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Our office is working with many partners to assist Asia Pacific women in the Beijing+5 Review Process which culminates in Women 2000. This page has either a full report of each activity, or a summary and perhaps a pointer to more information. Contents
Preparations for NGO Symposium and High Level MeetingAWORC WENT'99: we part-supported this workshop during which the Asian Women's Resource Exchange, AWORC, trained 23 participants in basic Web site development and other Internet-based group communications so that women's organisations can use electronic communications effectively to disseminate information on the Beijing+5 review process. AWORC's web site also has a report at http://www.jca.apc.org/aworc/went99/index.html then click on GUESTS Brokering support: in May 1999 UNIFEM convened a meeting of the Gender, Women and Development Working Group (GWAD) to lobby for donor and agency support for NGO and government preparations for the Beijing+5 process. Pacific sub-regional Meeting: during July Lorraine Corner, our Regional Programme Adviser, was able to share with the Pacific participants a broader regional perspective in a brief address. The meeting was held in Sydney. The Conference Report with links to other materials about the Conference is at http://www.nwjc.org.au/conferencereport.html. ESCAP-NGO informal meeting: in July, 1999 Lorraine met with the Executive Director of ESCAP, Mr Adrianus Mooy, Chief of the ESCAP Women in Development Unit Ms Thelma Kay, and NGO representatives Thanpuying Sumalee and Dr Chaisakran of Thai Women Watch to discuss arrangements for NGO participation in the High Level Intergovernmental Meeting, October 1999.
Asia-Pacific NGO symposium
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| H.E. Kunying Supatra Masdit |
The High Level Meeting was a major event, attended by about 400 persons comprising delegations from 60 full and associate members of ESCAP, several observers, a variety of UN agencies and about 200 non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The meeting was noteworthy for the active participation of the NGOs who received excellent support from the hosts, ESCAP. The opening was attended by Mr. Adrianus Mooy, Executive Secretary of ESCAP, Ms. Carolyn Hannan of the UN Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, and H.E. Kunying Supatra Masdit, Minister to the Prime Minister's Office in the Royal Government of Thailand.
UNIFEM had a considerable presence, headed by the Chief of the Asia-Pacific Geographic Section Ms. Kunzang Chungyalpa and her three Regional Programme Advisers, Lorraine Corner, Chandni Joshi and Laufitu Taylor, along with Shoko Ishikawa and Susana Fried from the New York office, Tauga Vulaono from the Pacific office, and all the Bangkok office staff. Kunzang led from the front by presenting UNIFEM's position during the session devoted to statements from delegations. Her presence and presentation at the Meeting resulted in many benefits for UNIFEM. It showed our commitment to the region, and it gave Kunzang an opportunity to meet and talk with many of the delegates.
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| Lorraine, Susana Fried (from New York), Amalin, and Suzette (Viet Nam) in a plenary session. |
Delegations noted a variety of common concerns and strategies. Among the most frequently mentioned issues were:
- Violence against women (including trafficking, violence against migrant women workers, violence against girls) as a key issue for legislation, policy and public awareness raising;
- Globalization as the central economic framework in which governments are working with double-edged implications for the status and empowerment of women. In particular, most delegations placed their assessment within the context of economic crisis or economic transition, and reported on the particularly negative consequences for women;
- Intra-state conflict as a growing pattern needing attention;
- Human rights as a central policy framework, as indicated through ratification of international human rights treaties (in particular, CEDAW and CRC, although a number of delegations noted ratification of other human rights treaties), and efforts to integrate these into domestic legislation;
- Microcredit and small loan schemes as the cornerstone of strategies to address the worst forms of women’s poverty, including through the creation of national women’s banks, assistance to women entrepreneurs in exporting their products, the creation of mutual assistance projects, among others;
- Women’s political participation as a key element of women’s empowerment. Many delegations reported on the rise in women in public office, and at the same time most noted the need for more work in this area, including through leadership training, the implementation of quota systems, and other affirmative action measures;
- Education and literacy. The reduction of women’s illiteracy was a central concern for a number of delegations, as was equal primary education for girls.
- Girls. A number of delegations noted that empowerment and equality for girls, in terms of education, training and health care in particular, required more sustained attention.
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| Empower is one of UNIFEM's partner NGOs |
NGOs, several supported by UNIFEM, participated actively in the meeting. They came well-prepared, having held an NGO Symposium a month earlier. The day before the ESCAP Meeting began, Asia Pacific Women Law and Development (APWLD) conducted training in lobbying, focused on the Meeting. During the Meeting, NGOs met at 8 am each day for a briefing. They formed working groups for each agenda item, and prepared statements for presentation and distribution. Many NGOs had the opportunity to make oral presentations during the sessions, and the NGO Working Groups were each able to contribute. During the Meeting, the NGOs set up a steering committee to continue regional collaboration through the UN Special Session and, perhaps, beyond.
