Beijing Women Conference

[TMYINT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Dear Burmanetters:
	The following fwd message might be one of your interests. I am
wondering if there is any women group from Burma or Myanmar representing
Burmese women audience. It is a good opportunity and good time for Burmese
women if they are going to attend, and reveal their feeling when the
conference celebrate coming August in Beijing. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would love
to see/hear Burmese women participate in one of the historical women conferenc-
es, as she herself is a victim of the manner of ruthless nine masculine 
generals.
	If this message is not your interest, please ignore.

PS. If anyone wants to get the Resolution by European Parliament on
organization of Chinese government on the Fourth World Women Conf., please drop
a note in my mail box within five days beginning from June 7. I will not be
able to keep all mail more than that due to heavy traffic.

**********************The Original Message Follow*******************
>From:	PO2::"beijing-conf@xxxxxxxxxxx"  5-JUN-1995 16:21:40.42
To:	beijing-conf@xxxxxxxxxxx
CC:	
Subj:	Asia-Pacific Women's Action Network

 
 
 
 
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  NEWSLETTER - The International Communication Project - proudly
                   presents from its 22nd issue:
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                  Half the World, Half the Power
                    Ten Points to Save Beijing
 
  by the Human Rights Council of the Asia-Pacific Women's Action
                   Network (APWAN), Philippines
 
The globalisation of women's rights has in a way detracted 
us  from the analyses of our subordination and oppression. 
We must  continue to locate the context of our struggle in 
our realities. The push to merely identify  action-oriented 
recommendations  for the  Platform for Action may deny us 
the political analysis crucial in developing the ideology 
and thrust of our alternative movements.
 
Thus,  the  APWAN  collective  asserts  that  we  must 
construct  a political focus to issues we have identified as 
our concerns in the region. This will be our contribution to 
the  women's movement  and the Asia Pacific contribution to 
Beijing.
 
1. We must address the structural  causes of  Third World 
poverty and underdevelopment. The dominant scheme of  world 
economics  has given birth to multilateral monsters like the 
IMF-World Bank,  the WTO and the International Financial 
Institutions. Seemingly by the mandate of Third World 
dependency or debt, these institutions have taken the task 
of economic  policy-making imposed  on Third  World 
countries without accountability as  to the  consequences of 
this policy.   These   consequences   aggravate   poverty 
conditions, destitution and war due to economic inequality.
 
2.  Violence  against women  - whether  within the  family 
or  the community, whether perpetrated publicly or 
privately, by groups or individual, in the parent state or 
in another -  must be  stopped. Rape, battering, and all 
forms of violence continue to haunt women wherever they may 
be.
 
3. Environmental degradation in the name of development has 
caused land displacement of communities, natural and 
man-made  disasters, bastardisation of culture and forced 
migration from  the rural  to the urban centres.
 
4. Reproductive rights as human rights which include women's 
right to  life,  health,  and  control over  their 
reproductive  choices should be the framework for family 
planning programmes. Population is a development issue and 
cannot be viewed simply as a mere issue of  population 
control.  Women's  voices  must  not  be  used  to legitimise 
 anti-women,  anti-poor,  and  anti-nature population 
control.
 
5. The excesses of religious fundamentalism, ethnic, 
cultural  and communal conflict must be exposed and stopped. 
These have resulted in  intolerance,  discrimination,  abuse 
and  armed  conflict  of communities that further enhanced 
violence against women.
 
6. The right of peoples and nations to self-determination 
must  be upheld. The land rights of  indigenous people  must 
be  respected. Their  right  to  exist  as  a  people  or
as a  culture must  be preserved.
 
7. Governments  should take  steps to  curb the  traffic of 
women whether for prostitution or for exploitative labour. 
The number of internal and  external refugees  because of 
military or  economic strife continues to increase. Refugees 
and migrant workers must be afforded the fullest
protection, and  the cause  of their  mostly involuntary 
exile must be abated.
 
8.  The growing  trend of  militarism and  militarisation 
must  be stopped. National security acts and total war 
strategies under the guise of maintaining  political 
stability  have caused  widespread violations of human 
rights.
 
9. All forms of  rape and  military sexual  slavery against 
women during armed conflict  situations should  be 
recognised  as a  war crime and a crime against humanity. We 
must work toward the peaceful resolution of conflict. Women 
who are survivors of this gross human rights violation 
should be given individual  compensation  and  reparation by 
the governments  who perpetrated the crimes.
 
10. Peace and disarmament must be a  major agenda  of the 
Beijing Conference. There can be no peace without 
disarmament.
 
Contact:
APWAN
Manila Secretariat,
4L Fil-Garcia Ave.; Diliman, Quezon City 
Philippines
tel.: 632-9246406; fax: 632-9246381
 
APWAN Partners
 
Asia  Pacific  Forum  on  Women,  Law   and  Development 
(APWLD); Pesticides  Action  Network  Asia-Pacific 
(PAN-AP); Asian  Migrant Workers Centre  (AMWC); Coalition 
Against Trafficking  of Women  - Asia-Pacific (CTW-AP); 
Asian Peasant Women's Network (APWN);  Asian Indigenous 
Women's Institute of Technolgy,  Gender and  Development 
Programme  (AIT-GENDEV);  Women's Studies  Department of 
Chiangmai University; GABRIELA (Philippines); Korean 
Women's Hotline  (South Korea);  Indian  Coordination  Unit
for Beijing  and several  Thai groups   based  in   Bangkok; 
World   Alliance  of   Breastfeeding Associations (WABA); 
South East Asia Women's Information  (SEAWIN); Asian
Pacific  Resource  and  Research Center  for Women  (ARROW); 
Committee for Asian Women (CAW); the Asian  Women's 
Association  of Japan;  National  Committee  for  Beijing
of  Sri  Lanka;   APLWD, Kayanamitra -  Indonesia; Asia 
Pacific Bureau  of Adult  Education (ASPBAE);  ISIS 
International;  Vanuatu  Women's  Crissis  Center; Aprotech 
Asia; Philippine National Steering Committee for  Beijing; 
East Asia  Women's Forum-Japan;  Foundation for  Women - 
Thailand; Lesbian  Rights  Advocates; Coalition  of 
Australian  Participating Organizations  of  Women  for 
Beijing  (CAPOW) Australia;  SIMORGH Collective  -
Pakistan;  Women's Studies  Center, Beijing  Foreign Studies 
University - China; Christian Conference of Assia - Women's 
Programme;  Cambodia  Human  Rights  Outreach;  Cambodian 
Women's Development  Association;  Human Rights  Task Force 
on Cambodia  - Women's Rights  Desk; ASK  Bangladesh; ACFOD 
- Women's  Committee; COAL - Australia; AGHS Legal Aid  Cell 
-  Pakistan; Asian  Women's Human Rights Council (AWHRC).