NAM's call on poverty, women included in Beijing Message

By Santi WE Soekanto

BEIJING (JP): The Non-Aligned Movement, led by Indonesia, adopted a resolution yesterday calling for a concerted global effort to combat poverty and violence against women.

The call was included in the Beijing Message document which was based on a speech by Indonesia's President Soeharto, concurrently the NAM chairman.

The document was immediately submitted to Gertrude Mongella, secretary-general of the Fourth World Conference on Women for the consideration of the UN summit.

The conference, which opens tomorrow and involves delegates from 184 countries, is expected to discuss and adopt two final documents: the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

More than 350 delegates from NAM's 84 mostly developing countries members held a separate meeting on Friday and Saturday to hammer out at a common stand ahead of the UN conference. President Soeharto, who could not come to Beijing, is represented by Indonesia's State Minister for Women's Roles Mien Sugandhi.

The NAM meeting was also the last gathering of the movement before Indonesia hands over the chairmanship to Colombia in October.

The 22-paragraph Beijing Message identified poverty as the most urgent problem faced by women all over the world. The NAM representatives also expressed concern over rampant abuse and violence against women.

During a press conference at the conclusion of NAM meeting yesterday, Indonesian delegates stressed that none of the documents are binding on member countries.

"Most NAM countries agree with the content of the draft Platform for Action, but implementation may differ from one country to another," Sjamsiah Achmad, assistant to Minister Mien, said.

"Each country may have to contend with its own culture in implementing the planned platform. This involves the sovereignty of each country," she said.

By stating so, Indonesia and the NAM tried to bridge the often conflicting position of countries which call for "universality" in efforts to meet women's rights, with those who wish to adhere to their individual country's perspective regarding women's issues.

Several observers to the meeting believed that some sharp conflicts will occur during the Conference proper, particularly regarding contentious issues such as sexual and reproductive rights, and between groups from Moslem and western countries.

Conference officials, however, refused to acknowledge outright whether there would be such conflicts. Patricia Licuanan of the Philippines, who chairs the Commission on Status of Women, only said "perhaps" when asked by the press about such a possibility.

Kristen Timothy, the New York-based coordinator of the conference, refuted a suggestion made by the press that the conference, whose theme is "Equality, Development and Peace", would "impose" the western concept of equality and democracy on eastern or Moslem countries.

"There's no single model," Timothy said, adding that there are diverse concepts coming from the participating countries, and that each should be appreciated. The issue, she said, was not the imposition of the wills of certain parties on the others, but "letting the voices of women be heard" in the process of achieving equality.

The Beijing Message urges the conference to specifically address all forms of violence against women and girls.

"It's imperative that in the implementation of the platform for action, special attention is paid to the deep-seated obstacles that hinder progress, namely poverty, lack of access to education and to health care and decision-making," it said.

"Poverty among women constitutes the first critical area of concern of the Platform for Action, which is an unequivocal message of the urgency with which this scourge must be viewed and eradicated," the message said.

The Beijing Message also says that basic education for girls and life-long education and training for women "is a right, and investing in it, with its exceptionally high social and economic return, has proved to be one of the best means of achieving sustainable development and sustained economic growth."