Setback on Gender Issues

By Bert Wilkinson

NGO women are mad. As part of the civil society grouping, they had already expressed disappointment at the way things were shaping up. But now they are livid that the WSSD draft plan of action is threatening to take them back to the dark ages.

“We are going to protest very strongly about this. We are going to meet and decide what form the protest will take,” said Jocelyn Dow, President of the Board of Directors of the Women’s Empowerment and Development Organisation (WEDO) and a member of U.N. Secretary-General’s Kofi Annan’s eminent persons group.

At the heart of the issue is paragraph 47 of the draft plan. The women say it is frighteningly weak on the question of their “fundamental and human rights” and leaves them open to abuse from countries in the Islamic world and religious fanatical groups like the Taliban.

“We have been fighting with this thing since Bali and we can see problems down the road in places where women do not have a right to work. They have reached agreement on practically everything, but women’s rights.”

The women want a reopening of the negotiations to replace the clause that says all activities regarding healthcare have to be “consistent with national laws and cultural and religious values”, with one noting that these activities ought to be performed “in conformity with all human rights and fundamental freedoms”.

The latter phrase is taken from Paragraph 37 of the declaration of the U.N. special session on children in June 2002 and so they consider it “agreed language”.

The women said they were counting on support from the G-77 and China, but conference officials say it is unlikely that they will make any headway given the fact that any such reopening would unlock the door to calls, from both developed and developing nations, for re-negotiation on a host of other issues.

WEDO also accused the United States of being soft on, if not, openly opposed to changes to the text and they say they plan to let the American delegation know how they feel in no uncertain terms.

Canada, which had filed an objection to the offending text back in Bali in June, yesterday expressed shock that it had survived the negotiating process.

“This would have a devastating impact on women as it could been seen as their rights are being stymied,” said Richard Ballhorn, director-general of the International Affairs Bureau in Canada’s foreign ministry. “This can be a terrible problem in the future because the text as is can be used against women down the road.”

He said the European Union, the Caribbean Community and other relatively large groups have supported the women’s demand in no uncertain manner, but the United States and the Islamic world have taken the opposite road.