NGO Strategies Set, Women Wary of Backsliding and US Intervention at HLM

“Reaffirm and fully implement the BPFA and Beijing Plus Five Outcome Document”

This is the message that NGOs and women activists will take to the government ministers attending the High Level Ministerial meeting (HLM) on the Review of Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) starting September 7, here in Bangkok, Thailand. The HLM will be conducted as the contribution of the Asia and Pacific region, under the the UN Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), to the worldwide review process.

The women, who formed under the banner of AP-NGO Caucus, set strategies for ensuring that they would get their message across government representatives to the meeting. The Caucus decided to keep a firm stance against any renegotiations of the BPFA. A lobbying workshop was organized by the Asia-Pacific Women Watch (APWW) to coordinate and synergise all lobbying efforts of women who support the full implementation of the commitments made in Beijing in 1995 as well as the Outcomes Document. The Caucus identified itself as strictly being composed of those in support of the BPFA, and would lobby as a unified body in counteraction to conservative groupings.

The women in the Caucus plan to wear brightly-colored sticker badges to carry their message and reiterate their demand for affirmation of all international women’s rights instruments, including Convention for Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the agreements at the International Conference for Population and Development (ICPD).

Participants at the workshop voiced their concern that there might be NGOs attending the HLM with a view towards disrupting the process by questioning already agreed upon language. There were also rumors circulating about a possible regressive intervention from a US delegation on matters of reproductive rights and women’s sexuality, but these rumors remained unconfirmed by the end of the meeting.

Nevertheless, the workshop allowed participants to identify possible allies among the government delegations, particularly the more sympathetic delegates from Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. Speculations were also raised about who would be chosen among the attending ministers to become chair of this session of the HLM, since the position of chair could set the tenor for the whole meeting.

The ESCAP secretariat announced what they expect of the process: a series of country reports would be presented, and at the end of the meeting the Chair will produce a summary report for the region that will be taken up when the Commission on the Status of Women meets in March 2005.

The APNGO Caucus will get the chance to address the government plenary on September 8, during which they will present the Asia Pacific NGO Forum statement formulated last July during the regional NGO meeting. Several NGOs also asked to be given the chance to make interventions during the plenaries. They are: ARROW, NAPY, APWLD/AP-WRAW, Refugee Centre Australia, India Women’s Watch, AMARC-WIN, and Central Asia Forum.

The NGO reports on the BPFA’s 12 critical areas of concern were compiled in the "Big Purple Book". A shorter version of the document had also been prepared and was meant as a lobbying tool for the HLM. However, the Caucus members agreed that this document might not be useful at this time, since it would only open up the BPFA language to attack from critical groups.

The Caucus also set up ways for all its NGO participants to coordinate for the duration of the HLM. Committees were formed for the following tasks: a drafting committee ( to prepare the Caucus intervention statement), a committee to link with the ESCAP secretariat, a committee for monitoring government plenary presentations and a media committee. Briefings will be held at conference room 4 of the ESCAP building at 8-8:30 am and at 5:5:30 pm.

Daily reports from the HLM will be available through the APWW-mailing list, and will also be made available from the APNGO-Forum website at http://ap-ngo-forum.isiswomen.org.

Aileen Familara of Isis International-Manila for APWW
September 6, 2004
Bangkok, Thailand