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Women's One World

Beijing: Spirit of Sisterhood Prevails

By Marcia L. Mason

"They [China] will never get another international conference!"

With these words, Betty Friedan-godmother of America's modern women's liberation movement-expressed the exasperation felt by the 30,000 delegates attending the nongovernmental conclave in the remote suburb of Huairou as the U.N. World Conference on Women came to an end. As one U.S. woman attending the NGO forum said, "If 30,000 men got together to have an economic summit, it would not be in a muddy field with tents."

According to forum organizers, the surveillance and control tactics of the Chinese authorities violated U.N. rules. The NGO forum was U.N.-sponsored, so the 100-acre grounds where it was held was supposed to be a free-speech zone where people from around the globe could freely exchange views and ideas.

Security also had been strict at the U.N. World Conference on Women, held in Beijing with 5200 delegates in attendance. To make sure no conference material on women's issues was being disseminated, police conducted periodic sweeps of Beijing hotels.

China's surly treatment of guests from 189 countries-manifested in the denial of more than 10,000 visas; inadequate and inaccessible facilities; and intimidation by ever-present security guards-failed to daunt the solidarity and spirit of sisterhood.

Undergirding this connectedness was Hillary Rodham Clinton's ringing denunciation of sexist abuse and discrimination, both in their universal forms and in their specific manifestations at the conference. She spoke out against the host country's behavior in a way that U.N. organizers could not. "It is indefensible that many women in nongovernmental organizations who wished to participate in this conference have not been able to attend or have been prohibited from fully taking part...."

Clinton's theme-"women's rights are human rights"-summed up the grievances that delegates had about their treatment at the conference. "Let me be clear," she said. "Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize and debate openly. It means respecting the views of those who may disagree with the views of their governments."

As a world citizen, I am outraged that such an important, well-planned women's conference was so successfully sabotaged. I'm equally outraged that there is no world law or world court that could stop the subversion.

The Chinese government's strategy of "divide and conquer" certainly succeeded in affecting the results and controlling the participants. Right from the beginning of this year, the communist authorities showed their intentions by violating their contractual agreements in moving the NGO Forum from Beijing. They followed that by violating the human rights of visa applicants and, later, the conferees themselves throughout the entire 10 days. There was no way to stop them-and they knew it! As the Bosnian Serbs know it, as all governments violating human rights know it. The U.N., the participating nations, everyone connected with the conference-all were helpless in the face of these actions.

Where were the voices of world citizens during this time? Where were the voices upholding the citizen's sovereignty? Did those voices belong to those denied visas?

Key Points From Women's Conference

The goal of the conference was to reach consensus for a "document for the next century"-a Platform for Action.

An excerpt from the final declaration of the Fourth World Conference on Women was carried in the New York Times for September 15:

"The objective of the platform of action, which is in full conformity with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, is the empowerment of all women. The full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of all women is essential for the empowerment of women.

While the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of states, regardless of their political, economic, and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The implementation of this platform, including through national law and the formulation of strategies, policies, programs and development priorities, is the sovereign responsibility of each state in conformity with all human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the significance of and full respect for various religious and ethical values, cultural backgrounds and philosophical convictions of individuals and their communities should contribute to the full enjoyment by women of their human rights in order to achieve equality, development and peace.

Key Provisions

This is a good platform and probably the best the conferees could do under the circumstances. Weaknesses are evident, however, even in this excerpt.

Glaringly, the writers of the Declaration once again naively assume that nation-states will do the right thing. History has shown that power is reluctant to grant anything to those it considers "lesser than." And if, out of self-interest, it does do so, then at any time it wishes, the grant can be canceled.

A second point is that hundreds of treaties, conventions, and documents have been written on human rights-including the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" (the underpinning of the World Government of World Citizens)-and agreed to by the nations of the world. Have the nations complied? Amnesty International reminds us frequently of the who-what-when-where of the many nations that are brutally violating these rights. And they do so with impunity because there is no punishment of violations.

My third point refers to the key provision, "Violence Against Women." Again, a document important to all women-the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women-was signed by every nation in 1979, and ratified by over 146 nations of the world (not including, however, the U.S., Israel, and some Muslim nations). China was one of the early ratifiers, yet it continues to abuse women and violate their human rights.

And so, the question arises, what will "encourage" nations to comply? As world citizens, we know it is world law and the enforcement of that law through world courts.

(For excerpts from talks by Aung San Suu Kyi and Winona LaDuke, see page 14.)

Marcia L. Mason is a feminist, Quaker, peace activist, world citizen, and World Syntegrity Project alumna who lives in Burlington, Vermont.


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