WIDOW RIGHTS ACTIVISTS SEEK INTERNATIONAL PLATFORM

By Sandhya Nankani

NEW YORK, June 8 -- When Dr. Eleanor Nwadinobi first began to research the conditions of widows in Southeast Nigeria, she was the target of skepticism and discouragement. In a country, where a widow is accused of being her "husband's murderer" and often is subject to harrassment, neglect, and abuse following her spouse's death, it can't an easy task to ask questions that challenge the status quo. So, Nwadinobi didn't find it surprising when people told her, "You are not meant to ask questions. You are not meant to talk about this." In fact, when her husband got into a car accident some time later, she even heard some people suggest that the accident may have occurred because of her involvement in such a "horrific project." MORE

Nwadinobi pressed on with her research and went on to become a founding member and President of Nigeria's Widows Development Organization - or WIDO, as it is better known - an organization founded in 1995 to sensitize the general public in Nigeria on the plight of widows and to initiate change in their social status through advocacy and education. This week, she is in attendance at Beijing + 5, urging the UN and governments to pay closer attention to widow rights in the next decade.

CHALLENGING CULTURAL PRACTICES

Through her studies in the country's Eastern states, Nwadinobi found that widows often are victims of the three D's - "dethronement, defacement and disinheritance." This refers to the fact that in this culture - and in many others in Africa and Asia - a woman's status is linked directly to that of her spouse, that she is valued first and foremost for her physical beauty and that she has few rights to property and succession by customary law.

In cases where harmful and degrading practices of widows - including shaving their heads, forcing them to sit on the floor for periods of upto one year, making them wear the same clothes for extended periods of time, not allowing them to bathe, or evicting them from their property - are directly linked to "traditional" beliefs and "culture," it may sometimes seems most difficult to achieve change. Not so for Nwadinobi and her colleagues.

In Ugwuogo Nike, a village of 3,000 in Nigeria's Enugu State, WIDO recently initiated a pilot project that is researching traditional practices and attitudes that affect widows while advocating for change for women by establishing links with the traditional village chief. Their advocacy has yielded some positive results. On the 8th of March, International Women's Day, the chief made a proclamation that there would be "No more Female Genital Mutilation" in the village. He has also installed 13 women in his cabinet, assigning each of them to a different committee in their community.

"Getting the judicial system to change is a slow and tedious process," says Nwadinobi. "So, side by side, we are working in the community with custodians of customary law to achieve change."

The change, to which Nwadinobi refers, is one wherein by first providing women with their basic human rights - education, political participation, a life free from violence, eradication of poverty - it will be possible to alter long-held myths, rituals, views and practices that affect women. In so doing only can widows receive the fair treatment and respect that they deserve.

BEYOND NIGERIA

Although data is poor, it is estimated that globally, 8 to 13 percent of all women are widows. In the developing world, and particularly in Asia and Africa, the number of widows is significantly higher than elsewhere in the world. This can be attributed to the higher rates of disease, poverty, war and conflict in these areas. In Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, it has been recorded that more than 80 percent of widowed individuals are women. For contemporary widows, life is certainly not easy. Often, they undergo similar experiences to their counterparts in Nigeria, as do women in South Asia. The increase in AIDS and the continued devestation of families in war-torn regions is further complicating the picture.

In New York this week, activists working on widow rights issues have come together to share ideas about approaches to improving the status of widows. At the same time, they have expressed their disappointment with the ongoing review process. NGO participants at Beijing + 5 agree that widows are the invisibles in international debates and dialogues focusing on women's rights. The social stigma associated with widowhood is compounded by the silence in available statistics, making the case for widows an even harder one to fight internationally.

"The issues relating to widowhood cut across all the 12 critical areas of the Beijing Global Platform for Action, but widows are barely mentioned in the text except in the context of ageing," says Margaret Owen, scholar and author of "A World of Widows," a book documenting her research on the subject in Asia and Africa. "Nor, in spite of intensive lobbying by some NGO groups and caucuses, do we find much reference to them in the proposed outcome document reviewing implementation of the Platform for this General Assembly Special Session."

The African Women's Development Network and a UK-based NGO, Empowering Widows in Development, have issued a joint statement calling upon the governments of the world to listen to widow's voices and to tackle the issues of widowhood through human-right friendly policies. "The gross human rights violations widows experience in many areas of their lives have implications for the whole of society and development in general which cannot be ignored," the statement reads. "We request that governments, bearing in mind how widespread, serious and urgent is this issue, agree to a special paragraph on widowhood to be inserted in the Outcome Document on Further Actions."

