Press
Release ECE/GEN/00/4
Geneva, 19 January 2000
ECE REGIONAL SESSION ON 2000 REVIEW OF
BEIJING PLATFORM FOR ACTION BEGINS;
PANEL DISCUSSES WOMEN AND THE ECONOMY
Numerous Opening Statements
Call for Economic Equality, Elimination of
Violence against Women
Picture - 1 Picture - 2 Picture
- 3 Picture - 4 Picture - 5 Picture
- 6 Picture - 7
A regional preparatory meeting for the
United Nations 2000 Review of the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action on
gender equality opened this morning with a series of statements calling for greater action
to spur women's economic progress in Europe and to end gender-based violence.
The session, sponsored by the Economic
Commission for Europe (ECE), the United Nations Development Programme, UNIFEM, the
Council of Europe, and the European Commission, will continue through Friday. Its purpose
is to provide European input for a special session of the United Nations General Assembly
entitled "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First
Century" to be held in June in New York. The General Assembly gathering will
focus on progress made in the wake of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing
five years ago.
Making introductory statements this
morning were Chairperson Patricia Flor of Germany; Danuta Huebner, Deputy Executive Secretary of
the ECE, reading a statement by Angela King, United Nations Special Adviser on Gender
Issues and Advancement of Women; Yakin Erturk,
Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women; Anna Diamentopoulou, Commissioner for Social
Affairs of the European Commission; Odile
Sorgho-Moulinier, Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Office
in Geneva; Noleen Heyzer, Executive Director of
UNIFEM; Pierre-Henri Imbert, Director-General
for Human Rights of the Council of Europe; Renate Bloem,
of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women; and Yves
Berthelot, Executive Secretary of the ECE.
Mr. Berthelot said he hoped the efforts
made over the next three days would encourage everyone to shoulder real commitments and
would discourage any false pretenses. Progress had been made, he said, but it had been too
modest while some problems were reaching worrying proportions. Economic progress for women
had been scant, he said, and in many cases, such as in countries with economies in
transition, there had not been progress but the opposite.
The issue of violence against women was
mentioned repeatedly and universally condemned as unacceptable and requiring immediate,
effective, and high-priority response from Governments and the international community.
Ms. Heyzer told the gathering that more women died of domestic violence than died of
cancer.
A panel discussion then began on the topic
of "Women and the economy". Members of the panel were Sheila Regehr, Economic
Policy Coordinator for Status of Women of Canada; Eva Zimny, Associate Professor at the
Warsaw School of Economics, of Poland; and Oksana Kisselyova, of "Mama '86", of
Ukraine. Following their introductory statements, questions from the floor were requested
for the afternoon session, beginning at 3.
At the beginning of the meeting, officers
for the regional preparatory meeting were elected. Chosen Chairperson was Ms. Flor;
Vice-chairpersons were Rusudan Beritze (Georgia); Dunja Pastizzi Ferencic (Croatia);
Patricia Schultz (Switzerland); and Linda Tarr Whelan (United States).
The preparatory meeting will reconvene at
3 p.m. The panel discussion on women and the economy will continue throughout the whole
afternoon session.
Introductory statements
PATRICIA FLOR (Germany),
Chairperson, said the intent of the meeting was to make a regional contribution to the
implementation and follow-up to the plan of action of the Fourth World Conference on
Women; this was a chance to look at some of the crucial questions on the matter -- did
everyone know more than they did in 1995 regarding the challenges women faced? Had better
solutions been found, or could everyone at least agree on better approaches to find such
solutions? Stock-taking was required; also it was necessary to provide a regional
perspective from Europe to the global follow-up to be held by the General Assembly in June
in New York. It was furthermore important to discuss how to cooperate across borders, and
between transition economies and other European economies; and to look at the division of
labour between Government and civil society in the common endeavour to ensure gender
equality. She hoped for a sound final-outcome document when the preparatory meeting
concluded on Friday.
