Sex, reproduction bog down world women's talks

By Santi WE Soekanto

BEIJING (JP): The third day of the Fourth World Conference on Women was bogged down yesterday by contentious issues, most notably on reproduction, abortion and sexual rights.

Progress was slow as the Main Committee deliberated the Platform for Action draft which is expected to be endorsed at the end of the conference next week.

Conference spokeswoman Therese Gastaut told reporters at the end of the third day that two working groups started tackling sections of the document still in brackets. The brackets signify a lack of consensus among member countries.

Gastaut said if the committee was to complete its task, it would have to clear at least 25 pairs of brackets a day. By yesterday, the committee had erased six.

She said many of the bracketed issues concern women's reproductive health, unprotected and premature sex, sex education, unsafe abortions and unwanted pregnancies. These issues were left pending at the last preparatory meeting in New York.

"There is so much to do," Gastaut said, adding, "Remember, what we want from this conference is action."

She said progress is being made at the meetings, some of which went late into the night.

She said some countries refused to accept a sentence that said the "the rights of women to control her fertility is a basic part of her empowerment."

A compromise was reached and the sentence was been changed to "the rights of all women to control aspects of her health, including her fertility, are a basic part of her empowerment."

Faced with the difficulty in reaching consensus, the working groups have set up contact groups to facilitate negotiations. The groups, including a caucus of Moslem countries, were lobbying representatives.

Gastaut acknowledged that even with the contact groups the process of deliberation and decision-making would still be tough.

Compromise reached informally within contact groups, for instance, would have to be brought to the working groups, then to the main committee and then to a plenary session, she explained.

Gastaut said chapter four of the Platform for Action draft, which deals with a woman's right to health, contains the most brackets.

Sexual rights

One point still within brackets states that "sexual rights include the individual's right to have control over and decide freely on matters related to her or his sexuality, free of coercion, discrimination and violence."

Mary Ann Glendon, the head of Holy See delegation, yesterday refuted the charges that the Vatican was obstructing women's rights and advancement.

The Vatican is of the position that there is the need to use "the female splendid talent" in various spheres of life, including those concerning religious matters such as the management of churches, she said.

Glendon denied that the Vatican has formed an alliance with Moslem countries on shared contentious issues, such as sexual rights and reproductive rights.

Outside the conference halls, delegations from various countries and organizations continued with their individual campaigns and causes.

The Zainab Society of Iran, for instance, distributed leaflets on their activities, while the REAL Women organization of Canada handed out flyers criticizing the United States' "muted" stance at the conference.

REAL called on the meeting to recognize "legal safeguards to protect lesbianism and its lifestyle". It also recommended the recognition of "adolescent girls' rights to have access to sexual and reproductive health information, without considerations of parental responsibility".

It also called for recognition of "sexual and reproduction rights including the right to abortion on demand".

As of yesterday, a total of 16,181 people were taking part in the conference. The figure is made up of 5,019 official delegates, 3,658 representatives from non-governmental organizations and 3,146 journalists.

Several events, dedicated to rural women, will be held today. They will include panel discussions entitled "Feeding 5 billion people by 2010: Women share" and "Empowering rural women for the 21st century".

To mark the Day for Rural Women, the International Steering Committee on the Advancement of Rural Women will feature first ladies Suzanne Mubarak of Egypt, Dato Seri Datin Paduka of Malaysia and Queen Fabiola of Belgium as speakers at a press briefing.

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