STATEMENT TO THE UNITED NATIONS BEIJING PLUS FIVE CONFERENCE
by MARILYN HEMPEL
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the Population Press
In September 1995, at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, representatives from 189 countries adopted a global Platform for Action. The platform is an international commitment to equality and sustainable development for women and girls everywhere.
The Beijing Conference followed on the heels of another landmark event, the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994. Their agendas were clearly linked. The Cairo Conference placed women's health and rights at the center of population programs and policies. And at Beijing, high priority was given to women's reproductive health issues and the value of the girl child.
Why are population issues women's issues? As Florence Manguyu, head of the Kenyan delegation to the Beijing conference, so eloquently stated: Women are diverse in ideas and background, but together in their hope for a better life for their children. Women are the carriers of culture. Women (literally) bear the future leaders of the world. Women are potentially the greatest agents of change.
Now–the year of Beijing Plus Five–it is time to evaluate our progress. How are we doing on implementing the Beijing Platform for Action? Although equal rights for women emerged at the end of the 20th century as a powerful international movement, and many countries have made measurable progress, we have far to go.
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The great gap between rich and poor only widens–even in our own country.
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We have yet to provide affordable family planning services to all who are in need–even in our country.
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The U.S. still has the highest percentage of girls dropping out of high school of any industrialized nation.
In the United States, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, we still have a long way to go to fully implement our commitments made in Cairo and in Beijing. Every woman (and man) deserves the right to have a family by choice–not by chance, or by cultural coercion.
I dream of a world where every child is planned and every child is loved. I also dream of a world where persons–women and men equally–gain their self-esteem and realize their full potential through the quality of their lives and work, not the quantity of their possessions or children.