DANUTA HUEBNER, Deputy Executive Secretary
of the ECE, read a statement by Angela King, United Nations Special Adviser on Gender
Issues and Advancement of Women, saying the Special Session of the General Assembly on
Women 2000 was less than five months away; much remained to be done; the process of review
and appraisal of the five-year follow-up to the Beijing Platform for Action was
many-faceted. A comprehensive analysis was needed of information provided by many member
States on efforts to achieve gender equality; much progress had been made in most European
countries in meeting the platform's strategic objectives: most women in these countries
now lived longer, had greater institutional power, and participated more in decisions
affecting them and in society at large. There also were many challenges to women in Europe
in coping with such matters as violence against women and in coping with economic equality
and economic transition. A gender perspective had to be integrated into all programmes and
policies.
YAKIN ERTURK, Director of the Division for
the Advancement of Women, said the regional preparatory meetings would broaden everyone's
understanding of the achievements and problems encountered in implementing the Platform of
Action of the Beijing Women's Conference five years ago. Some 135 reports had been
submitted by member States and observers on implementation of the Platform; the reports
revealed that profound changes had occurred: laws had been changed, knowledge generated
and disseminated, and new modes of resource allocation developed in response to the
recommendations of the Platform, even if such allocations generally lagged behind what was
needed.
Still, in most countries the
representation of women in decision-making structures remained low; even in Europe, where
a critical mass had in some cases been reached for women in public-sector positions, women
were woefully underrepresented on the boards of major private corporations. Rising
transboundary economic activity raised new challenges and opportunities for women; there
was need to focus on the mobilization of young women and men who would be the leaders of
tomorrow; and traditional perceptions and stereotypes had to be changed in relation to
gender -- old preconceptions were repeatedly cited in national reports as problems
blocking implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action. Gender analysis of budgets,
including national budgets, needed to be carried out so that the true state of gender
equality could be determined.
ANNA DIAMENTOPOULOU, European Commissioner
for Social Affairs, said the meeting could make an important contribution to the Special
Session of the General Assembly. The Beijing Platform for Action had been the culmination
of an intensive consultation process; now it was time to take stock -- to evaluate
progress, to renew commitments, and to intensify efforts to implement the Platform.
Women's lives had improved over the past five years in Europe; but, as with all nations,
there were many aspects of the Platform that had yet to be implemented. There were still
discrepancies between men and women in such major areas as employment, health and human
rights.
Problems had to be identified in a
quantifiable way, and efforts to rectify them had to be intensified. New "tools"
were available, such as the recent step taken by the European Commission to publish annual
assessments on gender advancement, using comparable statistics -- these figures were now
telling a consistent story: that women were underrepresented in all significant fields,
and especially in high-level decision-making positions. Indicators and targets were
necessary to tackle this inequality and to train a clear spotlight on the situation in
five years' time. Another serious matter that needed attention was physical violence
against women -- and yet this extremely serious problem, which was found throughout the
countries of the region, was understudied; reliable statistics simply had to be developed
on violence against women. It was a sad fact that current policies could not reflect the
root causes of such violence; new and better approaches were needed. The Beijing Platform
did not need to be changed; rather better and more intensive efforts were needed to
implement it.
SORGHO MOULINIER, Director of the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Office in Geneva, reading a statement from UNDP
Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, said UNDP and UNIFEM were co-sponsoring the meeting; a
major focus was the gender issues facing the transition countries and the nations making
up the Commonwealth of Independent States; UNDP had numerous programmes under way in these
regions and was wholly engaged with gender-equality matters in such regions as Eastern
Europe.
Powerful engines were available within
UNDP to promote gender-mainstreaming activities; internal gender advocates were creative
and dedicated, and the organization considered gender mainstreaming a cross-cutting issue.
Efforts were focusing on legislative and governmental gender-equality programmes and on
poverty eradication. UNIFEM meanwhile had shown a willingness to take a lead role in
coordinating overall efforts to implement the Beijing Platform for Action. UNDP had
participated in upstreaming a number of UNIFEM's good practices.
