102 year old activist at the Special Session

Esther Hymer, a 102 years old activist in the women's movement worldwide, took part today in the activities of the Beijing+5 Special Session. She visited WomenAction premises in the Church Centre and was interviewed by Les Penelopes. In the interview, Esther talked about her experiences in women"s struggles in the late forties and early fifties and said that "women"s dignity is still far from being respected".

Esther Hymer, de 102 a-os de edad, y quien fuera una activista reconocida en el movimiento de mujeres , particip- ayer de la Sesi-n Especial de la ONU. Visit- los estudios y oficinas de WomenAction en el Church Centre y fue entrevistada por Les Penelopes para su programa en el canal web. Esther habl- sobre sus experiencias en las luchas que llevo adelante el movimiento de mujeres en el periodo de la posguerra y se-al- que todav'a dista mucho para que la dignidad de las mujeres sea respetada de manera plena.

Interview to Esther Hymer on the net, tomorrow at 1.30 pm and Saturday at 9 am www.canalweb.net/vers/cyberfemmes.asp

Government on our own! Women in the Czech Republic don't want to wait to be given the space in politics

by Lenka Simerska

The Czech social democratic party won the election and came into power after 8 years of being in opposition. It is the only Czech political party that applies an internal quota for women of 35% in all party bodies and has a women's section within the party. In spite of all expectations, in the first government formed by the social democrats in 1998 there was no woman appointed to a ministerial position. The Prime Minister explained this surprise with: ãThis government has a very difficult task ahead of it - it will be the government of suicidal people and women should not be exposed to such difficult work.

One year later the Prime Minister shuffled his cabinet and once more there was no woman in the cabinet. The Prime Minister's explanation this time was that he had considered all the possible male and female candidates, the male ones appeared to be better experts.

At this point women lost their patience. Jana Volfova, social democratic MP and chairwoman of the party's women's organisation, formed an alternative government of women only! Together with another member of the women's shadow cabinet Michaela Marksova-Tominova (director of the Gender Studies Centre in Prague) Jana Volfova are here at UNGASS as members of the official Czech delegation. WomenAction used this unique opportunity to ask how women can get their space in politics.

Jana: "When the Prime Minister said he was not able to find any woman expert enough for his Cabinet, we took it as a challenge. I decided to find such women and form a shadow women's cabinet. We also want to show that women would pay attention to different topics while forming the ministries. We don't have a ministry of military/defence in our governmental structure, we have replaced it with ministry for family and women. We also introduced a ministry of human rights." Michaela: "When I heard about this, I was excited and agreed immediately to become a member, although the whole thing was considered to be quite controversial. But who else should not to be ashamed to became a member of a women's shadow cabinet than me who is working for a women's NGO/is a women' s/feminist activist?"

Jana: "People asked why we hadn't appoint a Prime Minister. Our main task was to show that specialists do exist in this country, not to distribute posts among ourselves. The Prime Minister is a manager and we women don't need to be managed by somebody, we can manage ourselves!"

Michaela: "But there was one thing which disappointed me: at the press conference, when the shadow government was introduced to the public - I wasn't there because I was participating in the March PrepCom - the speaker [a Czech actress] announced that none of the women considered herself a feminist and none of them felt oppressed by men. This wasn't true, but the media picked it up and criticized the shadow government as a step back."

Jana: "The problem was that most of the 'ministers' are real specialists in their fields and have no idea about what feminism really means; but they do believe in cliches like social majorities. Our next task is to teach the shadow government. It was very amusing to watch Prime Minister's face shaking hands with all the female specialists who he said did not exist!"

Michaela: "The cabinet now has meetings with the 'real' ministers. In two weeks we will introduce our cabinet proclamation." Jana: "We followed the structure of the 'real' proclamation but escaped some issues and described others in depth, mainly those concerning women. In the future, if new legislation is introduced we will organise a press conference."