Generally NGO statements emphasized; the negative consequences for women of globalization, the importance of ensuring women’s human rights in all aspects, the protection of women from all forms of violence, the inclusion of women in peace and conflict resolution efforts, ensuring women’s participation in politics and all decision-making processes, securing women’s health through a rights-based approach, and a commitment by governments to mainstreaming gender and women into all policies and programmes.
The Pacific Islands Group made a strong statement (the main points of which were reiterated by the member delegations of the Group) calling for inclusion of “hard” issues often not considered women’s or gender issues, such as: the dangers of nuclearization, and in particular, transboundary shipments of hazardous materials; environmental degradation; intellectual property rights; militarization; self-determination for colonized peoples; and a strong call for open NGO participation in the Beijing review.
Our own Regional Programme Adviser, Lorraine Corner, presented a background paper Capacity Building for Gender Mainstreaming and was a panelist in the session Strategies for empowerment of women. The South Asia RPA, Chandni Joshi was very active and successful in ensuring that the Meeting's Final Report contained several articles important to UNIFEM. Laufitu Taylor, the UNIFEM Pacific RPA, facilitated daily session of the Pacific Caucus which brough together government and NGO representatives from Fiji, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands. Fitu also assisted several delegation with their country statements.
UNIFEM was very active in three lunch-time panels on Women's Unpaid Work, Advocating Gender-sensitive Media Codes of Conduct and SAARC Women for Peace.
We are indebted to Susana Fried's comprehensive report of the meeting for much of the foregoing.
On the eve of the meeting, the official delegations from Viet Nam, Lao PDR, and Cambodia met over a UNIFEM-hosted dinner to discuss key issues of concern to their subregion. They focussed on the national machineries for the advancement of women, Beijing +5 National Reports and their preparation, and gender mainstreaming in national policy. This was the first time that delegations from these countries had come together informally at a regional event to discuss women’s issues and their participation in the larger meeting. The full account of this meeting makes interesting reading.
The event was the inspiration of the UN Volunteer Gender Specialists, Suzette Mitchell based in Hanoi Viet Nam, Jyotsna Roy based in Phnom Penh Cambodia and Titta Maja based in Vientiane Lao PDR. Congratulations to them all on a brilliant idea and a very successful event!
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Our multi-media exhibition provided a great
contribution to UNIFEM's presence at the Meeting. The main feature was
a giant video wall, flanked by an informative and attractive panel
display, a poster display, a computer display of UNIFEM and partner
web sites, and a publications table. This was visible from all over
the Conference Centre lobby and - importantly! - from the upper floor
adjacent to the refreshment counter. Participants' comments showed
that the exhibition emphasised that UNIFEM was an active, determined
and professional player in promoting women. The exhibition was so successful that we have given it its own page. |
Our Office also supported the Meeting by funding:
- travel of 2 participants from Cambodia, 7 from Lao PDR, 2 from Mongolian NGOs and one from National Committee for the Advancement of Women, Viet Nam. After the Meeting, we collected very positive comments from several.
- together with UNDP, the Center for Asia-Pacifc Women in Politics (CAPWIP) paper Issues in Women’s Political Empowerment in the Asia-Pacific Region, presented in the session Political empowerment of women by CAPWIP's Executive Director, Ms Rosa Linda Tidalgo-Miranda
- ISIS-Manila to train members of women’s NGO’s on news coverage and reportage while influencing mainstream media and ensuring coverage of the Meeting and of the entire Beijing Platform for Action review process. The report on this training shows that it was a very successful exercise.
ESCAP's web site has the background to the High Level Meeting at http://www.unescap.org/wid/
UNIFEM's Headquarters site in New York has a page pointing to many of the press releases for the Meeting at http://www.unifem.undp.org/beijing+5/asia/escap.html.
Related Events
UNIFEM E&SEARO provided some support to the 1999 Seoul International Conference of NGOs titled The Role of NGOs in the 21st Century, held on 10-16 Oct 1999 at Olympic Park, Seoul, Republic of Korea. UNIFEM:
- funded travel of Ms. Shanthi Dairiam, Director of IWRAW Asia Pacific (Malaysia) to participate in a UNIFEM panel on the topic of Human Rights/Violence Against women: and
- funded some costs of the exhibit and travel of 2 people from the Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW), Malaysia.
Project proposals: throughout 1999 this office has supported Thai and regional women's NGOS in seeking funding for the Beijing+5 process.
More UNIFEM Activities, and other sites
The UNIFEM Headquarters Beijing+5 section includes UNIFEM activities from around the world, a list of other relevant web sites, and background materials.
AWORC's page that leads into both the NGO Symposium and the Intergovernmental Meeting is at http://www.jca.apc.org/aworc/bpfa/index.html. This site is particularly interesting as it provides alternative reports from women's NGOs on the implementation of the BPFA in the Asia Pacific region.
Women Watch plays a major role in monitoring the Beijing+5 Review Process, and maintains a web site at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/followup/beijing5/index.html.
WomenAsia.com has a SEAWatch page "to serve as an informal regional network of individuals and agencies which will facilitate monitoring of the implementation of the BPFA from a women's perspective in the Southeast Asian region" at http://206.54.54.11/seawatch/index.html
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