*EPF411 03/02/00
Text: U.N. Commission Discusses How to Advance Status of Women
(Planning continues for major women's conference in June) (2550)

United Nations -- While their advances in the past decade have been noteworthy, women still face major problems in the home, marketplace and government, the head of the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) said February 29.

Participating in a discussion on women's efforts to reach equality since the 1995 International Women's Conference in Beijing, UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer said that "we still live in a world in which more women of reproductive age die from domestic violence than of cancer, where women and girls continue to comprise the majority of the world's 1.3 billion absolute poor, and where women's participation in parliaments and legislatures continues to hover at around 13 percent worldwide."

The Commission on the Status of Women is holding its annual session at U.N. headquarters February 28 to March 17 to review the progress of women since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and to plan for a special session of the General Assembly in June entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the 21st Century." The commission is hearing from a variety of people including Heyzer; Angela King, assistant secretary general and special adviser to the U.N. Secretary General on gender issues and the advancement of women; representatives of non-governmental organizations, and delegations of women representing regional groups of nations.

Heyzer said that women's status must be evaluated taking into account "context, accountability, challenges, and commitment."

"Our world is shaped by three major phenomena: economic globalization, fragmentation, and problems without borders -- all three having major consequences for women's lives," she said.

Heyzer noted that:

-- many women experience globalization not as an agent of progress but as a force creating or deepening existing inequalities;

-- with more intra-state wars today than any time in history, the social fabric in many countries is disintegrating leading to increasing violence against women and girls;

-- along with globalization has come a rise in the trafficking in women and children, drug trafficking, and the continuing spread of HIV/AIDS;

-- advancement targets must be explicitly linked to the promotion and protection of women's human rights;

-- none of the plans for action have contained sufficient targets and benchmarks to provide for greater accountability; and

-- goals for gender equality, development and peace must fit together to ensure that all are achievable and sustainable.

"A rights-based approach to women's empowerment and gender equality means that we must simultaneously address the micro, meso, and macro levels which interact with each other," Heyzer said. "We have heard, time after time, of gender equality legislation being enacted but without the commitment to guarantee enforcement. We have heard, time after time, of gender equality policies being established without the resources needed to implement them..."

The UNIFEM director also noted that a report called "Progress of the World's Women" will be released in June. It will identify approaches to achieving and assessing progress as well as point to the challenges and gaps in measuring how far women have advanced in different areas. There will also be a special focus on women's economic rights.

U.N. Under Secretary General King highlighted for the commission areas of progress: women are living longer and are generally healthier; they have greater access to nutrition, and higher employment. More girls are being educated and there has been increasing recognition of women's human rights.

On the negative side, the Undersecretary General said, poverty among women has deepened and violence against them, especially in the home, has increased.

Women's' health needs separate from men have not been sufficiently considered and girls attending school are still the first to be pulled out in times of crisis.

Women's work outside the home also still tends to be more part-time, informal, unregulated, and unstable, she said.

Following is the UNIFEM text of Heyzer's remarks:

(begin text)

ACCOUNTABILITY AND COMMITMENT: CHALLENGES IN ACHIEVING GENDER EQUALITY

Presentation by Dr. Noeleen Heyzer
Executive Director, UNIFEM

To the 44th session of the Commission on the Status of Women
New York, 29 February 2000

Distinguished delegates, Colleagues and Mends.

I want to express my thanks, on behalf of all at UNIFEM, for the opportunity to address the Commission on the Status of Women as it prepares to finalize the documentation and agenda for the five-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action. The PFA is one of a number of global agreements that form the cornerstone of UNIFEM's work in supporting women's economic and political empowerment and gender equality. The progress that we, as a global community, make in transforming those agreements into realities for millions of women and girls worldwide is the test and measure of our effectiveness and commitment to social and economic justice.

Starting with Ms. King's message yesterday, and subsequently, we have heard many examples of the progress achieved since Beijing in countries worldwide. Within the U.N. system, as well, we see signs of progress. For instance, within the U.N. Resident Coordinator system, there are now at least 58 countries in which inter-agency thematic groups on gender have become operational.

While advances are noteworthy, we still live in a world in which more women of reproductive age die from domestic violence than of cancer, where women and girls continue to comprise the majority of the world's 1.3 billion absolute poor, and where women's participation in parliaments and legislatures continues to hover at around 13% worldwide, despite global agreements in the PFA to achieve 30% participation.

As a global community, we are in the process of reviewing how far we have come and how far we have to go in achieving the far-reaching and necessary agenda for gender equality. Today, in my presentation to you, I would like to focus on four themes: context, accountability, challenges and commitment.

1. Context

What is the context in which we approach this review? Our world is shaped by three major phenomena: economic globalization, fragmentation, and problems without borders -- all three having major consequences for women's lives and all directly relevant to our discussions on how to achieve gender equality.

i) Economic globalization consists of finance, trade, investment and technology. As it currently exists, economic globalization can be seen as a restructuring of rights, and the restructuring of relationships between monetized and non- monetized sectors of the economy. The Asian crisis and the WTO negotiations in particular have brought problems of globalization to the forefront of public debate. Many women experience globalization not as an agent of progress but as a force creating or deepening existing inequalities in the distribution of opportunities and resources.

There is a pressing need to assist countries to develop new frameworks that transform globalization to become pro-poor and pro-women, a globalization that is more socially accountable. In doing so, we need to explore the possibilities for connecting women and markets worldwide through the democratization of information and communication technologies and policies.

ii) Fragmentation - A parallel process to globalization is fragmentation along lines of ethnicity, language and religion. There are more intra-state wars and conflicts today than at any time in human history. The social fabric in many countries is disintegrating, leading to increasing violence against women and girls. The use of gender-based violence, including rape and forced pregnancy, is increasingly a horrifying feature of war in ethnic conflicts.