Women and Children raise their voices for peace

By Juliet Were Oguttu

In situations of armed conflict, women and children bear the biggest brunt.Of the 30 million persons displaced in war torn areas, 80 percent are women and children, reported Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, in a forum here at the ongoing UN General Assembly Special Session on Women 2000. He said that the changes in the social and economic situation have drastic effects on women and children in war-torn areas and in areas of armed conflict.

The women and children are forced to stay in refugee camps where resources and essential services are very limited, he said.Women build improvised shelters using sacks and cardboard. Relief distribution is not well planned and in most times leaves the children and women with very little to live on. In the absence of basic resources, they are forced into prostitution and sexual slavery.

Rapes committed during war seem to be increasing and have received more attention in recent years, according to International Alert, a London-based NGO dedicated to peace issues.But women and children, encouraged by peace and citizens organizations, have not given up. In Sierra Leone, women NGOs formed a forum to advocate for the needs of displaced women and children. They mobilized and marched to the residence of the head of the rebel group and protested and civil society also followed suit, which forced him to flee. This is a beginning of women's resistance to conflict and the struggle for peace.

In Colombia, the children have organized themselves as peace advocates. Fifteen-year-old Gloria Luz Gomez, of the Children's Movement for Peace narrated during a session at the ongoing conference here, "Many children have lost their parents and no longer have homes. Children are helping other children but we also want to be like other children, we want peace and will not give up. We dream of a country and world that is different and peaceful."

International Alert said that new and emerging issues in the concerns of women and children caught in war include the need to provide physical and psychological care to survivors of sexual violence and rape, and to explore the creation of a permanent women's assembly to address conflict resolution.

In several discussions here, participants have noted that the nature of warfare has changed over the years, and it is becoming increasingly more difficult for women to choose between being neutral victims or active participants.In one caucus, participants proposed a drastic reduction of military spending five percent for the next five years -- as war is maintained through massive investments and preparation.

The proposal will just be a starting point, and is estimated to free up to half a billion dollars per day, money which could be spend for social and economic justice and peace programs."Five percent a year does not sound too painful," said a participant to the forum.The women here have also cited the need to address "gender-based" violence during times of war, which include systematic rape and forced pregnancy.

"The failure of governments to commit themselves to this process also encourages non-state actors such as paramilitaries, mercenaries and other groups to continue violating human rights," said a coalition of women NGO participants.The NGOs have been meeting to draft proposals for the "Outcome Document" that member-states will sign when the Women 2000 conference ends on Friday, June 9. The document aims to reaffirm the commitment of the UN member nations during the Beijing Platform of Action passed during the Fourth International Conference on Women held in the Chinese capital in 1995.

Women's radio programming - the Asia-Pacific experience

By Mavic Cabrera-Balleza

Manivanh works her rice paddies solitarily. But she doesn't seem to mind. Her transistor radio keeps her company. Occasionally, Manivanh nods her head and utters a few words, as if intently talking to someone. After weeding, she goes to check her water buffalo, which she left grazing on the hilly part of her farm. Holding the radio in one hand, she loosely ties the beast to a mango tree under which she also slumps, presumably to take a short rest and have her breakfast. But eat, she does not. She brings out instead a stub of a pencil and a nearly tattered notebook. She writes as she listens intently to her radio. We later learn that Manivanh is "attending" the school on the air over Lao National Radio.

Manivanh is just one of the many women we met while researching women's radio programmes in Asia and the Pacific. Carried out in 10 countries, the study validated our observation that in the region radio has the widest reach and is one of the most powerful media for information dissemination and education. This despite the upsurge of the new information and communication technologies. Another factor that accounts for radio's popularity is the fact that in Asia-Pacific, the habit of reading is not as established as listening, more so for groups who come from low-income communities and do not have a high degree of literacy. Thus, there is still a great need for information-sharing and communication initiatives that are not print-based and can be easily accessed. Apart from being a vehicle for disseminating vital information essential to most societies, radio provides an arena where many affairs of public life are played out.

