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"Think Globally, Act Locally" {fwd}
Subject: "Think Globally, Act Locally" {fwd} From WCW
The following might be of your interests.
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>From: PO4::"beijing-conf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" 6-SEP-1995 19:25:53.73
To: beijing-conf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
CC:
Subj: WCW: SG: BOUTROS-GHALI ADDRESS TO WOMENS CONF
## author : unic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
## date : 04.09.95
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This information is provided by the United Nations
Information Centre in Sydney for Australia, New Zealand and
the South Pacific.
For further information, please call 283 1144.
EMBARGOED UNTIL 2 am NEW YORK TIME ON MONDAY, 4 SEPTEMBER
1995 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
ADDRESS TO THE FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN
Beijing, 4 September 1995
Madam President, Mrs. Mongella, Excellencies, Ladies
and Gentlemen,
My first words are words of welcome: welcome to all of
you. I wish you every success in your deliberations and
in your work.
Secondly, words of thanks: on behalf of the
international community, and of all of us present
today, I thank the Chinese Government and people for
their generous and gracious hospitality.
It is both fitting, and significant, that China is host
to this historic global Conference.
China is, of course, a permanent member of the Security
Council. China takes part, therefore, in the work of
the United Nations for the maintenance of international
peace and security. By welcoming us all here this week,
China is making clear its intention to play its full
part in the international community across the entire
range of its most important work. I see this
Conference, therefore, as cementing a new era in the
relationship between China and the United Nations.
This is an important milestone on the road to the
future. China has the resources and manpower to
contribute significantly to global progress. China has
the ability to take an active and enthusiastic part in
the Organization's work toward sustainable development,
particularly in Africa.
Without the full and active support and participation
of China, the United Nations cannot act as a truly
universal forum. China's decision to be the host for
this major event in modern life is a symbol of its
future place in the world, and that of all the nations
of Asia within the international community.
Madame President, I ask to convey to all the Chinese
people our message of thanks and appreciation.
Thanks are also due to the delegations of Member
States. This Conference is the product of many years of
hard preparatory work. I know what a great effort you
have undertaken to make this Conference a success.
And thanks are due to the organizers of this
Conference. In particular, we thank the
Secretary-General of the Fourth World Conference on
Women, Gertrude Mongella, and her team.
* * * * * *
This global conference is unique. It brings a new
universality, and therefore a new legitimacy, to the
deliberations of the international community. Gathered
here is a deep and rich representation of governments,
of women's groups, of the organizations of civil
society.
There is evident here, in all its diversity and
vibrancy, the new partnership in international life
which has been forged between governmental and
non-governmental organizations. We see here the new
legitimacy of the organizations of civil society as
actors on the international scene.
The effectiveness of our work -- both here, and in the
future -- will depend to a considerable extent on our
willingness to be open and receptive to ideas and
suggestions coming from those organizations.
This is an historic gathering: not only because of its
membership and participation, but also because of the
subject of our discussions.
Securing the equality of women and men, in law and in
fact, is the great political project of the twentieth
century. A crucial role in the realization of that
project has been entrusted to the United Nations. We
are meeting to take that great enterprise forward into
the twenty-first century and beyond: to consolidate the
legal advances, to build on the political
understandings, and to commit ourselves to action.
* * * * * *
As the millennium approaches, we look back over a
century of unprecedented social and political change on
our planet. No country, no people, has been untouched
by its great upheavals. Some have already concluded
that the twentieth century was a dark age in the
history of humanity. No-one can deny that its wars,
its struggles, were characterized by great violence and
enormous human suffering. But out of that suffering
came also a new spirit: a spirit of hope, and a resolve
that there should be change.
The founding of the United Nations, fifty years ago,
was one achievement of that new spirit. Then, the
world looked back: to seek the lessons to be learned,
and the mistakes to be avoided, after the cataclysm of
world war. And the world looked forward -- not simply
to re-construct a shattered international community,
but to build a new and better one.
The recognition of the dignity and worth of women, and
of the essential contribution of women, on an equal
basis with men, to life in all its aspects, was to be
an essential element of that better world.
