Changing the World
Exactly ten years ago, in January 2011, The United
Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as
UN Women, started its work for the empowerment of women. This new entity of the
UN was intended to sharpen the focus and impact of the gender equality
activities of the entire United Nations system. On September 14, 2010, it had
been announced that former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet was appointed
as head of UN Women. Various countries supported the creation of the body. During
General Debate at the opening of the 65th General Assembly of the United
Nations, world leaders commended the creation of the body and its intention to
"empower women", as well as welcoming Bachelet's position as the first
Executive Director and inaugural head. Michelle Bachelet was former President
of Chile. The current Executive Director is Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who served
as Deputy President of South Africa from 2005 to 2008. She was the first woman
to hold that position.
UN
Women's main thematic areas of work include:
• Leadership and political
participation
• Economic empowerment
• Ending violence against
women
• Humanitarian action
• Peace and security
• Governance and national
planning
• The 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development
• HIV and AIDS
My
generation still remembers the excitement associated with the Fourth World Conference
on Women in Beijing from 4-15 September, 1995. At a time when women really had
to come together in person in order to get to know each other and their
struggles, the 39.000 delegates to the conference heard about many problems for
the first time. The official government delegates from 189 countries around the
world worked hard to agree on a document that would give women a voice. The
result was a compromise but the conference finally adopted a blueprint of
actions to build a gender-equal world, giving women a voice, known as the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. UN Women works within the
framework of the UN Charter and this declaration.
The Chinese government had moved the parallel NGO Forum to Huairou, about 100
km outside of Beijing, where the participants were able to connect with each
other. The participating non-governmental organizations all had tents where
they presented their work and agendas. It was a celebration of diversity in
dress, languages and ethnicities, with women raising a consciousness of their
common struggle for equality in spite of their differences. Due to the constant
rain the conditions were appalling, with feet sinking in mud not unlike
Woodstock, but the atmosphere was exhilarating, with women forming partnerships
across the globe. Many of the participating women were shaped for a lifetime by
this conference.
This was not the first World Conference on Women,
but it was the first, where women themselves were really seated at the table.
The first World Conference on Women was held between 19 June and 2 July 1975 in
Mexico City. It was the first international conference held by the United
Nations to focus solely on women's issues and marked a turning point in policy
directives. The conference marked the first time that the parallel Tribune
meeting (later called Forum) was successful in submitting input to the official
meeting and became a catalyst for women's groups to form throughout the world.
The Second World Conference on Women took place
between 14 and 30 July 1980 in Copenhagen. It was the direct result of the
First World Conference on Women, assessing the progress and failure in
implementing the goals established by the World Plan of Action at the 1975
inaugural conference on women. Both of these conferences were hampered by the
geo-political divides of the Cold War. The Third World Conference on Women took
place between 15 and 26 July 1985 in Nairobi, Kenya, also with the goal of
assessing progress and failure in implementing the goals established in 1975
and modified by the World Program of Action of the second conference.
One of the key speeches at the 1995 Beijing
Conference was held by the First Lady of the UN, Hillary Rodham Clinton. We
know that she equated women’s rights with human rights. Many have never heard
or read the complete speech, which is why I would like to include a part here[1].
She found strong words that resonate even today:
“This is truly a celebration -- a celebration of the communities, as mothers,
wives, sisters, daughters, learners, workers, citizens and leaders.
It is also a coming together, much the way women come together every day in
every country.
We come together in fields and in factories. In village markets and
supermarkets. In living rooms and board rooms. Whether it is while playing with
our children in the park or washing clothes in a river, or taking a break at
the office water cooler, we come together and talk about our aspirations and
concerns. And time and again, our talk turns to our children and our families. However
different we may be, there is far more that unites us than divides us. We share
a common future. And we are here to find common ground so that we may help
bring new dignity and respect to women and girls all over the world -- and in
so doing, bring new strength and stability to families as well.
By gathering in Beijing, we are focusing world attention on issues that
matter most in the lives of women and their families: access to education, health
care, jobs, and credit, the chance to enjoy basic legal and human rights and
participate fully in the political life of their countries….
What we are learning around the world is that, if women are healthy and
educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their
families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and
equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families
flourish, communities and nations will flourish. That is why every woman, every
man, every child, every family, and every nation on our planet has a stake in
the discussion that takes place here…
Those of us who have the opportunity to be here have the responsibility to
speak for those who could not. …
We need to understand that there is ho formula for how women should lead
their lives. That is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for
herself and her family. Every woman deserves the chance to realize her
God-given potential.
