• Editorial
• Appropriate ICTs
• Interview
• NGO Caucus
• Cross Cutting
• The Insider's Viewpoint
• Agenda
• Special Events

Editorial

The Environmental Caucus is raising vital questions here at CSW, questions such as what will happen to the vast majority of humanity if water remains in the hands of a few unregulated monopolies who divide it up at will, according to exclusively financial criteria? Already a great number of countries have to ration water, and it is women who are the first to suffer the consequences in their daily life. The degradation of local agriculture, pillage of natural resources, and overfarming by commercial agriculture are creating food shortages; at the same time industrial pollution is creating ecological catastrophes. The wreck of the oil tanker Erika, which spilled tons of petrol on the coast of France, is just one flagrant example. The Caucus hopes that governments will adopt a proposed addition to paragraph 50 concerning land, water, sanitation and food security. But another danger requires our vigilance: nuclear production and the treatment of nuclear waste.

The Environmental Caucus told NGOs Monday morning that this question is not touched upon anywhere in the PFA. She called upon NGOs to support the caucus in its efforts to have this question dealt with soon. WomenAction felt the need to share this request. Sustainable development, which is based on the urgent need to return power to local levels, thereby giving women more of a voice in decision-making, cannot be imagined if we do not put the preservation of the environment at the heart of all our thoughts and actions. Internet can be invaluable as a world-wide tool for exchanging experiences, education and cooperation.

WomenAction 2000

Appropriate ICTs

Radio as a communicative tool for women’s social action:

Radio is a critical communicative and networking tool particularly for women in developing countries. New technologies like email and the World Wide Web are becoming more accessible to women’s organisations. By linking these tools we can provide powerful and immediate information sources and opportunities for lobbying and advocacy. Here we look at two women’s initiatives. A South African based pilot project located at Women’sNet called Women’sNet Radio Exchange http://radio.womensnet.org.za/ aims to increase gender content on community radio stations and to develop capacity amongst gender organisations to generate content for news and programming on community radio. The aim is to improve information and communication skills capacity amongst participating organisations. The Radio exchange has created an electronic network connecting community and commercial radio and gender organisations. It has a web-based clearing house of radio content on women's and gender issues. Feminist International Radio Endeavor (FIRE) http://www.fire.or.cr/ connects voices, technologies and actions giving a voice to the voiceless. FIRE

aims to promote the presence of women in the media as well as portraying non-stereotyped images of women in media whilst also recognizing and respecting the diversity of women. FIRE promotes non-sexist communications and contributes to strengthening local, national, regional and global communications. This is done in English and Spanish for radio and Internet. This facilitates the dissemination of women's voices in all their diversity, so that they can be heard by men and women around the world, crossing barriers of nationality, culture, race, geography and language, and contributing to bridging the gender gap.

Jenny Radloff

Interview

Pro-fertility and pro-choice

Satty Gill Keswani, born in India and living in New Jersey, is one of the organisers of the CSW Health Caucus. "My work is to create life. I’m the director of the Livingston Fertility Center. People come to me to get pregnant. I want them to have the right to choose." Ms Keswani has been promoting fertility for 35 years. "My message to young women is: don’t delay parenthood. Fertility decreases after the mid 30’s.

Oral contraceptives reduce fertility, as do general infections. Especially in

Africa, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV are causing infertility to take over. Be cautious about infections and don’t take oral contraceptives for too long. You can

delay your profession but not your fertility." Family planning is

important, and this must include educating the men. "I encourage condoms, but a lot of men refuse to use them. They have to learn to understand that ejaculation is the sexual pleasure. This pleasure is something they can experience and use a condom." Despite the many disruptions to the workings of the Health Caucus by people who do not respect the Platform for Action, the Caucus is currently working on statements that cover the issues of Aids-HIV, reproductive rights and human rights. "I don’t know if we’ll make a dent. Interaction with delegates is very limited."

Lin Pugh

NGO Caucus

Women Heading Media Organisations as a Sign of Progress

The increase in the number of women editors and heads of radio and television networks could be an indicator of compliance to the Beijing Platform. This was the statement made by the participants to the Women and Media Caucus held on 10 March in conjunction with the on-going 44^th CSW session.

Citing the proposal made by Latin American and Caribbean countries to make women’s participation and representation in media as indicators of national progress, members of the Caucus vowed to lobby their respective governments and intergovernmental bodies such as the United Nations to support initiatives that will help women media practitioners achieve high-level positions in media organisations.

