BEIJING 1998 -FOLLOW UP SEMINAR ON THE FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN, HOSTED BY THE ALL CHINA WOMEN’S FEDERATION

Report prepared by:

 

Eileen Pittaway - UNSW/CAPOW email: E.Pittaway@unsw.edu.au CAPOW Address:  C/- PO Box 191  Civic Square ACT 2608 Ph & Fax- as for Velvy Holden

Velvy Holden - ANCORW/CAPOW  email: ancorw@ozemail.com.au                   Address: 17 Randle St            Surry Hills NSW 2010            Telephone: (02) 9212 2302            Fax: (02) 9212 2319

The aim of the conference * Delegates * The Conference Proceedings * National Reports * Working Groups * Summary of Recommendations from the Seminar * Working Group on Education and Training * Working Group on Beijing Plus Five * Preparation for Beijing Plus Five *Dinner in the Great Hall of the People * Structrue and Role of the All China Women's Federation *Report from Huairou * One Child Policy * Propoganda flows in many directions *Social Development Projects in China * Dissension amoungst NGO's *Additional recommendations based on experience at the Beijing follow-up Seminar *

The Follow up Seminar to the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in the Conference Centre and Hotel owned by the All China Women’s Federation in the centre of Beijing. This and the magnificent central administration building next door were gifted to the ACWF by the Chinese government for hosting the Fourth World Conference on women and the Non Government Forum. The profits generated by the Conference Centre and the Hotel finance the running of the Administration Centre.

THE AIM OF THE CONFERENCE

The aim of the conference was to share  experiences of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, and to seek ways in which to do this more effectively at a local, national and international level. It was seen as a stepping stone on the way to Beijing Plus Five.

DELEGATES

There were over two hundred delegates at the Seminar, approximately 100 Regional representatives of the ACWF from all parts of China, and 100 overseas delegates.(appendix 1) Invitations had gone to major International NGO’s and to Governments to pass on to NGO’s who had been actively involved in the preparation for the Fourth World Conference.

Some Governments had sent representatives from their “Women’s” office (equivalent to the Office for the Status of Women), other countires had a mixed representation from NGO’s and Government, but the majority of overseas representatives were from Peak Women’s NGO Groups from various countries and International NGO’s.

There were 11 Australian women at the meeting, three representing Soroptimists International, three from the Australia/China Friendship Society, One from Business and Professional Women’s Association two from Northern Territory Family Planning, one from (Pat Giles) and two representing ANCORW.

Disappointingly few of the International Representatives had actually taken an active role in the Fourth World Conference on Women, and some were not familiar with the Platform for Action.

Gertrude Mongella attended and shared her experiences as “roving ambassador” since the conference.

THE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS.

National Reports

The first two days of the conference were taken up with reports from delegates on their work towards implementing the Platform for Action. These varied from country and local reports to International NGO’s showcasing development projects initiated by their organisations.

Many countries, including China, have established National Plans for the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. These have a range of  monitoring and evaluations mechanisms In some countries, these have been prepared by Government, in others, by NGO’s and in some cases, the National Plan has been prepared by Government, and the monitoring and evaluation process  has been instigated and undertaken by NGO’s.

For example, in China, the principle of Gender Equity has been adopted at all levels of government as an overarching policy which informs all other policy. The All China Women’s Federation has an active role in monitoring this through their National Structure. (see below)

Thai Women’s Watch, a network of national women’s groups have come together to monitor the implementation of the Platform for Action and to organise projects with this aim.

Thailand has a new constitution, and women’s NGO’s lobbied and worked with government in the drafting process. There are six articles in the constitution which incorporate the principle of the equality of women.

Thai Womens Watch has organised regional forums on all areas of the Platform for Action, These will come together for a National Forum in the year 2000

India has used the momentum from the Beijing Conference to push for an increase of women in government. 33% of all local level politicians are now women.