We also must recognize that women will never gain full dignity until their
human rights are respected and protected. Our goals for this conference, to
strengthen families and societies by empowering women to take greater control
over their own destinies, cannot be fully achieved unless all governments -here
and around the world -- accept their responsibility to protect and promote
internationally recognized human rights.
The international community has long acknowledged -- and recently affirmed
at Vienna -- that both women and men are entitled to a range of protections and
personal freedoms, from the right of personal security to the right to
determine freely the number and spacing of the children they bear.
No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or political
persecution, arrest, abuse or torture. Tragically, women are most often the
ones whose human rights are violated. Even in the late 20th century, the rape
of women continues to be used as an instrument of armed conflict. Women and
children make up a large majority of the world's refugees. And when women are
excluded from the political process, they become even more vulnerable to abuse.
I believe that, on the eve of a new millennium, it is time to break our
silence. It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and the world to hear, that
it is no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human
rights.
These abuses have continued because, for too long, the history of women has
been a history of silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to
silence our words.
The voices of this conference and of the women at Huairou must be heard
loud and clear:
It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned,
or suffocated, or their spines born girls.
It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the
slavery of prostitution.
It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set
on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too
small.
It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their
own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic
or prize of war.
It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide
among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own
homes.
It is a violation of human rights when young girls are brutalized by the
painful and degrading practice of genital mutilation.
It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan
their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being
sterilized against their will.
If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, it is that
human rights are women's rights.... And women's rights are human rights.
Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely.
And the right to be heard.
Women must enjoy the right to participate fully in the social and political
lives of their countries if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure…
Now it is time to act on behalf of women everywhere. If we take bold steps
to better the lives of women, we will be taking bold steps to better the lives
of children and families too. Families rely on mothers and wives for emotional
support and care; families rely on women for labor in the home; and
increasingly, families rely on women for income needed to raise healthy
children and care for other relatives.
As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace around the
world -- as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last,
overworked, underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence in and out of
their homes -the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous
world will not be realized.
Let this conference be our -- and the world's -- call to action.
And let us heed the call so that we can create a world in which every woman
is treated with respect and dignity, every boy and girl is loved and cared for
equally, and every family has the hope of a strong and stable future.
As a European woman I fail to understand why so
many Americans, women included, hate Hillary Clinton. She has a record as a
life-long women’s rights activist and I resonate with her. Many of the issues
she addressed 25 years ago in Beijing have not just disappeared but still exist
in our world. Fighting for women’s rights is still an ongoing issue. The
Beijing Platform for Action remains the single most important document in the
global fight for women’s rights. But much work remains to be done. That is what
UN Women are attempting to do by providing an agenda with a date by which it
should be accomplished in order to stay focused on really making changes in the
world.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a
comprehensive plan to end injustice in all areas of our lives and transform the
world.
The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to transform our world are[2]:
1: No Poverty
2: Zero Hunger
3: Good Health and Well-being
4: Quality Education
5: Gender Equality
6: Clean Water and Sanitation
7: Affordable and Clean Energy
8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
10: Reduced Inequality
11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
12: Responsible Consumption and Production
13: Climate Action
14: Life Below Water
15: Life on Land
16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
When we look at our world today we see the COVID-19
pandemic raging, forests burning, oceans being polluted and the global climate warming
to an alarming extent. Millions of people who are displaced due to conflicts
and catastrophes are looking for a way to survive. The world’s women and girls
are bearing the brunt of the worst impacts. 47 million women and girls are
experiencing extreme poverty. The pandemic has caused domestic violence to
increase. Gender equality is still out of reach. Let us not be reduced to
silence in our world but work to change the world.
Hillary Clinton shared the Poem
“Silence” by Anasuya Sengupta,
a schoolgirl from India, when she addressed the women at the Forum in Huairou
„Too many women in too many countries
speak the same language of silence.
My grandmother was always silent, always aggrieved
Only her husband had the cosmic right (or so it was said)
to speak and be heard.
They say it is different now.
(After all, I am always vocal and my grandmother
thinks I talk too much)
But sometimes I wonder.
When a woman shares her thoughts, as some women do,
graciously, it is allowed.
When a woman fights for power, as all women would like
to, quietly or loudly, it is questioned.
And yet, there must be freedom — if we are to speak
And yes, there must be power — if we are to be heard.
And when we have both (freedom and power) let us now be
understood.
We seek only to give words to those who cannot speak
(too many women in too many countries)
I seek to forget the sorrows of my grandmother’s silence.“
For all who have never read the Beijing Declaration I am
including a link to the Beijing resolution:
https://www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/pdfs/Beijing_Declaration_and_Platform_for_Action.pdf
Photo: By DFID - UK Department for International Development
- Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women, speaking at Girl Summit
2014, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38901075
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