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.