Ethiopia has a new constitution which enshrines the principle of Equality for women. They have a newly formed Department for women, and a set of policies for the development of women which they believe meet standards of international best practice. They are very aware, however, that they have little experience in policy implementation. Members of the Womens Bureau were at Beijing to learn about program development and implementation. They had visited women’s projects across south east Asia on their way to China, and planned to return to Ethiopia to begin to implementation strategies.

Women’s groups in Egypt used the Platform of Action to introduce one gender schools at a village level, in order to provide education for girl children. Female Genital Mutilation has now been legally banned, although they acknowledge that this is only the first step in a long march.

The Philippines have  both an NGO and a Government scoreboard to measure the implementation of the Platform for Action.

Some countires, most notably Zambia, have prepared and circulated simplified pamphlet versions of the Platform for Action to women at the grass roots level, thus making the platform a meaningful part of local planning, and making links between the UN process and local service provision.

These are just some of the many reports given, which provided information about the wide range of activities which can be attributed as outcomes from the Fourth World Conference on Women.
(Copies of the various country and NGO reports are available from ANCORW on request, for the cost of photocopying and postage).

These presentations, while intense and quite tiring, gave an excellent overview of the many different activities which have taken place as a result of the Beijing Conference, and the wide range of interpretations which have been placed by both government and NGO’s with relation to the Platform. It also demonstrated the ways in which different world views and ideologies influence the interpretation of such documents, both within and between countries.

It was a reminder that there is no such thing as a universal feminist, and that while working in the women’s movement, one has to be both aware and respectful of the views of others which will often differ from ones own.
 

Working Groups

Working groups were held around the twelve critical areas from The Platform for Action,  to enable women to exchange information and plan strategies and actions. As could be expected from the very diverse backgrounds and interests of the participants, the workshops were not unanimous in their findings, and several of the recommendations which went to the plenary were not fully endorsed by the members of the working groups.

On the whole, the recommendations are broad and somewhat unfocused, talking of general principles, without suggesting how they should be fulfilled, or who should take the action. The lack of previous involvement in the Beijing process, or real familiarity with the Platform for Action, or CEDAW by many participants was very obvious. Material which had been thoroughly discussed in preparation for the Beijing Conference was raised as if it were new. This caused some tensions between workshop participants, with those who had been involved in the Beijing Conference feeling frustrated at what they saw to be a missed opportunity to build upon work previous done.

Reports from the work groups were given in the final plenary session. These varied from short descriptions of the content of the discussion, through to formal recommendations for future action. They have been summarised below.

Summary of Recommendations from the Seminar

Similar recommendations from different working groups have not been repeated.

Working Group on Violence Against Women, Women’s Human Rights and the Girl Child

Issues of concern for this group were:
 

• All forms of Violence against women and children, including cultural violence, political violence and social violence,

• the failure of some Governments to fully implement the principles inherent in CEDAW!, and

• the rape and sexual abuse of refugee women in situations of conflict.

Recommendations were made at three levels.

International Action
 

• We urge all Governments who have not already done so to sign, ratify and incorporate the Convention to end All Forms of discrimination into their Domestic Law.

• We recommend that rape in armed conflict be recognised as an international crime, an act of torture and genocide. This issue should be made a priority issue for Beijing Plus %

• The statement was made that peace is a requisite for the propagation of Women’s Human Rights.

National Action
 

• That all National governments who are signatories of CEDW should implement article 2(a), which is to incorporate the Principle of Equality between men and women into Constitutional law,

• That the principle of equal remuneration for men and women as reflected in the ILO Convention, be incorporated into National Law of those countries which are signatory to that convention.

Action at all levels, International, National, Local and the Home.
 

• That gender equity be introduced in to all aspects of social, economic and civil life.

• That Section G of the Platform for Action, “Women in Power and Decision Making be implemented as a matter of urgency.

• That NGO’s Influence the mass media on their responsibility to be more pro active and effective in changing the role of women.

• That education on the effects and prevention of all forms of violence against women be introduced to the Judiciary, and Law Enforcement agencies. That neighbours and communities be made aware of their responsibility to report such violence, that respect of the female be taught and the male child to be educated to precent violence.

