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IWTC Women's GlobalNet #263 Activities and Initiatives of Women Worldwide By Vicki J. Semler October 31, 2004 (NOTE: The virus/problem we have been experiencing in the Women’s GlobalNet subscription base seems to have been resolved. Many thanks for everyone’s help and support during this difficult time) 1. BEIJING PLUS 10 ONLINE CONFERENCE (October 2004 to January 2005) IN PREPARATION FOR 49th SESSION OF CSW: Gender equality and women's empowerment ten years after Beijing - Where do we stand? The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women will undertake a review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995) and the Outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly (2000) during its 49TH session from 28 February to 11 March 2005. The CSW will focus on implementation at the national level, to identify achievements, gaps and challenges, as well as future actions needed to further implementation. From October 2004 to January 2005, WomenWatch is hosting a series of online discussions on the Platform's critical areas of concern and other important issues to provide input into the review and appraisal. The discussions are being facilitated and moderated by members of the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality. You can make a contribution to the review and appraisal through your participation in the online discussions, which will be summarized and submitted to the CSW in February 2005. The summaries will also be posted on WomenWatch. TO PARTICIPATE, subscribe separately to each online discussion by choosing the discussion topic from the list on the website (http://www.un.org/womenwatch/forums/review/) and then clicking "Register for this discussion" button. Online discussions are as follows: 1). Women and the Economy. Moderated by UNDP. 11 October - 11 November 2004. 2). Human Rights of Women. Moderated by OHCHR. 8 November - 3 December 2004. 3) Women and the Environment. Moderated by UNEP. November 2004. 4) Violence against Women. Moderated by UNIFEM. November 2004. 5) Women and Health -(including Reproductive and Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS). Moderated by UNFPA, WHO. November 2004. 6) Women and Poverty. Moderated by World Bank. 10 January - 4 February 2005. 7) Education and Training of Women and the Girl Child. Moderated by UNESCO/UNICEF. 10 January - 4 February 2005. 2. LAUNCH OF NEW AFRICA ICT POLICY MONITOR WEBSITE. New website: <http://africa.right.apc.org> The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) announces the launch of a new Africa ICT Policy Monitor website. With the second World Summit of the Information Society to be held in Tunis in 2005, this website is particularly important and appropriate at this time. Collecting indispensable documentation since 2001, the new look Africa Monitor‚ has a new design and structure to make it even easier for African civil society to find the materials they need to get involved in ICT policy lobbying. 3. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN WILL CONTINUE UNLESS ITS ROOTS IN GENDER DISCRIMINATION AND INEQUALITY SERIOUSLY ADDRESSED Addressing a United Nations Security Council Open Debate on "Women, Peace and Security," Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), emphasized that any real solutions to eliminating violence against women must derive from a concerted attack on its origins -- deeply rooted, historical patterns of discrimination against women and systemic gender inequalities that are pervasive both in peacetime as well as during conflict. "The international community is now fully aware that rape and other forms of violence against women are systematically deployed, with the cruelest effect, as a weapon of war," she said. "However, gender-based violence during conflict is but part of the continuum of violence that runs through women's lives, from times of peace to times of war. It only deepens with war. Discrimination and gender inequality are seeds that, during wartime, become a bitter fruit that destroys the fabric of communities and the lives of women and their families." 4. WOMEN STILL FACE OBSTACLES IN REACHING SENIOR STAFF POSITIONS AT UN The United Nations has given itself a mixed report card for its efforts to reach the General Assembly's target of equality between the numbers of men and women in professional and managerial staffing. A report from Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the UN General Assembly says although the proportion of women at those levels in the Secretariat, with contracts for one year or longer, rose 1.7 percent last year to 37.4 per cent on 30 June of this year, "the analysis of the longer-term trends portrays a picture of uneven progress in women's representation at all levels." For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news 5. OFFICE FOR THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN AUSTRALIA DOWNGRADED. At least one of Australia’s main women organisations has criticised the merging of the Office for the Status of Women (OSW) into a new portfolio in Prime Minister John Howard’s reorganised government. At yesterday’s swearing-in ceremony in Canberra, PM Howard kept Senator Kay Patterson as Minister for Family and Community Services and also Minister Assisting the PM for women’s issues. This effectively downgraded the OSW to a department, which the PM said would provide policy advice, income support and assistance to families and their children, senior citizens and community groups. The Women Services Network (WESNET), Australia’s peak women’s organisation working to eliminate domestic and family violence, says the downgrade was “a disgraceful announcement by the Howard Government and “a sad day for Australian women”. “How ironic that on the day the devastating costs of domestic violence to the Australian economy are released to the public we find out that the Howard Coalition government has downgraded the Office for the Status of women to a division within the Department of Family and Community Services”, said Pauline Woodbridge, National Chairperson of WESNET. IWTC Women's GlobalNet is a production of:
International Women's Tribune Centre
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