However, the participants made it clear that while it could be a potential indicator, the increase in the number of women in decision-making positions in media organisations does not guarantee positive and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in media. Sustained efforts in gender-sensitisation of media practitioners would still be necessary, the Caucus noted.

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza

Emerging issues

Women are concerned that life itself is threatened by commercialisation of water and development of "wonder foods".

NGO delegates from every continent have been meeting daily here at the Prepcom to ensure that emerging environmental issues are included in the Outcomes Document. The Platform for Action acknowledged that equal access to safe, clean water was a woman’s issue for the health of themselves and their families. However, Globalization and the resulting trade negotiations (which do not include gender-based analysis in the process) threaten that access because large corporations seek to profit from this very accessible resource. Water resources worldwide are increasingly contaminated especially where ground water supplies are being over-used. Already, water is bottled and sold as a commodity for profit, sometimes without real regulation to ensure its quality. In some countries the price is too high for the poorest people to buy it, which forces them to go without, or risk using highly contaminated sources.

Delegates also called for the entrenchment of the Pre-cautionary Principle (as agreed to in the Rio Declaration) in regulations governing the growing and promotion of genetically-modified crops, some of which may destroy useful and necessary life forms. Additionally, they called for clear labelling of foods or food products which could contain genetically-modified ingredients.

"We remind governments that Paragraph 253(d) of the Beijing Platform for Action affirms their responsibility to take appropriate measures to reduce risks to women from environmental hazards at home, at work and in other environments".

Women in Armed Conflict Caucus

Last Friday, March 10 the Women in Armed Conflict Caucus met with governmental delegations. A number of governments, among them the US, support the objective of the caucus to have an open session of the UN Security Council on women in armed conflict. As a first step, the caucus will hold a briefing for governmental delegates of the Security Council on Wednesday, March 15 (time and location to be announced). The Women in Armed Conflict caucus wants to highlight the relevance of women as contributors and agents of peace. Three members of the caucus from different regions (Central Africa and the Balkans) will present peace initiatives launched by women. The overall message to be emphasized is that war and conflict are the severest obstacles to the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.

Barbara Finke

Francophone women lobby on power and development

In a statement issued today, the Francophone Caucus insisted that in society, particularly in a global society, all spheres are linked; women therefore must attain decisional power in several spheres: the economy, politics, the social sphere and the media.

Economy: Globalization has led to increasing poverty, especially among women; measures must be taken to ensure that women, especially rural women, have access to resources, especially land, water, credit, microcredit and training.

Politics: with the goal of attaining equal representation of men and women in all elected assemblies, the caucus suggests a progressive quota system, use of role models, women-targeted training in the exercise of power.

The media: access of women to media is indispensable for their access to power; women-specific training to use the power of medias is necessary.

Social sphere: develop dialogue with unions and partners in civil society; offer training to women who assume leadership roles in unions.

Sharon Hackett

Cross Cutting

Women and Girls With Disabilities Face Double Discrimination Based on Disability and Gender:

Women from every region of the world have organized the Disability Caucus to lobby for increased awareness and protection of women with disabilities in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. Kathy Martinez from the Women’s Institute for Disability in the United States speaks out: "We have to include disability as a viable woman’s issue! Not only are women most likely to acquire disabilities due to poverty, violence, armed conflict and sub-standard medical care, but we are most likely to be the caregivers when those around us become disabled."

The Disability Caucus has drafted a fact sheet entitled: Women with Disabilities: Brief Global Overview. This fact sheet is designed to show the links between disability and the other critical areas of concern. The caucus describes the cyclical relationship between poverty and disability, pointing out that poor people are at a higher risk of disability due to their living conditions and that only a quarter of women with disabilities around the world are in the workforce. The document states that the literacy rate for people with disabilities around the world is around 3% and that women and girls with disabilities are often deprived of access to food and healthcare services. It also offers statistics on the links between disability and violence, armed conflict and the girl child.

Kathy Martinez states with confidence that there has been an increase in receptivity by the international women’s movement toward disability as a viable area of concern. However, women from other caucuses must ensure that language on disability be integrated into their issue areas to be further implemented. For more information, contact Harilyn Rousso: Tel/Fax 212 673-4284, e-mail: HarilynR@aol.com.