• That men must be included in all awareness programmes and workshops, training and education on violence, violence against women and gender training.

• That to enhance the status of the girl child we must start from the home to change traditional role models of the boy and girl to achieve gender equity.

• That the social and institutional infrastructure needs to be strengthened in order to implement women’s human rights.

• Human Rights are women’s rights, women’s rights are human rights and peace is a prerequisites for Human Rights.

Working Group on Education and Training

Issues of concern for this group were:

• the gap between equality in law and equality in practice, in particular in the classroom,

• the effects of early marriage, sexual exploitation and illegal abortion on the education of girls.

It was recommended that:

• Governments work towards the removal of sexual exploitation and illegal abortion and provide education for all girls.

• NGO’s need to monitor the gender gap in education.

• NGO’s lobby governments to ensure education and training and compulsory secondary education for girls in every country, to provide girls with equal opportunities in employment.

• All curricula be gender neutral and unbiased towards males.

• NGO’s in every country lobby government to increase the number of women in decision making, in Law and at the United Nations.

• The mass media be used more effectively to address women’s rights.

Working group on Beijing Plus Five

It was identified as a matter of concern that grass roots NGO’s have not been adequately involved in the process of planning for the preparatory meetings leading up to Beijing Plus Five in the year 2000.

It is therefore recommended that:

• NGO’s lobby their governments for representation at the governmental preparatory meetings leading up to Beijing Plus 5

• Sub-Regional preparatory meetings be held prior to the regional meetings in order to feed issues pertinent to the sub-regions to the regional meetings. The Regional meetings then feed into Government Preparatory meetings through NGO representation.

• Grass roots NGO’s be accredited to attend all UN preparatory meetings.

It is an issue of concern that the rape and sexual abuse of refugee women in conflict situations occurs internationally, causing severe psychological distress and physical harm to women and to their children, who often witness the offence or are abused themselves.

It is therefore recommended that:

• All Governments who receive refugees as country of first refuge or as country of resettlement ensure that’s service are provided to meet the needs of women and children who have been raped and sexually abused, and that UNHCR guidelines on Refugee women are fully implemented.

Despite the very wide range of women’s groups represented, the mix of government and non-government participants, and the range of ideological view points, the seminar was a great success. The value of the conference was less in the formal outputs, and more in the informal networking and information exchange which took place. Contacts were renewed and new ones made with women from around the world. Plans were made for collaboration on a range of projects, and in preparation for Beijing Plus five

The report form the working group on Health is not yet available, and will be added later.

Preparation for Beijing Plus Five.

One participant at the Seminar was Madame Sumallee, Chair of xxxx and also Chair of the Regional NGO Working Group in preparation for Beijing. As is detailed in the first part of this report, CAPOW! worked closely with this group in preparation for the Conference and NGO Forum. Since then, there has been no contact between the groups, and it had been assumed that the NGO Working groups had been disbanded.

We were surprised to hear that this was not the case. They are still active, holding meetings, and preparing  for Beijing Plus Five. They were also surprised to meet members of CAPOW! as they had assumed that we had ceased functioning. Sumallee mentioned several places she had written to in an attempt to contact CAPOW!, but fate had worked against us. It was good to get back in touch.

At the end of 1999, ESCAP, the Economic and Social Council of the Asia Pacific Region are holding a high level ministerial meeting in preparation for Beijing Plus 5 in Bangkok. Sumallee is planning an NGO event prior to and during this meeting, and we have been invited to participate.

Dinner in the Great Hall of the People

A highlight of the conference was a reception in the Great Hall of the People. Quite an experience.

Other issues of interest arising form the Seminar.

The following observations are personal comments by the researcher, and do not represent the views of any group or organisation.