Radio in the context of the women's movement in Asia and the Pacific is more than just an information tool. It is a potent vehicle in ventilating women's issues and concerns. It is a means of mobilising action toward social transformation. The data gathered from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia, reveal some very telling commonalities. First, is the need to address the question of sustainability. The scarcity of resources, particularly financial resources to cover production costs, that confronts women broadcasters in Cambodia is also experienced, albeit to a different extent, by radio producers in Japan. Next to funding, the other oft-repeated problem is lack of information. Being in the information business, this is striking. This is as real in Indo-China as it is in the Philippines. Philippine-based GABRIELA (General Assembly Binding Women for Reforms, Integrity, Equality, Leadership and Action, a national coalition of women's organisations), which produces a long-running radio program for women attests to this.

If not for their actual involvement in campaigns, they say, they would not have enough material to broadcast. Add to this the question of language. Despite the reality that only a handful of countries in Asia and the Pacific speak English, most of the materials received by radio networks are in English. The national radio Voice of Vietnam is addressing this by providing English language training for their broadcasters. The other concern in all of the 10 countries is the lack of training opportunities for women broadcasters. Isis International-Manila addresses this by organizing national and regional radio production training for women broadcasters. Recent efforts in the region to produce women's programmes that highlight the role of women in social development and challenge the patriarchal nature of media come from women working in radio. But the more critical and strategic intervention would be in the area of helping national and community organisations in the region develop their appreciation of radio as a communication tool.

Uganda - political commitments

Uganda Vice president Specioza Kazibwe said in a panel on women and political participation that there are not indicators to measure statistically State commitments to the advancement of women in the political field. She considered that it is important that women work in the local spheres to demand concrete changes in their own communities and that women politicians should not loose touch with grassroots women, so as to be able to take in their demands in the formulation of public policies with a gender perspective.

Trafficking

UNICEF report on children and teenage sexual trafficking shows that this kind of child exploitation has increased in several parts of the world, but specially in Tailand, Vietnam, Nepal, India, Mali, Armenia and Costa Rica. Many of these children are sold to traffickers by their own parents and many others have to pay with their work for loans to their families. In the discussion of this report during a panel, NGO representatives considered that sexual exploitation and slavery has its roots in poverty, underdevelopment and scarce education. Sexual trafficking of children has also become big business for mafia organizations all over the world.

Book launch - Violence against women : manual for journalists

By Anoma Rajakaruna

Five years ago, after the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing, violence against women, one of the most flagrant violations of human rights is on the increase. The media is more often than not part of this problem. How can the media be true to itself while contributing constructively to ending this scourge.

On the June 8th, at the Church Centre, by launching a training manual for the media, Inter Press Service (IPS) and Gender Links offer some answer. The Manual put together by IPS in consultation with an international team of journalists, psychologists and gender activists, is targeted at the media and non-governmental organizations involved in media training. The training manual provides a step by step guide to media people on how to report on all forms of violence against women.

Indirect costs of violence against women to development are extremely high and violence perpetrated against a woman in the home has adverse effects on the family and especially on children. In some instances, the women are forced to stay away from work due to domestic violence, negatively impacting on her income earning ability, too.

On the other hand, violence against women is prevalent at various levels of the criminal justice system, too. Yet the system is the avenue that a woman can pursue when she is affected by violence. The result is that many women do not report crimes perpetrated against them.

At state level, violence against women has cost implications at the levels of law enforcement, access to health services and the provision of emerging housing and offer results in increased demand for resources. This means that the addition to providing general health care services to broader public more financial and human resources must be invested to make provision for this additional burden created by violence against women, the manual notes. Ultimately, "The State has to incur costs in preventing and addressing violence against women".

The manual provides guidelines for reporting on women who are violated in the different spheres, in areas of conflict, refugee camps within the home and at workplaces. It also looks at HIV /AIDS and violence, sex workers, trafficking and the role of men in combating violence against women.

