Business and Professional Women International
has assessed the pros and cons on whether
the Fifth women world conference should
be held in 2005. The overall outcome shows
that majority of our members strongly favor
the holding of the Fifth Women World Conference
to ASSESS success and failure of the implementation
of Beijing Platform for action and CEDAW,
BUT strongly oppose the opportunities to
use such forum to reopen the Beijing Platform
for Action and dilute the strength of the
original document – as witness in
the Beijing+5 review. Also, while many of
our members are eager for it to be held
in year 2005, many also raise the questions
regarding the feasibility of such time frame.
The appropriate time would depend on the
readiness of the host country both in terms
of infrastructure readiness and the resource
readiness to ensure things like accommodation
affordability. And as of now, the host country
has not yet been identified.
Should
the Fifth Women World Conference be held,
members of Business and Professional Women
International recommend that the nature
of such conference could be as follows:
-
The Fifth Women
World Conference can combine the assessment
of actions taken to implement Beijing
Platform of Action, CEDAW, and other
United Nations Declaration and Resolutions
regarding women as they all have direct
impact on one another in improving the
status of women. Such combination is
importance as this conference must not
be a simple repetition of the Beijing+10
Review, which has already been scheduled
for the 49th session of Commission on
Status of Women by United Nations Division
on Advancement of Women in 2005.
-
The conference MUST
NOT re-open Beijing Platform for Action
and CEDAW for re-negotiation. It should
review progress, identify the causes
of the inadequate progress and ineffective
monitoring process for both the original
and the new areas of concerns, and recommend
practical approaches to overcome the
problems.
-
The conference must
encourage not just the involvement and
the networking of women world wide,
but also attendance of female youth,
male participants, and the private sector
to raise their awareness of the gender
issues and take part in resolving them.
-
The regional conferences
should be held in preparation for the
Fifth Women World Conference to involve
more participation of women at all levels
within each region and focus on regional
issues.
-
The conference must
have EXTENSIVE MEDIA COVERAGE to show
the solidarity, the strength, and the
unity of women as well as make visible
the critical issues regarding the status
of women to promote cross-gender cooperation
and exchange.
Global
Visibility brings accountabilities. So for
us, the pros do out-weight the cons on holding
the Fifth Women World Conferences. However,
as we are now in the digital era, we should
not restrict ourselves to the traditional
ways of organizing a conference. We favor
the exploration of more innovative and practical
approaches that can attain the same effect
as the traditional women world conference
while overcome the limitations like affordability.
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