From DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.orgFri Sep 15 10:25:08 1995 Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 20:25:00 +0100 From: Debra Guzman Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org To: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org Subject: WCW: #9 & 10 Health for Humanity [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] ## Original in: /HRNET/WOMEN ## author : wcw45@wcw.apc.org ## date : 10.09.95 -------------------------------------------------------------------- #9 HEALTH FOR HUMANITY, 9/9/95 DEAR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES: This is the ninth report from the World Conference on Women, Beijing, China, by Health for Humanity, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) dedicated to uniting people to advance world health. Today, the sections of the Platform of Action document under discussion include health, the girl child, the environment, and the media. The Earth Negotiations Bulletin, a daily two page summary of the ongoing consultations of the governmental and nongovernmental delegations, both in formal working groups and informally, in the corridors, reported that : "The health section is one example where NGOs report that official delegations have used ideas and arguments that NGOs have advocated...." As I compose today's summary at 4:30 P.M. in the conference computer center, three women from NGOs are rapidly revising recommended text to be discussed at 5 P.M. in the Environmental Caucus for possible inclusion in the final Platform of Action. The Working Group on Environment is meeting for morning, afternoon , and evening sessions today to try to resolve differences that have kept some 40% of the action plan in brackets until concensus can be reached. So various versions of the final text are submitted and discussed by concerned citizens' groups and governments, and after much debate, either an agreement on particular wording is reached or that segment is deleted. Yesterday, for example, governmental delegates sent a paragraph on spiritual and moral values, sustainable development, and women's special role to an informal group to revise it after some delegates suggested deletion. If the revision is acceptable to the delegates, it will be included, if not it will be deleted once and for all. UNICEF CHIEF CALLS FOR EDUCATION OF GIRLS The Executive Director of UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, Carol Bellamy, made a strong appeal for education of women and girls. She said: "Will it cost too much? Everyone agrees that education is a basic right and is vital for all development -- human, social, and economic development. Yet, so far the world has failed to make the investment needed. It is unconscionable that a world which is able to to spend approximately $800 billion dollars a year on weapons believes it cannot find the money needed for basic education. An extra U.S. $5-6 billion is needed annually to achieve primary education for all. It must be found." Carol Bellamy, UNICEF's Director, then called upon governments to mobilize the money necessary for basic education and called upon parlimentarians to pass laws that ensure compulsory universal education. Finally, she called upon community leaders to "demand more programmes that help girls and sensitize key groups, especially brothers and fathers to the importance of girls' education." U.N. DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UNDP) DIRECTOR ASKS: "ISN'T IT TIME FOR A CHANGE?" James Gustave Speth , Administrator of UNDP, gave a spirited speech in which he "palpable awareness that women hold the keys to solutions of many of the problems we face. If only the world would let women use those keys! " UNDP Director Speth noted: "I think we all would agree that today it is a man's world, instead of a woman's and man's world. The question I would pose to you is, ISN'T IT TIME FOR A CHANGE? Speth continued, "While China ranks 111 among countries in the Human Development Index, it is number 23 in gender empowerment. China proves that a nation's men can share opportunity with women regardless of the amount of welath to be shared." He emphasized: "We must never forget that for many women it is not only the economic and political deprivation that affects their lives. For all too many, the most painful devaluation is the physical and psychological violence that stalks them from cradle to grave. For too many women, life is shadowed by the threat of violence. Laws can do little to help these women inless present cultural and social values change." Speth stated: "I do not want to underestimate the enormity of the challenge. Understanding the complex set of relationships and attitudes that make up the universe of gender relations, and which vary enormously from culture to culture, is no easy task. And then acting upon this understanding is another matter altogether. Eliminating gender disparities is a deep, system -wide problem and needs a system-wide response. But it must be done. And it must be done by having men and women sitting as equals at the table. It is certainly time for that change." He closed by saying: "Poverty increasingly has a woman's face. UNDP's overriding priority is the...objective of poverty elimination. Women must therefore be at the center of all our work." --------------------------------------------------------------------- #10 Health for Humanity Report September 10, 1995, Sunday Dear Friends and Colleagues: (Beijing, China) Today the U.N