For those who are active in the field, there is a clear need for continued action. Next February, EWD plans to hold an international conference on widows in London where widows from around the world will meet with policy-makers and activists to share testimonials and push for a recognition of their concerns. Meanwhile, filmmaker, Barbara Sonneborn, whose experience as a widow of the Vietnam War led to her Academy-Award nominated documentary Regret to Inform, is using the power of the Internet to connect war widows around the world. "Some memorials aren't made of stone, they're made of stories," is the motto driving www.warwidows.org, a "Living Memorial" where war widows from Rwanda, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti and Guatemala have all shared their stories since the site launch this April.

"This is more than a memorial: it's a living tapestry that weaves together the stories of women whose lives are bound by the knowledge that we have one common enemy - war," says Sonneborn, who is heading a delegation of widows at Beijing + 5. "The Living Memorial shows that war doesn't end when the bombs stop dropping - it tears our lives apart and its legacy lives on and on."

Without the support of their governments, advocates of widows are forming strong networks with one another, exchanging ideas and slowly, but surely working to build international pressure.

Women Leading UN Agencies: Progressive Forces

by Sandhya Nankani

NEW YORK, June 9 - While country representatives to the UN took a lunch break from the last morning session of the General Assembly of Beijing + 5 today, women leaders of several UN agencies came together to discuss the challenges and successes of their leadership. In a panel discussion, the five directors of key UN humanitarian programs - Gro Harlem Brundtland of the World Health Organization (WHO), Nafis Sadik of the UN Population Fund (UNPF), Catherine Bertini of the World Food Programme (WFP), Carol Bellamy of UNICEF, and Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR)- engaged in an intimate, forthcoming and honest dialogue with their audience and with one another.

In their presentations, panelists argued that women leaders have been able to make a difference in several spheres - within the United Nations framework, within UN agencies, and on the policy level. Drawing upon their personal experiences, they gave examples of how they have implemented women-friendly policies within their respective agencies. One way in which this has been accomplished has been through an increase in female employees. In the last year, the recruitment rate of women has gone up to 40 percent at WHO, to 50 percent at UNFP, and up from 17 percent to 34 percent at WFP. "There is more equality of opportunity now for men and women to make their way up to positions of responsibility," said Sadik. Still, panelists agreed that more than numbers are needed to achieve real change. "What's more important than numbers is changing attitudes and reaching a critical mass," said Bertini.

UNICEF's Executive Director stated that the presence of women in key leadership positions has led to an increased emphasis on issues such as education, violence against women and HIV/AIDS. By approaching issues of development through a lens of gender, many agencies have restructured their programs. For example, WFP has formed direct alliances with women, recognizing them as key to reaching the goals of their program.

"If you think of the UN as a ship with two ends, we are on the economic and social side and the so-called peace and security side is still largely male," said UNICEF's Bellamy. "But, our agencies have more to do with real security than some agencies at this point."

Panel participants paid tribute to UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, for recognizing that recommendations and action plans for gender equality are meaningless if they are not implemented first and foremost, within the very institution that espouses them. "Women are every bit as much affected as any man by peace and security, by human security and by human rights," says Annan. "It is, therefore, right and indeed necessary that women should be there to work towards these goals, with equal strength and in equal numbers." Annan's concerted efforts to reach the 50/50 gender equality by the year 2000, while they have not been fully successful, have yielded a more equitable balance of power between the sexes in UN agencies. Since 1995, the presence of women has grown significantly. They now constitute 24.5 percent of positions at the Director level or above and 38.9 percent of all Professional and higher level staff. When compared to the numbers in Member States, this is indeed an accomplishment. In only 16 countries do women hold 25 percent or more of parliamentary seats. Globally, women hold only 11.7 percent of senior positions in the executive branch of government. And, worldwide, there are only 8 women heads of state.

During a lively question and answer session, panelists were asked to talk about their personal influences, stress management techniques, the challenges they have experienced in their career, and of course, the ongoing debates within the UN over the Beijing + 5 outcome document. "Nothing I did before this in any way prepared me for the convolution of working in the UN system," said UNHCR's Robinson, former President of Ireland, referring to the trials of the past week. "It is our challenge to be stubborn and bloody minded and to work through a system that fights forward moves."

While a clear frustration with the review process was in the air, the panelists urged NGOs and activists gathered at the UN not to allow the "mindless disagreements" of the General Assembly to stamp out their vision. "Don't become captives and prisoners of people in a dark room who can't agree with each other," said Bellamy. "Go back home and make a difference." The women made a pledge to do the same in their agencies.

