New York, June 7: After three days of hectic activity, most of the delegates to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session are feeling jaded and skeptical of the final outcome. 'Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century' now seems like much too grand a title for what seems to be a sliding back rather than a surging forward.

"I'm afraid this conference will become just another conference that will produce yet another document that will not deliver any practical results," says Ihssan Abdullah Algubshawi, General Secretary of the International Muslim Women's Union and the first woman to be appointed the State Minister of the Interior in Sudan. As Algubshawi pointed out, "developing countries will be able to solve their pressing issues of poverty, health, illiteracy and armed conflict only if they have the funds to address them."

Also looking for funds is Sagyn Ismailova, Chairman of the Kyrgyz State Commission for Family, Women and Youth: "We are here to seek assistance from the international community. Kyrgyzstan is a small Central Asian mountainous country with a harsh climate. The United Nations announced next year as the Year of Mountains so we are hopeful there will be special assistance to Kyrgyzstan, so we can help women living in the remote mountainous areas." Unfortunately, Kyrgyzstan has no vote in this session of the UN General Assembly due arrears in the payment of its financial contributions to the United Nations.

The feeling among the NGOs is that the governments are not honouring their commitments. So, they are lobbying hard for their concerns. Every day, there are groups of women in the UN lobbies, waiting until midnight for the plenary sessions to finish, waiting to know from their delegates how the negotiations on the final document the Outcomes document, as it is called -- are going. It may be difficult to reach a consensus on the document soon as there are still many contentious issues. Most of the differences center around well-worn areas concerning sexual and reproductive rights. The US and western countries are pushing developing countries to consider "sexual rights" as "human rights" in their national laws and provide government assistance for abortions. Some developing countries are opposed to this on religious or cultural grounds.

"We don't want this special session become Beijing 5, we want to make sure that we have a strong document. In five years we want to hear success stories of poverty reduction and elimination of genital mutilation in developing countries," said Lumba Sianga of Women for Change, a Zambian NGO committed to empowering women in remote rural communities, and Patricia Habanyama of the Zambian Coordinating Committee of NGOs.

"We want firm reiteration of the Beijing +5; governments must show the political will to implement it. This document is only a means to an end. It's up to NGOs to translate words into actions," said Akhila Sivadas of the Indian Center for Advocacy and Research, who is involved in monitoring the media. She expressed concern that the section of the final document on the media does not reflect today's reality. It does not take account of the globalization of the media. So, the Media Caucus has been lobbying to make sure relevant changes are made.

Maria Arias, convener of the UN Task Force on Women and the Environment, has been waiting in the UN lobby for the results of the negotiations on the final document. She said the negotiations are stuck due to one country, which does not want to sign under the paragraph which requires that "all governments in cooperation with civil society begin monitoring and informing women on water quality and support women farmers with education and training in sustainable food production, particularly or including organic." This paragraph is the only one that ensures women and their families have safe food and water.

*Cholpon Akmatova is a member of the Global Women's Media Team (GWMT) for the UN General Assembly Special Session to Review the Beijing Platform for Action. GWMT is composed of NGO women and women journalists from Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. The GWMT is coordinated by Isis International-Manila and supported by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in East and South East Asia and South Asia, the Canadian International Development Agency - South East Asia Gender Equity Programme, United Nations Development Program in Latin America, the Caribbean and Mongolia, World Council of Churches, Foundation for Sustainable Soceity, Inc., NCOS-Pilipinas, the British High Commission, and WomenAction.