/* Written 7:34 PM Sep 13, 1995 by wcw:maureen in gn:online.pavilio */
/* ---------- "Vargas Presentation - Sept. 13, 199" ---------- */
From: maureen@wcw.apc.org (Maureen James)
Subject: Vargas Presentation - Sept. 13, 1995
Presentation by Virginia Vargas, Coordinator of the Latin American and
Caribbean NGO Forum, Fourth World Conference on Women
Beijing September 13, 1995
Madame President,
Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
For ten days we have heard many speeches, and it would seem that my
presentation here is unnecessary and repetitive. In this concert of words
everything has been said.
Almost everything, that is. But we have not made advances towards economic
justice. Almost everything has been said, but we have not agreed on the
mechanisms and resources necessary to implement this Platform for Action.
Because of this, and counting on the force, vitality and commitment that
characterizes the women's movement in our region, we have participated in
the NGO Forum, and we speak today in the heart of the United Nations,
seeking results commensurate with the expectations this conference has
awakened in us.
I speak from the Latin American and Caribbean region where diversity
carries a concrete face, where black women, displaced women, persecuted
women, young women, old women, imprisoned women, women of occupied and
dependent territories, and women living under economic blockade mobilize
themselves and demand of the world their right to have rights.
Our efforts have centered on the legitimation and expansion of citizenship
for this enourmous diversity of women, as well as on the recognition of
our human rights. Our horizon of possibility is one of the democratic
societies centred on people where subordination, discrimination and
violence, poverty, exclusion and environmental degradation should have no
place.
Despite a context of great adversity we have made gains. This broad women's
movement has resisted fragmentation, marginalization and violence. The task
has not been easy. Our efforts and contributions have seldom found broad
acceptance. And they have almost never been supported by state policies
aimed toward an equitable distribution of power and resources between men
and women. We have experienced a disproportionate burden. The costs,
damages and losses have been profound. We will not allow such treatment to
continue, nor will we permit these patterns to continue to affect the lives
of future generations of women.
This Conference must take a decisive stance for equality and women's full
citizenship. We have taken note, with great satisfaction, of the gains made
in the face of conservative fundamentalist forces that threaten our
dignity. But we have come here not only to defend that which rightly
belongs to us. We have come here to affirm our full citizenship. The
democracies of the world have an outstanding debt with the world's women,
and we demand that this debt be paid.
The women of Latin America and the Caribbean, the women of the world,
deserve policies and commitment that match our contributions. No more and
no less.
None of the issues treated here belong only to women. And there are no
issues on which we should be forbidden to speak or discussions to which we
cannot contribute. We are concerned with global issues. Human rights,
military and nuclear disarmament, the eradication of poverty, the expansion
of democracy based on a respect for difference, sustainable development
centered on those people who are the key to our future.
It is most appropriate that the frameworks developed in this conference
confront the hopes of women and that the international community not
retreat from that which has already been accomplished. It is also critical
that precise and concrete strategies to achieve gender equality also be set
forth by this body. In a manner never before witnessed at a conference of
this sort, there are thousands of women here and millions who await us in
our countries. All these women are waiting for concrete commitments and the
necessary resources to carry out those commitments. We deserve more than
words.
We have come to this Fourth World Conference to obtain firm commitments on
the part of our governments and the international community,. We want the
means to ensure gender justice. No more and no less. We want effective
mechanisms and resources that will guarantee the efficient and coherent
achievement of the objectives and goals of this Confernece.
Women demand the removal of all the obstacles which have blocked our
struggle for our rights these past two decades. We want to clear the way
for new generations of women and men. And we want to broaded the democratic
horizons of our societies.
In this country of the Great Wall, we demand the dismantling of all those
walls which block our progress.
Madame President, Latin American and Caribbean women's organizations
challenge the governments and international agencies gathered here to give
substantive and equitable consideration to the interests and perspectives
of women.
Poverty, like diversity, has a thousand faces. The millions of women living
without productive employment, contracts or social provisions are poor.
Those who have no access to land and those who cannot act on their own
behalf are poor. Those who experience family violence are poor. The young
women have no access to education are poor. Those who are discriminated
against our poor. The eradication of poverty requires the formulation of
economic policies centred on people. It requires that investments and
expenditures be realigned and reorganized.
It is unacceptable that the future, like the present, continue to rest
primarily, if not totally, on the efforts of women and their organizations.
I ask the members of civil society and the governments gathered here that
they recognize that happiness, now more than ever, rests on human dignity.
To be happy means not to be hungry. It means having the ability to decide
how many children you will have. And it means having the freedom of sexual
choice. It means not being overwhelmed by domestic tasks that are not well
remunerated or which are taken for granted as part of our duty. It means
not living under threat of toxic waste or nuclear disaster.
The states and the international community have the responsibility to
commit new and additional resources towards the implementation of these
objectives. We want what we deserve. No more and no less.
Madame President, the women of Latin America and the Caribbean demand that
the Fourth World Conference on Women:
* Reaffirm and strengthen the victories already gained by women;
* Commit the necessary institutional mechanisms and resources to guarantee
the implemntation of the Conference Declaration and resulting Platform for
Action;
* Guarantee the human rights of women, reaffirming the universality,
indivisibility, interdependence and interrelationship between human rights
and women's rights; and
* Ensure the United Nations allocates the necessary resources to UNIFEM so
that this women's agency can continue to advance the consolidation of
women's citizenship.
The women of Latin America and the Caribbean affirm that in order to
achieve equality and equity between men and women, our participation in
those spaces and processes where decisions are made must be guaranteed. It
is in those spaces where human destinies are decided, where opinions are
formed, and where our interests are considered.
The 21st Century begins in Beijing. The new millenium is ours.