• Editorial
• Appropriate ICTs
• Interview
• Regions
• NGO Caucus
• Cross Cutting
• Institutional Processes
• Resources

Editorial

The effects of globalization of the economy and financial speculation permeate all sectors. The area of communication and information is a good example of this. The ongoing mergers between the same huge multinationals is putting the control of broadcasting networks and their contents, programmes, media, television, periodicals, radio and the Internet into the same few hands. Everywhere in the world, our choices are narrowing: we are offered the same film, fed the same "cautiously selected" information, inundated with the same ads on our TV screens and in web sites. By and large, women’s real life is excluded; we are considered only as potential consumers. In consequence, we have only one option: to make communications technologies our own, be they written, audiovisual, electronic, and to take the initiative of producing our own broadcasts, periodicals and Internet sites. In this way, we’ll be able to make our struggles and hopes more visible, and to oppose a globalization whose primary goal is monetary gain, a fact that impoverishes the majority of peoples. Our solidarity must cross frontiers and lead us to combine our forces, our actions. This idea is at the core of Women Action.
WomenAction 2000

Appropriate ICTs

Women’s Libraries making information accessible

The International Information Centre and Archives for the Women’s Movement (IIAV) has developed a women’s thesaurus of terms to use in categorising publications, and works with other European women’s libraries to keep this up-to-date. This year, the IIAV hopes the thesaurus will become a basis for an online library. A user can type in a term in her own language in an online catalog and the term will be automatically translated into other languages. This will make it possible for users to find information in libraries throughout Europe. Discussions are taking place to increase the potential participants in Europe. In Argentina, the Women’s Continuing Education Resource Center has a cybercafé in the Women’s Library, which functions within the Center. The cybercafé offers Internet access as well as training on how to find information and access major documents on topics important to women.

In Montreal, the Resource Center on Adult Education and Status of Women (CDEACF) has published catalogs of its collections on line, giving a new visibility to thousands of reports, reference documents and archives produced and collected by NGOs, a sort of living memory of the women’s movement. The CDEACF’s NetFemmes network is now publishing the full text of important francophone women’s NGO documents on the Web.
www.cdeacf.ca

Interview - NGO process

"The NGO process at this CSW was initiated at the 43rd session, with large meetings in which NGOs brainstormed on process. Out of that came the decision to have no NGO forum at the 44th session, but to create a working session. " Sudha Acharya, representative of the All India Women’s Conference and Beijing +5 focal point for CONGO, explains the present organization of work at the PrepCom. "The NGOs decided to create an inclusive, representative coordinating committee, comprising the 5 UN regions, representatives of the communications network, representatives of the large networks, of Indigenous Women and of CONGO and its 3 committees on the Status of Women. Representatives from the UN regions are chosen by the regions – NGOs in the regions can approach these representatives to input into the process. It is important that people work together." There is a small organizational sub-committee in New York dealing with day to day issues, and the secretariat is CONGO. Ms Acharya is very pleased with the quality of information being presented through the Internet, by WomenWatch, WomenAction 2000 and CONGO. "The next step is to work out how to use these and to take advantage of these sources of information. Information sharing works in the North, where there is more access to Internet. Those who know how to get the information will have to find ways to pass it on to others that don’t have access. Each organization has a task in that." What about access to UN documents not yet published, but needed for NGO preparations for major meetings? "So-called ‘non-papers’ cannot be made public officially, but there are ways of getting access to them." And if the CSW does not manage complete discussions next week? "CONGO will make sure information on the intersessionals is posted."
Lin Pugh

Amidst the dizzying pace and complexities of all these processes, Ms Acharya is appealing to all NGOs to observe the rules and to maintain courtesy with each other.

Regions

European Union caucus

In view of the meeting with the Portuguese presidency of the EU, the caucus discussed which issues to raise. The European Women’s Lobby stressed the importance of ensuring women’s sexual and reproductive rights, to take actions against all forms of violence against women (including prostitution and trafficking), to make a commitment to sign and/or ratify the CEDAW optional protocol and the Statutes of the International Criminal Court, and the need to use the concept of ‘equality of gender and ethnicity’. Other priorities raised by the caucus were: the need to recognize gender-based persecution as a basis for asylum; the need to ask about the EU’s standpoint on macro-economic, micro-economic and trade policies in the negotiations; support for youth participation and; to urge the EU to support an increased use of time-bound targets in section IV of the Outcome document.

African Caucus

For the 2000 CSW meeting and the Beijing Plus Five Review Process, the African Caucus was facilitated by a task force of African non-governmental organisations and networks.The task force has worked on disseminating information about the Beijing Plus Five Review Process since the 1999 CSW meeting. Apart from its members’ newsletters, in partnership with the Association of Progressive Communicators (APC) Africa Women’s Programme and Women’sNet in South Africa, the task force has established an African women’s bilingual (English and French) web site on the Beijing Plus Five Review Process in Africa: www.flamme.org

Priority issues for Latin American women

The coalitions of Latin American women’s groups involved in monitoring the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action have agreed that following are the priorities supported by the region:

Sexual and reproductive rights – establishing strategies to confront the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the region that stops women’s access to their sexual and reproductive rights. They will also go on struggling so that there is a change in the present status of the Vatican within the UN and against the incrimination of abortion.

