• Editorial
• Appropriate ICTs
• Interview
• Cross Cutting
• NGO Caucus
• Resources

Editorial - Happy Holiday, Ladies!

Doubtless, a chorus of news anchors around the world will send this sentence sailing into living rooms tonight, March 8th… Some, to appease their conscience, will be reminding us that women everywhere, especially in the so-called developing countries, suffer from discrimination. But will we hear that 80% of the poor and 67% of the illiterate people in the world are women? Will they remind us that the 8th of March is the International day of all women, and that as such, it embodies the continuing struggles of women as social actors: the fight against violence, for equal access to health and education, for disarmament? As becomes more customary, this celebration may well work against us if we are not on our guard every year, every day.
WomenAction 2000

Appropriate ICTs - ICT’s; a tool for empowerment

ICT’s are an empowering tool and a means through which women’s voices at the grassroots can be heard at the international level. It is a matter of women organizations with access to the ICT’s to ensure that grassroots issues are heard. However, given the tasks that women at the grassroots are engaged in, they get little time to refer to the information that is available to them in print. There is therefore need to use traditional means of communication like drama to convey to the majority of women the messages received through the internet. It is also important to integrate traditional means of communication and ICT’s as a means of information dissemination and advocacy. Isis-WICCE uses this strategy, and this has given confidence to women in using ICT’s. Visit: www.isis.or.ug
Juliet Were; WomenAction 2000

Interview - Women Against Racism

‘The most important political target is not only acknowledging racial and ethnic inequalities but also creating concrete policies and programs to simultaneously eliminate ethnic and gender discrimination’ affirms Epsy Campbell, Coordinator of the Network of Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latin AmericanWomen. This organization aims to guarantee that the voices of black women in Latin America and the Caribbean may be heard in the current CSW meeting and the World Conference Against Racism and Xenophobia that will take place in South Africa in 2001.

Campbell insists that if we do not take measures at all levels to confront racism as a dimension that influences gender analysis, any progress we make in this field, will leave out the majority of women in the world: those affected by structural and day-to-day racism.

‘It is vital that the Beijing+5 revision takes into account, once and for all, that racism is an ill that affects the whole of humanity and that because of this, it is urgent that governments assume the commitment to develop concrete actions to eradicate it. We cannot look at women’s progress in isolation; gender, racial and ethnic equality and social justice should go hand-in-hand. UN conferences should be looked at as a process that contributes to a true global democracy’ she considers.

If we want the 21st century to be the women’s century, as NGOs in Latin America and the Caribbean have declared, we have to struggle against the systematic exclusion of those women affected by racism which is not only a product of a patriarchal and racist system but also a model whose main aim is not people’s welfare.

To discuss these issues, the Network of Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Women, together with the Latin American Information Agency (ALAI) invite you to a meeting to exchange perspectives on March 8th at 12.00pm in UNIFEM.
Irene Leon, WomenAction 2000

Today, March 8 2000, is the official launch of the World March of Women in the year 2000. Simultaneous press conferences will be held on every continent, and a live satellite broadcast will link today’s press conferences in Montreal, New York and Geneva. The satellite feed will be webcast live on the Canadian Francophone news affiliate, RDI. Information: http://www.ffq.qc.ca/marche2000/ Live webcast: http://radio-canada.ca/rdi/

Cross Cutting

Why the World Conference on Women in 2005?

In 2005, women will need to produce a new program and strategies for continuing the process onwards from the Beijing PFA for the new millenium. Governments are asked to commit themselves to efforts in implementing the BPFA fully through 2005 and to make time in 2005 for the next review and appraisal of the whole process, beginning with the Mexico Conference (1975), and to commit to organize the Fifth Conference on Women in 2005.

March 9, 1.15-2.45pm, DH Autditorium Organizers: Women NGOs in the European Preparatory Meeting 17-21 January 2000

Obstruction of NGO work process

The arrival of a large number of right-wing, "pro-life" NGO participants (about 270) is obstructing the work of the NGO community. Their main goals are to paralyze the work-process in the caucuses, take down names of persons representing progressive views, and suggest language changes, undermining the BPFA. The right-wing fundamentalists are so far focusing on the youth caucus, but are also present in numerous other caucuses such as health, girl child and violence. The large NGO community, working to ensure that the Outcome document makes real provisions for implementing the BPFA, has taken action to minimize their influence and has called upon governments to stand firm in the negotiations to ensure women’s sexual and reproductive rights.

NGO Caucus

Globalization and civil society

Obviously, globalization has negative impact on women. Even if we do look for something positive in this process, the only thing we could find is High Telecommunication Technology. Prof. Pam Rajput, convenor, Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW) is very clear: ‘States have forgotten their social responsibility’. For example, in India, 60% of women are illiterate. ‘We have to emphasize the social sector, such as access to medicine, education, health’. Less access to education or health correlates to an increase in poverty and disempowerment. We have no illusions about the linkage between globalization and international gangs, traffickers, corrupters, or to sex exploitation and violence. ‘In particular, we must be very attentive to young girls. We need a very big program of consciousness of what is globalization’, explains Prof. Pam Rajput. "We have to find and create other power centers to highlight the negative and positive impact of globalization’. Also, the gender perspective is just at the beginning in all progressive movements. ‘Gender equality cannot be achieved in isolation’. Prof. Pam Rajput’s message is like a slogan: equality must be shared between people and nations.
Joelle Palmieri, WomenAction2000

Toward Diversity and Democracy

The Latin American Declaration points out that ‘women’s rights included in the Platform for Action cannot be guaranteed by a neo-liberal economic model that stands on weak democractic structures.’ Additionally there is ‘insufficient political commitment to establish effective mechanisms for consultation and participation [and there is an absence of accountability], to society.’

The ideal of equality proposed by the Latin American women is based on the removal of all forms of discrimination and inequality based on race, ethnicity, culture, age/generation, sexual orientation, social class, religion, nationality, disabilities amongst others. They believe that the building of plural societies requires the practice of diversity aswell as the democratic right to information and freedom of expression. This century will be the women’s era only if it is also the era of democracy in the political, social and economic levels and also in the cultural and private levels.

Religions Can Support Women’s Rights

In a panel discussion on March 7 entitled "Religion: Women’s Liberation, Women’s Bondage" four women from different religious contexts shared their views and experience on the potential link between their church or religion and the framework of women’s human rights. A Buddhist nun from Nepal expressed her interest in girl’s education, empowering girls to develop skills and participate in Buddhist society. Her view was shared by an orthodox Jewish feminist. An African activist requested more consideration and support from the churches in Africa for victims of women’s human rights violations. An American Muslim emphasized the diversity within political Islam, highlighting how reformist Islamic states like Sudan encourage women’s education and political participation.

Armed Conflict

Although there is wider recognition of the different impacts of armed conflict to women, there is still very little known about women’s contribution to war efforts, crimes committed against them during war, their coping mechanisms in armed conflict and appropriate responses and redress to women’s needs in post conflict situations. There is therefore need to continue documenting women’s contributions during war and to train them to document themselves as a tool for holding perpetrators accountable for their actions. Women need to be involved in peace processes at all levels as well as in decision making on issues concerning post conflict reconstruction. Women worldwide are crying for peace and their voices should be listened to and action taken now.

Resources

Global Knowledge II – Kuala Lumpur. At the opening of the Women’s Forum, participants are warned that women are being locked out of the knowledge-based society. Read further: www.womenaction.org/gkii