North-South showdown looms at Beijing meet

North-South showdown looms at Beijing meet

Women 's issues have begun to draw the attention of people all
around the globe. Now, women from every corner of the world are
discussing their fate in Beijing, China, at the ongoing fourth
United Nations World Conference on Women. The following is a
special report from that momentous meeting in Beijing. The
Jakarta Post specifically addresses the issue of the situation
faced by women in Indonesia on Pages 4 and 5.

By Santi WE Soekanto

BEIJING (JP): The Fourth World Conference on Women, pressed
for time to produce a blueprint for action to improve the
conditions of women all over the world, is turning into a
conflict between the developed and the developing countries.

A number of activists taking part in the meeting said both the
European Union (EU) and the United States are refusing to
compromise with other participants and instead are trying to
steer the deliberations into directions which benefit only them.

The closed sessions of Working Groups I and II, and Contact
Groups I and II, which are drafting the Platform of Actions and
the Beijing Declaration, are racing against time to clear away
remaining differences before the end of next week.

The two documents will function as the international agenda
for advancement of women and once adopted and ratified will bind
any signatory country.

"It's clear to anyone who sat through all the meetings how
domineering the EU is and how they try to have the final say on
every issue," Rita Joseph of the Australian Family Association
told The Jakarta Post yesterday. "And then, during discussions on
the question of funding and allocating resources, they would
refuse to make any commitments."

C.G. Lindolt of the REAL Women organization in Canada agreed,
adding that while representatives of the G-77 and China, and even
of the Holy See, were willing to make concessions on contentious
statements in the documents, the EU would refuse to budge.

"They want to have the exact wordings of their own to be used
in the document," Lindolt said.

The two activists said the problem of the "North" countries
trying to impose their concepts on the "South" countries remains
a major constraint to successful talks. "They talked a lot about
empowering women, including those in the developing countries,
and when asked about funding, they would tell the developing
countries to re-structure, to re-prioritize," Joseph said.

"The EU had said there was going to be no new additional
money," Lindolt said.

Without the necessary human and financial resources, the
Platform for Action and the Beijing Declaration, will be "nothing
but rhetoric", Lindolt added.

"Those industrialized countries only want to impose their
concepts about women's empowerment, and then tell the developing
countries to use the money for clean water or health projects to
fund any program to realize those concepts," Joseph said.

Ideology

"I believe that what's happening here is that those countries
are only trying to establish their ideology, their radical
feminism ideology, as the global, official ideology," Joseph
said.

"This is only a manipulation of the South by the North,"
Lindolt said.

Conference officials conceded that, while the heads of
delegations had almost uniformly pledged to commit themselves to
the advancement of women and called the gathering "a conference
of commitments", it would be hard to keep track of the promises
made and whether they are kept later on.

Joseph, an activist working for refugees in her country, said
the EU has shown similar reluctance to make commitments regarding
the fate of refugees and migrant workers.

"There are no words in the documents about loosening migration
barriers, something which is very important for the developing
countries," Joseph said.

When reminded about the huge number of migrants and refugees
streaming into the developed countries, posing financial, social
and political burdens on the hosts, Joseph said that "an ethical
way" would still be called for. "There's no human problem, no
matter how big, that can't be dealt with in an ethical way."

While official delegations to the conference were holding
their meetings, activists of various non-governmental
organizations, as well as individuals, were actively lobbying
representatives. A meeting among them yesterday displayed
uncertainty over whether their aspirations could really be
accommodated by the official delegations to the conference.

"Watch out for the wording used in the document," a
representative of an NGO campaigning for the protection of
refugees said. She accused the American and European delegations
of refusing to make adequate commitments for the issue.

"When it comes to resources, those delegations are limiting
their commitments ... using the words like 'registered refugees',
thus limiting the obligation to give assistance," she said.