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The Women's Conference: Where Aspirations and Realities SPECIAL REPORT The Women’s Conference: Where Aspirations and Realities Met By Jeanette H. Johnson and Wendy Turnbull ‘‘Back in June, as I made my first trip as Development, held in Cairo in 1994. There, During the spring and summer of 1995, President of the [World] Bank, the first the delegations representing member nongovernmental organizations lobbied country my wife and I visited was Mali states of the United Nations (UN) had their governments to take positions re- in West Africa. About an hour’s drive reached the consensus that improving the flecting their views. These organizations south of the capital lies the village of Koro status of women was key to solving prob- were intending to make their presence felt Koro, and while we were there, a baby lems of population, environment and eco- on an unprecedented scale at the Beijing was born—a girl. I have thought often nomic development.1 Women’s repro- meeting itself. Strategy sessions, educa- of that little girl—and the life ahead of ductive health and rights in particular tional programs and a plethora of publi- her. Her chances of going to school are no were seen as central to the larger popula- cations detailing philosophies on disput- better than one in four. She will likely be tion and development agenda. The ques- ed issues and the recommended wording stunted in her growth due to chronic mal- tion became: Would the Cairo agreements for the Platform were sponsored by in- nutrition. Around the age of six, she will become the floor on which improvements numerable interest groups, including peo- probably suffer genital mutilation, bru- in the status of women could be built? Or ple and organizations devoted to repro- tally. When she marries, probably at a had the Cairo conference usurped the ductive health issues. very young age, she faces two decades of women’s conference, setting a ceiling with The draft version of the Platform for Ac- childbearing. And her chances of dying regard to women’s issues that subsequent tion was indicative of the conflict: It went during childbirth are terrifyingly high— UN gatherings would never quite reach? to Beijing not as a finished or almost fin- about one in 20. She will be expected to Preparations for the women’s conference ished document, but laden with hundreds grow most of her family’s food, but be the had been acrimonious and early alignments of sets of brackets around words, phras- last to sit down to a meal. She will be re- predictable: Many countries and organiza- es, sentences, and even whole paragraphs sponsible for educating and taking care tions were determined to obtain agreements that one or more countries had indicated of her children, but will have to walk from the assembled governments that contained unacceptable language. Alto- miles a day to gather firewood and water. would go beyond previous commitments; gether, the brackets surrounded 40% of the And if she subsequently works for a other nations and groups were asking for 150-page document. These disputed pas- wage, she is likely to earn a third less for a retreat from these commitments, which sages would have to be negotiated and de- doing the same job as a man.” they argued violated many of their cultur- cided by the delegates in Beijing—not an —James D. Wolfensohn, address to the al values and religious traditions. auspicious prospect. Fourth World Conference on Women, Bei- Preparatory meetings, held to write a Plat- jing, Sept. 15, 1995 form for Action that would settle many of Then in Beijing... the agenda items in advance and leave the Delegations of up to 20 people, predom- he year leading up to the United Na- conference to deal with the formalities, had inantly women and often hand-picked by tions’ Fourth World Conference on adjourned in May leaving many disputes their governments for their political savvy TWomen, held in Beijing in Septem- in the areas of poverty, human rights, health, and negotiating skills, arrived in Beijing ber 1995, had been filled with suspense. and economic and political participation un- from 187 nations. They did not step off the Would the nations of the world be able to resolved. Dissension centered both on issues plane into a peaceful atmosphere. Their find common ground on which they could thought to have been settled in Cairo, and presence had been preceded by weeks of all stand and agree to raise the education, on concepts new to universal documents wrangling between the Chinese govern- health and economic well-being of women that were being proposed for the Beijing ment and just about everybody else. to levels equal to those of men? Platform: Did the majority of nations think First, there had been the dispute between The issues had been framed by the In- parental rights and responsibilities should China and the United Nations over the lo- ternational Conference on Population and overrule the rights of the girl child and cation of the nongovernmental forum that young women? Had the world finally de- was to run concurrently with the govern- Jeanette H. Johnson is executive editor of International cided that women had “sexual rights”? ment conference. When China applied for Family Planning Perspectives and Wendy Turnbull is a pub- lic policy associate in the Washington, D.C., office of The When does a “conscience clause” that allows and was selected by the United Nations as Alan Guttmacher Institute. Both attended the Fourth medical providers to opt out of providing the site of the Fourth World Conference on World Conference on Women in Beijing. The preparation of this article was funded in part by the Pew Global Stew- health services become a denial of the rights Women, it was understood that both the ardship Initiative and the Turner Foundation. of women to obtain lawful services? governmental and nongovernmental por- Volume 21, Number 4, December 1995 155 The Women’s Conference tions of the conference would be held in anticlimactic in some respects. Early in the and South American countries did chal- Beijing. But a few months before the open- two-week event, it became clear that in- lenge the chair and the views of the ma- ing date, China announced that the non- stead of a bruising battle or even a sullen jority on a number of issues. governmental gathering would be held in standoff, the Fourth World Conference on Huairou, a smaller town 40 miles (and Women was going to be a civil, although Reproductive Health Issues about an hour’s drive) outside of Beijing. not entirely harmonious, affair. Perhaps partly because they did not spend The distance and conditions separating By the time the government delegates as much time as expected rehashing com- the two parts of the conference made the arrived in Beijing, the majority had adopt- mitments agreed upon in Cairo, delegates petitioning and lobbying by nongovern- ed the attitude that there could be no re- were able to move ahead in a number of mental attendees who wanted to influence treat from Cairo: They would not go other areas. Some new or expanded con- government delegates more difficult. The home knowing that they had given up cepts had been introduced in the draft Plat- nongovernmental gathering was moved some of the gains in women’s rights and form for Action, and these became the issues out of Beijing, according to the Chinese, be- reproductive health that had been so that provided an element of suspense to the cause the stadium that was originally to hard-fought just a year earlier. Having conference—suspense that continued into have been the cornerstone facility for the adopted this position, the delegates with the early morning hours of the final day. nongovernmental gatherings had struc- a particular interest in reproductive One contentious issue was what the tural problems. Skeptics countered that in health were somewhat surprised to learn Platform should say about parental rights a country where no group gathers without that the Holy See, which had led a drive and responsibilities, primarily in the con- the approval and input of the government, against much of the reproductive health text of adolescents’ access to confidential there is no such thing as a nongovern- language adopted in Cairo, did not in- health services. The draft platform that ar- mental organization; China did not want tend to fight over this issue in Beijing. Its rived in Beijing had included 23 references its own citizens getting ideas about grass- spokesperson announced just prior to the to parental rights, all of which were in roots organizing, hence it selected a site less start of the conference that the Holy See brackets. The phrase “taking into account conspicuous and accessible than Beijing. saw no benefit to reopening issues that the rights, duties and responsibilities of Although nongovernmental organizations had been decided to the satisfaction of the parents and other persons legally re- urged the UN to move one or both parts of majority of nations in Cairo and that it sponsible for children...” had been in- the conference out of China in protest, the would not try to win reversals of that lan- serted, usually by the Holy See, to modi- relatively late notification given to the UN guage.2 Because it had given every indi- fy all statements about the rights of that the stadium would be unavailable for cation in the preparatory meetings lead- children and adolescents. For example, the conference made that option difficult. ing up to the conference that it intended one paragraph on actions to be taken by Also contributing to the charged atmos- to continue the struggle for wording con- governments, in cooperation with other phere surrounding the conference was an sistent with its beliefs, this new position organizations and societal institutions, intensification of ongoing political sparring came as a surprise.
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