Subject: [fem-women2000 304] Cyber access to UN decisions on women
From: lalamaziwa <lalamaziwa@jca.apc.org>
Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000 03:42:22 +0900
Seq: 304

>Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 14:20:44 +0200
>Originator: b5ngonews@lists.sn.apc.org
>Subject: [B5NGONEWS] GWENT PARTICIPANT LIST: press release (fwd)

PRESS RELEASE 						 

26 May 2000

Cyber access to UN decisions on women

From June 5-9 WomenAction 2000, a global coalition of women's
information and media organisations will ensure world access to the
decisions made during the UN special session of the General Assembly
entitled  'Women 2000 Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the
21st Century'. Through a daily newspaper (distributed at the
conference and through Internet), daily radio programs, daily
interactive TV programs and daily press releases, 
WomenAction 2000 will bring the latest information from New York to
readers, listeners and viewers all over the world.

'Women 2000 Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st
Century' is the follow-up to the 4th World Conference on Women held
five years ago in Beijing, China, attended by the world's governments
and 35,000 representatives of women's NGO's. World leaders will review
the implementation of agreements made and promises to improve the
position of women and their access to their human rights - laid down
in the 'Platform for Action'. In other words: what is the present
state of the rights of women in the various parts of the world? Which
agreements have been honoured and which need to be strengthened?
In this review process the UN will look at a range of issues,
including: the increasing poverty of women, women's human rights,
women's access and inclusion in the media, the challenges for girls,
women's education, the health of women, the glass ceiling, trafficking
in women, violence against women, women and armed conflict, women and
property rights, women in power and decision-making, women as partners
in peace negotiations, women and the environment.
Women and women's organizations will follow this process with great
interest. Women's communication and information organizations
throughout the world have formed a global network entitled 
'WomenAction 2000'. This network was set up to empower women to
participate in the Beijing + 5 review process. It is the cooperation
between 50 women's information and media organisations grouped into
four regional information networks and international networks. The
regional networks Flamme/Flame in Africa, European and North American
WomenAction 2000, Mujeres Accion 2000 in Latin America and the
Carribbean, and AWORC in Asia have web sites that can be accessed
through links at www.womenaction.org. 
Throughout the Special Session, the global www.womenaction.org site
will host the daily newspaper, the link to the interactive TV site and
to the radio site.

A daily newspaper
WomenAction 2000, in collaboration with the NGO Coordinating
Committee, will produce a daily magazine throughout the 'Beijing +5'
conference, edited by a team of journalists from Asia, Africa, Europe,
North America and South America. The daily will be produced in French,
Spanish and English and will be made available in print form, on the
web and through a listserv. If you would like to receive the news,
subscribe to the free listserv through info@womenaction.org.

African daily newspaper
A coalition of African media NGOs will produce a French and English
language daily newspaper concentrating on African issues. This follows
the success of The Flamme newspaper which was produced at the 6th
African Regional Conference on Women held in Addis Ababa in November
1999. This is an important contribution to increasing the visibility
of African issues during the Special Session.  The African newspaper
will be published daily from 5th to 9th June and made available in
print form, on the web and through a listserv.
The Flamme web site address is http://flamme.org. To subscribe to the
listserve send an email  to listproc@lists.sn.apc.org in the body of
the message write subscribe flamme your name

A radio programme
WomenAction 2000 will work closely with FIRE: Feminist Information
Radio  Endeavour from Costa Rica. In this way WomenAction 2000 Beijing
+5 information will be made accessible via the radio. FIRE programme's
can also be heard through Internet: www.fire.or.cr/indexeng.htm.

One hour daily interactive TV broadcast
In a special cooperation led by the French European WomenAction 2000
partner, Les Penelopes, Womenaction 2000 will provide a one hour daily
interactive TV broadcast. One or several guests will comment in
English, 
French and Spanish, on the event each day, and reportages made by an
audiovisual team covering the conference will contribute to the
on-line discussion. The on-line chatroom will broaden and enrich the
next day's discussion. People will be able follow the discussions and
contribute whether or not they are actually attending the meeting.
Background texts, texts written at the time of the program and still
photos taken during the meeting will make up the rest of the online
broadcast. The program will be archived and stored on Internet, at
least until October 2000. This program will be available on Penelopes'
program named Cyberfemmes: http://www.canalweb.net/vers/cyberfemmes.asp 
The footage produced will be re-packaged and made into educational
TV and video material. (See press release Cyberfemmes at Beijing +5 
below for daily program)

Media Caucus
Women and Media Caucus:  An informal network of women media
practitioners and women's groups working on issues of media,
information and communication that was formed during the 44th UN CSW
Session in March 2000. The group works on the continuing assessment of
the implementation of the Women and Media Section of the Beijing
Platform for Action and lobbies for its full implementation. The Women
and Media Caucus is supported by WomenAction and is coordinated by two
of its members: Isis International-Manila and the Agencia
Latinoamericana de Informacion.    

Media Team
A team of NGO women and women journalists from Asia, Pacific, Africa,
Eastern Europe and Latin America will produce and disseminate
media-ready materials on an daily basis. They will send articles and
press releases to media organisations in their home countries. They
will also set up radio phone patches and arrange radio and television
guestings for key women's representatives. The Global Women's Media
Team is co-ordinated by WomenAction participant Isis
International-Manila.