These increasing political and social complexities call for effective interventions in the area of peace building, conflict resolution, building common ground between civil societies and states, the U.N. system, and business communities. We need to help to rebuild institutions and capacities, and bring international agreements and treaties to bear upon the operation of economic and political systems. Women have a critical role to play in all of these.

iii) Problems without borders - Along with economic globalization and fragmentation, the world has seen a rise in problems that know no borders. These include the globalization of criminal networks, the trafficking in women and children, drug trafficking and the arms trade. In addition, we are today facing a rise in global environmental problems, as well as the continuing spread of HIV/AIDS, a disease which has decimated entire communities, taking their productive members and leaving behind AIDS orphans in the care of the very old.

The challenge is to move away from ccompetitive and short-term self-interests, to a larger and long-term common good that is sustainable and equitable for all.

2. Accountability

With regard to my second theme -- accountability -- we have an important opportunity, as we approach this five-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action, to add strength to the agenda for women's equality. It has been widely acknowledged that the PFA and the programmes of action from other world conferences offer a resounding endorsement of the need for gender justice and equality. Yet, none of the documents have contained sufficient targets and benchmarks to provide guidance and impetus for greater accountability. We have agreed to a path, but have neglected to create the road signs and maps that let us know how far we have come in our journey and how far we have to go.

There are a number of notable efforts which have taken place nationally, regionally and globally to lay the foundation for more gender-accountable implementation of U.N. world conference agreements. In preparation for Beijing Plus 5, UNIFEM is preparing a now biennial report called "Progress of the World's Women," which will identify innovative approaches to achieving and assessing progress, as well as point to the challenges and gaps in measuring how far we have come in different thematic areas. Progress will be launched in June and the first edition will have a special focus on women's economic rights. Some of the initial findings from Progress may be useful in helping us to think about stronger accountability mechanisms. We urge you to join us at a lunchtime panel on March 7 that will feature an initial discussion of the kinds of targets and measures that may be of use.

What can we achieve through this review process?

First, we need to track progress on the few gender equality targets that the global community has already articulated.

Secondly, we need to ensure that gender is taken into account in other time-bound targets made by the global community.

Third, we have an opportunity to further elaborate national, regional, and global accountability mechanisms that will facilitate the next review of progress in achieving gender equality. In considering what kinds of accountability mechanisms we can put into place, it would be important to build upon the outcomes of all of the regional preparatory meetings and world conferences that have taken place and the capacities of governments to collect and analyze data. The majority of targets that do exist relate to the health and education of women and girls. We are sorely in need of targets and indicators that help us to assess the extent of women's economic empowerment and rights.

Fourth, we need to ensure that where we establish targets, we do so in a way that promotes rather than impedes gender equality. For example, it is important that strategies to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty do not simply focus on policies to increase the incomes of the poor without regard for the conditions under which they earn their income. Targets must be explicitly linked to the promotion and protection of women's human rights.

Finally, we need to incorporate strategies to sustain gains. Sustaining progress requires wider systemic changes and not just a momentary inflow of resources directed towards a particular target. A sustainable commitment to gender-accountable development means that gender audits and analysis must be institutionalized in the way that data are collected, analyzed and complied.

3. Challenge

To be truly useful, the process leading to the five-year review must go beyond simply measuring achievements and gaps. The challenge that we face is to build on the plethora of good practices and advances that have been made in communities and countries worldwide, focusing on those that have generated significant benefits towards women's empowerment. In an era of problems without borders, we should also be able to conceive solutions without borders. Successful strategies need investments that will allow us to scale up, replicate, and turn innovations into standard practices.

Last year, around this time, UNIFEM led an inter-agency initiative to host a global videoconference, A World Free of Violence against Women. The message of that videoconference was simple, yet powerful. The many women and men who appeared in the videoconference pointed out that effective strategies to end gender-based violence were being implemented in countries and communities worldwide. What we need are the political will and resources necessary to make these strategies accessible to every community, to make it possible for girls and women everywhere to live lives free from violence, poverty and inequality.

We need to build on successful strategies and take note of lessons learned. UNIFEM is fortunate to be part of a growing network -- involving governments, multilateral organizations, NGOs and women's networks -- that is engaged on a daily basis in generating innovations, lessons, and knowledge about the many paths toward gender equality in its thematic areas which include building women's economic capacities and rights, engendering governance and leadership, promoting women's human rights and eliminating violence against women and girls.

4. Commitment

It is noteworthy that the language and principles of rights now permeates our discussions. A rights-based approach to women's empowerment and gender equality means that we must simultaneously address the micro, meso and macro levels, which interact with each other. We have heard, time after time, of gender equality legislation being enacted, but without the commitment to guarantee enforcement. We have heard, time after time, of gender equality policies being established without the resources needed to implement them. We have heard, time after time, of gender specialists and advisors being appointed to support institutional policies for gender equality, but the capacities and multiple demands placed on these individuals and units fail to provide adequate structural support to assist them in meeting expectations. What we need are holistic responses. Like pieces of a puzzle, we must work on fitting all of these together if gender equality, development and peace are to become achievable and sustainable goals.

As we meet, now, to assess progress and gaps, we need to be thinking about future reviews and what measures we will use to judge how far we have come in achieving gender equality. We need, as well, to link our efforts here to the initiatives being undertaken to assess progress made in implementing plans and programmes of action from other world conferences, including Vienna, Cairo and Copenhagen.

The upcoming Special Session in June 2000 will be an important event. But positive change toward gender equality will result only if the preparatory process and the follow up that it generates expand the numbers and commitment of people who are working toward the goals of the Beijing Platform for Action. When we gather again, our commitment will be measured not by our words and speeches but by the results that we achieve.

Thank you.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)
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