NGOs in the UN - Interview with Mia Adjali

By Cheekay Cinco

Mia Adjali of the United Methodist Church's UN office has actively participated in many struggles for change since she began her work in the 1960's. NGO delegates to the UNGASS were introduced to her by the Chair of the General Assembly, the ambassador Theo-Ben Gurirab of Namibia. Mia Adjali was instrumental in helping SWAPO, the South West African People's Organisation, receive UN accreditation and later observer status. Her NGO, he said, was a significant influence in SWAPO getting UN support which assisted the organisation in ousting the country's colonial regime.

Mia Adjali explains the influence of NGOs in creating change - in this case with SWAPO and in other socially just causes, such as the anti-apartheid movement, in the following way. NGOs pressure or influence the UN to focus on issues, the UN sets up mechanisms and provides information on these issues, and the NGOs then lobby the UN on these issues. She has seen the participation of women's NGOs in the UN grow in a similar way. Women's groups have been allotted resources - financial and human - to be able to attend UN Meetings and Conferences, in the belief that such efforts would contribute to the improvement of the status of women.

According to Adjali, 2000 NGOs have ECOSOC Status and more have DPI Accreditation. "Some NGOs participate and lobby more effectively than others. Being an NGO in the UN is no longer an 'amateur job'. It requires a level of sophistication in various skills such as negotiating with diplomats, writing and understanding the UN language. Added to the fact that the UN is located in New York and in Geneva," she says, "participation in the UN is not very accessible - specifically to smaller women's groups in the South."

Mia would like to see regional UN offices as sites where NGOs can meet regularly. Perhaps there should be regional CSW's where Preparatory and regular meetings can be held. "Effective lobbying is also a matter of training," she adds, "so women understand the structure and the processes in the UN. These trainings should be held regularly."

Recent developments in the negotiations for the Outcome Document for the five-year review of the Platform for Action, have left many of the participants frustrated. Complaints have been lodged on the slowness of the process and the "watering down" of the document. Mia agrees that the level of frustration among the women is high, but she differentiates two types of frustration. Some women are feeling political frustration brought about by countries that have not changed their conservative positions on the BPFA and the Outcome Document. The most frustrated women, Adjali feels, are those who expected to change the UNGASS process. What these participants fail to realize is that the opportunity to negotiate with and lobby for changes in the document was at the PrepCom and the Intersessionals, and that there isn't much opportunity to influence the document at this point.

ARE ALL OUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET?

Gabrielle Le Roux

As the fifth UN Conference on Women draws to a close it seems a good moment to ask some of the ten thousand participants how they are feeling about the process.

"It's a slow and backward sliding process", says Cholpon from Kyrgyztan an NGO delegate, "It's such a wonderful forum for meeting women from other countries doing inspiring work", says an activist from Honduras, "How on earth do you make news out of these people taking four hours to decide on the placement of a comma and one word in a document?" complains a US journalist in the corridor outside one of the negotiating rooms of the UN.

A lot of time and energy is being spent on negotiating word for word the language of the outcome document. There is a lot of concern that the bulk of the energy is being spent in making sure that we are not sliding backwards rather than finding the ways to move forward as a strong international women's movement.

Driving the feeling of disappointment and disillusionment home was a protest today at which the women zipped their lips with adhesive labels which said Beijing - 5.

Confusion is a key feature of the conference with government delegations and NGOs alike spending a good deal of their time trying to find the meetings that they are wanting to attend and finding that the venue has changed, or the time. These are the least of the problems, more disturbing are the number of forums where important issues like globalisation or women and media are being discussed by a "panel of experts" who are professionals but not necessarily feminists or women committed to social justice.

It is clear that there is no one kind of feminism but there do seem to be two distinct brands here - the polished professionals who earn good money from espousing popular causes like poverty relief; and those who see sexism, poverty, classism, racism and homophobia as linked and want to see this connection recognized in all the work of the women's movement. The professionals claim that women are not oppressed if they get good enough at their jobs to keep up with the competition.