NOLEEN HEYZER, Executive Director of
UNIFEM, said the major crises of the world could not be solved without women's involvement
as equal partners in Government, society, and economy. National gender-action plans had
been developed; much progress had been made. Yet more women still died of domestic
violence than died of cancer, poverty was still overwhelmingly feminine, and women were
badly underrepresented in Parliaments. Economic globalization posed new challenges -- many
women were experiencing it not as an agent of progress but as a force that deepened
existing inequalities. In Eastern Europe, 80 per cent of laid-off workers were women.
Economic restructuring policies should not exacerbate discrimination against women and
should not reduce social accountability.
Fragmentation and conflict were
increasing, too, and the use of violence against women, especially rape, had become a
weapon of war, especially in ethnic conflicts. Effective interventions were critical to
end such atrocities. Trafficking in women and children, which was now global, the spread
of AIDS, and similar borderless problems also had to be attacked in an effective
international manner. Accountability and measurement of progress was vital for
implementation of the Platform for Action. A new UNIFEM report, "Progress for the
World's Women", would soon be launched. UNIFEM also had concentrated on identifying
and developing good practices in the field of gender equality and on spreading the word
about such good practices.
PIERRE-HENRI IMBERT, Director-General for
Human Rights of the Council of Europe, said the Beijing Conference had been an excellent
opportunity to ensure that the question of equality was given the political priority it
deserved; much progress had since been made, but in this world nothing was permanent and
more needed to be done. Progress, among other things, had come too slowly; the Platform
for Action deserved quicker and more thorough implementation. In Europe, a great deal of
legal progress had been made, among other things, to the European Charter and its 1988
protocol, including a clause on the right to dignity at work, which included preventing
sexual harassment. A general prohibition of discrimination based on gender was expected to
be approved soon.
Much action had also been taken against
violence against women and against trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation. There
had been an increase recently in Europe in this criminal and extremely profitable trade in
human beings, and it was high time it was thoroughly outlawed. As for violence against
women, there should be a policy of zero tolerance of such violence. The Council of Europe
was taking steps to make it easier to develop and apply policies related to achieving
gender equality.
RENATE BLOEM, of the NGO Committee on the
Status of Women, said she was pleased to present the report of the NGO working session
preceding today's conference; over 600 persons had participated; the NGO forum involved a
plenary and workshop sessions with the intent of allowing NGOs to participate as equals
with Governments in this preparatory meeting; the objective was to complement the draft
agreed conclusions of the meeting.
One common line ran through the working
sessions -- NGOs wanted Governments to make renewed commitments and to take steps to fully
implement the Beijing Platform for Action, including targets and statistics. The NGOs also
called for a preamble to the draft conclusions. Subregional NGO reports had been examined
during the working session; some 16 workshops had been held. Lunchtime workshops were held
on other critical issues, including health issues. NGOs felt that over the past five
years, policies pursued by Governments had exacerbated existing economic inequalities. At
international institutions, they felt, there must be greater steps to ensure that
macroeconomic policies furthered the aims of gender equality.
YVES BERTHELOT, Executive Secretary of the
Economic Commission for Europe, said he hoped the efforts made over the next three days
would encourage everyone to shoulder real commitments and would discourage any false
pretenses. Progress had been made, but it had been slim, and some problems were reaching
frightening proportions. Progress had been most notable in terms of heightening public
awareness, thanks in part to the work of NGOs. Some legislation to eliminate
discrimination against women had been accomplished, but far too little.
Meanwhile economic progress had been
scant, and in many cases there had not been progress but the opposite. Women still held
the greater part of low-paid, low-security work, and there had been little change in
stereotypes and task-sharing between men and women. In the transition countries, which
were experiencing major economic difficulties, equality efforts had withered, and problems
such as trafficking in women for purposes of prostitution, and domestic violence, had
grown worse. And it was worth noting that trafficking in such women generally meant their
recruitment for purposes of prostitution in western European countries. It was vital to
implement existing rules, furthermore -- making new rules was of little use if those now
in existence were not put into effect.