A Monotheistic Jamboree

By Cristina Ruggiero

New York, June 8- In what was perhaps one of the more peripheral events in the scheme of the Beijing+5 proceedings, approximately 40 women gathered for a session entitled "Religion as Liberation," held in the Church Center at the U.N. Plaza. The session, co-sponsored by the Ecumenical Women 2000+ coalition, united Christian, Jewish, and Muslim, women from around the globe in an effort to bring their respective faiths and common deity to bear on the issues of women's rights being addressed elsewhere at Beijing+5. Formal presentations were mixed with various religious songs and dances in which the audience avidly participated. In contrast to the explicitly anti-feminist activities of conservative religious groups in the run-up to the meetings this week, the rhetoric at this event affirmed the rights of women within the religious context.

"Let us walk in the light of God as we work for the ideals in the Platform for Action," cried Pauline Muchina, a Christian participant from Kenya, as the session began. Muchina's invocation was followed by Musa Dube, a Motswana Christian, who recounted a folk tale about the nature of women from her native Botswana in spoken English and sung Setswana. Rose Teteki Abbey of Ghana gave the final presentation on behalf of African Christianity, which depicted Jesus as a genderless figure with the power to liberate women from abuses suffered at the hands of men and society at large. "There is no male, nor female in Christ," went the poem Abbey read. "Religion that enslaves is false; true religion gives freedom." Other presentations also challenged conventional conceptualizations of the appropriate intersection between women and the divine.

Esther Broner, an American Jew, donned rabbinical garb and discussed the exclusion of women from Jewish holidays, in terms of their absence from traditional holiday stories, and in terms of the Jewish prohibition against women holding certain positions of significance or uttering certain prayers. By creating a woman-centric Seder in the mid-1970s, Broner attempted to forge an alternative space within Judaism wherein women could participate in Jewish ritual more fully. When Broner first began to conduct her Seder in public, she was "booed," but she continued to extol her Judeo-feminist ethic. Invoking classic feminist names like Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug, Broner highlighted the need for women to find strength through connections to their female forebearers. Previous generations of women were confined to the role of the "silent server behind the curtain," Broner said, and stressed the imperative that the stories of these women of the past be understood and told by the women of the present. While her all-female Seder services no longer solicit heckling, "we haven't yet arrived where we're going," Broner emphasized, to the audience's applause.

Islam was represented by a presentation markedly less aggressive in its forging of new constructs to facilitate women's religious fulfillment. Nilgung Gorkin of Turkey led the congregates through a handout headed "Religion as Liberation in Qur'an," which detailed the Koranic prospects for liberation through the basic pan-religious precepts of self-abnegation. "For men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in charity, for men and women who fast, for men and women who guard their chastity, for them has God prepared forgiveness and great reward," read the handout, therein offering a conceptualization of women's liberation through religion as freedom of women from divine wrath, as opposed to the Christian notion of divine protection of women, or the Jewish idea of equal participation in divine ritual for women. Gorkin presented an Islam that affords men and women the same path to liberation, and recognizes the same potential in both sexes for the realization of the goal of true liberation-- release from self-concern.

The last presentation, made by Lusandre Chaudruc, an American Christian, was an interpretative, "liturgical" dance, for which a barefoot and loose-haired Chaudruc, clad entirely in white, pirouetted and shaséd through the chapel to the recorded warblings of birds and a moog machine. As her performance closed, the music continued, and all present joined in celebratory group dancing and singing.

Gender Equality in Cyberspace: A Challenge for the 21st Century

By R. Erica Doyle

New York, June 8--UNIFEM held a panel this afternoon on new information and communications technologies (ICTs) and building partnerships for women’s education and training. Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM focused on the importance of partnerships, especially since UNIFEM is the smallest fund in the United Nations. Panelists included the First Ladies of Brazil and Ghana, Dr. Ruth Cardoso and Dr. Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, respectively, and Christine Hemrick, Vice President of Cisco Systems, an identified partner. Aside from the usual handouts, Cisco Systems presented panel attendees with free pens, t-shirts and bandanas Mark Malloch Brown, the Administrator of UNDP, also spoke briefly, highlighting the statistics in relation to poverty, gender and technology.