The second group believe that women who know the problems can generate the solutions and that a lot of bureaucratic discussion does not answer or even recognize the real issues of marginalization and exclusion that women face. Devaki Jain, Indian feminist economist and long-time activist says: "The women's movement needs to side with those women at the bottom of the pile."

There are concerns that NGOs even though they are now part of the process do not have sufficient voice and that they battle to keep up with what is happening and even in some cases to be in touch with their government delegations. The government reports reflect on the triumphs over the last five years and fail to address the problems and challenges women face. Jain says: "The Beijing Platform for Action lay around virtually untouched for four years. When the call came for a report on the progress governments quickly drew up whatever they could to make themselves look good".

In some instances the government reports were not seen until the day before the delegates left for New York. At that point it was difficult to make changes. An obvious irony is that the Women's Budget, an initiative introduced to Parliament in 1994 by ANC MP and Chair of the Committee of the Improvement of the Quality of Life and Status of Women, Pregs Govender has been hailed internationally as a model of a gendered budget. Yet it is reflected in the South African report as an NGO initiative and not a government initiative. This, along with the fact that it was not reflected in this year's national budget in South Africa sounds warning bells about the fragility of the gains women make.

Shanaaz Mathews of the Gender Advocacy Programme, GAP and part of the South African NGO delegation suggests that much more organization needs to happen before the event so that each country's delegates know each other and are able to be in touch during the conference. Sonu Chhina, journalist and youth activist based in Delhi, has found that she is asked to tell her countries official delegation about very basic information about the negotiations.

Asked what the key issues are for her and how they are faring in the conference, Chhina says: "Sexual rights and sexual orientation; for the first issue there is a big battle on in the closed contact group to which we don't have access. On the issue of sexual orientation government delegates think that it can be sacrificed for something less contentious."

Lydia Alpizar, youth activist working with Mexican NGO Elige feels that women are losing ground in this Beijing +5 process: "I can't believe that the platforms have been re-opened. There is a real lack of political will and commitment to women's rights". She feels that it is a harsh lesson for the women's movement not to rely on governments to take their agenda forward. "The gains we have are through our own efforts and we cannot put all our eggs in one basket".

Asked what changes should be made to the next UN conference on women the women tended to agree with Jain's proposal that it would be more fruitful to make the focus be on the work of the NGO's, and have governments come along as observers. They also emphasise the importance of building links between women at all levels to work together in the common cause of advancing women's rights.

Women`s strategicly using Internet

The WomenAction 2000 Internet cafe during Beijing+5

The WomenAction 2000 run Internet café, located across the street from the UN at the 2nd floor of the Church center. It has been crowded by NGO representatives during the whole week of the UN General Assembly Special Session. The WomenAction staff from APC-Women's Networking Support Programme, Virtudes Berroa and Liz Probert, who are leading this activity have been training and explaining to less experienced Internet users about the possibilities offered - as well as solving all minor user problems that always occur. The strategy has been to integrate smaller training elements in the use of e-mail services, information dissemination, and text processing as women come to the café. One of the aims of WomenAction is to show the possibilities offered through the new information technologies. In line with this, the Internet café has also had continuous big-screen web broadcast from the proceedings at the General Assembly`s Special Session, broadcasts of the daily Internet TV programs produced by Les Pénélopes, as well as the radio Internet broad casting programs by FIRE.

The great amount of women using the possibilities offered at the Internet café from early morning until late evening reaffirm that women are eager to make strategic use of the Internet, to consult and communicate with their colleagues, however far from New York city they may be during this week. The Internet café represents in this perspective a crucial element to make political process, such as for example Beijing+5, more participatory and allowing for women all over the world to input into the meeting via their representatives who are present here.

SMALL ARMS : A NORTH-SOUTH ISSUE

The Women's National Commission, from the United Kingdom, considers that small arms have become a human security problem and their proliferation constitutes a serious threat to global peace and prosperity. The majority of small arms producers are located in the First world, and the majority of the victims of these arms can be found in the developing countries. It can be said that at a small core small arms issue is a North South issue.

