The Fourth World Conference on Women

Last September, representatives from governments around the globe assembled in Beijing, China for the Fourth World Conference on Women. They approved a Platform for Action that will serve as a blueprint for efforts to enable women to participate fully as citizens in societies everywhere. The focus now shifts to the implementation of the platform, and to removing or ameliorating the obstacles to its success that exist in each country.

The conference agenda was expansive, including many aspects of women’s lives and addressing the varied family, social, political and professional roles of women. Although those attending represented virtually every cultural and political system on earth, a remarkable consensus emerged around a number of basic principles, including the following:

• • Violence against women must stop;

• • Girls must be valued equally with boys;

• • Women must have equal access to education, health care and the levers of economic and political power;

• • Family responsibilities should be shared; and

• • Freedom of expression is a prerequisite to human rights, which include women’s rights.

A half century ago, a great First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt, was the driving force behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This year, another courageous First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, provided the dramatic high point to the Beijing Conference when she eloquently reaffirmed America’s commitment to that Declaration and its application to all people:

On the eve of a new millennium, it is time to break our silence. It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and for the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights—If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, it is that human rights are women’s rights—and women’s rights are human rights.

Throughout the Conference, the United States delegation stressed the fact that the Universal Declaration reflects spiritual and moral roots that are central to all cultures. It obliges each government to strive in law and practice to protect the rights of those under its jurisdiction. Whether a government fulfills that obligation is a matter of concern to all.

At the heart of the Universal Declaration is a fundamental distinction between coercion and freedom. No mother should feel compelled to abandon her daughter because of a societal preference for males. No woman should be forced to undergo genital mutilation, or to engage in prostitution, or to enter into marriage or to have sex. No woman should be forced to remain silent for fear of political prosecution, detention, abuse or torture. And all women should have the right to help shape the destiny of their communities and countries.

These are simple principles, but if they were observed around the world, they would have astonishing results.

Despite recent gains, women remain an undervalued and underdeveloped human resource. This is not to say that women have trouble finding work. In many societies, they do most of the work. But often they are barred from owning land, excluded from schools, denied financial credit and permitted little or no voice in government.

It is no accident that most of those in the world who are abjectly poor are women. Frequently, they are left to care for children without the help of the children’s father. Many are trapped at a young age in a web of ignorance, powerlessness and abuse.

Consider that more than half the murders of women in countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Brazil, Kenya, Papua New Guinea and the United States are committed by present or former spouses or partners.

In a number of countries, child prostitution is growing because clients believe older prostitutes are more likely to be infected by HIV.

In many rural societies, women perform much of the farming and all of the child rearing, but are denied a role in financial decisions.

And almost everywhere, women are hurt by discrimination and by social and economic structures that are unjust.

No one could expect the Women’s Conference to solve these problems, but it has outlined a plan for addressing them. This matters not only...