Porto Alegre, 28 January
2005. FIRE/RIF
This morning, as part of the activities organized by
the feminist movement in the V World Social
Forum (WSF), women from different organizations met to
discuss their concerns and strategies towards the 49th Session of the
Commission on the Status of Women of the United
Nations (UN), known as "Beijing +
10". The name comes from the fact that the meeting will
evaluate the implementation of the Platform
of Action of the IV World Women's Conference
celebrated 10 years ago in Beijing, China. Such evaluation will be
done at the UN Headquarters in New York from
28 February till 11 March, 2005.
The dialogue took place at the "Diversity
Boat" in the midst of a pleasant
trip by the Guaiba River in Porto Alegre, Brazil during the V World Social
Forum. Among the themes of greater discussion were
the interest to reaffirm the
Beijing Platform of Action and the need for
governments commit themselves to accelerate
its implementation.
At the same time, feminists worked in the
consolidation of a proposal by the Regional
Follow-up Committee from Latin America and the Caribbean which
includes the implementation of actions in each country and the
support to
the Non-Governmental Organizations' panels as well
as the official ones during their simultaneous meetings at Session 49.
As a working principle, consensus has been reached
that strategically more feminist women should be in the official
delegations so they can influence from inside
the governments.
According to Ximena Machicao, General Coordinator of
the Latin American and Caribbean Women's
Education Network (REPEM) and member of the Regional Follow-
up Committee of Beijing + 10, "strategies have been consolidated at
two levels; the first has to do with
what we can do to influence governments.
Ratification of the political resolution coming out
of the working group on the Convention for
the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) must be a resolution reaffirming the Beijing Platform so that the
governments really commit themselves to its
implementation. The second level of our
work refers to what we are going to do as a region in the context
of the parallel actions to the official
Session."
The three parallel activities which the feminist
movement will be doing in New York include a
political panel on the UN reforms and the future role according
to feminists. There is also an activity regarding sexual
diversities.
The third activity will be a space for the
discussion of macroeconomic policies,
specially the poverty issues.
The
meeting closed with brasileira turnovers, cool drinks and lots of
samba.
FIRE/Radio Internacional Feminista (RIF) is doing
live coverage from the World Social Forum in
Porto Alegre.
Visit
us at www.fire.or.cr or
www.radiofeminista.net and write to
femmediapool@yahoo.com
(Translated from Spanish by Ana Ugalde, FIRE/RIF)
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