Small arms and light weapons although not themselves the cause of conflicts, due to their low cost, light structure, easy use and maintenance, available in abundance requiring very little technical know-how become the weapons of choice in many conflicts all over the world. When used in an indiscriminate manner and mainly obtained illegally, they favour the increase in levels of violence and aggravate the existing conflict situations and impide post conflict building.

Most of the innocent victims of violence are defenceless women and children. There are probably no other tools of violence so widespread, so readily available and so difficult to curb as small arms and light weapons. Small arms are responsible for 90% of war casualties, 85% of whom are women and children. Small arms are stimated to cause 200,000 death per annum, ten times de number of landmines.

The Mrs Indira Patel OBE, present at the UN Special Session said that the Women's National Commission recommends the adoption of national and international codes of conduct to curb illicit trade in small arms and control production. It also recommends, among other measures, to enforce laws punishing traffickers, for which it is required a political will.

So that was Beijing +5

By Lin Pugh

Day 5 of the Beijing +5 review. The conclusion of days and nights of reading texts - 'language' in UN-ese - rewriting texts, lobbying delegates , and watching from the galleries while delegates in committees and in sessions debate on words, brackets and comma's. For many of us, this was a first UN General Assembly. Charlotte Bunch, Director of the Institute for Global Women's Leadership, outlines some of the important process points while sitting with me on a bench in a basement corridor. It was11 pm. A committee was still in session and we were waiting for the commencement of the Committee of the Whole. "Some of what we see is General Assembly, and some of it is New York. The added security and the added attitude - not a world conference attitude, is General Assembly. The part that is New York is something that has been developing over the past 2 years as an ongoing battle between UN and NGOs. Security is tighter, we have to use the visitors' entrance, we have issues of access. The Conference of NGOs (CONGO) has a continuing conflict with the UN on NGO status and issues of accreditation.

Part of what we see is a broader UN problem and not necessarily related to this being a women's meeting. But part of it is numbers - fear of another "Seattle" and also fear of the kind of constituencies that a women's conference brings. We're not the usual types around here." A young women on the floor next to me turned a summersault while in another corner an NGO participant breast-fed her baby. Buttons, stickers and and T-shirts flourished. I could believe we weren't the usual crowd.

The discussion moved into the UNGASS process. Much of what was introduced in the Platform for Action is evolving new work. UNGASS, as well as the regional preparatory meetings and the Commissions on the Status of Women, are part of our work to develop gains made through the Platform for Action. It is an ongoing task. Insufficient information about the process - for example the distinction between a General Assembly and a World Conference, contributed in the first days of UNGASS to unrest among NGOs. Preparation is key to such a meeting. Putting on her hat as a member of the NGO Co-ordinating Committee, Ms Bunch said that more attention to training would have helped. Some of the caucuses included training in their preparations for the meeting. Between the March PrepCom and the UNGASS, the Human Rights Caucus ran an ongoing listserv, monitoring the intersessional meetings (the meetings set up between March and June to discuss issues not completed at the March PrepCom) and sending out notices. The Health Caucus and the Economic Justice Caucus were similarly well-equipped.

The interview was brought to an abrupt end when two people from the Human Rights Caucus interrupted with an urgent message. In one of the committees, instead of dealing with bracketed text, new language had been introduced in paragraph 23 of Section J on women and media. Charlotte immediately located a delegate while her caucus-colleaguedrafted new language to replace the new text. They based the redraft on the Platform for Action.

As this publication went to press the Committee of the Whole was about to begin. Hundreds of NGOs were seated in the gallery. Whatever the outcome, we all deserve a sleep before going back to our ongoing task of advancing the position of women.

