Beijing talks enter tough phase

Beijing talks enter tough phase

By Santi WE Soekanto and Carla Bianpoen

BEIJING (JP): As world leaders at the World Conference on
Women discussed the need to respect and promote women's rights,
delegates began haggling behind the scenes over the wording of
some of the documents and resolutions to be adopted here.

Conference sources said there could be a rift in the main
committee which is deliberating over the main document of the
Draft Platform for Action and the Beijing Declaration.

Patricia B. Licuanan of the Philippines, who chairs the
conference, said in an interview with The Jakarta Post and Kompas
yesterday that several areas of concern, which she called the
three Rs -- (human) rights, resources and reproductive (rights)
-- are likely to polarize members from diverse backgrounds.

Divisions are expected between representatives of countries
with strong religious backgrounds, such as Islamic countries and
the Vatican, on the one hand, and countries with different levels
of development and resources on the other, Licuanan said.

"I hope these differences will eventually be resolved," she
said, pointing out that several preparatory meetings have
significantly reduced such differences and "positions have moved"
from the ones expressed previously.

On human rights, some delegates have not been able to advance
from old debates on whether to use the term "universal" or merely
"human rights," she said. She expressed hope that main committee
members would not waste their time defending old positions.

On the allotment or reallocation of resources for women's
programs, she admitted that resistance could come from any
country. "How can we implement the Platform for Action without
resources?" she asked. "There will be debates over where
financial resources will come from. Will they be new, or will
these resources be mobilized from old resources through re-
prioritizing?"

"I'm not sure we can reach consensus," she said. "Some
countries are very cautious about committing themselves (to
providing such resources). There are those who support, there are
those who resist."

Another contentious area is women's reproductive rights. On
that matter Licuanan said she thought that some tough debates
would occur. She noted, however, a softening in the stance of the
Holy See, which took a hard line when the issue was discussed at
the UN Population Conference in Cairo last year.

"The bottom line is, they realize that they'll be lucky if we
stick to the Cairo agreement (on issues such as abortion) because
it's already quite moderate," Licuanan said. "Islamic countries,
too, have expressed a willingness to refer to the Cairo
agreement."

One of the agreements reached in Cairo is that abortion will
not be considered as a birth control method.

Licuanan said debates could occur during the conference about
the term "equality," the first word of the conference's theme,
"Equality, Development and Peace."

Some Islamic countries have been campaigning for the
substitution, for the term, of the word "equity", she said, but
it is likely that some kind of compromise could be achieved by
using the two terms interchangeably. "I'd like to call on the
(members) to move on. We don't have much time," she said.

In various corners of the grand Beijing International
Convention Center, UN agencies and other organizations are
distributing books, leaflets and other materials to conference
participants.

A stand of the grand imam of Cairo-based Al Azhar University,
for example, handed out booklets criticizing the draft Platform
for Action and calling on Islamic states to campaign for more
precise terms and avoid elasticity so that the content of the
document would not violate Islamic teachings.

The Mecca-based Moslem World League in Mecca said that "full
equality between men and women, as between people of different
races and ethnic groups, will be reached only when the issue is
addressed as one of humanity."

Meanwhile, two plenary sessions of the conference yesterday
were marked by long speeches by women leaders, among them Senator
Leticia Ramos-Shahani of the Philippines, Indonesia's State
Minister for Women's Roles Mien Sugandhi, Italian Foreign
Minister Susanna Agnelli, Namibian Deputy Minister for Foreign
Affairs Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitway and Queen Fabiola of Belgium.

Mien said that "active community participation, especially (on
the part of) women's organizations and the family welfare
movement at the grassroots level," is instrumental in "narrowing
the gap between genders and promoting equal partnership between
men and women."

Meanwhile, in Huairou, where an NGO conference on women is
being held, Minh Chao Nguyen, Manager of Gender Policy and
Analysis at the World Bank, told the forum that her office is
committed to enhancing women's participation in its lending
activities.

The Bank's assistance in Indonesia includes a major portion to
projects of which women make out an important part, including
health, nutrition and population projects," Minh Chao Nguyen
said.

Hillary -- Page 12