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Christian Century, Nov 8, 1995

The 150-page Platform for Action of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women and its shorter preamble, the Beijing Declaration, have been called the blueprints for women's rights into the 21st century. Among other things, the statement affirms the human rights of women and girls and calls the "advancement of women and the achievement of equality" a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice.

Carol Kolsti, a Disciples of Christ minister and president of Church Women United of Texas, says her experience in China changed her fundamental understanding of the world. "I think a global view of life is what I have gained. You can't get it when you're just performing the duties of life in your own community."

Kolsti, of Austin, Texas, was part of a 54-member delegation representing Church Women United, an ecumenical women's organization and one of hundreds of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) officially recognized by the United Nations. More than 3,200 NGOs participated in an NGO Forum, held in conjunction with the official conference. The NGO Forum took place in the town of Huairou, 50 kilometers from Beijing.

Kolsti acknowledged that most individual forum participants were unable to influence directly specific decisions being made by governmental representatives at the conference in Beijing.

Janice Love, leader of the World Council of Churches'delegation to the UN Conference, pointed out that the standards set in Beijing for policies on women's issues "are considerably better" than what currently exists in many countries. "Whenever governments sit together and by consensus work through a declaration of standards . . . they are forced to think through what many of the issues are," she said. Once the platform was adopted, "They are, in effect, allowing themselves to be held accountable to this new standard."

However, she also criticized the unwillingness of governments to tackle the issue of economic justice in relation to women's rights. Love, a United Methodist from South Carolina, is moderator of the WCC's board for international affairs. Although there were "several major gaps" in the Platform for Action of the World Conference, which included the issues of economic justice, migrant women, and racism, Love said she was "delighted" by the strong focus in the final statement on the need to overcome violence against women.

Love said that the value of the conference lay in its affirmation of the "substantial gains" achieved by women in recent years, in the face of a severe reaction against the concerns, perspectives and status of women. "There's no going back. There's only going forward."

Aruna Gnanadason, who coordinates the women's desk of the WCC, criticized the governments represented in Beijing for their unwillingness to make financial commitments to support the promises they made in the Platform for Action. She also criticized the "marginalization" of the role of NGOs in the official UN conference.

Gnanadason said that the NGO Forum had been a meeting place of Christian women worldwide. Women from the Northern Hemisphere had found a "common agenda" with women from the Third World. Gnanadason also said, however, that although the WCC did not wish to underplay the issue of religious fundamentalism, the negative impact of religion on women's lives had been so "overplayed" at the forum that women who would have liked to affirm the "liberative power of religion" found it hard to find a niche.

Holding firm to the language of the Cairo Population Summit document adopted last September, the Beijing declaration reaffirmed women's reproductive rights and recognized that couples and individuals have the right to decide freely the number and spacing of their children and should have the information and means to do so. It also condemned forced sterilizations and forced abortions. The declaration went on to call for the creation of an educational and social climate in which all are treated equally and freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief are respected.

The Vatican's top representative at Beijing, Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon, added a 12-point list of reservations to the document, rejecting its health section and disagreeing with paragraphs concerning sexual and reproductive rights--including contraception and abortion and the interpretation of the word "gender." Islamic states added similar objections to the document, which is nonbinding but intended to guide governments as they work to improve women's lot during the next ten years.