A look at the exhibition of photographs and collages by
BC Women from the 1995. NGO Forum.& Beijing

Conference. By Sam McDonough.

‘ ouenter a huge arena, and as
you make your way to your
seat, your eyes meet others.
The people who greet you are
mostly new faces. All are welcom-
ing. You look around and see
smiles, hugs and kisses. You feel
connected, special, significant. As
you sit down you find a white
scarf on your seat. The scarf is
hand-painted with a beautiful
inscription that welcomes you.
Suddenly the energy in the arena
becomes electric and you begin
waving your scarf in the air.
Looking around, you see hundreds
and thousands of other scarves
wildly flailing in the air in unison.
Then the crowd unleashes shouts,
whoops, cheers and yells. The
feeling is instantaneous and
electric, sending sparks up your
spine. You now feel the power and
importance of solidarity.

This was the scene as 30 000
women came together at the
opening ceremonies for the UN
Conference on Women. Hosted by
Beijing, China, it ran from Septem-
ber 4 to 15, 1995. Canada was
represented along with 165 other
countries.

As part of the celebration of the
spirit of this important event in
women’s history, the Burnaby Art
Gallery is now displaying an
exhibit entitled Through Women’s
Eyes. The exhibit is a pictorial
history of Beijing ‘95, all the faces,
expressions and energy captured
by the cameras of women who
attended the conference. There are
45 pictures each with their own
story. In addition to the photo
exhibit, there is a research room
filled with literature on the
conference. As well, you are
welcome to sit and watch two
videos, one on the forum itself, the
other about the journey to Beijing
by some Canadian delegates via a
peace train.

The exhibit is beautifully laid
out and invites you to really find
out more about the conference
itself and its impact on Canada, as
well as the rest of the world. The
exhibit indicates that the real meat
of the conference wasn’t the
official UN conference, but the
NGO, the Non-Governmental
Observers group. Within the NGO,
there was considerable anger and
disappointment in how they were
treated. The accommodations were
terrible. Most of the women stayed
in tents set up in muddy and dirty
conditions. This contrasts with the
officials, who were holding the
“real” conference miles away in
luxury accommodations. What is
interesting to note is which people
were valued more at this confer-
ence. Whose voices were being
heard? Media coverage of the NGO
was minimal; it concentrated more
on the “official” side of the confer-
ence. With the cost of transporta-

 

tion to Beijing being incredibly
high, many women throughout the
world could either not afford to
attend, or could not get sponsored
by their governments. So we find
that many First Nations peoples
and other minorities were over-
looked. However, a lot of what was
discussed and decided will
undoubtedly touch all women as
we look towards a new millen-
nium.

What has been laboured over,
nurtured and developed can
wither and die if it is not imple-
mented and carried out. What was
the purpose of Beijing? That is the
question we must ask.

Let’s take a look at the history of
UN conferences on women. This
was the fourth in a series of
conferences that began in Mexico
City in 1975. In Mexico, as part of
beginning the UN Decade for

 

Women, there was an action plan
formulated that set out concrete
steps to be taken within the first
five years of the decade.

In 1980, a conference in Copen-
hagen reviewed and evaluated
how well the 1975 action plans
were being implemented.

The ending the UN’s Decade on
Women was Nairobi as the site of
the 1985 conference. At this

gathering, the Forward-
Looking strategies for the
Advancement of Women (FLS)
agreement was adopted. This
committed governments around
the world to reaching the FLS’
objectives by the year 2000.

The aim of the Beijing conference
was to assess progress on the FLS
and evaluate its implementation
process. As well the conference
saw the creation of timely meas-
ures to speed up the whole
process.

So, with four over 20 years, you
may think, “Hey! A lot of these
action plans are in place and are
working to enhance the status of
women worldwide.”

Well, that’s where you're wrong.
A big problem with these types of
gatherings is that all people come
away with is a nice piece of paper.
Well that’s great, but the most

important measuring stick is if that
piece of paper actually accom-
plishes something. We have to
remember that in order for a lot of
these recommendations to be
successful, they have to be spon-
sored by governments.

