Governments Not Keeping Gender Equality Pledges, Including Availability of Reproductive Health Services, Report Says

Countries who signed the platform at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing are "failing" to keep their pledge to achieve gender equality, including making reproductive health services available to women worldwide, according to a... report released on Thursday by the Women's Environment and Development Organization at a two-week U.N. review of the conference, the AP/Kansas City Star reports. The organization compiled work from women's rights groups in 150 countries for the report, titled "Beijing Betrayed," which concludes that many women currently are worse off than they were 10 years ago. Despite the platform goal of making reproductive health services available worldwide, "obstacles" to access and affordability remain and are "compounded by cultural and religious fundamentalism," according to the report, the AP/Star reports. Women and girls also have a higher risk than men and boys of contracting HIV "primarily because of continued patterns of sexual subordination," according to the report (Lederer, AP/Kansas City Star, 3/4). "Governments are ... failing to mobilize the political will and leadership needed to carry out the commitments made to women at Beijing," WEDO Executive Director June Zeitlin said, adding, "As a result, many women in all regions are actually worse off now than they were 10 years ago" (Zabarenko, Reuters, 3/3).

U.S. Continues Support for Amendment
The U.S. delegation to the United Nations on Thursday during the review of the Beijing conference platform said that, although it had dropped its proposal for an amendment that would have clarified that the document does not include a right to abortion, it is continuing to advocate for amended language clarifying that the platform does not create any new international human rights, the New York Times reports (Hoge, New York Times, 3/4). Ahead of this year's review, the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women proposed a declaration asking the participating countries to reaffirm progress toward the Beijing platform, which stated that abortion should be safe in places where it is legal and that criminal charges should not be filed against any woman who undergoes an illegal abortion. The platform also stated that women have the right to "decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality ... free of coercion, discrimination and violence." However, Bush administration representatives said last week that the United States would not sign the declaration because of concerns that the platform classified legal abortion as a human right and last week proposed an amendment that would reaffirm U.S. commitment to the platform and declaration "while reaffirming that they do not create any new international human rights and that they do not include the right to abortion." The U.S. delegation on Wednesday dropped its demand for the abortion clause amendment (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 3/3). However, the delegation on Thursday continued to "insist" that the platform did not "create any new international human rights," which opponents say also could mean abortion, according to the AP/Boston Globe. There appeared to be "no support" from other countries for a "watered down" amendment, with delegates from the European Union, African Union and Mercosur trading bloc in South America all insisting that the declaration be left "untouched," the AP/Globe reports (Lederer, AP/Boston Globe, 3/4). The final vote on the declaration could occur on Friday (New York Times, 3/4).















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