Words and Deeds: Holding Governments Accountable in the Beijing + 5 Review Process

Equality Now and Group on Equal Rights for Women UN Briefing
Statement delivered by Charlotte Bunch, Executive Director, Center for Women's Global Leadership

October 11, 1999

This report is a vital tool for advancing government's accountability to the human rights principles enunciated in the Beijing Platform for Action.

Hundreds of thousands of activists worldwide contributed to the Beijing process and worked with governments to create a Platform that women view as ours: a promise and a framework for realizing the human rights of women and girls. This Platform has a constituency. Women and human rights NGOS around the world have a stake in this Platform and its fulfillment: they are working on its implementation and watching to see what the UN and governments do to advance that process.

Unfortunately, the political will to protect these rights is often lacking. Indeed, in some cases, the Platform's human rights principles are undermined by discriminatory law, social practices, and the impact of globalization. This report calls attention to the fact that blatant sex discrimination still exists legally and calls upon governments to live up to their commitment to end formal sex discrimination - a commitment made not only in Beijing but also in other world conferences, UN treaties, UDHR, UN Charter, and national constitutions.

A framework of legal equality - ending discrimination against women in the economic, social and political spheres and especially in the family - provides minimum necessary conditions for working to achieve substantive equality.

Women deserve this bedrock commitment as we enter a new century. We know that change takes time and requires more than equality on the books, but it is impossible without that underlying framework. I am reminded of a line from the Black Civil Rights struggle in the US in the 60's about "gradualism." Give us our rights now and other people can get used to it gradually.

The changes proposed in this report do not even cost governments much.

To go beyond legal equality to substantive equality, we need to "follow the money." The resources or lack of them dedicated to implementing this platform reveal a lack of political will to make equality and women's human rights a priority. The Beijing + 5 review must highlight the question of resources and work to create that political will.

Implementation of the Platform must be at the heart of this Review followed by a Decade of Implementation with on-going accountability to specific targets and time-lines for how to move the strategies in the Platform forward realistically. Consideration of when to hold another World Conference on Women - a global moment to assess progress and set new goals must be put into this context.

In the words of Bella Abzug, "we have the words, now we need the music."

Women will not be satisfied with more lofty promises. The time has come for concrete action and the spending of political capital as well as other resources to bring the centuries of abuse of women and girls to an end. Eliminating the discriminatory laws highlighted in this report and others is a small but vital symbol of government commitment to moving in that direction.

Let me end by noting that this Beijing + 5 review is not about abstractions. These discriminatory laws and other violations of women's human rights affect the lives and cause the deaths of women and girls everyday. Governments and NGOs have concrete and valuable experience in working to secure human rights for women in all 12 areas of critical concern. The review process must be one that enables real dialogue and evaluation of our diverse experiences. The rules of the Special Session must enable NGOs to speak as they did at the Rio + 5 review, and must provide sessions that facilitate real exchange between NGOs and governments. If this happens, this review can lead the UN in developing new partnerships not only between women and men, but also between government and civil society.