Subject: [fem-women2000 187] Daily News No 6 - 07/03/2000 - English
From: "takasaki.ayako" <ayako.takasaki@ntt.com>
Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2000 13:47:36 +0900
Seq: 187

To: Multiple recipients of list <b5ngonews@lists.sn.apc.org>
Subject: [B5NGONEWS] Daily News No 6 - 07/03/2000 - English

 Daily News No 6 - 07/03/2000 - English

Editorial

When will language turn into action?

March 3rd, 2000 marks the opening of the Prepcom.  Since last week, NGOs
have been grouping into issues and regional caucuses.  Using an already
limited document, committees have worked hard to insert words and
sentences that will have the best chance of being integrated in order to
ensure women's rights are respected.  No one really speaks of progress.
Everyone is frustrated with the process of working with language in a
document that, in many respects, is weaker than the conventions that
have already been adopted.  What are we doing here then?  Sara Longwe,
sometimes referred to as the Mother of African feminismresponds:  In
this framework that governments have chosen, we are working to add
emerging issues, and to ensure that it leads to concrete actions.  We in
civil society must recharge the political will  in order to have action
taken.  If political will is gone, we must bring it back.  If it is
here, we must ensure commitment.  Where there is concrete commitment, we
must bring about actions.
WomenAction 2000

 Appropriate ICTs

WomenAction has prepared a lobbying kit on the issue of Section J.
Distributed in English, Spanish and French to government delegates on
the afternoon of March 6, the kit contains a NGO assessment of the
implementation of Section J, built on regional alternative reports from
Europe, Latin America, and Asia, with input from NGOs in Africa and the
Asia-Pacific region.  We have also provided the language modifications
agreed upon in the media caucus.  NGOs wishing to obtain a copy of the
Section J kit can address themselves to WomenAction, and a copy will be
loaned to them for photocopy.  An electronic version of the
English-language assessment document is available on the Web at
www.womenaction.org/csw44/altrepeng.html.  For a Word or RTF version of
the French or Spanish-language report, write to mavic@isiswomen.org.

Interview

UK Women痴 National Council Chair Former European Parliament MP

Christine Crawley, member of the House of Lords, 15 year veteran of the
European Parliament and the Chair of the European Parliament's Women's
Rights Committee (WNC) has just begun her term as publicly appointed
Chair of the WNC. We are based in the heart of government, and more
than 200 UK women's groups are members. Our alternative national report
was the product of consultation with all these groups much of it done
through e-mail. When women's organizations speak with us, they speak
directly to the government and hold the government accountable.Women's
 information and resource centres are closely involved in the
WNC. Their expertise in organising, collecting and disseminating
information will be valuable in building the databases of expertise of
the WNC members one of the new projects Crawley will introduce during
her first term. The key concept of this Institutional Mechanism is to
create a way of communicating with women to ensure they are better able
to participate in the political processes that are going on in the
European Union

Democracy and transparency in Eastern Europe

Setting up a regional NGO in a part of the world that has a history in
communism, requires democracy and transparency.Kinga Lohmann of Poland
began creating the groundwork for a strong regional women's network
after Beijing, but the real growth started after last year's CSW. We
needed 5 7 years after the collapse of communism to understand the
need to cooperate. When the transition from communism began, large
women's organizations split into many smaller ones, as women wanted to
work on specific areas. But last year at the CSW women saw how visible
they had become when Karat, the coalition of women's organizations from
13 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, presented a combined report
on institutional mechanisms. Not only were we visible, but people could
see we were experts and not government representatives disguised as an
NGO.
Ms Lohmann is committed to empowering women to participate in the
Beijing + 5 process, and beyond. Instead of training women in
leadership, Karat organizes regular meetings and sends as many delegates
as possible to UN B+5 activities, so that they can learn through active
participation.
Karat has a co-ordinator and a democratically elected consultative body
that consists of women with specific skills in logistics, communications
etc. Karat uses e-mail for consultations between meetings. All proposals
are sent to the membership for consultation, and the final report as
well as financial reports are shared with the whole group. Every new
initiative is encouraged.

Lin Pugh, WomenAction 2000

Region

Something more than words...