According to Brown, women are:

* 2/3 of the illiterate

* 50% of HIV cases

* 2/3 of microcredit clients

* 1/3 of internet users

Brown suggested that while these stats reveal that women have difficulties, they also highlight the assets women have for developing themselves. UNIFEM, in conjunction with partners like Cisco Systems, has used information technology for the empowerment of women through videoconferencing, electronic discussions, live webcasting, and support of initiatives such as FIRE’s feminist radio/web news outlet. The panelists tried to address the means of getting access and high-level training in the hands of women and girls, specifically poor women and girls. Cisco Systems has initiated a distance-learning program with generalized online software that could support the delivery of online learning of subjects such as math and foreign languages. They have computer networking academies that are non-profit and aim to train students in networking technology, so they can maintain their own systems. Some of this is hands on, said Christine Hemrick, but some of it is on-line. She projected images of students working on a large screen on the side of the conference room to illustrate her points, and brought three women who were students from the program to present their experiences. The students were college grads from South Africa, China, and Argentina.

In Brazil, according to Dr. Ruth Cardoso, only 4% of the population has access to the Internet, and of those, it is concentrated in the richest strata of society. Since girls are at 51% enrollment in the public schools and since children of different economic levels are also present she spoke of an initiative to disseminate technology into 6,000 schools and to have a school television channel. In the poorest communities, they hope to provide a Youth Network Program and a Women’s Leadership Initiative. "Universities, public agencies, private companies, community organizations and NGOs must work together," she said, "in order to bridge the gaps."

Dr. Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings shared even more grim statistics with the audience. 70% of internet usage occurs in the US; and only 10% in developing countries. Of that 10%, only 1.8 million are in Africa, and of those, 1.4 million are in South Africa. "So the rest of us," she said, "need to take the bull by the horns. Governments’ prosperity has become directly proportional to their use of information technology. Others risk extinction in a global context." Ghana has drafted a preliminary ICT proposal for having all universities and schools on line Other plans include informal learning, research ;abs, and distance learning. The First Lady admitted to not knowing how to use email, and to having never used or owned a credit card. "We just don’t know. If there is a new system, and we don’t train women, the rest of the country can not go up." The continent of Africa is home to 12% of the world’s people, and has 2% of the telephone lines. The installation costs are high and service is of low quality. This lack of infrastructure coupled with the low school enrollment of girls is doubly problematic for the women of Africa, according to Lalla Ben Barka, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa. There are initiatives in progress, and conferences on African women and new technologies and globalization, and ECA just released a CD-ROM on African women. In response to the concern of creating a technical elite, Ben Barka responded, "If you have telecommunications lacks, then you have a serious problem, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying to do what we can when we can. It should not be limited to literacy either. If you see how a whole village arranges themselves around the one TV screen to watch a soccer game, then you see the potential."

Reviewing the Beijing+5 Outcome for Reproductive Rights

By R. Erica Doyle

New York, June 8--NGOs at the UN have become increasingly watchful--and wary -- of the negotiations towards an outcome document. As awareness grows of diluted provisions for women's reproductive rights, women have begun murmuring in the hallways. "This is not Beijing+5 -- this is Beijing MINUS five!" quipped one activist. The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy sponsored a panel today on the outcome of Beijing+5 and how that will affect women’s rights worldwide. And, despite the concerns of some NGOs, the panelists expressed optimism over past and future progress. "This entire debate," said Bene Madinagu of Nigeria, "is based on the misguided notion that Western countries are forcing the South to accept its values. This is disrespectful to the delegates from the South. We have come here representing the realities of the lives of our citizens. There are no separate sets of rights -- one for the South and one for Western countries!"

She described the careful process by which women’s rights and human rights activists had been working for years to get to the first Beijing conference, analyzing experiences, documenting both successful and unsuccessful delivery of women’s human rights. "These new rights, as they call them, are not new," Madinagu said firmly. Women’s voices were just not there all along to articulate the content of what these rights mean specifically for women. She spoke of women who are socialized to accommodate the interests of a patriarchal society. "We have moved beyond accommodations. We are claiming all entitlements. Women are confronting violations. Don’t worry--sexual rights are still there--in brackets, but still in the document. This is the result of years of work, that has finally made it to the UN level. CEDAW is legal, and it has given us enough. We hope they will not go below what has already happened; everyone has a right to their sexuality. This is positive." Amparo Claro of Chile said that the worst thing was a feeling of déjà vu and described the debates in the General Assembly as a "theatre of the absurd" where they are still debating women’s rights as human rights. "The reality of women’s lives around the world, not matter how the debate are going, will go on. The majority of the nations support the Platform for Action. We have seen positive support from the Latin American region." She noted that for once, G-77s did not vote as a block, but voted independently, thus freeing the more progressive nations to be more supportive. "It is most frustrating to hear the Holy See press on their definition of family as only being a husband and wife. Thirty to forty percent of our families are headed by women! But," she added with a chuckle, "these issues are coming out of the closet, so to speak. It is good to have these debates, and there is some good news."

