*EPF419 03/16/00
U.S. Delegation Looks to Women 2000 Conference
(Tarr-Whelan outlines women's achievements, next goals) (1290)
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- At the international women's conference -- officially called "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century" -- in June, attendees will be able to celebrate progress on many issues that have bettered the lives of millions of women and their families, as well as renew commitments to press for still needed changes, according to U.S. Ambassador Linda Tarr-Whelan, currently chair of the official U.S. delegation to the conference.

Thousands of women and men are expected to gather at United Nations headquarters in New York the week of June 5-9 to review the progress made on the goals set out by 189 nations at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Those visionary goals, compiled in a "Plan of Action," are to be implemented by governments, organizations and individuals in order to empower women and to improve the lives and well-being of women and girls around the world.

Documents for the special session will be a declaration giving an overview of the achievements made toward achieving women's full human rights and equality with men, outlining what the obstacles are, and defining what actions are needed to further implement the objectives in 12 critical areas that range from poverty and health to the environment and human rights.

"There are really many things over the last five years that are worth celebrating" including constitutional changes in many countries, the problem of violence against women becoming more visible, and an awareness of the problems of HIV/AIDS for women, Tarr-Whelan said in an interview with The Washington File March 15.

The ambassador said that in the five years since Beijing the changes are occurring much, much faster than in the years after the first women's conference -- the UN World Conference on the International Women's Year in Mexico City in 1975. At that time delegates from 133 countries adopted the first pact, or "Plan of Action," on what should be done to improve the condition of women.

"If we look back all the way to 25 years ago to Mexico City and think from there forward we can see this inexorable movement that has really moved much faster since we were all in Beijing," the ambassador said.

One reason to celebrate is that "constitutional change has happened in a large number of countries," she said. "Women are now being written into the constitution and laws are then being repealed that used to overtly discriminate against women."

A second area to celebrate is "that the question of violence against women has changed in dimension," Tarr-Whelan said. "First of all, it is much more visible to everybody and we've begun to talk about how do we stop or eradicate this violence rather than how to simply take care of the victims."

"In fact, the terminology is even changing so the victims are thinking of themselves as 'survivors' and we're talking about 'preventing violence.' A very major change," she said.

The issue has been one of the main areas of concern for the U.S. delegation. U.S. representatives in Beijing and at the 1985 World Conference on Women in Nairobi were in the forefront in pushing the problem to the top of the international agenda.

Tarr-Whelan said that violence against women will again be one of the key issues for the U.S. 2000 delegation. This time there will be special emphasis on the trafficking in women and girls as a critical problem.

"Within the violence area, we really think trafficking is a very important issue. We are very involved here and in a lot of other areas on the elimination of trafficking in all its forms whether it is for sexual exploitation or economic exploitation," she said.

A third area for celebration is the attention being given to women and AIDS. "It is really new and, unfortunately, overdue," the ambassador said.

The fact that the majority of newly HIV-infected people are women is now recognized and discussions are centering on "what this means in terms of everything from education to treatment to discrimination," she said. "This is important."

Tarr-Whelan said that the number of private, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) "holding their governments accountable" is growing and that is another reason to celebrate during the conference in New York this June.

"Rather than thinking of women only fighting for their own rights or their own freedom, the switch in Beijing is that governments must be held accountable for the human rights of women. So women are fighting to keep them accountable," she said.

"That's different," the ambassador explained, "because it doesn't mean that women are fighting by themselves, it means that they are holding governments accountable to protect the human rights of women. That's very new since Beijing."

But there are some areas where little progress has been made, Tarr-Whelan also pointed out.

In the past five years, "poverty among women has deepened," she said. "It has not gotten better and in some regions of the world it has considerably worsened."

"Secondly, there is very much a patchwork quilt on women's political participation," the ambassador said. "In many regions of the world women's political participation has improved, but there are some dramatic exceptions to that, particularly in central and Eastern Europe."

"Third, the arenas that relate to the economy, particularly issues such as trade, still don't hear women's voices very often or very loudly," Tarr-Whelan said.

"Those arenas have become very important in the last five years. So you'll hear lots of discussion at the conference on how the concerns and needs of women will actually be brought into those questions and decisions whether it's at the WTO (World Trade Organization) or regional economic organizations," she said.

Women in the economy will also be an area that will be getting a lot of attention from the U.S. delegation, the ambassador said.

The U.S. delegation will be emphasizing that women must be included in a wider spectrum of the economy, "so that we see women not just as victims but as important economic players," Tarr-Whelan said.

The U.S. wants to see the conference's goals address "entrepreneurship and enterprise development as well as improvements in the workplace -- getting rid of the glass ceiling...women all through the economy: decision-making, jobs, and owning their own business, rather than a much more narrow view," the ambassador said.

The U.S. delegation also wants to make sure that strong emphasis is placed on women's access to health care and control over health issues, especially family planning, she said.

Tarr-Whelan is the U.S. ambassador to the UN Commission on the Status of Women and is the president and chair of the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a Washington-based bi-partisan group working on innovative ideas and preparing a new generation of women leaders in the 50 United States.

The ambassador was an official delegate to the Women's Conference in Beijing and has been a powerful advocate for women and NGO organizations at the UN. She began her advocacy for women's equality as a co-founder of the Coalition of Labor Union Women and founder of the Center for Women in Government. The creator of CPA's research on women in the economy, Tarr-Whelan was the catalyst for the joint CPA/White House Women's Economic Summit in 1997 and the Downing Street Women and the Economy Summit in London in 1999.

She has edited three books, the most recent being "A Matter of Simple Justice: Women's Rights are Human Rights."

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)
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