Thus States made, in the United Nations Charter, a
clear commitment to the rights of women:
" ... to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in
the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal
rights of men and women ... " This was more than a
statement of high ideals about the world of the future.
It was a commitment to ensure that men and women have
and enjoy the same rights. And -- unlike any other
commitment made in the Charter -- this was a commitment
which could be measured.
And it pointed the way forward in other ways, too.
That commitment was inserted in the Charter because
women's non-governmental organizations worked with
government representatives to put it there.
The then First Lady -- Eleanor Roosevelt -- of the
United States was instrumental in that process.
Since its very founding, the United Nations has
actively encouraged Member States to honour their
commitment.
In the early years, from 1945 to 1962, the United
Nations concentrated on securing equality for women
under the law. In 1946, the General Assembly
established the Commission on Human Rights and the
Commission on the Status of Women. The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948. In
these ways, the United Nations sought to build on the
legal basis for the equality of women set forth in the
Charter.
In a second phase, from 1963 to 1975, the international
community began to recognize the importance of
development in achieving the advancement of women. The
focus of the Organization's work included the economic
and social realities of women's daily lives. In 1967,
the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women was adopted.
In 1975 the first global conference on the status of
women was convened in Mexico City. It proclaimed 1975
as International Women's Year. The Conference led to
the elucidation of a three-part theme -- equality,
development and peace. This became the basis of the
Organization's work in the upcoming years, and of our
work today.
Between 1976 and 1985, the United Nations observed the
Decade for Women. The Decade was the third phase of
United Nations work for women. This period brought the
crucial new recognition of women as active agents of,
and contributors to, the development process.
1979 was a landmark year. The United Nations General
Assembly adopted, that year, the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women. It was the first international legal instrument
to define discrimination against women. It was, in
other words, an international bill of human rights for
women. But it also stressed the importance of action,
including action in the fields of employment and
education, to ensure women's progress in fact as well
as in law.
The Decade for Women's major conferences -- Copenhagen
in 1980, Nairobi in 1985 -- offered a forum in which
women's organizations had a voice in shaping the work
of the United Nations. The Decade also brought
agreement on the need for practical measures to improve
women's lives.
The adoption of the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies
for the Advancement of Women to the Year 2000 was
another milestone in the advancement of women. They
included guidelines for national measures to promote
women's participation in efforts to promote peace, and
education for peace. They singled out for special
attention the need for measures to help women in
special situations of distress.
Over the past decade, we have seen a fourth phase of
United Nations activity for women. A continuum of
global conferences has worked to define the new global
agenda. These conferences have made it clear that no
progress is possible without the full and equal
participation of women and men: in promoting peace, in
safeguarding the environment, in securing sustainable
development, in human rights, in population, in health,
in education, in government, in the home, and in civil
society.
The 1990 World Summit for Children established goals
for health, education and nutrition for women and
children.
The role of women in safeguarding the environment, and
in promoting sustainable development, was recognized at
the United Nations Conference on the Environment and
Sustainable Development, held at Rio de Janeiro. Women
were seen as having a central role in implementing
Agenda 21.
The Vienna World Conference on Human Rights reaffirmed
the universality of human rights. It was understood
that women should exercise the same rights as men on
the basis of equality.
The Cairo International Conference on Population and
Development recognized the central role of women in
population and development. Its consensus language
reflected a concept of reproductive rights that is
firmly based on human rights instruments. It also set
forth the linkage between women's empowerment and
development.
The World Summit for Social Development, meeting at
Copenhagen in 1995, adopted a Declaration and Programme
of Action. One of its central principles was the full
integration and participation of women in spurring
social development and eradicating poverty.
* * * * * *
Today, we celebrate fifty years of unceasing effort,
spearheaded by the United Nations, to advance the cause
of women.
One of the themes of our conference is equality.
Equality before the law is being achieved in many
countries. But equality in fact remains an elusive
goal in all countries. Equality of dignity is far from
being achieved, with discrimination on the basis of
gender still widespread. Real and concrete steps are
still required -- to ensure equality of opportunity in
education, and equality of access to health systems, to
jobs, and to political power.
