One million women demand human rights, end of abuse

BEIJING (JP): Over one million women from more than 1,000 organizations in various countries have signed a petition demanding the end of violence against them, and that the United Nations recognize the culturally-ingrained practices of discrimination against women as violations of human rights.

Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women Noeleen Heyzer submitted the petition to High Commissioner for Human Rights Jose Ayala-Lasso here yesterday, during a special event held alongside the Fourth World Conference on Women.

Compiled over the past four years of the Global Campaign for Women's Rights, the signatures and the entire petition, written in 30 languages, will be sent to the Commissioner's office in segments periodically. "In order to give him a continuous reminder," Heyzer said.

Another activist, Roxanna Garrio, said that the organization recently staged a "Global Tribunal" in Huairou, where the forum of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) took place and concluded yesterday. During the tribunal, female victims of violence and abuse recounted the pain and suffering inflicted on them, and demanded that the guilty be held accountable.

Garrio also said that the UN too, is being held accountable for the pervasive violence against women. "The United Nations is now on trial," she said. "We ask that the UN now take actions, look at the tribunal ..."

A spokesman for Amnesty International also blamed state governments for their failures to meet their obligations. "We ask that governments extend protection (to their people) regardless of sex and color. That they ratify international conventions, including the one on the elimination of discrimination against women," he said.

"We ask that governments withdraw reservations, and implement their commitments," he said.

Ayala-Lasso accepted the petition, then said, "It's good if you put the United Nations on trial, but it would be better if you put government states on trial."

He pointed out that it was individual governments which failed, for instance, to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, the convention on the rights of the girl-child, and the convention for the protection for migrant workers.

"Ask the states to act, to prepare a calendar of action, implementation, of strategies," Ayala-Lasso said.

The ongoing world conference on women yesterday was marked by a series of panel discussions on the education of women, and the human rights of women. One panel included Ayala-Lasso and Edward Broadbent, president of the International Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development.

Discussing the theme "Human Rights of Women: From Vienna to Beijing", the panel explored the possible ways and means of integrating the human rights of women into UN activities and the roles and functions of human rights treaty bodies and mechanism within the UN system.

Broadbent said that violence against women, either in armed conflicts, domestic, or that perpetrated by the state, is not a question of justice, but of power. He also stressed the importance of ensuring women their rights to freedom of expression, without which their human rights could not be realized.

He spoke of his recent visit to Indonesia and Thailand, and of a number of women he met either in secret or in public who complained to him about the abuse and maltreatment they received at the hand of their employers. One woman, he said, was fired by her employer after she was absent for two days because she was sick.

"These women don't live too far from our meeting. Here we talk about abstract rights, while the women struggle to maintain their `bread and butter' existence", he said.

"These women want action, programs that would transform the good thoughts we have here into actions" to bring improvement to the lives of ordinary women, he said.

Also yesterday, thousands of women activists said goodbye to the city of Huairou, some 50 kilometers away from the Chinese capital. For the past 10 days, Huairou has been the venue of the dynamic meetings of the NGO Forum.

Before conclusion of the gathering, an inter-generational dialog was held featuring speakers of various ages. The oldest speaker, Helvi Sipila, the secretary-general of the First World Conference on Women 20 years ago, spoke mainly about peace when she opened the dialog.

"We have come a long way to equality and development," she said, "but what have we done for peace?"

Reminiscing about the time when 32 women were able to "mobilize the whole world" starting with the UN launching of the International Women's Year in 1975, Helvi Sipila convinced the younger participants that "women are able to make changes".

"Empowerment of women does not mean to make them powerful, but to let them have access to power, and to be able to decide and have influence," she said.

Christina Alberti, minister of social affairs of Spain, used the forum to demand a 50 percent quota for women in decision making processes. "My vision for the future is one of great change, of the world constructed through women's eyes," she said. (swe/cbp)