As we look at the political power
of women worldwide, we can still
see an inequality in representation.
Only 24 women have been elected

heads of
state or
government in this
century. Women hold
10.3 % of the seats in the
world’s parliaments. As well, out
of the 185 highest-ranking diplo-
mats to the UN, only eight are
women. Hence the slow process of
women finally becoming equal
members of society. So, at Beijing
there were a lot of concerns about
whether women were moving
forward.

The recommendations of Nairobi
were, on the most part, not ac-
cepted or implemented by the
majority of governments world-
wide, and the delegates were
coming back with the same
unresolved issues. But between
Mexico City, Copenhagen, Nairobi
and Beijing, a lot of other events
and developments came in to play
that helped set the stage for
Beijing’s successes. For example,
the Convention on the Elimination
of all forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW) is
binding under international law.
All the signatories must take every
possible step to eliminate any form
of discrimination against women.
Every country must report every
four years to the UN committee.
Which reports to the UN general
assembly. So any violations of
CEDAW could be potentially
embarrassing and harmful to a
country in the global community.
This was one positive step that was
taken and implemented in Beijing.
For women worldwide, the
creation, but more importantly, the
implementation of measures such
as these are crucial to their rights,
which are ultimately human rights.

During the Beijing conference,
over 90 governments announced
concrete commitments. These were
derived from 12 “critical areas of
concern”: poverty, education and
training, health, violence, peace,
economic structures and policies,
decision making, mechanisms to
promote advancement of women,
human rights of women, media,
environment and the girl child.
The implementation of the recom-
mendations in each area were to be
developed by governments at by
the end of 1995 with the support
and input of women’s organiza-
tions.

What difference will Beijing
make? Only time will tell. With the
many strides made over the last 15
years, it is a hopeful time for
women. In Canada, the federal
government has taken a plan called
Setting the Stage for the Next
Century. The plan sets out eight
objectives.
¢ Implement gender based

analysis (at the discretion of
each department or agency)
¢ Improve women’s economic

   
   
 
   
 

  
 

situation

¢ Improve women’s physical
and psychological well-being

* Reduce violence in society

¢ Promote gender equality in all
aspects of Canada’s cultural
life

¢ Incorporate women’s perspec-
tives in governance

¢ Promote and support global
gender equality

¢ Advance gender equality for
employees of federal depart-
ments and agencies.

With each objective comes a set
of actions. We will see both the
federal and provincial govern-
ments becoming involved, as more
responsibilities that were once
federal are shifted to the provincial
level. So with these objectives we
can hope that there will be some
improvements made for women.
We can look at all the policies and
recommendations, but we need to
ask what is really happening for
women. We still see barriers for
women in place that can be
removed with appropriate govern-
ment intervention.

In Canada, educational opportu-
nities are being denied to single
parents (who, one might add, are
mostly women). The recent
introduction of the BC Benefits
program by the BC government
has created increased dependence
on the welfare system, as it makes
it harder for single moms to return
to school. The recent proposed
changes to child support is another
issue. The increased ignorance of
our government to the need for
more daycare spaces has not been
addressed. As well, the municipali-
ties and the school boards are
becoming increasingly repressive
of women in their delivery of sex
education, as well as denying gay
and lesbian youth with counselling
at their schools. The above meas-
ures only deny women’s right to
become economically viable,
informed and independent.

We seem to be headed in the
wrong direction. We need women
to get more involved on a political
level. We need to elect in more
women and create more gender-
equal polices. We also need the
support of men; we need encour-
agement to go out and do it for
ourselves. Looking toward the
future of women’s rights we can
only become stronger.One partici-
pant at the conference stated “We
now have the strongest interna-
tional document on women’s
equality ever! And we must make
sure that women everywhere
ensure that their governments live
up to what we made them promise
here. Beijing is more than words.”
For those who want to check out the
“Through Women’s Eyes” exhibit, it is on
display till March 9 at the Burnaby Art
Gallery. A closing reception will be held at
2pm on March 9. Everyone is invited to
come out and support this exhibit.

 

6 March4,1997 The Other Press