International Bulletin - Spring 1997
NGO Counsultation
The NGO Consultation preceding the 41st Session of the Commission on the Status of Women was held on March 9, 1997. The Consultation was sponsored by the NGO Committees on the Status of Women in Geneva, New York, and Vienna, in cooperation with the NGO Committee on UNICEF/Working Group on Girls. Those committees represent more than 200 international, regional, and national organizations. The Consultation drew many more women than had been expected, and the meeting room was filled.
The Moderator for the first. part of the program - Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action - was Sudha Acharya, Chair, NGO-CSW, NY, who introduced the speakers, all very important women.
The first to speak was Sharon Brennen-Haylock, Chair of CSW, who was quite critical of the inactivity of governments in implementing the resolutions adopted in Beijing. She said there had been lots of talk but little action, and not enough collaboration with NGOs
Angela King, Assistant Secretary-General & Director of the UN Division for the Advancement of Women, the highest ranking woman in the UN Secretariat spoke next. She said that of the 185 governments at Beijing, only 25 have sent in their plans for the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into national affairs.
Afaf Mahfouz, 1st Vice-President of the Conference of NGOs (CONGO), was the third speaker. She said that CONGO (of which PPSEAWA is a member) favors allowing all NGOs that went to Beijing to attend all sessions of the CSW. (At present. they may attend only if they have applied for formal accreditation to the UN through ECOSOC.) She mentioned a meeting on NGO-UN partnerships.
Part II of the morning meeting was moderated by Irene Hoskins, Chair NGO-CSW, Geneva, who introduced women prominent in international NGOs, from four different countries, who spoke on the four sections of the Beijing Platform for Action that were to be considered at this session of the CSW.
Rachel Kyte (UK) spoke on women in the environment. She said that although paragraph 24 of the Platform for Action considers this, Agenda 21 from the Rio Conference is really the important document. We should combine the two and make what women know about the environment general knowledge.
Eugenia Piza Lopez (Mexico) spoke on women in power & decision-making. She said that women are the main victims of war, and the most powerful peacemakers, but they are absent from the peace-making process. If they were present, they would take food, security and human rights into consideration.
Lin Lean Lim (Malaysia) spoke on women in the economy. She emphasised the crucial monetary decisions made by women in households, and said that women can move beyond small enterprises, and bring a new sense to business. as well as committment & involvement to the community.
Celia Eccher (Uruguay) emphasised that women's education and training, throughout their lives, as well as access to and proper selection of information is important if they are to be able to improve their lot in life.
Kristen Timothy, Deputy Director, UN Division for the Advancement of Women, explained procedures for NGO participation in the CSW session. Her talk was followed by a lunch catered by the Culinary Arts Program of Park West High School. After lunch the group divided into discussion groups dealing with the four topics introduced by the experts. The discussions were both lively and illuminating. A summary of the deliberations of each group concluded the Consultation.
Last Modified: November 29, 2002