement:
·
women
and poverty
·
education
and training for women
·
women
and health
·
violence
against women
·
women
and armed conflict
·
women
and the economy
·
women
in power and decision making
·
institutional
mechanisms for the advancement of women
·
human
rights of women
·
women
and the media
·
women
and the environment
·
the
girl child.
All
12 of the critical areas require affirmative action on the part of governments,
NGOs and the private sector. They embrace the nine benchmark categories for
periodic reviews towards gender equity under Vanuatu’s Comprehensive Reform
Program (CRP).
Mr Theo
Ben Gurirab, Foreign Minister of Namibia, who was unanimously elected as
President of the General Assembly, stressed the importance of the five-day
conference. "We are charged with the sense of a new beginning," he
said. "This Special Session must try to live up to expectations of
millions of women all over the world, review the progress made in the
implementation of the Beijing platform, assess how far member-states have come
to address problems, face new challenges and reaffirm new commitments. The
General Assembly can then move forward to achieve women’s goal of equality and
empowerment in all walks of life.”
UNGASS focussed on examples
of good practices, positive actions, lessons learned, obstacles and key
challenges remaining, and considered further actions and initiatives for
achieving gender equality in the new millennium.
The
major purpose of the seven-minute country speeches that were held over six
hours on each of the five days of UNGASS was for Governments to affirm their
commitment to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action,
report on past achievements and challenges in meeting the 12 targets, and
indicate future directions.
The
Vanuatu country report presented by the Director was well received (Attachment 2). The Nauru
representative presented the SOPAC paper instead of its country paper, as
regional groupings were unable to present papers to the Assembly (Attachment
3). Major international NGOs and five representatives of national NGOs also
presented papers to the Assembly.
All SOPAC country
papers confirmed that there had been progress in development and equality for
women -- but indicated that there is still a long way to go. Some good news is
that the Solomon Islands announced at UNGASS that it will accede to the Convention
on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Vanuatu signed CEDAW
without reservations in 1995. There are now 165 nations who are signatories to CEDAW.
CEDAW is widely seen as the partner document to the Beijing
Platform for Action and its regional version, the Pacific Platform for
Action.
Significant
progress in many countries had been made on several issues over the last five
years:
·
Violence
against women is now illegal almost everywhere.
·
There
is a worldwide mobilization against harmful traditional practices such as
‘honor killings’ or ‘shame killings.’
·
New
health strategies have helped save thousands of women’s lives, and more couples
now use family planning than ever before.
·
A
record number of women have become leaders and decision makers in both the
government and private sectors.
·
Above
all, more countries have understood that women’s equality is a pre-requisite
for development.
Even
though the Beijing Platform for Action contained no quantitative targets
related to women’s poverty and economic equality, targets for health and
education had been helpful and were achieved in some cases.
However, the country reports,
most of which are available on request, indicate that much remains to be done.
Women still earn less, have higher unemployment rates, are more often
unemployed, and are generally poorer than men. Most countries have yet to pass
laws in favor of women’s rights to own land and other property.
The Outcome Document and Political Declaration consolidate,
protect, reaffirm and advance further, the commitments that were made at the Beijing
conference and hold Governments accountable to implement these promises. The Beijing
Platform for Action remains the reference point for governmental commitment
to women’s rights in all 12 critical areas of concern. The Outcome Document supplements the Beijing
Platform for Action, highlighting the effects of poverty and globalisation
on women. It commits Governments to a range of economic actions, such as the
official development assistance target, incorporating gender into budgetary
processes, and focusing on social protection systems in the informal economy
where many women work.
The Outcome Document moves forward in the 12 critical areas of concern
listed in the Beijing Platform for Action that are particularly relevant
for women in Vanuatu. Each of these is discussed in turn below, summarising
information provided in-country papers, forums and regional activities at
UNGASS.
Despite calls for
gender equality, women are significantly under-represented in governments,
political parties and at the United Nations. Only eight nations have met the
target of 30 percent of parliamentary seats held by women. One of the Beijing
conference commitments that has been affirmed in the Outcome Document is
to use quotas and other measures to increase women's participation in political
parties and parliaments.
