• Editorial - Sexuality and human rights
• Appropriate ICTs - So what's GKII ?
• Interview
• Official Process - PrepCom2 Structure
• NGO Caucus
• NGO Activities
• Agenda
• Cross-cutting
• WA 2000 Team

Editorial - Sexuality and human rights

PFA Paragraph 96 says "the human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. Equal relationships between women and men in matters of sexual relations and reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect, consent and shared responsibility for sexual behaviour and its consequences." This undeniably also refers to sexual preference. This is why the ECE Regional Preparatory Meeting called on, without reservation by the Holy See, ECE governments to "review and repeal laws that criminalize homosexuality, since such laws contribute to creating a climate which encourages violence against women who are, or are perceived to be, lesbians." The ECLAC - Lima Consensus calls on governments to "Guarantee the protection of women's human rights, including sexual and reproductive rights, and addresses violations of these rights with particular attention to all forms of gender-based violence and its root causes, including the reproduction of a culture of violence." Additionally, it calls for the formulation and improvement of programmes designed to safeguard women's health and uphold their sexual and reproductive rights. Five years after Beijing may be seeing an upswing in the rights of all women to enjoy greater freedom in their sexuality. We look forward to a CSW that consolidates and improves upon these gains.
WomenAction 2000

Appropriate ICTs - So what's GKII ?

The 2^nd 'Global Knowledge Conference' will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 7-10 Mar. Where are Women on the Agenda? This 'watershed' conference will focus on empowerment, access, & governance as it's main themes. It aims to produce a 3 year action plan, complete with financial & political commitments. IWTC (Church Centre, 3^rd Floor) will host a meeting on Thursday, Mar 2^nd, 5-7pm to discuss linkage issues with the BPFA. More info on GKII from:
www.globalknowledge.org

Interview - Between tradition and power

Since 1984 Berhane Ras-Work, president of the Pan-African Committee on Practices Affecting Women and Childhood Health, has waged battle against harmful practices affecting women. Harmful practices include marriages of child brides, sexual mutilation and nutritional taboos. Just a few examples, traditions 'forbid' pregnant women to eat fish, and 'allow' Mauritanian men to force-feed young girls to make them sexually more attractive. Berhane Ras-Work says: 'So men keep the best food for themselves and they satisfy their own sexual fantasies'. Today, the Committee has several tasks. The first is to provide the 26 national committees with individualized strategies for combating bad practices against women. Secondly, it influences governments to adopt policies and laws. To date, the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Ghana, Ethiopia, Djibouti has introduced legislation. 'There is much still to be done. We have to continue the struggle', Berhane Ras-Work adds. To that end, the Committee together with the OAU (Organization for African Unity), is drafting a Convention against harmful practices to be presented to governments for adoption. At the same time, work continues at the village level because of the increased danger to women's health. AIDS has added a tragic dimension to these practices. 'Old rich men buy virgins to have sex without the risk of contamination.' Thirdly, the economic dimension is critical. As Berhane Ras-Work says: 'what can a grandmother and a mother choose? The paradox is, that to marry their daughters off at the age of 9 years, and to mutilate their genitalia, is a way of giving them a chance". Indeed, a girl that has not been circumcised is not eligible, so she cannot marry, and therefore cannot have access to an income. On the other hand, the Committee has to 'convert the circumcisors'. In March 1999 in Guinea, a campaign was launched which resulted in 30 practitioners stopping their work despite it being very lucrative.

There has been steady progress since the first two global women's conferences, in Mexico and Copenhagen. Governments and NGOs have entered into dialog. The general public has become aware of this crucial issue. 'The Beijing Platform for Action, adopted in 1995, recognizes these practices as a form of violence against women, and as the violation of the rights of Women and Children. It has been a real catalyst.'
Joelle Palmieri, WomenAction 2000

Official Process - PrepCom2 Structure

We are starting to receive information about how the PrepCom portion of the CSW (starting 2nd week) will be organized. Executive Committee will lead the process. The 10 members are: Rose Odera (Kenya), Patricia Flor (Germany), Christine Kapalata (Tanzania), Sonia Leonce-Carryl (St.Lucia), Monica Martinez (Ecuador), Kristen Mlacak (Canada), Rasa Ostrauskaite (Lithuania), Dubravka Simonovic (Croatia), Asit Bhattacharjee (India), Msako Kaji (Japan). The Chair of the Bureau will recommend to the Governments to work in two "Informals". This means NGOs will be allowed to observe the deliberations unless governments decide otherwise.