Structure and role of the All China Women’s Federation

It was useful to understand the structure of the All China Women’s Federation, which is as follows: (Velvy)

This structure complements the structure of the Chinese Government, and there are office bearers of the All China Women’s Federation appointed to work with each level of Government. Wherever there is a Government office, from the Central Government, down to the village or District (Suburb) level, there is a member of ACWF. There are over 90 000 paid workers and one million volunteers.

While working closely Government, they are not a Government body and have an independent structure and constitution. They have a membership of over 5000 women’s groups, ranging form Trades Unions, Women Academics, Agricultural women, Women writers etc. It is a condition of membership that all member groups be registered as an organisation and agree with the constitution of the All China Women’s Federation.

They are not directly Government funded, but do receive project funding in the same way that many NGO’s function in Australia. For example, In Shiang Province, the poverty alleviation programs organised by ACWF have been so successful that the provincial Government has made them an annual of 10Mil Yuen for the next five years, to enable the group to focus on remote and isolated rural women. . In Shanghai, one district group has received government funding to run re-training and job placement schemes for women who have been laid off in the economic restructure.

They also receive funding on a project by project basis from International Aid agencies, such as Unifem and Save the Children, and there are 17 Women’s and Children’s centres under construction across China, most of which have income generation functions such as Hostels or Conference Centres

Report from Huairou

Many women who attended the NGO Forum may be interested in this report of the impact that hosting the Forum had on the town of Huairou. We were taken to the town to met with the local Deputy Mayor, a woman, and the branch head of the ACWF.

The town looked well kept and prosperous. The women reported that the forum had had a very positive effect on the status of women in the town. There was now a greater acceptance of the “women’s cause” and rights. A “model” children’s kindergarten has been established for working mothers. There is a marked increase in the participation of girls in secondary and tertiary education, encouraged by an education program targeting females.

There are a number of income generating projects have started for local women, and there has been a significant increase in the annual income rate. There is zero unemployment in Huairou and the surrounding agricultural areas. Workers are being encourage to migrate from other areas with grants of land for houses and work on the Greenhouse Vegetable gardens which have been established in the region.

A “Spring Bud” project, to assist young female school drop-outs to resume education and find employment has been established. A Women In Development co-operative has been started in the area and poverty alleviation projects which mainly target women and children, have been instigated, supported by the local government bodies.

There has been a marked increase in the participation of women in politics. 28.1% of local politicians are now women, 11% more than at the time of the forum. The Division has 52% women Deputies, the highest rate in the entire Beijing area, which covers some 13 million people.

We visited a model rural village, about 20 Kms from Huairou. The female village head showed us the kindergarten, homes and the green house project on which the local people work. This has increased the crop production from one to three per year. They provide vegetables for Beijing and specialist crops such as cucumber to Japan.

One street in the village threw open its homes and compounds for us to visit, about 12 in all. One family we visited had two daughters, one studying Law in Beijing, the other studying agriculture at a local college. What we saw was extremely positive.

One Child Policy

While we were in China, we took the opportunity to speak with a number of women about the one child policy. All of these women were affiliated with the All China Women’s Federation, and either spoke English, or communicated via one of their interpreters.

The official policy is that families in urban areas can have one child, in rural areas, two children and ethnic minorities can have three or more. There are special provisions for families who lose a child, for widows and divorcees.

The message which we received was that while no-one particularly liked the one child policy, it was generally accepted as the only way out of an otherwise impossible problem. There are 2.3 billion people in China, and if each family who currently have one child had two children, they would require more food than is currently produced in the whole of Asia. With the current national budget, it would not be possible to provide schooling and medical services for them all. As it is, they are still struggling to get education and medical services to the rural and remote areas of China at the current time.

Women discussed the difficulty that this policy has posed to a culture which revered large families. It is an old saying that the pomegranate is the favourite fruit because it has so many seeds – as a man should have many children. They explained that in their near history they were a feudal society, in which men were valued and girls treated as chattels. It is taking time to overcome this deeply held belief and consequent practices. They reported that with wide community education, this is gradually being overcome. This has been easier in urban areas than in rural areas,

One outcome of the one child policy is that the child has become “the sun and the moon” of the family, and parents work to give their child every possible advantage, often spoiling the child.