Internet Cafe
WomenAction will provide an off-site Internet Cafe for NGO delegates,
from June 5 - 9. Delegates will have Internet access, be able to send
and receive e-mail; be trained in the use of  e-mail services,
information dissemination, and text processing facilities. WomenAction
participants from APC-Women's Networking Support Programme are leading
this activity.

==============================================
About WomenAction 2000
WomenAction 2000 is a global information, communication and media
network that enables NGOs to actively engage in the Beijing+5 review
process with the long term goal of women's empowerment, with a special
focus on women and media.
Started in March 1999, the initiative was the result of meetings
between women's media and information networks and NGOs who expressed
their need for ways in which they could participate more in the
development of the preparations for the Beijing +5 Special Session.
Based on regional networks, and supported by global networks, the
strategy of WomenAction 2000 has been:
1)      training and supporting regional information facilitators who
would be responsible for setting up working groups in every region and
participating in regional and global Beijing+5 review online working
groups;
2)      training and supporting web site construction and maintenance
people who would develop regional websites for the collection, sharing
and linking of information on the review process;
3)      developing a global web site that would serve as a central
site for the collection, sharing and linking of information on the
review process;
4)      building strategic alliances with women's radio, video and
print media networks to repackage and disseminate alternative
information, national and shadow reports and electronic dialogues on
the review process
5)      developing a network of national and regional animators who
can mobilise, network and liaise with women's organisations, UN
Agencies and other organisations participating in the Review Process
6)      building bridges between groups in 1-5 (above) and mainstream
print and electronic media by providing the latter with information
and analysis on developments since 1995
7)      documentation of the proceedings of Beijing+5 activities in
print and electronic form to serve as archival material as well as to
be made available to mainstream media.


For more information 
For more information on WomenAction 2000, contact Karen Banks -
APC-WNSP UK: email: karenb@gn.apc.org and Lin Pugh IIAV The
Netherlands email: l.j.pugh@chello.nl

For information on specific projects taking place at the Special
Session in June, contact:
Interactive TV: Joelle Palmieri, (Les Penelopes) France email :
joe_palm@hotmail.com (throughout UNGASS, thereafter:
info@penelopes.org)
Radio: Maria Saurez, FIRE Costa Rica email: femintra@hotmail.com
WomenAction Newspaper: Daphne Plou, APC Argentina email:
daphne@sinectis.com.ar
African newspaper: email: flamme@sn.apc.org
Media Caucus: Susana George Isis-International Manila, The Philippines
email: susana@isiswomen.org and Sally Burch ALAI, Ecuador email:
alaidir@ecuanex.net.ec 
Media Outreach: Ma. Victoria Cabrera Balleza Isis-International Manila
,The Philippines email: mavic@isiswomen.org


For more information on the Special Session, please consult the
official UN Beijing+5 Press Kit:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/session/presskit/presskit.htm


-----------
Cyberfemmes at Beijing +5 (UN General assembly special session)

4th to June 9th, 2000

http://www.canalweb.net/vers/cyberfemmes/asp

email : joe_palm@hotmail.com

Les Penelopes would like you to meet and join them during six 
consecutive days, on "Cyberfemmes" to take part and follow in live
the UN Special Session. Programs will be held live fom 1:30pm to 
2:30pm New York time. A chatroom will be open at 3:30pm GMT, 9:30pm
in France. You are therefore strongly encouraged to participate to
the online debate. You can also send emails with your comments, the
team in New York will post them the next day.

Program

Sunday June 4th
MEDIA, with the participants of WomenAction2000 from each of the
regions: Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and the participation
of Karen Banks (APC-WNSP)

Monday June 5th
ARMED CONFLICT and VIOLENCE with African (Uganda) and Eastern European 
participants. Special guest will also be a woman from Kosovo and Anne 
Walker (IWTC). Anne Walker will provide a short history of the UN
women's conferences particularly from the perspective of women's
human rights.

Tuesday June 6th
GLOBALISATION with participants from Asia,and the United States.
During the  Special Session three days will be devoted to this subject

Wenesday June 7th,
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH with participants from Asia, Africa and a special 
participation from PROCHOICE organisations in France and  the US.

Thursday June 8th
ENVIRONMENT and FOOD SECURITY with participants from the Philippines, 
India, and Canada

Friday June 9th
Best-of, final conclusions, commentaries?

The production will be French-language, and a text-version of the
news will be available in English and French, in the section 'book'
on the Cyberfemmes site. Les Penelopes will give NGOs a platform for
sharing and talking about their groundwork and advocacy methods. 
Each participant will be speaking in her own language (English, 
French and Spanish). There will be short documentaries and 
on-the-spot interviews illustrating each theme. The daily news 
reader will provide a French synthesis of the day's news.  Crucial
items will be excerpted from the WomenAction daily newspaper. There
will also be in-depth text describing the contributors and the 
subject matter treated during the programs. A photographic 
documentary will be available daily in the section 'book'. All the
programs will be archived and publicly accessible.





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