NGO Caucus

Institutional Mechanisms

28 Feb, the Caucus noted that many of the NGO alternative reports draw attention to the extreme vulnerability of existing national institutional mechanisms. The caucus stresses the importance of governments establishing partnerships with NGOs and CSOs as part of their national machineries to enable them to identify obstacles.

Health

The Health Caucus will meet daily at 1:30-3:00 pm at the Church Center. March 1 will be on the 10^th floor. March 2^nd will be on the 8^th floor. Renate Bloem will chair the Caucus on March 3^rd. The Health Caucus plans to form coalitions with other caucuses, including HIV/AIDS, human rights, environment, youth, mental health, globalisation and the sustainable development committee on women to get certain agreed-upon language, as it evolves, into the final CSW document.

Linkage - NGO amendments to the CSW PrepCom ‘Outcomes Document’.

The "NGO coalition in support of the BPFA" has prepared a document with textual amendments to the proposed outcome's document, treating the full document and all issues. The caucus will meet every day 5-6 pm in Conference Room B (except 2^nd March.).

Contact wedo@igc.org for further input and sign-on in support of the document.

NGO Activities

Workshop on Trafficking of Women and Girls

This workshop was convened yesterday by Soroptomist International and Miramed Institute (supported by Unifem). Soroptomist International has launched a campaign "Stop Trafficking" which was presented at the workshop. More than 40 women attended. Speakers in the

panel were: Christine Crawley (Women's National Commission UK, longtime member of the European Parliament) reported on trafficking of women from a

EU and UK perspective, emphasized problem of trafficking of women from Eastern Europe. Anele Heiges (Miramed Institute) reported on work of Miramed in Russia: providing statistical data based on opinionnaire in Russia, supporting programs to establish civic groups and leadership in Russia, organizing internet chat rooms. Last speaker was Cecilia Blewer (Coalition Against Trafficking in Women) who reported on the status of the trafficking issue in various international human rights instruments. She stressed the
importance of a clear definition of the concept of trafficking in terms of
"with and without consent of the victim".

Agenda

Panel discussion on Globalization
March 1, 1:15 – 2:45 , UN Building, Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium. Organised by International Federation of University Women (www.ifuw.org) and UNESCO.

Panel discussion on The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and Shari’a law
March 2, 1:15-2:45, Conference Room 1. Arabic translation provided.

Women in armed conflict
March 3^rd and 6^th 10:45am - 12:15pm: Outcomes document and Monday 15^th March 10:45am - 12:15pm: Presentation of recommendations elaborated and endorsed by NGOs in Budapest and Geneva. Venue: the UNIFEM Conference Room, 304 East 45^th Street, 15th floor.

ILO Maternity Protection Convention
March 1, 11:00-12.00, 11th Floor, Church Center.

Health Caucus Open Forum
The health caucus will co-sponsor an open forum to share best practices on promoting equality in health for women on March 9^th, 6:15- 7:30 Location to be announced.

Francophone Caucus
1^st March 4:00pm, UN Room B. Francophone women’s meeting.

Lesbian Caucus
UN Room B, Wednesdays and Fridays, 3 pm

Cross-cutting

Access to Technology
In an intervention on 27 March at the CSW, the World Blind Union called on the member states to ensure that women with disabilities are guaranteed an equal opportunity to be educated and rehabilitated and to make maximum use of both traditional and new technology in the labour market. Particularly women in developing countries who are deprived of education in reading and writing and are overlooked in programs designed to rehabilitate people to participate in the economic and social life of their countries.

Women in Central and Eastern Europe and CIS countries
The KARAT Coalition is organizing on March 9^th a presentation of the alternative reports from Albania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland and national recommendations from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Yugoslavia (on violence).

WA 2000 Team

Women Action Daily News production team: K. Banks, V. Berroa, B. Finke, I. Leon, S. Masters, Y. Matsumoto, J. Palmieri, L. Pugh, J. Small.

WomenAction is a global information, communication and media network that enables NGOs to actively engage in the Beijing+5 review process with the long term goal of women's empowerment, with a special focus on women and media.

This newsletter is made possible through generous financial support from WomenWatch, the Swiss Development Agency and the Shaler Adams Foundation.