Where the evaluation is

By Lin Pugh

Reflecting on the mood at the UN on the 4th day of the Beijing review, one delegate said: "An evaluation is never a spectacular thing." Looking at achievements and obstacles is not an easy exercise. Governments have to admit to their inadequacies as well as their achievements. NGOs, an important agent for change in society, can never be satisfied with the achievements of governments. For women's NGOs, it is also the time when many organisations working on the same issues get together face-to-face and exchange information on the state of the 'advancement of women' in their countries. NGOs are confronted by their differences as well as their similarities.

All things considered: no wonder the NGO ideas on how 'good' this Outcomes document is vary from issue to issue. As we go to print, supporters of lesbian and gay rights are hopeful the document will be the first UN document to specifically mention gay and lesbian rights. Amnesty International is concerned that a lack of language on human rights will be used by governments as an excuse for not further implementing the Platform for Action - even though the document recommits to the Beijing Platform for Action. There is a large section on HIV/AIDS and language has been added to address the needs of women with disabilities. There are paragraphs on promoting information programmes, including through the use of new technologies, and on compiling gender disaggregated statistics, including appropriate data collection for the benefit of indigenous women. That is the Outcome document as it stands on the 4th day of Review.

What Globalisation Brought to Women

by Lenka Simerska

Interview with Devaki Jain, Institute of Social Studies, New Delhi, India

Devaki Jain, 25 year veteran of UN Women's Conferences and feminist economist reflected on changes in the modality of women's conferences in her speech at the opening of the NGO UNGASS forum. WomenAction interviewed her.

The conference in Mexico was a women's movement lead conference; UNGASS is more government and UN lead. In her global view, the situation of women has worsened in the past 25 years; these is more poverty and violence than before. The UN documents say there was progress, that women's lives were improved, but it has never really been shown that the progress affected only the upper cluster of women. The impact of globalisation on women is segmented - it has its pluses and minuses. The plus impact was more on the upper cluster of the society. The unequality within the system created a lot of tension. There is so much violence against women and disregard for our bodies than there used to be. Partially because the whole society went through a shock of the disparity, some people became very rich, moving into the IT world of the new millenium. And the masses are feeling that their bread is being taken away.

She describes globalisation by the word ãregulation". She is using the regulation ãas a handle for expanding the space of social justice". The powerful institutions that are the main actors of globalisation like the World Bank, IMF, international financial institutions, the US private corporate sector and multinational companies, are now thinking that we must have some regulation. These institutions used to say: "deregulate, globalize, liberalize", now they propose new types of international financial architecture, new rules in WTO, new rules in international migration organisations. She suggests that feminists should take the word regulation instead of globalisation because it is used in many ways - globalisation of information and communication technologies is one thing, a positive one, globalisation of capitalism is quite a different thing and globalisation of labor is completely different; globalisation is not one item. She suggests that we as feminists focus on regulation within globalisation, we can design regulatory mechanisms to make sure that globalisation brings justice. What will these regulations be like? Financial management will become transparent, accountable, and reach our programs so that the poor can benefit. Not only business for higher and higher production.

Ms Jain describes UNGASS as a global women's event - an opportunity to globalise the women's movement. In spite of the fact that Devaki Jain is a strong oponent of globalisation, she can see great possibility for women in globalizing themselves. She says: ãThe environment of the global conferences allows us to meet women who think in similar ways. It is like when men meet and say âhi, I know you, why don't we make this new financial group'. We have set up a "men's club of women" here and we carry home new impulses, and commitments for cooperation."

To the question how can this global women's movement overcome the various differences she answers that across the differences we as women share one global identity. We have to point out the differences and the regional diversity, different class, political and economic context. But at the end of the day we can see oneness. There is something similar among us and we shouldn't abandon it because of our diversity. Because politically without unity we will never make it. She compares it to the black movement. If blacks in the USA say they are different from blacks in Africa, racism will never go away. Racism can only go, when they forget their differences and fight the racism whether it is in America, South Africa, whereever. Women should unite in one identity for their political negotiations. Only demands done on behalf of such united women can be heard and implemented We are asking for things as women. It is women's experience that builds the identity, different identity. The best example was the caucus on armed conflict. No matter where women came from (e.g. participants from Fiji, Afganistan, Sri-Lanka, Barma, East Timor were present), they all had the same thing to say: 75-80% of women raped, killed, mutilated and no help at all because the state is against them. Also the UN gives statistics, e.g. 80% of all refugees are women, 75% of all illiterate people are women. Isn't it a sense of identity, different from men, she asks. This is the first identity, then comes the different identities of women. If we deny the fact that women are different from men, we loose certain political capacity to fight for women. We would always have to say "I am fighting for Lithuanian or French or other women." It will not allow us to create a global space for women's rights.

