Subject: [fem-women2000 96] IWTC Women's GlobalNet #132
From: lalamaziwa <lalamaziwa@jca.apc.org>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 23:38:32 +0900
Seq: 96
---------------- Original message follows ---------------- From: iwtc <iwtc@igc.org> To: iwtc-womensglobalnet@igc.topica.com Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 12:56:14 -0800 Subject: Women's Globalnet #132 -- IWTC Womenケs GlobalNet #132 Activities and Initiatives of Women Worldwide By Anne S. Walker and Vicki Semler November 10, 1999 BEIJING PLUS FIVE REVIEW PROCESS USED TO PUSH FOR CHANGE IN DISCRIMINATORY LAWS AGAINST WOMEN. A campaign calling upon governments in 42 countries to repeal or amend discriminatory laws has been launched by Equality Now, a group working for the civil, political, economic and social rights of women around the world. In preparing the background report, 62 laws in 42 countries were identified, a representative sampling of laws around the world that are "fundamentally in contradiction with the spirit and text of the Beijing Platform for Action (PFA), as well as the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women)". Equality Now invites people to join their campaign to repeal these discriminatory laws prior to the B + 5 Special Session in June 2000. For further information, contact: Equality Now, PO. Box 20646, Columbus Circle Station, New York, NY 10023, USA. Fax: (1-212) 586-1611. E-mail: <info@equalitynow.org>. Web site: http://www.equalitynow.org . NEW AND FORTHCOMING RESOURCES ON BEIJING PLUS FIVE REVIEW: 1. Flora Tristan Women's Centre in Lima, Peru, in collaboration with UNICEF and UNIFEM, has published "Roads to Beijing", containing case studies which reflect on the Beijing review process in Latin America and the Caribbean. For further information, contact: Flora Tristan Women's Centre, Parque Hernan Velarde 42, Santa Beatriz, Lima 1, Peru. Tel: (51-14) 33-06-93. Fax: (51-14) 33-95-00. E-mail: <postmast@flora.org.pe>. 2. IWTC's Preview 2000 #3, due out in November 1999, will feature charts showing which countries have: 1) Prepared a National Plan of Action and; 2) Responded to the UN Questionnaire. The charts will also indicate each country's ranking on the: 1) Human Development Index (HDI); 2) Gender Development-Related Index (GDRI) and; 3) Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), as shown in the 1999 Human Development Report produced by UNDP. A final column will list any discriminatory laws still on the books in some countries, as indicated in the Equality Now survey (see above). To subscribe to the Preview 2000 series of six bulletins, please contact IWTC (See at end). 3. "Beijing +5 Voices Without Brackets", a radio programme produced by FIRE, the feminist short-wave radio service based in Costa Rica, can be found at their web site <http://www.fire.or.cr>. (Spanish and English) October's report includes women from Latin America talking about alternative reporting processes and an interview with IWTC discussing the overall Beijing +5 process. November's report features WEDO giving an assessment of the relationship between the Beijing +5 and other world conference review processes. November will also feature women speaking about the International Criminal Court and how to strengthen it, and women from Costa Rica discussing "Roots of Our Diversity". Contact FIRE for further information at e-mail: <fuegocr@sol.racsa.co.cr> and/or web site: http://www.fire.or.cr . 4. "Educational Watch on Gender and Education" by the Gender and Education Office, Office of the International Council for Adult Education (also known as REPEM) in Uruguay, brings together the efforts of women's organizations, research institutions and networks working in the field of adult education to monitor the Beijing PFA and policy recommendations emerging from CONFINTEA V (the International Conference on Adult Education). Drawing on the experiences of members in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the South Pacific to monitor the Beijing PFA, this publication is seen as part of a longer term process of constructing a set of indicators on gender and education. For further information, contact: REPEM, Colonia 2069, 11200 Montevideo, Uruguay. E-mail: <repem@chasque.apc.org>. Fax: (59-82) 403-0599. UPDATE ON UN and NGO REGIONAL MEETINGS: The following is an update on the dates, locations and preliminary outcomes (in the case of the ESCAP meeting) of the five scheduled UN Regional Meetings for Beijing Plus Five. : ASIA/PACIFIC: ESCAP: 26-29 October 1999. Bangkok, Thailand. (High-level Meeting to Review the Implementation of the Jakarta declaration and Plan of Action and Regional Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action). Web site: http://www.unescap.org NGO Caucus at the ESCAP Regional Meeting. The Asian Caucus at the ESCAP meeting has reported on several decisions taken at meetings held during the ESCAP Regional Meeting in Bangkok. Here are some of those decisions: 1. The Asian Caucus will now be called the Asia-Pacific Caucus. At the CSW/PrepCom meetings in New York, March 1999, the group had agreed to include the Pacific region. At the Bangkok meeting, it agreed to officially change its name to the Asia Pacific Caucus. 