Asia-wide conference reviews implementation of Beijing agreement on women’s rights
Date:
Author: John Krich
Bangkok, Thailand — “This is a landmark moment to celebrate our progress,” said Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). For Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, the event is “a catalyst and a foundation for action, a time to hold us to account”.
They were talking about the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing +30 Review, which began today in Bangkok. The three-day, 1,200-plus gathering in Bangkok of activists for gender equality, government and United Nations officials and others offered a report card on the progress made and challenges remaining for the region’s women.
Next year will be the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – when delegates from 189 countries were urged on by speakers like Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi and U.S. First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton, who advanced the slogan that, “Women’s rights are human rights.”
Under the auspices of UN Women and ESCAP, today’s review kicked off with speeches by United Nations officials and Thailand’s Minister of Social Development and Human Security Varawut Silpa-archa, that balanced celebration of the advances for women in the region over the past three decades with resolve to do more to tackle persisting, intensifying or new obstacles.
A host of comprehensive new data and an extensive regional report launched here, Charting New Paths For Gender Equality and Empowerment, documented problems such as violence against Asia-Pacific women (1 in 4 have been abused by partners), the slow increase in women’s participation in political leadership (less than one-fourth in national parliaments), and even slower entry into the labour force, with most women stuck in vulnerable informal or unpaid work (up to five times more than men).
And then there are new difficulties that could hardly have been imagined in Beijing three decades ago: the disproportionate impact of climate change, environmental disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic on women; the proliferation of armed conflicts that harm non-combatants; and digital technology, which extends male privilege through a “digital divide” and propagates new forms of violence and exploitation of women online.
The difference is obvious to two veterans of Asia’s women’s movement who attended both the Beijing Conference and today’s gathering 30 years later. They related their stories in interviews with UN Women.
Now a leading voice in Nepal and a member of the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Bandana Rama was a fledgling journalist inspired to believe “anything was possible” by the “collective energy” she witnessed in Beijing. She said each subsequent review of the 12 key areas of concern remains close to her heart. Among many initiatives to speed up slow government action and the awareness of men and boys about women’s issues, she was instrumental in enlisting FIFA football stars for a campaign for equality and is now heading a two-year project with organizations worldwide to address gender stereotypes. Three decades on, Rama believes young people must now take on the responsibility of leadership for change.
Fauzia Khondker, now 63, was sent to Beijing by her nongovernmental organization when she showed concern for rural women in her native Bangladesh. She soon dedicated her life to a slogan from Beijing: to “see the world through women’s eyes.” She founded organizations called Women in Management, as well as Progoshor (meaning “advance”), which counsels survivors of gender-based violence and helps them heal through art and theatre.
Certainly the highlight of today’s event was Shahrzad Koofi Ahmadi, who spoke for women oppressed by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The daughter of the former first woman speaker of the Afghan Parliament, Ahmadi runs an organization dedicated to the dangerous work of educating Afghan women and was recently refused entry to the country from her exile base in London. Determined to speak publicly, in a speech the 26-year-old blasted globalization, rampant materialism, capitalism, patriarchy. She was supported by a brave contingent of three others from Afghanistan, one paralyzed by a landmine and determined to represent women with disabilities who are “stigmatized, refused access, remain unmarried and have no basic rights”.