wfn.org | BWNS -- Pledges on equality 'need to be honored'

[Bahá'í World News Service <bwns@bwc.org>]

Baha'i World News Service
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Pledges on equality 'need to be honored'
UNITED NATIONS, 16 March 2005 (BWNS) -- Governments should ensure that
they act upon their commitments to advance the equality of women and
men, said the principal representative of the Baha'i International
Community to the United Nations, Bani Dugal, in a speech to commemorate
International Women's Day.

"What is the meaning of stated commitments if no action results?" said
Ms. Dugal, the chairperson of the NGO Committee at the UN on the Status
of Women.

"States can no longer be permitted to shirk from their responsibilities
on the pretext of domestic jurisdiction or cultural relativism. There
are no grounds--moral, practical or biological--on which denial of
women's rights can be justified," Ms. Dugal said.

"The consequences of inaction and continuing discrimination against
fully half of the world's population are an affront to human dignity and
a disavowal of the very principles of the United Nations," she said.

Ms. Dugal was speaking on 4 March 2005 at the invitation of the United
Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She shared the dais with a
roster of notables in the field of women's rights, including Nobel Prize
winners Wangari Maathai of Kenya and Rigoberta Menchu Tum of Guatemala.

"The full equality of men and women is not the end goal," said Ms.
Dugal. "It is a prerequisite for the very ends the United Nations was
created to serve. That global peace and security are not possible
without women is a truth we can no longer deny. As a global community,
we have the means; we have made the plans, let us not be afraid to try."

Ms. Dugal said the UN had given the worldwide women's movement a "unique
space" in a series of conferences to address women's rights--the 1995
World Conference for Women in Beijing, for example, was critical in
helping women reach for full equality.

"It established clear standards and stated unequivocally that women's
rights are human rights and that meeting these rights is central to
every nation's progress in development and democracy," said Ms. Dugal.

It is important, however, for those governments that signed the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action to ensure those commitments are
acted on, she said.

Ms. Dugal also stressed the importance of partnership with men and boys,
and their education, in the advancement of women. "Until they themselves
refuse to accept laws and practices that discriminate and demean their
daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers, nothing will change," said Ms.
Dugal.

Angela King, who organized the 23rd Special Session of the General
Assembly in 2000, known as Beijing +5 for its review of the 1995
conference, posed a list of questions relating to implementation of
those commitments: Why are ways to implement government commitments not
fully funded? Why are so few women at the peace table? Why are
stereotypes of women's roles so hard to change?

"When we can answer all these questions then we will know why
implementation is so slow," said Ms. King. "When we find what strategies
to put in place then real implementation will be underway."

Ms. King's successor in the position of assistant secretary-general and
special adviser on gender issues and advancement of women, Rachel
Mayanja, called for "more male gender specialists and more strategic
alliances with young women and men."

"In the last 30 years, men have gone to the moon and back, yet women are
still at the same place they were, that is trying to sensitize the world
to the unwarranted and unacceptable marginalization of women which
deprives them of their human rights," Ms. Mayanja said.

(Report by Veronica Shoffstall.)

For more information on the speeches of the participants see
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/wom1495.doc.htm