2. The new coordinating structure that emerged from the Regional NGO Symposium held in Manila, August 31-September 3, 1999 was named Asia Pacific Women's Watch (APWW) at the meeting in Bangkok. 3. The Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development (APWLD) volunteered to take up the lobbying efforts for the Asia Pacific region at the CSW/PrepCom meetings in March 2000. It was agreed that APWLD will spearhead this work in collaboration with the Asia Pacific Women Watch. For more information on the outcomes of NGO discussions that took place during the ESCAP Regional Meeting, 26-29 October 1999. Bangkok, Thailand, please contact: Luz Martinez, Isis International/Manila at e-mail: <luz@isiswomen.org> or visit the Isis website at: <http://www.isiswomen.org> AFRICA: ECA: 22-27 November 1999. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (Sixth African Regional Conference on Women to Assess progress in the Implementation of the Beijing and African Platforms for Action). Plans call for 1000 people to attend the meeting, including: Delegations of 20 from each country, consisting of government officials, national NGOs and representatives from international, regional and sub regional NGOs, media representatives, and young people. A declaration will be made on the outcome of the meeting. For further information on this meeting, contact: Joyce Mends-Cole, Regional Gender Adviser, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. E-mail: <joycemendscole@undp.org>. Web site: http://www.uneca.org. NGOケs to Meet Prior to ECA Regional Meeting: NGOs from across Africa will meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from November 19th --20th to discuss their input into the Beijing Plus Five review process. WESTERN ASIA: ESCWA: 29 November to 1 December, 1999. Beirut, Lebanon. (Second Arab Conference on Integrated Follow-up to Global Conferences). Web site: http://www.unescwa.org NGOs to Meet After Regional Meeting: NGOケs will meet from 22-23 January, 2000 in Amman, Jordan. This meeting is being facilitated by the UNIFEM Western Asia Regional Office, Amman, Jordan. For further information, contact: Christine Arab, Information Officer, UNIFEM. E-mail: <admin_unifem@nets.com.jo>. EUROPE/NORTH AMERICA: ECE: 19-21 January, 2000. Geneva, Switzerland (Expert Meeting at the Intergovernmental Level to Review Economic Issues problems and Policies Relating to Women in the ECE Countries). Web site: http://www.unece.org LATIN AMERICA/CARIBBEAN CEPAL/ECLAC: 8-10 February, 2000. Lima, Peru. (Eighth Regional Conference) Web site: http://www.eclac.org NGO GLOBAL BEIJING PLUS FIVE WEB SITES: WomenAction 2000: http://www.womenaction.org A global launching of the WomenAction 2000 site is planned for November 25th, 1999 (International Day Against Gender Violence). Contact Karen Banks at <karenb@gn.apc.org> for further details. Womenケs Human Rights Network: http://www.whrnet.org> A global launching of this site is planned for 14 November, 1999 at the AWID Forum in Washington, DC. For further information, contact: Oliva Acosta at e-mail: <oacosta@jet.es> SELECTED NGO REGIONAL BEIJING PLUS FIVE WEBSITES: AFRICA: WomensNet (South Africa): http://womensnet.org.za ENDA/Synfev (Senegal): http://www.famafrique.org (French) FemNet (Kenya): http://www.africaonline.co.ke/femnet ASIA/PACIFIC: AWORC/Asia Women's Resource Exch.: http://www.jca.apc.org/aworc/bpfa/ Isis International/Manila: http://www.isiswomen.org/ LATIN AMERICA/CARIBBEAN ALAI (Ecuador): http://www.alainet.org (Spanish and English) Isis Internacional/Santiago: http://www.isis.cl (Spanish) Fempress (Santiago): http://www.fempress.cl (Spanish) NORTH AMERICA US WomenConnect (USA): http://www.uswc.org FAFIA (Canada): http://www.sympatico.ca/criaw (French and English) Platform for Action Cケtee (Canada): http://www.freenet.mb.ca/unpac EUROPE: IIAV (The Netherlands): http://www.iiav.nl GreenNet (UK): http://www.gn.apc.org/apcwomen UNITED NATIONS BEIJING PLUS FIVE WEB SITES: WomenWatch: http://www.un.org/womenwatch UNIFEM: http://www.unifem.undp.org UN/DAW: http://www.un.org/daw UNDP/GIDP: http://www.undp.org/gender (UNDP Gender in Development Programme) IWTC Women's GlobalNet is produced by: International Women's Tribune Centre 777 United Nations Plaza New York, NY 10017 Tel: (1-212) 687-8633 Fax: (1-212) 661-2704 E-mail: <iwtc@igc.org>