In an effort to increase the
political representation of women, several countries have introduced some form
of quota system: proportional representation, alternative male and female candidates on
election lists, legal
or constitutional quotas covering candidate lists for seats in national or
local assemblies, or quotas adopted by political parties. These were seen to be
effective in 17 developed and developing countries from 1987 to 2000 where women’s
share of seats in parliament increased. There is a clear correlation between
countries with quotas and countries where women’s representation is highest
(Table 1). Vanuatu is one of only ten countries in the world to have no
women in Parliament and one of few countries to go backwards in women’s
political participation over the period from 1987–2000 (Table 2).
The Commonwealth,
not normally given to setting political targets, set in 1996 a minimum target
of "no less than 30 per cent of women in decision making by 2005".
The Commonwealth country with the highest representation of women in the
national parliament is South Africa with 30.3 per cent. At the lower end of the
scale, Papua New Guinea has elected two women to the legislature for the first
time in 10 years. Ten countries now have between 20 and 30 per cent women,
which is encouraging. Overall few countries are close to achieving the target
but the average for women in national parliaments across the Commonwealth has
almost doubled from 7.2 per cent to 13.4 per cent this year.
In an effort to
reach the agreed target, various countries have adopted measures to ensure an
increase in women's representation at all levels of government. Botswana has
adopted affirmative action as an interim measure to increase women's
participation in the political process. Uganda has a 30 per cent quota for
national parliament and local government seats. India has 33 per cent
reservation for women in local government.
The UN has recommended
raising women’s participation in parliaments and administrative and managerial
positions to at least 30 percent by 2005 and 50 percent by 2015. Article 4 of CEDAW requires special measures to be
taken until parity is reached. Governments need a women-influenced and
gender-sensitive approach as well as more women parliamentarians.
In the Vanuatu
report to UNGASS it was pointed out that Vanuatu has no female MPs or Ministers
in the current government.
The Vanuatu report
also pointed out that while some progress has been made in having women as
Auditor General, Public Prosecutor and Chief Registrar and eight Directors,
there are no female Director Generals in the Public Service.
Physical and sexual
abuse affects millions of girls and women worldwide - yet is known to be
seriously under-reported. Violence statistics around the world are still
appalling. In Papua New Guinea 67 per cent of rural women and 56 per cent of
urban women are victims of wife abuse. In South Africa a woman is raped every
1½ minutes, amounting to around 380,000 rapes each year. In the United States a
rape occurs every six minutes. In France 95 per cent of its victims of violence
are women, 51 per cent of them at the hands of their husbands.
Four
main areas of violence against women were identified as violence at home,
violence because of traditional practices, violence in situations of armed
conflict, and violence due to economic reasons, such as trafficking. It was
seen to be important to conduct studies quantifying the economic costs of
family violence to persuade Parliaments to pass domestic violence legislation. Secretary of State
for USA Madeleine Albright said that ‘When a woman is raped, beaten or
mutilated, it is not cultural, it is criminal. And no government after Beijing
can deny its responsibility to stop these crimes’.
For the first time this
international consensus Outcome Document
addresses the violence issues of honour killings, forced marriage, dowry
related violence, marital rape and rape as a war crime. It strengthens language
calling on Governments to take comprehensive measures to eliminate all forms of
domestic violence.
The
vast majority of countries have passed domestic violence legislation since the
Beijing conference: Vanuatu is one of the few countries that has not. In the Vanuatu
report to UNGASS it was pointed out that a draft family protection bill was
drafted in 1998, which has had ‘more public awareness workshops and
consultation than any other in the history of Vanuatu’. This bill, which is
part of the initial CRP matrix, is still to be considered by the Vanuatu
Government. The draft bill proposes to:
·
preserve and promote harmonious relationships
·
prevent domestic violence in all levels of society in Vanuatu and ensure
effective legal protection for victims of domestic violence
·
provide for punishment of any or all persons who commit acts of domestic
violence.
Some of
the most significant issues concerning women around the world include the
widening economic and technological gap between the countries of the South and
the North and the enormous differences between the rich and the poor, as well
as the feminisation of poverty and unemployment. Half the world’s population
lives on less than 200 vatu a day and the face of poverty is predominantly the
face of a woman.
Over 70 per cent of
the 1.2 billion people living in poverty in the world are women. Estimates over
a 20-year period found the increase in numbers of poor rural women in 41
developing countries 17 per cent higher than the increase in poor men. There
are twice as many women as men among the world's 900 million illiterates.
Protein-energy malnutrition is significantly higher in women in South Asia,
where almost half the world's under-nourished reside. Half a million women die
unnecessarily of pregnancy-related complications each year, the causes of which
are exacerbated by issues of poverty and remoteness.
