From DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.orgTue Sep 12 07:28:15 1995
Date: Sat, 09 Sep 1995 08:30:00 +0100
From: Debra Guzman <DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.org>
Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org
To: beijing95-l@netcom.com, beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org
Subject: WCW: Beijing Plenary gets down to business

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## Original in: /HRNET/WOMEN
## author     : theearthtime@igc.apc.org
## date       : 07.09.95

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Beijing Plenary gets down to business
By Jack Freeman
Earth Times News Service

BEIJING--After two tumultuous days of pomp and ceremony and
headline- making speeches by global celebrities, the Fourth
World Conference on Women settled down to business on
Wednesday.

Delegates began to chip away at the portions of the draft
Platform for Action that are in square brackets which
indicate lack of consensus. Reports from inside the meetings
of the "contact groups" that are working on the text say
that much progress is being made to resolve differences.

Some delegates, though, have complained that others are
slowing the work because they have not bothered to read the
document.

To many of the participants, Wednesday brought something of
a letdown. Journalists had to scramble to find material for
their stories. And more than a few of the people working in
the Beijing International Convention Center began to ask
again an old familiar question: Is this Conference going to
produce anything more than just talk?

Others phrased the question more pointedly: Who here is
prepared to commit the resources needed to convert all this
rhetoric into real programs that will help real women? There
were few answers.

Into this breach stepped the United States delegation, which
has effectively dominated news coverage of the Conference
for the past couple of days. It distributed a 12-page
document titled "United States Commitments Announced at the
Fourth World Conference on Women." It lists dozens of new or
contemplated programs, campaigns, efforts, plans,
initiatives, awards and actions to improve equality and
power-sharing by women. It also lists several new councils,
committees and task forces to be formed to help in the task.

Of all these "commitments," only one is presented with a
price tag. Ambassador Madeleine K. Albright, US Permanent
Representative to the UN, in her address to the Plenary:

"In accordance with recently approved law," she said, "the
Department of Justice will launch a six-year, $1.6 billion
initiative to fight domestic violence and other crimes
against women. Funds will be used for specialized police and
prosecution units and to train police, prosecutors and
judicial personnel."

Albright also announced another "commitment" by the US,
saying: "We, the people and government of the United States
of America, will continue to speak out openly and without
hesitation on behalf of the human rights of all people."

She said that "a fundamental distinction between coercion
and choice" is at the heart of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, adding that: "No woman--whether in Birmingham,
Bombay, Beirut or Beijing--should be forcibly sterilized or
forced to have an abortion."

Albright said that every woman and man has an inalienable
right to participate in the political process.

"It is unconscionable," she said, "that the right to free
expression has been called into question right here, at a
conference conducted under the auspices of the UN and whose
very purpose is the free and open discussion of women's
rights."