From DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.orgThu Sep 7 10:27:52 1995 Date: Tue, 05 Sep 1995 14:47:00 +0100 From: Debra Guzman Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org To: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org Subject: WCW: Beijing Conference formally opens [The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] ## author : theearthtime@igc.apc.org ## date : 05.09.95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Beijing Conference formally opens By Jack Freeman Earth Times News Service BEIJING--The Fourth World Conference on Women opened here Monday with Secretary General Gertrude Mongella dubbing it "a social revolution in the making." Addressing the first session of the Conference plenary in the Beijing International Convention Center, Mongella called upon all participants to "become committed crusaders in the struggle in which we have been engaged for many, many years." "Our agenda," she said, "must address eradication of illiteracy, ill-health, poverty, unemployment and violence, and promotion of decision-making and empowerment. It must focus on actions that will eliminate discrimination, marginalization and social exclusion." Mongella concluded her speech with three questions dealing with women and peace: "How long will women toil to contribute to the purchase of arms?" she asked. "How long will women continue to give life just to see it taken away by the use of arms? And how long will the world continue to ignore women's tears during armed conflicts?" UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was scheduled to address the Conference's opening session, but since he was prevented from traveling by a bout with the flu, his speech was read by Under Secretary General Ismat Kittani. Boutros-Ghali's words spoke of "a century of unprecedented social and political change on our planet" and the role of the UN in promoting equality for women over the past 50 years. His speech also spoke of the "continuum of global conferences" in this decade to define a new global agenda: the 19990 World Summit for Children, the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development and the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen. He spoke of the rise of women into positions of political leadership around the world, and within the UN system as well. But when Kittani read the Boutros-Ghali's assertion that "As Secretary General I have appointed women to several United Nations programs, bringing the total number of women executives to five," there was raucous laughter in some parts of the gallery. "Only five?" said one woman, adding, "That's disgraceful." Other speakers at the first session included five women "heads of state or government": Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan; Vigdis Finnbogadottir, President of Iceland; Begum Khaleda Zia, Prime Minister of Bangladesh; Dr. Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe, Vice President of Uganda and Minister of Gender and Community Development, and Mguyen Thi Binh, Vice President of Vietnam. In her speech, which was interrupted repeatedly by applause, Benazir Bhutto touched on issues of religion, female infanticide, the preference for boy children, the dowry system as a social ill, the need for women's financial independence, the decline of polygamy, the horrors of ethnic cleansing and mass rape, and the growing emancipation of women in her own family that she has witnessed. She told the Conference participants: "We must do much more than decry the past. We must change the future. . . . We are here in Beijing," she said, "to proclaim a new vision of equality and partnership."