Gender
inequality has been shown to lower the living standards of women, men and
families and to perpetuate poverty. Microcredit programs were seen as highly
valuable in dealing with poverty, but it was suggested that we need to move
from microcredit to microfinance, with policy makers recognising the role of
the informal sector, where the vast majority of people in developing countries
work. Today microcredit is reaching more than 20 million people and we are on
track to meeting the Microcredit Summit goal of bringing microcredit to 100
million of the world’s poorest families.
In the Vanuatu report to UNGASS it was pointed out that Vanuatu is
listed as the third last of the Least Developed Countries on the Human Poverty
Index of Pacific Island Countries. The microfinance scheme begun in 1997 for 20
women has now grown to 435 women with savings of over $US3,000. The demand is
high but sufficient resources are not available.
Gender
inequality has been shown to impede economic growth and development. On average, women
are paid 30-40 per cent less than men for comparable work. In developing
countries, only a tiny fraction of women hold real economic power. Women form the main agricultural
labour force in many parts of the world, yet most women are still denied the
right to credit, land ownership and inheritance. Their labour often goes
unrecognised and unrewarded and their needs are not given priority. Their role
even in household decision making is restricted.
Additions
to the Outcome Document include:
·
women’s
rights to inheritance and property rights
·
women’s
access to housing
·
gender
perspective in budgets (something that a country like South Africa had begun
doing, where it inspects every budgetary allocation to see how it benefits
women)
·
International
Labour Organisation Declaration on Women's Rights at Work.
Several developing countries
commented on the effects of privatisation, adjustment policies, financial
crises and the IMF formulas, which have increased the feminisation of poverty
and unemployment, the deprivation of work and the use of women as a cheap
labour force. “We must ensure that globalisation works in favour of human
rights and justice between men and women not against them”, Annan said. The Outcome Document recognises these negative
impacts on women, and calls for equal access to social protection and equal
participation of women in macroeconomic decision making. Codes of conduct are
also needed to increase corporate social responsibility for women.
The Commonwealth's
Gender Budget Initiative, which applies gender principles to finance areas,
seeks to focus gender concerns in formulating macroeconomic policy. For example
in Fiji, this initiative has been used to reallocate the budget to better
target welfare spending towards women and children, identified as the most
economically vulnerable. Training is being given to assist staff to undertake
gender audits of national budgets.
Worldwide millions
of women lack access to adequate health care services, including a full range
of safe, reliable and acceptable forms of contraception. There are continuing
differences in lifetime risk of maternal mortality between developed and
developing countries. An African woman's lifetime risk of dying from
pregnancy-related causes is 1 in 16; in Asia, 1 in 65; and in Europe, 1 in
1,400.
Women are having
fewer children on average, but with more women of reproductive age, world
population continues to grow, and rapid population growth is still a major
issue for many countries. It was interesting to note that the Federated States
of Micronesia was able to report a decrease in the population growth rate since
1995 from 3.4 percent to 1.9 percent, attributed to government policies
undertaken in collaboration with international organisations and stakeholders.
Vanuatu has a high birth rate at 3.4 percent, with 45 percent of the population
under the age of 15 years.
Vanuatu has high
infant mortality (65 per thousand live births) and maternal mortality (one in
500 confinements) rates. Life expectancy for women is 67.9 years.
The
spread of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
(HIV/AIDS), particularly in Southern Africa where 40 per cent of pregnant women
are HIV-positive and more than one child in 10 has lost its mother to AIDS, is
of tremendous concern worldwide. The rising problem of HIV/AIDS in the Pacific,
particularly in Papua New Guinea, was singled out as a regional priority in the
SOPAC statement. PNG educator Dr Anne Dickson-Waiko said that based on hospital
data, HIV is the biggest killer in Port Moresby, the capital city of the
region’s most-populated country. Latest SPC estimates put the current
population at almost 4.8 million – far ahead of New Zealand’s estimated 3.8
million. The majority of those dying from and living with HIV/AIDS are
heterosexual, many of them young women in relationships. The threat of
HIV/AIDS among PNG’s sex workers is also a problem, covering not just health
issues but touching on violence against women as well. While there are as yet
no reported cases of HIV/AIDS in Vanuatu, this disease is notoriously
underreported and is likely to spread here from other countries. Women and
girls are at particular risk through violence against women.
The
following advances on health issues are made in the Outcome Document:
·
Maternal
mortality is now a health sector priority, something that had not been accepted in Beijing.