Women work longer hours, for less pay and in lower
status jobs, than men in almost every country. Seventy
per cent of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty in
the world are women. Women and their dependent children
form the majority of the 23 million refugees and 26
million internally displaced persons in the world.
When the Charter was signed, no State had elected a
woman as head of state or government. Since then, a
total of twenty-four women have been elected to head
states or governments. But there is far to go before
we have equality between women and men in senior
government posts.
In 1994, there were no women ministers in twenty-five
States. Overall, only 5.7 per cent of the world's
cabinet ministers were women. In no country were women
in the majority as elected members of parliament.
There were exceptions: in Sweden there was parity
between men and women in ministerial posts. The
Caribbean is the only region where more than 20 per
cent of senior government officials are women.
In the United Nations itself, progress is being made.
As Secretary-General, I have appointed women to head
several UN programmes, bringing the total number of
women executive heads to five.
The General Assembly took an historic step recently
when it elected the first woman judge to the
International Court of Justice.
I have given clear instructions that the goals of the
Charter for gender equality in the United Nations
itself should be strictly followed. I have approved
action plans within the Organization to foster a
gender-sensitive working environment and to ensure that
the Organization addresses the gender aspects in all of
its work.
The role of women in peace is another theme of this
conference. In United Nations peace missions, women
remain a largely untapped resource. Missions should be
designed to take account of the extraordinary potential
of women in crisis situations.
Violence against women seems to be increasing. It
should receive the unanimous and firm condemnation of
the entire international community.
National studies in ten countries estimate that between
seventeen per cent and thirty-eight per cent of women
have been physically assaulted by a partner. An
estimated 100 million girls suffer genital mutilation.
More women are today suffering directly from the
effects of war and conflict than ever before in
history. There is a deplorable trend towards the
organized humiliation of women, including the crime of
mass rape.
We will press for international legal action against
those who perpetrate organized violence against women
in time of conflict.
* * * * *
And another theme of this conference is development.
The international community has recognized the great
potential of women as agents of consensus and peaceful
change. The challenge is to harness the energy, ideas
and skills of women, not only in the re-building of
formerly war-torn societies, but also in promoting
conditions of economic and social development
generally.
The burden of rural women in developing countries is
well-known. The United Nations, in Geneva in 1992
convened the first international conference on rural
women and development. We should be able to say of our
development efforts, that not only is development
necessary for rural women, but what is good for rural
women is good for development.
This perception has grown and become widely understood.
Women -- their lives, their roles, their aspirations --
are the key to development in every dimension.
Equality, peace and development must reach every woman
on earth. When the rights and hopes of women in all
these fields are advanced, so will all human society
come to benefit.
* * * * * *
This Conference is a milestone in the history of United
Nations work for women. It is the culmination of a
chain of global conferences. It embraces the issues
covered by all of them.
This Conference is a call to action. The Platform is
comprehensive, and challenging. It takes an integrated
approach to a wide range of issues. It cuts across all
of the concerns -- economic, social, cultural, and
political -- of the United Nations system.
As we go forward, the partnership between government
and civil society will be crucial. But the Platform
will not become reality unless that partnership now
extends into the implementation stage.
Neither government decrees nor the isolated acts of
small groups of citizens will be enough to make the
Platform work. Both must work hand in hand. The
partnership must be mobilized at all levels: the
family, the local community, and the State.
Government can garner resources. Civil society can
reach down to engage all members of society. The
movement's theme -- "think globally, act locally" -- is
more relevant than ever.
There is a growing awareness that attitudes as well as
behaviour -- both of individuals and of institutions --
must change to take account of the real rights and real
needs of women.
Let us not forget ; the progress we make is measurable
and it will be measured. Future generations will hold
us accountable. They will look for concrete signs that
Beijing, in 1995, was followed by real action.
Let us not disappoint them. Let us not disappoint
ourselves. Together we must follow our words with our
deeds.
We must take up the cause of the world's women. Thank
you