NGO representative lobby for stronger declaration<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Representatives of international non-
\ngovernmental organizations (NGOs) are lobbying for the on-going
\nAsia-Pacific women's conference to issue a stronger declaration,
\nsources said yesterday.<\/p>\n
The NGOs, who were invited as observers, have presented a
\nunited front in pushing the senior officials in the conference's
\ndrafting committees to rework the communique that will be issued
\nat the end of the Second Asian and Pacific Ministerial Meeting on
\nWomen in Development.<\/p>\n
The senior officials yesterday were busy putting the final
\ntouches to the document draft, to be officially called the
\nJakarta Declaration and the Plan of Action for the Advancement of
\nWomen in Asia and the Pacific.<\/p>\n
The NGOs are demanding changes in the definition of the
\nconcepts of work, family and the links between cultural and
\nreligious values, and military and economic policies.<\/p>\n
The concept of work, for example, should cover both paid and
\nunpaid work, and include the informal and subsistence sectors as
\nwell as household chores.<\/p>\n
This, they argued, would allow for appropriate tools and
\nmethods used to quantify such works and reflect women's total
\ncontribution in the national accounting systems.<\/p>\n
The NGOs had already hammered out their common position when
\nthey met at the Asian and Pacific Symposium of NGOs on Women in
\nDevelopment in Manila last November.<\/p>\n
They have since formed the Asian and Pacific NGO Working
\nGroup. The lobbyists are also armed with a document presented by
\n55 organizations that have formed the Asia Pacific Women's Action
\nNetwork (APWAN).<\/p>\n
"Women's rights are increasingly threatened and violated by
\nmilitant assertions of religious and ethnic identity, in normal
\nand in crisis situations," the APWAN document said. "While we
\nadvocate multi-culturalism, all cultural and religious practices,
\nwhich deviate from universally accepted human rights including
\nwomen's rights, must not be tolerated."<\/p>\n
On personal relationships and traditional family norms, the
\nNGOs are lobbying for individual rights, including those of
\nlesbians,"...to freely choose their partners without prejudice on
\nthe basis of class, religion, sex or sexual orientation, and form
\nthe type of family they prefer."<\/p>\n
"Lesbians face systematic physical and psychological violence
\nfrom family, society and state institutions," they said.<\/p>\n
The NGOs also want the Plan of Action to address the
\nvulnerability of women during war time, with reference to the
\nsituations in Bosnia, Rwanda and Somalia.<\/p>\n
"We hope the documents will include these views, to be
\neventually implemented by our governments," said Noeleen Heyzer
\nof The Asian and Pacific NGO Working Group. (anr)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ngo-representative-lobby-for-stronger-declaration-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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