·
Education
programs to enable men to practice safer sex are encouraged.
·
Gender
aspects of diseases such as malaria and TB are recognised.
·
The
goals of the International Conference on Population and Development at Cairo
are affirmed.
·
Health
Sector reform includes the impact on women's access to health services.
·
More clearly stated support is given for safe and readily available
abortions.
In the Vanuatu report to UNGASS it was pointed out that some progress
had been made in health since the Beijing conference. Infant and maternal
mortality had decreased and life expectancy for women had risen.
Only eight nations have
successfully met global agreements to achieve gender equality in secondary
school enrolment. Available data show that women and girls are making gains in
education, but persistent disparities exist between women and men. The gender
gap in enrolment in primary and secondary levels of schooling is closing, but
it is unlikely this gap will be closed by the target date of 2005. Of 110
million children who are not in school, two-thirds are girls. And more girls
than boys drop out of school early. Two-thirds of the world's 876 million
illiterates are women, and the number of illiterates is not expected to
decrease significantly in the next 20 years. In Vanuatu one-third of all adults
are illiterate.
At UNGASS,
Governments committed themselves to increasing adult literacy by 50% and
achieving free compulsory primary education for all children by the year 2015.
They also agreed to develop gender-sensitive curricula, recognising the
widespread and damaging effects of stereotyping.
High illiteracy
rates affect Solomon Islands women the most -- only 17 out of every 100 women
can read and write. Minister Kari said that women need basic education and
life-long access to learning to effectively participate in the new global
economy. Moving on from the rhetoric of education being central to sustainable
development, social progress and human freedom, the Minister noted that
education is critical for the empowerment of women. “That is why educating the
whole population is crucial. That is why educating the girl child is a must,”
she said. And the lack of resources and capacity in-country have also been
problems blocking full development and equity for women. The Minister said that
investment in better education for young women will pay off in better
nutrition, health care, family size, poverty reduction and the nation’s
economic performance. But she said that without financial resources and
trained personnel, "wider and timely implementation of women's programs
and projects at the national level, in particular in the rural areas, is a
daunting task”.
The secondary net
enrolment ratio for Vanuatu is 84 percent (see Table 3). There has been a
positive change in secondary school female net enrolment ratios between 1985
and 1997 (Table 4).
In the Vanuatu
report to UNGASS, it was pointed out that while the number of primary and
secondary schools had increased since the Beijing conference, less than
one-third of the total number of children in primary schools find a place in
secondary schools and even less at tertiary level. Both Government and NGOs
have established vocational schools for this need but most of these cater for
men and boys.
The
Fijian delegates made several presentations during UNGASS meetings, at NGO
workshops and caucuses to discuss the loss of human rights in their country,
for both men and women. No change of Government or national emergency absolves
the authorities of their responsibility to guarantee fundamental human rights
such as prohibition of arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as racial or
other discrimination.
In new
human rights issues introduced to the Outcome
Document countries are encouraged to:
·
ratify
the Optional Protocol to CEDAW
·
provide
gender-related asylum
·
ensure
equality between women and men migrants
·
increase
recognition of the specific needs and rights of indigenous women
·
broaden
definitions of families.
The Optional
Protocol to CEDAW provides:
· that individual women or groups of women can complain to the official Committee that is established to overlook the implementation of CEDAW if they feel that rights are being violated. (They must first exhaust all possible domestic options for filing complaint)
· the Committee itself can look into suspected violations of rights of women.
This provides CEDAW with the same inquiry procedures as other treaties such as the Convention Against Torture and Other Unusual Forms of Punishment.
Gender mainstreaming and monitoring the implementation of CEDAW and
the Beijing Platform for Action have
been the important institutional mechanisms worldwide for the advancement of
women. The UNGASS agenda
has been about demanding accountability from governments, businesses and civil
society, and on achieving the gender goals and targets that have been set. It must
be about moving gender issues from the margins to the mainstream, from the
grassroots reality to policy making in everything from international
organisations to national budgets to local governance. UNDP and other
international organisations are committed to using their universal presence and
strong record as trusted partners to help build capacity and strong
institutions that help drive human development with gender sensitivity. That
means they are striving to move beyond treating gender issues simply as a
separate set of concerns. They are mainstreaming gender throughout their
policies and internal working practices and across their country offices.