Alexandra Spieldoch

Xenophobia

Racism is pervasive and embedded in all structures of society. Racism is a manifestation of violence and a cause of violence against women. Racism is a determinant of the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health of women of colour, black women and indigenous women. These are some of the reasons for which the Caucus of Women of Colour emphasises the importance of considering the intersection between racism and gender discrimination, definitive elements that should orient actions to eradicate, once and for all, these two historic left-overs that affect the majority of women in the world.

Racism affects every aspect of women’s lives and constitutes a major violation of human rights, even more so if it is combined with each historic process, reinforcing discriminatory processes in each context. In the context of globalisation, for example, the dominance of the financial sector and the multinational corporations generates a dynamic that increases the exclusion of women of colour in economic spheres, but also with regard to social questions.

Therefore the Caucus of Women of Colour hopes not only that this issue will become an important part of strategies for followup on the BPFA, but that there will be significant linkage with the World Conference against Racism, Xenophobia and All Forms of Discrimination, which will be held in 2001.

Irene Leon.

Indigenous women struggle for their rights

The Indigenous Women’s Caucus organized a panel on March 13 in which they analyzed contemporary racism and the access of individual women to political participation. Lea Nicholas-MacKenzie (Canada), Patricia Lees (Australia), Esther Camac (Peru), Monica Aleman and Myrna Cunningham (Nicaragua) discussed the need to work hard on the construction of indigenous women’s identity. They also emphasized the need to recognize that their culture and spirituality are rich in resources and that these can help them to rebuild the balance between men and women in their communities.

Myrna Cunningham, rector of the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, pointed out that indigenous people’s rights are based on three basic rights: self determination, land rights (territory) and political participation. She said that at present there are no indigenous peoples demanding independence; what they are asking for is a complete restructuring of the State, so that important cultural and social changes may take place and may allow the building of a multi-ethnic democracy.

The Insider’s Viewpoint

Word is getting around that the Prepcom will not get through part IV of the Outcome 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:

"A number of governments will not go beyond the agreed language in the Platform. It’s sad because we’re now supposed to be looking at acceleration.

"For NGOs, there is still time to feed in language. We need to ensure the different areas are covered taking into account the obstacles and challenges."

Eleanor Conda, Philippine delegation

"I’m afraid we will not be able to finish the Outcome document by the end of this week. We haven’t even had the first reading of all the paragraphs yet."

Zou Xiaoqiao, Chinese delegation

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza

Agenda

The Lesbian Caucus will hold a panel discussion Tuesday March 13 1:45 -2:45 in UN conference room 6 to report on regional experiences with integrating sexuality and human rights.

Special Events

We are all here for the dignity of humans

Several cases of disruption were reported during the last days at the UN CSW. For example on Friday, March 10, while sitting near the news stand at the cafeteria an NGO delegate was encircled by a number of young people. She felt quite upset by their loud praying. When she asked why they were harassing her, the response came that they were "praying for her dignity". By this act, these people who wear red or blue buttons that read "motherhood" or "family", invaded her personal space and violated the rules of political dialog at the UN. A number of pro-life oriented participants have been recognized among the CSW NGO representatives.

As we are here celebrating the Beijing Platform for Action 5 years after it’s adoption, this is not an encouraging fact for many women’s NGOs who have been working hard to implement sexual and reproductive rights. Furthermore, the NGO sector in general is an alternative space for people to express their needs and the freedom of speech is highly respected.

It is very clear what happens to NGOs if they harass the governmental delegates but there is no system in place for cases where NGOs are harassed by others. We want to have our work at the UN be as effective as possible. An atmosphere in which people are afraid to speak openly at meetings, are observed or attacked outside meetings can easily undermine the international forums for the advancement of women we have worked so hard to make happen. If governments truly desire to profit from constructive NGO contributions, we call upon the Beijing+5 NGO steering committee to organize a system of protection against disruption and harassment. In addition, we call upon those responsible to look into implementing a system of assessment for NGO behavior whereby those NGOs with ECOSOC status which willfully disrupt others can be penalized.

In case you face a situation of harassment, you can call UN security number 9636666. If you want to contact the security inside the UN building, call 36666.

Lenka Simerska

WomenAction 2000 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. S Boezak, J Radloff, M Cabrera-Balleza, B Finke,

S Hackett,, D Plou, L Pugh, L Simerska,