Another issue of globalisation Devaki Jain points out is the link between culture and women. All nations are now saying that they are getting culturally colonized, there is the universal "Coca-Cola culture". As a reply to this, Africa is now having cultural rennaisance - celebrating African culture as a different one. But when nations start to accentuate their cultures it becomes very harmful to women. Across the borders, cultures are formed by tradition and traditions are oppressive to women. For women's rights to be implemented, we have to have a universal principal of rights. If we say that it has to be modified according to the cultural differences because for example Afghanistan is different from France, Afghan women will be the losers. We shouldn't be afraid to declare that there is a unity within diversity.

To the question of whether a global women's movement is possible she says: yes, yes, yes. But this global movement has to stand on social justice, not just on a definition of a woman. In our political standard, we are against political discrimination of every kind. We can be the greatest political force in the world. "You can feel the solidarity here at UNGASS", she says. "We are celebrating our unity not our differences." Intellectually, she says she understands the diversity, but in the physical presence she feels the excitement of oneness.

The cry of the excluded

Irene Leon and Sally Burch

The present global economic model, which certain governments at this assembly seem so keen to defend, has been implemented at the cost of dismantling common wealth, weakening social relations and disregarding the principle of solidarity in social services. Without these basic guarantees, millions of women lack the minimal means to survive with dignity.

This model has created conditions for massive poverty, pushes millions of women outside the formal economy and ignores their elemental rights as citizens. They are the excluded: women who, even when they have identification papers, carry on life as though they had none; women who give birth in the dirt, as though sexual and reproductive health policies were non-existent; women for whom human rights are mere rhetoric.

While the momentum of globalization is pushed by technology, the excluded invent instruments with tin cans, sticks and strings, so to scrape together a meager income, with scant opportunities to reach the market, and much less to reap the supposed benefits of globalization.

But exclusion does not occur only in the economic realm. It extends its tentacles via all forms of discrimination, such as gender, sexual orientation and racism. Migratory trends, spurred by globalization, are illustrative: some people, due simply to their origin, are regularly marginalized, even though they can earn a living. Here in the US, immigrants have held demonstrations to protest against racism, as one of the main causes of the exclusion they suffer. Similarly, women immigrants are often relegated to domestic or sexual work, neither of which offers perspectives of social promotion.

The UN Population Fund reports that migrant populations represent barely 2% of the world population and the monetary mass they transfer to their home countries totals only some 70 billion dollars. And yet legislation has been tightened in most countries, even for immigrants with legal status; while the "danger" of immigration has become a scapegoat for politicians seeking easy votes by exacerbating nationalist and xenophobic sentiments.

The "Cry of the Excluded" is a shout of indignation against injustice, through which organizations of excluded people seek to break their silence. Promoted by social and ecumenical movements from Latin America, its main expression this year will be on October 12. Through marches and public events, excluded women and men will give voice to their demand for economic justice and to their desire for a more equitable and inclusive future.

Staff: Dafne Sabanes Plou (editor), Sonja Boezak, Mavic Balleza, Irene Leon, Anne Walker, Lenka Simerska, Malin Bjork, Thais Aguilar, Sonia del Valle, Maria Eugenia Miranda, Cheekay Cinco
Translators: Sharon Hackett, Nicole Nepton, Roxanna Sooudi
Photographers: Lin Pugh, Anoma Rajakaruna, Maria Suarez
Design and layout: John Napolitano