Despite the fact that considerable progress has been made in the
development of gender statistics, anecdotes and perceptions abound in measuring
women's progress. On many issues of particular concern, there is no data
collected anywhere. On other relevant issues, data are collected, but only in a
few countries. Even basic statistical series on women are not collected
routinely in many countries. The improvement of national statistical capacity -
the ability to provide timely and reliable statistics - is essential for
improving the quality of gender statistics.
New data is needed
on issues unique to women -- such as violence against women and maternal
health. For example, new importance is being placed on women's reproductive
health and safe motherhood, but Progress of the World’s Women 2000 states
that data are not yet available to show whether the new concern with safe
motherhood has been translated into improved maternal care.
Table 5 presents a
scoreboard that places changes in the three UN indicators of gender equality
and women’s empowerment (education, employment and Parliament representation)
in the broader context of national economies (the distribution of resources
within and among countries, the national rate of growth of per capita income
and the level of national external debt). Vanuatu went backwards from the
mid 1980s to the late 1990s in three of the four measurable indicators for
which data was available. Employment and income equality data were not
available.
In the SOPAC report it was pointed out that ‘gender mainstreaming has been an effective strategy for Pacific Island countries in making progress since the Beijing conference and must be supported’.
The Internet
is a revolution in communication that has huge potential for furthering or
impeding a more just and equitable gender order across the world. Yet the
booming communications industry is becoming increasingly concentrated in
national and transnational monopolies. Communication is vital for women’s
empowerment and fundamental to achieving the objectives of the Platform for
Action. Women’s access to all means of communication and public expression,
including mass media, non-commercial access to broadcasting spectrum and
communications technology is essential for their equal and democratic
participation in the development of their communities and societies. To
guarantee women the fundamental human right to communicate, civil society must
be empowered to hold national and international media accountable. Codes of
ethics must be articulated that respect the vital norms of pluralism, human
rights and gender balance.
Electronic networking has the potential to
foster linkages between organisations, structures and projects. Geographical
and national barriers can be broken. The Internet
challenges the tension between local and global and makes available information
that would otherwise be inaccessible. Women’s networks use the potential
offered by the Internet to
challenge gender injustice. Women are using the Internet for communicating, finding and sharing information,
peer support, lobbying and advocacy, solidarity campaigns and research to
advocate more equitable access to new communication technologies for women.
The SOPAC paper commented on the way women entrepreneurs in isolated areas like the Pacific
are obtaining hitherto unattainable markets for their products through the
Internet, for example the export of coconut oils and
soaps produced by a group of women in Samoa.
The Solomon Islands
Minister for Women, Youth and Sports, Ms Hilda Kari, also wants a special push
for youth training in the media. She asked the Commonwealth Secretariat to
begin communications training to bring out articulate Solomon Islands youth who
are skilled and able to use new information technologies to lead public debate,
investigative journalism, and who understand the importance of human rights.
Beverley
Kanas Liu, staff member of the VNCW had been selected as one of 13 NGO
journalists from developing countries to attend as a journalist trainee in the
Global Women’s Media Team. They were trained onsite in the essentials of
mainstream media coverage to intensively cover the conference. The hands-on
training included gathering, writing and disseminating through media outlets,
news and stories related to the review process. They were responsible for
preparing daily press releases and making live reports to their home countries
via radiophone patches throughout the five-day meeting. One of their
responsibilities is to pass on this training to other women following their
return to their home countries, which will be of benefit to Vanuatu.
Women’s
participation in negotiations in furtherance of a ceasefire or peace agreements
was encouraged, particularly in situations of armed conflict. The following
strategies were suggested:
·
Equal
access and participation by women and men through a quota system in the area of
conflict at all levels and stages of the peace process.
·
In
negotiations for a ceasefire or peace agreements, women should be an integral
part of the negotiating team and process and gender issues should be addressed.
·
Training
for participation in peace support operations should involve a higher
percentage of women, and gender issues should be mainstreamed throughout all
regional and national training curricula and courses for peace support
operations.
·
Obligatory
induction training on gender issues should include code of conduct, culture,
history and social norms of the host country, CEDAW, sexual harassment and sexual assault.
·
Monitoring,
evaluation and accountability mechanisms should include all issues relating to
gender mainstreaming.
·
Improved
access for women to zones of conflict should be provided.
·
The
media should play a significant role in increasing public awareness of the
importance of gender mainstreaming in peace support operations.
·
The
significant contributions of women to securing peace in their countries and
communities should be recognised.