The right to cultural diversity – to support the recognition of different life styles and the need to work on public policies against discrimination of indigenous people, African Latin American communities, lesbians, etc.

The struggle against racial and ethnic discrimination

The strengthening of democracy – to advocate for democracy in media, to support women’s participation in local governments and to denounce legal systems that do not take into account women’s needs and rights.

Latin American women also have priorities that they share with women in all parts of the world:

Inequity, poverty and development – feminization of poverty and gender inequity in the economic distribution; the increase of AIDS victims in the region; the overexploitation of natural resources and the decrease of international funds for development in the last years.

Democracy and women’s political participation – the lack of mechanisms to support women’s participation in politics.

The coalition is lobbying so that official delegates take these points into account.
Dafne Sabanes Plou

NGO Caucus

‘The silence has been broken about HIV/AIDs and young girls, but the support is just not there.

This was on of the main themes of a workshop called Girls and HIV/AIDS: How to Respond, held on March 8 at the UN. Young people and a wide range of NGOs voiced their convictions that HIV/AIDS is a growing problem among young girls that is not yet being addressed. It can be prevented .We need a global campaign that includes the political and financial commitment of governments, NGOs and youth themselves. Two young women from WAGGGS pointed out that peer pressure can be extremely positive – as well as negative. They described the WAGGGS international peer education programme on the prevention of AIDS, in schools and reaching 20,000 young people in Kenya.

Prostitution and trafficking amongst very young girls is growing due to poverty, the desire for "easy money" and the ignorance about the danger of HIV/AIDs that drives families in Asia and Africa to push their girls often unknowingly into dangerous situations. To make matters worse, it was pointed out that many people – women as well as men – believe that AIDS is a myth. Goverments, such as those in Bangladesh and Mexico do not want to deal with this epidemic and they ignore the reality. Some other key points that emerged:

In rural and indiginous areas of Mexico and Guatemala, virginity is prized so that men perpetrate anal sex on young girls.

Hondurans represent 17 % of Central Americans, but account for 65 percent of its AIDS cases.

More campaigns are needed like the one on Air France flights where commercials for duty free products end with a picture of a young girl with the text: "She is not for sale."

Men must be partners in the solution. When the panel moderator asked how many men were in the room of over 150 people – only two stood up.

The workshop was organized by the Working Groups on Girls, UNICEF and WAGGGS.

Women in politics

The Caucus on Women, Power and Decision Making organized a panel on March 10, to discuss how women get into power in different countries in the world. At present, only 12.7% of all members of parliament in the world are women, there are only 10 women heads of state and in the cabinets of ministers, women are 7.4% of their members. In the subministerial levels of decision-making, women’s representation is 11%.

The panel members - Penelope Beckles (former Senator in Trinidad & Tobago), Ranyana Kumari (human rights activist from India), Maria Jose Lubertino (politician from Argentina) and Lia Nadaraia (president of the Feminist Club in Georgia) - discussed the situation in their own countries and the need to recognize that the quota systems implemented in several countries around the world, in the last decade, have become an effective tool, not only to increase the number of women members of parliament in the local, provincial and national levels, but also the fact that because there are more women in the chambers, women’s issues are more likely to be taken into account when discussing a bill.

The panelists considered that "women can change the nature of power" and that "quantity is not equal to quality, but it can help to achieve quality". In India, the access of one million women to local governments, thanks to a quota system of 33.3%, has allowed women from all social sectors to contribute in their communities. In Argentina, for example, where the quota is 30%, women have been able to overcome their party divisions when discussing the bill on violence against women. Nevertheless, the panelists agreed that it would be important that women politicians work with a gender perspective. That aim is yet to be reached.

Gender equality is on the agenda for young women - Interview with Franziska Brantner, one of the initiators of the Youth Caucus, March 8

The purpose of the Youth Caucus here at the CSW and during the whole Beijing+5 process is to show that feminism and gender equality is also a topic for the young generation. There might be countries that have a better standard in the field of women’s issues but young women want to maintain and respect the achievements of their mothers and grandmothers. This also means helping women in other regions of the world to improve the status of women. That is why the youth caucus brought young women from more than 60 countries together. The main goal is to give young women the chance and skills to get involved in NGO work and continue the Beijing+5 process with the younger generation. Young women also recognize the differences between countries, discussion groups provide translation, rotate the chairing of discussions to ensure democracy and representation. Regional youth networks already exist and the idea is to bring them together for common work toward the Special Session in June and beyond. The reaction of the older generation has been positive, although not necessarily resulting in concrete support. Young women do not want to separate themselves but be part of the process and include their experiences in it.