Statements of panel members
SHEILA REGEHR, Economic Policy
Coordinator for the Status of Women, of Canada, said it was necessary to become more adept
at living in a complex world of change and diversity by making this environment a source
of strength rather than of fear or difficulty. Governments often were weak in this area.
It was wrong to think that earlier times were simpler, that people were closer and
families worked better -- if you looked closely, that generally wasn't true. Always there
was an environment of change. One way to approach this matter more successfully was to
concentrate on educating and strengthening the situation of children and youth. Among
issues to be faced here were those connected to women's economic rights and enabling these
to be advanced while simultaneously bolstering women's abilities to care for and advance
the needs of their children.
Two avenues to gender equality were
becoming more important: improving the access of women to male-dominated areas, and
getting men more fully involved in female-dominated areas, such as child-rearing.
Undervaluation of the activities in which women were traditionally engaged had to be
corrected -- child-rearing work needed greater valuation; obviously this activity wasn't
simply a matter of money. Working efficiently for gender progress was vital as well: there
were so many challenges and such limited time and resources that choices had to be made;
one had to pick areas where progress could be made and then to be persistent.
OKSANA KISSELYOVA, of "Mama
'86", an NGO, of Ukraine, said economic rights were the basis of gender equality and
vital for human rights. Women's independence could not be achieved without such rights,
yet the past five years had been very difficult for women living in countries in economic
transition. High-level involvement of women in labour markets in these countries had
diminished -- many layoffs had had disproportionate effects on women.
Women in the region always had been
overloaded with duties related to work and child-care; working hours had been longer than
in the West, and they always were saddled with housekeeping and child-care
responsibilities. They always had had lower positions and salaries than men. Since then,
economic restructuring and the closing of factories had hit women harder than men; many
had been reduced to poverty -- poverty in the region had a woman's face. Children were in
difficulty, too, as families always had depended on women's incomes. As a result informal
economic work by women had increased -- such activities as subsistence agriculture,
carried out without machinery and in all weathers. Work, when it was found, tended to be
low-paid, insecure, and demeaning in character. In transition countries these days, women
had no confidence in the future; they woke up in the morning only with thoughts of how and
where they would get money, and how the insufficient amount they would get would be spread
to meet overwhelming needs. At this point, some "positive discrimination" for
women was needed -- when job applicants were otherwise equal, women should get the
position. And international agencies should take much more effective action to establish
and promote labour rights for women.
EVA ZIMNY, Associate Professor at the
Warsaw School of Economics, of Poland, said the Beijing Platform of Action review was
taking place in a new context -- that of globalization, which had become an overwhelming
issue since the world conference had been held. The social effects of globalization were
coming more and more to the fore and were being discussed constantly. In addition, more
interesting data on gender factors related to work were becoming available; it was now
becoming possible to truly value women's contributions to national economies in Europe and
it was becoming clear that women's labour was vital to sustaining economic growth in the
region. A major question was whether or not progress could be measured: participation
rates in the labour market varied widely between transition economies and Western European
economies and the economies of North America. But was it fair to say progress had been
made in western countries and regression had occurred in transition countries? Certainly
not, because the necessary data was lacking -- there was a shortage of gender statistics,
which still made such conclusions irresponsible. The truth was progress was difficult to
properly assess given the current state of data, benchmarks, and instruments.
Among areas of concern in the ECE region,
which seemed to apply to all countries, were discrimination against women in the labour
market; equalizing child and household care among men and women; and finding methods for
improving "employability" of women, including increasing access to education and
promotion of self-employment and entrepreneurship.
* * *
For further information please
contact:
Information Unit
United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UN/ECE)
Palais des Nations, Room 356
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Tel: +(41 22) 917 44 44
Fax: +(41 22) 917 05 05
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.unece.org