Women’s
contribution in peace building, peacemaking and conflict resolution is being
increasingly recognised. Encouraging reports were
provided to UNGASS about the role of women in situations of armed conflict
around the world, including in Bougainville and Fiji. While UNGASS was being
held, there was a further deterioration in the region with the outbreak of war
in the Solomon Islands.
In recognition of the link between gender
equality, poverty eradication, sustainable development and environmental
protection, Governments have included income-generating activities for women,
as well as training in natural resource management and environmental protection
in their development strategies. The SOPAC paper commented on the vulnerability
of Small Island developing states, as well as their contribution to global
sustainability that makes women’s involvement in this area particularly
important. Further strategies must be adopted to ensure women participate fully
in policy and decision making on matters relating to their environment.
The
sections above on education and violence address some of the needs of the girl
child. Forums addressed the specific needs, concerns and hopes of the girl
child and young women in every region. An increasing number of countries have
introduced legislation to ban female genital mutilation and imposed heavier
penalties on those involved in sexual abuse, trafficking and all other forms of
exploitation of the girl child. Young people have been shown to participate
effectively in and even manage programs for their peers in several countries,
given proper training and guidance.
We have a copy of
the draft Outcome Document that is available on
request and should be printed in final form shortly. It is a consensus on wording reached at UNGASS. The Document
provides the guidelines and benchmarks for Governments to strive for in
advancing women's human rights in the 21st century.
There was an
incredible wealth of material on display at UNGASS covering gender issues
including older women, women with disabilities, the girl child, work and
family, health, and an array of implementation documents from countries on how
they have reported against the Beijing Platform for Action. As well as
each country’s official report, over 100 alternative country reports had been
produced by NGOs, engaging in public debate about what still needs to be done.
We brought as many as we could for DWA and VNCW, given luggage limits. Some
publications will be sent on by the Vanuatu Mission to the UN.
A number of
publications were launched at the forum, the most important of which was the UN
document Progress of the World's Women 2000: Trends and Statistics, a
one-of-a-kind compilation of the latest data documenting progress for women
worldwide in six areas: health, human rights and political decision-making,
work, education and communication, population, and families.
This report examines
the progress of the world's women from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. It
concentrates on the economic dimensions of gender equality and women's
empowerment in the context of globalisation. It assesses women's progress using
a variety of indicators and examines the issue of accountability, focusing in
particular on government accountability for the gender impact of its policies
and programs, including national budgets, and on corporate accountability for
the social impact of their operations. Finally, it explores ways in which
globalisation can be reshaped to promote the progress of poor women.
Women now comprise
an increasing share of the world's labour force – at least one-third in all
regions except in northern Africa and western Asia. While the gender gap in
rates of economic activity is narrowing, women still must reconcile their
family responsibilities with employment outside the home. Self-employment,
part-time and home-based work have expanded opportunities for women's
participation in the labour force, but are characterised by lack of security,
lack of benefits and low income. Recent declines in early marriage and
early childbearing in most regions show real change in the quality of women's
lives, but in three of five countries in southern Asia and in 11 of 30
countries in sub-Saharan Africa, at least 30 per cent of young women aged 15 to
19 have been married.
NGO delegates met separately
for daily briefings on the negotiations and held caucus meetings related to
various issues under scrutiny in the Document
(eg women and armed conflict, women and health, women and violence, women and
environment etc). They participated in regional meetings and a multitude of
panels on many subjects of concern regarding violations of and advancement of
women's human rights. They circulated petitions and issued press releases
relating to their concerns with the process and other issues. NGO delegates
were also encouraged to sit in the balcony to observe their Government's
delegates struggling to obtain the most appropriate wording. This was for
support and interaction with their Government delegations to bring them the
consensus of NGOs on the process and particular issues. Vanuatu’s
contribution to UNGASS was limited by having no NGO representatives.
Several
films, theatre, music and art exhibitions were presented at UNGASS. Dr Randell
attended four events.
An outstanding film on the
trafficking of women and children in Nepal was shown for the first time in New
York. Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright told attendees of the conference that the
trafficking of women and girls, now becoming a worldwide plague, must end. According to the UN State Department,
between one and two million women and girls are sold each year to become
prostitutes and slaves. While not yet a problem in Vanuatu, we must be aware of
the risk of increases in prostitution and trafficking of women and girls associated
with increasing poverty.
