5th United Nations World Conference on Women

I am back from New York and would like to report on the proceedings of women's conference held at the United Nations. It was a wonderful community of women from all over the globe. Among them, there is consensus that we need this 5^th international  conference but to date none of the 192 member nations has stepped up to request it. My goal is to have this happen in India.

Where we are now:

Dr. Michelle Bachelet, Under Secretary-General of the UN and former President of Chile, was appointed in September as the executive director of UN Women,the newly created UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Their work is “to convince all political actors — including ministers of finance and trade as well as health and education — that we are not only talking about rights, we are talking about social vitality, political stability, and economic growth.”

Ms. Bachelet is determined that the UN will sponsor a 5th World Conference on Women, bringing the superagency and women’s problems and solutions into global awareness, and inspire fund-raising for it using 21st century communication technology. Michelle is a pediatrician, single mother, liberal, imprisoned by Pinochet, who left office with an 84% approval rating.

History of UN actions on Women:

Gender equality is not only a basic human right but it achievement has enormous socio-economic ramifications. Empowering women fuels thriving economies, spurring productivity and growth.

1975- The first global conference was held in Mexico City, Mexico and launched the UN Decade for Women. Three goals were identified:

1. Full gender equality and the elimination of gender discrimination
2. Integration and full participation of women in development
3. Increasing women’s contribution to the strengthening of world peace.

1979- United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Bill of Rights for Women), which legally bound 165 states to submit progress reports every 4 years.

1980- The Second World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women was help in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1985- The Third World Conference on Women was held in Nairobi, Kenya.

1995- The Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, China.

A fundamental transformation took place at the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women – the recognition that women’s rights are human rights and that there must be a shift of focus from “women” to the concept of "gender” recognizing that the entire structure of society and all relations between women and men have to be re-evaluated.

The Beijing conference unanimously adopted the Beijing Declaration and Beijing Platform for Action, an agenda for women’s empowerment. The twelve critical concerns identified were:

1. Women and poverty
2. Education and training of Women
3. Women and health
4. Violence against Women
5. Women in armed conflict
6. Women and the economy
7. Women in power and decision making
8. Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of Women
9. Human rights of Women
10. Women and the media
11. Women and the environment
12. The Girl Child

Since 1995 there have been three reviews of the Beijing Declaration and now it is time for a new generation of women to gather for a 5th UN World Conference on Women and Girls (For more information, please visit: http://5wcw.org). Our committee put forth the proposal that the conference should be held iin New Delhi, India which was received with excitement.

Why India:

• India is the world’s largest democracy.
• The country of India is already working on these issues - in August the Indian government passed an initiative specifying that women occupy 50% of panchayats, village councils, in most of the states in India.
• India has great crowd handling capacity especially since hosting the Asian Commonwealth Games. Accommodations at all levels are available.
• India has a high percentage of women and children living in poverty.
• Their educated elite is larger than the population of France – lots of people able to work on it.
• English is commonly spoken.
• There is a new subway that can get you to any part of Delhi fast. This makes accommodations at all levels available easily. In Beijing people had to stay far away.
• There could be a huge display of arts and crafts that women do to make their livings.
• The economy is strong there. India is becoming a world center for information technology.

I also think they will be willing to do it. I am asking everyone who is part of a women’s political group to lobby to have that group support the idea of having this conference in India.

What we can do now:

-Start a Women’s Circle and Connect to UN Women through Circle Connections UN Women’s Circle Campaign (http://circleconnections.net/index.html).

-Read the 5WCW, sign the petition and engage women in dreaming about this and being co-creators of the event (http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/support-a-un-5th-world-conference-on-women.html).

-Connect with those who have the power to influence their governments.

-Stay connected through tele-conferences and websites. The more we collaborate and unify efforts the greater our influence. We want everyone’s help.

The new women's super agency, UN Women, will have a strong impact through this conference to advance women's agenda, and further the goal of reaching a tipping point to end patriarchy by bringing gender balance to the world.

We want to inform and energize girls to work toward a UN 5WCW because they will be the ones to attend, meet other girls and women, and be the generation with the energy and technical connections to further efforts to bring gender equity to international decisions and priorities.

Jean Shinoda Bolen is also actively lobbying to hold the 5th conference in India. Her site is here: http://5wcw.org/. Jean recently had a phone conversation with Dr. Bachelet and they agreed that bottom-up, grassroots NGO support for a UN 5WCW must lead a UN resolution, and then support for it.

In addition Jean is planning to speak to the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women and urge them to support 5WCW. She will then push for the City of San Francisco to pass a resolution that urges our members of Congress from California to introduce a resolution and inform President Obama and Secretary Clinton. If you belong to any international women’s organizations like Soroptimists, Zonata, etc., they are ones to lobby.

Please assist us in this effort through your active involvement and support.

5th United Nations World Conference for Women

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