Young women organized a visible event on the 8^th of March. This was to demonstrate the progressive attitudes of young women: "motherhood yes, but far beyond". On the 8th of March you would have seen young women wearing yellow T-shirts and buttons with the logo of their network built here during the CSW. They also organized the performance of a play. The message of this event was: the Youth Caucus is progressive, i.e. against discrimination, for diversity, reproductive and sexual rights, safe abortion, access to contraception, access to information. Although they are focusing on sexual and reproductive rights, the Youth Caucus intends to propose good and inventive ideas for all areas of concern of the PFA.
Lenka Simerska,

Widows’ Invisibility in the Platform For Action

The language of the Beijing+ 5 documents permits little scope for representing the complex issues of widowhood. The issues relating to widowhood cut across every one of the 12 critical areas of the Platform, but there is little acknowledgement of the human rights abuses that widows of all ages experience. A meeting on Widowhood held on March 8th, resulted in a proposal for textual amendments. The proposals have gone to all the regional groups and issue caucuses. But it is not too late to lobby governments on this topic.

It is hoped that the regions will incorporate at least some of the suggested amendments, but even these will not be adequate to draw the attention needed to this hidden aspect of women’s oppression. For more information, contact : Margaret Owen Margaretowen@compuserve.com www.oneworld.org/empoweringwidows

Cross Cutting

On its 4 th day GKII received inputs from 4 crosscutting tracks: women; youth; media and indigenous/local knowledge. Women's Forum has produced an action plan. However Rosemary Kalapurakal of UNDP suggests that the action plan mainly consists of 'issue areas rather than specific project/initiatives.' She also commented that there was a positive side to the conference, 'gender issues and women have been everywhere'.

Another highlight of the Forum was a speech given by Professor Swasti Mitter. She spoke of the 'challenges and opportunities' faced by women in the information age. She highlighted the need for 'targeted' rather than 'universal' access. Another important issue was that of 'women in the realm of production and innovation', which involves the need for women to become visible in the software development community, with reference to Linux as an example of emerging affordable technology which can help to achieve this.

There were three key mechanisms for mainstreaming gender issues: addressing the question of women; striving for gender balance; and that the impact on women is addressed as a criterion for measuring the success or failure of GKII.

Professor Robin Mansell also spoke at the Women's Forum, highlighting the danger that without action 'women in greater numbers than men will be 'locked out' of important activities in their economies and societies.' For more information visit www.womenaction.org

Institutional Processes

June Special Session of the General Assembly

The vice-chair of the CSW, Patricia Flor, recapitulated and explained the PrepCom process at Friday’s NGO briefing. For the June special session of the General Assembly, the PrepCom will try to integrate other institutions of the UN system, such as the World Bank and the IMF. Moreover, side events in the form of panel-discussions will be held, in which NGOs possibly will be included. The outcome of the panel discussions will be circulated as UN documents.

PrepCom progresses on Section IV

Concerning the ongoing meeting Patricia Flor explained that the governments had not yet agreed on the political declaration. There are still disagreements on development policies, and on how to ensure a coordinated, integrated follow-up. For section IV of the Outcome document – further actions- the negotiations are in process, and advancing somewhat quicker than expected. In answer to a question about what would happen if the PrepCom does not finish with the Outcome document, a quite vague answer was given explaining that plans for ‘emergency arrangements’ always were made, but that the PrepCom was hoping to finish by 17 March.
Malin Bjork

The Insiders’ Viewpoint

Word is getting around that the PrepCom will not get through part IV of the Outcomes document—

Actions and initiatives to overcome obstacles and to achieve the full and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. Talk is that governments are stalling the process. WomenAction is conducting random interviews with members of official delegations and this is what they have to say:

"The North-South divide is coming out very strongly, particularly in the assessment of globalisation. Delegates from the North are talking of the positive impact while those from the South are talking of the negative impact on women — not just of globalisation but the Structural Adjustment Programmes as well."

"It is still very early to say what the outcome will be. We spend so much time and efforts on the documents while there is very little to support national efforts on implementation. We need to address the issues at our levels."

---Shagufta Alizai, Pakistani delegation

"We will certainly have [the Outcome] document by June. Whether this will adequately the critical areas of concern is another matter. At the end of the day, it’s not about women’s issues, it’s about politics. "

" I still see the value in what NGOs are doing. They just have to come down to what exactly the ‘non-negotiables’ are. The coalition document as it is now is very wordy." ---an NGO representative to an official delegation that is part of G77. Her name is withheld upon request.

Resources

Women’s issues at the UN General Assembly

This year the Assembly has discussed a number of resolutions dealing with the position of women: High-level Political Signing Conference for the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime; Traditional or Customary Practices affecting the health of women and girls; Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women; preparations for a Special Session of the General Assembly entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century"; The Girl Child; Effective promotion of the Declaration of Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, religious and Linguistic Minorities; Protection of Migrants; International Trade and Development; Women in Development; Role of the United Nations in Promoting Development in the Context of Globalization and Interdependence; Implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty. These papers are available at the UN.

Fiji Women

The Fiji Women Crisis Center now has its own website. Check it out for the latest information on the work of this center and the Pacific Women’s Network Against Violence Against Women: www.fijiwomen.com