The women commented that they get very tired of westerners coming to China and condemning the one child policy without proposing any effective alternatives for the massive problems the policy is designed to alleviate. They said that sometimes feel personally attacked as heartless and uncaring, when in fact they do not see any other way until the population is stabilised and that severe poverty is alleviated throughout China.

It is an incredible contentious and difficult issues with no easy solution.

Propaganda flows in many directions

One went to Beijing very aware of the suggestion that the conference was little more than an exercise in propaganda by the Chinese Government, and some women questioned the value of such a meeting. With this in mind, and with heightened sensitivity to this, one became very ware that propaganda flows in many directions, and not just from Government. One also questions the nature of propaganda.

Yes, there were speeches which could have been identified as propaganda – from several of the several national government representatives who were there. There were also presentations which could be seen as propaganda by some of the NGO’s

The Chinese showed us model projects and told of successful ventures. Is this propaganda? One needs to ponder on what we show foreign representatives who visit our country. Following the conference, those of us who went on study tours were also shown some of the problems which China is experiencing, introduced to the extreme poverty experienced by some Chinese people, and shown how the government is working to alleviate this.

In experiencing the complete freedom which we had to explore Beijing, one became aware that many of the “stories” which we had been told prior to Beijing 1995 either were not true, or that Beijing has undergone a total transformation and attitude change in just three years. It is one of the cleanest and “safest” feeling cities several of us have visited in a long time. Or perhaps the beggars, street vendors and prostitutes which had all been cleared out of the City for the Conference were all cleared out for this meeting also.

Social Development Projects in China

In a post conference study tour of social development project in Beijing, Tie Yuen, Xiang and Shanghai, we saw several examples of  “entrepreneurial’ funding of projects similar to the All China Women’s Federation which provided food for thought!! We also visited a huge range of social development projects in rural, regional and urban settings. A separate report of this tour is available from ANCORW.

Dissension amongst NGO’s

The most disappointing aspect of the seminar were the differences which  arose between the groups of NGO’s from Australia, and the ways in which these were handled.

NGO’s come from different ideological perspectives and world views, and very different concepts of the role of an NGO, both in relations to the Government and to women in Australia. International NGO’s appear to have a different and outward looking perspective from NGO’s representing national interests.

The lack of communication and information sharing between NGO’s which was reported in the research project above was very obvious in the interaction in Beijing. While it is highly unlikely that diverse interest groups will ever agree on all issues, it would be useful if some common ground could be identified before International meetings, and areas of dissent clearly identified.

It is very obvious that broad representation of Australian women’s groups is needed at International events. It is not sufficient to leave this function in the hands of International NGO’s. It is also very sad that one group of NGO’s should “report” another group to the Government for NGO’s activities undertaken at an NGO Forum.

Additional recommendations based on experience at the Beijing follow-up Seminar.:

It has become apparent that any one women’s network which tries to accommodate all National and International NGO’s within Australia would inevitably be so compromised by concessions to be made at each end of the political and ideological spectrum that it will not be an effective body. Discussion with the Office for the Status for women indicates that they would rather deal with two networks (or more) who are clear and unambiguous in their agendas, than one, which is patently unable to represent the divers interests of all women in Australia

With this in mind, It is recommended that CAPOW! revitalises the working groups and monitoring process around the Platform for Action and prepares to particpate in the Regional NGO Working Groups in preparation for Beijing Plus Five, and at Beijing Plus Five. In order to achieve this end:

• an active group of national and grass roots NGO’s represent CAPOW! at these meeting,

• these representatives be thoroughly briefed by the various working groups, and

• that meetings be held around Australia to ensure that the voices of as many women as possible feed into this process,

• CAPOW! be very clear in its commitment to CEDAW!, to the Platform for Action and to Women’s Human Rights, and that groups which do not fully subscribe to these principles exclude themselves from CAPOW!

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