Gender mechanisms, resources and justice in the 21st century are the
keywords of the NGO uprising in Latin America and the Caribbean, a
direct message for the urgent implementation of the commitments agreed
upon with women from the international community. The expectation of
Latin American NGOs is also that the international community take
actions which prioritise the integral and universal implementation of
all women's human rights, especially economic, social and cultural,
because they represent the more serious regressions in the majority of
countries in the region.

NGO Caucus

The International Criminal Court

Adopted in July 1998, the ICC Statute is a treaty with an unprecedented
level of gender integration. It explicitly recognizes for the first time
in international law many crimes of sexual and gender violence. In
addition, it contains provisions to ensure that crimes against women are
respectfully and responsibly investigated and prosecuted. It also
included provisions to ensure a presence of women on the Court and among
ICC staff at all levels.

The Statute requires 60 ratifications before the Court can be
established. Seven countries have ratified the Statute thus far and 94
have signed. We need to ensure that women all over the world learn of
the ICC's potential. Come and find out how you can support and advocate
for the establishment of the ICC! March 7, 1:15-2:45pm, Dag Hammarskjold
Auditorium.

釘uilding Effective Alliances for the Implementation of the BPA
At a forum organised on Monday 6th, Jane Kiragu, associate of ABANTU for
Development and director of Kangemi Women Empowerment Center in Kenya
reported on the work of the Center. She highlighted the relevance of the
BPA to local strategies of awareness raising and enabling women to
participate at the community level (in issue areas like violence,
reproductive rights and the girl child). Ms. Kiragu emphasized the
importance of a women's human rights framework to the local and regional
NGO activities in African countries. Margaret Vogt, special assistant to
the Assistant Secretary General (UN) stressed the necessity of forging
alliances that link grassroots, regional and international NGO
activities and highlighted the necessity for grassroots women to be able
to participate in peace negotiations in Africa.

Globalization and Women's Economic Rights: Voices From Around the World
Five years after Beijing, where do women stand in the global economy?

A panel of women shared their experiences of the negative impacts that
macroeconomic policies such as structural adjustment and trade and
investment liberalization have had on women and their communities.
Sandra Carnegie-Douglas, from NAC in Canada, began the discussion by
affirming the need to take into account the new economic international
order in the follow-up to Beijing. She stressed that economic, social,
civil and political rights must be linked and that an Integrated
Feminist Analysis must be used in the implementation of the BPFA if
gender equity and equality are to be achieved.  Each of the panelists
stressed how trade and investment liberalization have exacerbated
women's poverty, increased the amount of women in unpaid work, and
further created gender inequality between men and women and among
women.  Monica Aleman, a representative from the Youth Caucus from
Nicaragua, described her country's negative experience with
multinational corporations.  Genoveva Tisheva from Bulgaria described a
study that was recently done showing that privatization in Eastern
Europe has had negative impacts for women in part due to the fact that
discrimination, the double burden of work for women, corrupt political
and legal structures and other social and political factors are often
not recognized or accounted for in the privatization efforts.
Recognizing that privatization schemes, including micro-credit, are not
the panacea for women and communities in poverty, the panel and the
audience explored the macro links to social development, including
international labor standards, migrant workersrights, the
international financial institutions and the WTO.  As a final note,
Dzodzi Tsikata from Ghana celebrated women's organizing in Africa to
call for development centered economic policies and fair trade not
free trade.

Agenda

Women and Media Caucus to discuss lobbying strategies around Section J.
March 7, 3.00pm. UNIFEM Conference Room at 304 East 45th Street, NY.
Organized by WomenAction 2000.

National Shadow Reports

Panel from Pakistan, Mexico, USA, Kenya and Philippines. March 7,
11.00am.00pm, Dag Hammerskjold Library, IN bldg.

CONGO Committee on Sustainable Development and CSW

Briefing on female agricultural workers Women Working in the World's
Fields,March 7, 1:15-2:45pm, 11th floor, Church Center.

Special Session

Let CONGO know if you want to participate or have suggestion on how to
coordinate, how to be more effective and productive now and through the
Special Session. (1-212-986-8557)


TAKASAKI AYAKO*** ayako.takasaki@ntt.com
Advanced Business Works
NTT Communications Corporation
tel +81 3 5353 3410,3498(Direct)
fax +81 3 5353 5662
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