Gwyneth Paltrow introduced a
humorous, moving performance Women Can’t Wait by a remarkable, young
American actress, Sarah Jones. This creative work had been commissioned by a women's
organisation called Equality Now. It was based on a report the group had
prepared for UNGASS, which looked at discriminatory laws against women that
continued to operate in 45 different countries around the world, North and
South, rich and poor.
From this wealth of
experience, Ms Jones shaped a remarkable single-person act where she became
eight different women. Merely by changing the way she draped a diaphanous green
scarf around her, she was an Indian one moment, a Japanese another and a
Jordanian the next. What the young actress managed to convey, through humour
and acting, was that, despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and CEDAW, in many countries women are meted out special treatment
merely because they are born women. All of
these women suffered from discriminatory laws in their homelands, including
acceptance of rape within marriage, prohibitions against women working at
night, inability of a woman to get a divorce, and failure to punish men who committed honour killings.
Paintings by two Pacific
women were part of an international art exhibition titled Women 2000: Gender
Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century. Australian
artist Jeanie Long Petyarre's Young Seed Dreaming and Marie Taita Aihi's
Wallaby and Crocodile serigraph print from Papua New Guinea were two of
the works from more than 70 countries. The two Pacific pieces, like many of the
works on display, are intended to be a collective statement on the status of
women – creative statements on the progress of women in the world as seen
through the eyes of women artists.
Another
event was a vibrant Costa Rica women’s band that played during one of the lunch
hours
Dr Randell was able to compare the
significant progress made in gender equity since the End of the Decade
Conference for Women in Nairobi 1985, which she also attended as a member of
the Pacific delegation.
Just to see the
confidence with which women from many African and Pacific nations, in their
superbly colourful and impressive national dress, moved through the UN
corridors and asserted their demand for equality was enough to encourage any
woman from any other part of the world. It was a lost opportunity for Vanuatu
women. We have organised an occasional seminar on 3 August 2000 to share some
of our experiences.
The Outcome Document notes
that CEDAW has been signed by 165
countries (including Vanuatu). "Member states in the United Nations
system now have a clearly defined roadmap for the continuing journey toward
gender equality - the will to act was demonstrated by governments,"
said Angela King, UN special adviser on gender issues. "It is extremely
important now that we go from words into action," said Noeleen Heyzer,
executive director of the UN Development Fund for Women. She called for greater
accountability to achieve equality in education, employment and
decision-making. She urged Governments and the private sector to earmark more
money to implement the Beijing platform and said the UN "will support as
many Governments as possible" in reviewing laws that discriminate against
women by 2005.
There
were key summary statements by significant participants throughout UNGASS. Ms
Robinson talked about the link between women’s emancipation and progress. She
made the point that the countries where the democratic process was strong and
which were moving forward economically and socially were precisely those
countries where women were taking a greater part in public life. Ms Hillary
Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the US, challenged delegates to recommit
themselves to finishing the work of achieving women’s equality. “No country can
move forward if half of its citizens are left behind”, she emphasised. She
pointed out that in the past, many women had worked for justice in isolation
but they are now increasingly working together with other women and with men. Mr Specioza Kazibwe,
the Vice President of Uganda, called for more visible gender-positive men -
gender-sensitive men who look at tasks with gender-oriented eyes and make things
happen. Gender is about men and women building capacity for women to
participate. While
it is women who will continue to take the leadership in the struggle to realise
economic justice and human rights for all women in all their diversity in the
next decade, the support of men is of key importance to success.
We are hopeful that UNGASS has
done much to affirm the common commitment made at the Beijing conference to
equality between women and men, which is the pivotal point for all commitment
to social justice, the pivotal point for accomplishing peace and ending
poverty. This commitment remains difficult and demands patient collaborative
work by governments, the private sector and NGOs. NGOs in particular help
ensure that Governments stay ‘fixed and focused’, making sure they understand
the realities of their populations and make policies that are relevant and
effective. Women in Vanuatu, and around the world, still have a long journey to
equality.
The Comprehensive Reform
Program in Vanuatu listed gender policies and actions as central to its
work and adopted nine benchmark categories for periodic reviews of progress
towards gender equity. The affirmation of these policies and actions in the
revised CRP Matrix will assist the Government to maintain its obligations under
CEDAW.
In the Vanuatu report to UNGASS, Vanuatu women’s theme of Partnership
for the New Millennium was extended to all at the conference: ‘Let us all
continue to work together for the development of women towards a better
standard of living, a better healthier world, for Gender Equality, Development
and Peace’.