delegations are not meeting officially. However, the conference center is alive with diplomats and writers consulting in the corridors and in small informal gatherings, reviewing strategies and revising documents in preparation for a new round of negotiations that begin Monday morning and continue until the 14th. Some 3,200 journalists are covering the World Conference on Women, including more than 500 Beijing-based correspondents for overseas media companies. Scores of press conferences afford lively opportunities to interview NGO and governmental delegations and to explore tensions, conflicts, and paths to a deeper understanding of the issues at stake. While the media is often criticized for having a blind spot when it comes to women, and for concentrating on negatives, at least some of the media representatives here are aware of the seriousness and potential influence of this historic event. Other reporters, who may be less aware of the real issues, suddenly find themselves immersed in "women's issues," issues that profoundly affect humanity as a whole. Certainly one prerequisite for a healthy humanity will be media institutions that reflect its reality accurately, with compassion and a keen sense of responsibility. UNICEF attempts to bring the seriousness of the condition of women in Africa into vivid focus. In an effort to paint a picture of what daily life is like for the majority of African women, UNICEF reported that in sub-Saharan Africa, approximately three-quarters of the homes have no electricity. In addition to their responsibilities for the care of the children, women are usually the ones who grow the food, cook the meals, wash the clothes, clean the house, take care of the sick and the elderly, and spend the most hours fetching and carrying wood for fuel and water for their families. UNICEF further reports that in 33 countries worldwide, including many countries in Africa, at least 25% of the mothers under age 50 have witnessed the death of one or more children. The major causes of death are pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, tetanus, and malaria. These five diseases account for two-thirds of the illnesses and deaths in the developing world, are usually accompanied by malnutrition. The scientific knowledge to prevent them is available. What is lacking is political will. In the African Regional Preparatory Conference in November, 1994, the initial draft of the African Platform of Action clearly stated the intimate inter-relationships of all of these issues and the need to address them systematically and decisively if we, as a world community, are to lift our sisters and daughters out of the deplorable conditions that entrap them. The African Action Plan stated: [Due to] "disrupting basic social and health services and...diverting scarce physical, human, financial, material, scientific, and technological resources to the development of the machinery of death and destruction, millions of children die of preventable diseases." In 1990, the world community spent $800 billion on the military, one-half billion dollars on vaccinations, $5 billion on malnutrition, one and one-half billion dollars on essential health care in the developing world, and one-half billion dollars on vaccinations. The African Platform of Action observed: "The imperative of a successful search for peace which is crucial in the African region cannot be overemphasized. Women and children are the major victims of ethnic and civil strife, including religious extremism. In the ongoing processes of conflict prevention, management, and resolution, women should be closely and actively involved and consulted at the national, suubregional, and regional level." The African Draft Action Plan continued: "....Equality is not only the absence of discrimination but also the enjoyment of rights, responsibilities, and opportunities by women and men....There can be no equality and development without peace, and...peace can only be achieved with the full involvement of women as equal partners with men at all levels of decision-making and diplomacy." Alfred Einstein wrote, "Peace cannot be reached by force. Peace can only be achieved by understanding." Alfred North Whitehead wrote, "The whole progress of civilization depends upon the transformation from force to grace." The African-American poetess, Marion Moore wrote: "There never was a war that wasn't inward." The late Jeanette Rankin, former U.S. Senator wrote, "Winning a war is like winning an earthquake." Perhaps this World Conference on Women will be an historic landmark on the pathway to a new global neighborhood, a global community that refuses to accept injustice towards half of the human race as inevitable. To become good global neighbors, we must find ways to accelerate the integration of the gender dimension into all levels of societal decsion-making. Let each of us search our hearts and minds and apply the principle of the equality of women with men, and of girls with boys, in our daily lives in our homes, schools, universities, workplaces, clinics, hospitals, and places of worship. Only by applying this fundamental principle of the oneness of humanity will we achieve the visions of world peace and world health. This is the tenth in a series of reports from the World Confernce on Women. This service is provided by Health for Humanity, a group dedicated to uniting people for the advancement of world health. We welcome readers' responses. Please write by e-mail by Sept. 13, 1995 to wcw45@wcw.apc.org.