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.

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