Shanti Daryam of Malaysia pointed out that "yes, there are frustrations bordering on dismay, but this builds the foundation for good future effects. The Platform for Action provides content and substance and life to a twenty-year old human rights treaty--CEDAW." She pointed out that the monitoring under the PFA that brought out such contradictions as an Indonesian law that allows abortion if the mother’s life is in danger, but require that the woman ask for her husband’s permission. "She has to ask her husband if she can live?" asked Daryam. "These groups like to talk about disorder and immorality, but this is what it comes down to. Not having coercive family planning where, like in Indonesia, soldiers stood outside clinics to make sure women had IUDs inserted." Madinagu pointed out that it was important to note that not only were the delegations being stalled regarding sexual rights, but the entire issue of globalization was so contentious it had to be sent to a subcommittee and then brought back to the group.

The activists were overall were optimistic. When asked if it were not if fact disregarding the diversity of Pakistan for example, to force them to ratify something they didn’t agree with, one of the panelists said pointedly, "Pakistan has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world." Another added, "They talk about what they will do to prevent rape, and to educate women--all the prevention tomorrow will not help a woman today. We must not ask women to wait for their full human rights."

Women: Peace-Wagers in the Battle for International Security

By Sandhya Nankani

NEW YORK, June 8 - Addressing a panel of women activists from war-torn areas and government officials, Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordon called upon world governments to recognize women for their role as "guardians of peace" and to include them in the global peace process. "For too long, the doors of negotiation rooms have been slammed shut on women," said Queen Noor. "At the dawn of the new century, it is time for those waging war to be told - once and for all, time is up."

Well known as an advocate for women in the Middle East and most recently, for being at the forefront of the international campaign to abolish landmines, Queen Noor argued that the world "desperately needs new perspectives" to end war. "Women bear the brunt of war but they are never included in the conflict process. Not only is this unjust, it is also unwise because to exclude women undermines peace," she said. "Women are vital to the peace-making process and peace is vital to the advancement of women."

Speaking as a member of the Advisory Board of Women Waging Peace (WPP)- an initiative that seeks to build a bridge between the spheres of community and grassroots action and policy formulation by including women in the process of international conflict resolution - Queen Noor urged her audience to work to create a society where "women's voices can be heard in portals of power." Her plea echoed the goals of WPP's founder, Swanee Hunt, former Ambassador to Austria and director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

WOMEN BUILDING GLOBAL ALLIANCES

While serving the US government in Austria from 1993 to 1997, Hunt extended her energies to the ongoing conflicts in the neighboring Balkan states. Over the last few years, she has made over 40 trips to the region, interacting with and observing women in the region. "As all these policy makers were trying to figure out what to do, I would go to Bosnia and I would meet with these women, members of over 40 multiethnic women's associations, trying to hold their cities together," said Hunt. "I started to ask myself - what did these women know that the peace-makers had not figured out in all of this?" Since her return to the US, Hunt has formulated an action plan to make governments and policy-makers aware of this same question.

The women that WPP brings together are living and working for change on the frontlines in some of the most danagerous regions of the world - Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Rwanda, Colombia, Mexico, Sri Lanka. Several of these women joined Hunt and Queen Noor yesterday, giving testimonies of the value of a venture such as WPP. The list of attendees and panelists is an impressive gathering of leaders. Martha Eugenia Segura is the head of an umbrella organization of 25 NGOs working to end violence in Colombia. Dolores Gonzalez, an activist for indigeouns oeoples in Mexico, has been involved in the country's peace mediations with the Zapatista Army. Anna Ignatieva is working to reform Russia's army through the Union of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia. Malathi De Alwis is a scholar on feminist and peace movements in Sri Lanka. Patrice Keegan is a grassroots practitioner working in Boston's inner city to rebuild the Codman Square community. Mary Okumu is a Kenyan activist who is training Sudanese women to engage in peace initiatives across conflict lines.

Last year, WPP gathered 120 grassroots women activists from war-torn areas for a 2 week conference. Here, they had the opportunity to share their experiences and "best practices" to, formulate strategies for action and perhaps most importantly, to gain strength from each other. Following the conference, these women returned to their homes armed with a laptop computer, access to the internet and training, tools intended to enable their continued communications. WPP has also formed links with "local partners" in conflict areas who continue to refer delegates for inclusion in the project and who track political and community issues affecting women in these areas. "Sharing experiences makes women feel connected," recognized Hunt. "It also gives them strength and empowers them."

"When people who can't talk about their experience are silent, I give myself the mandate to speak on behalf of women everywhere who are in areas of conflict," said Okumu. "As a woman, this is my duty." Okumu and other peace-builders are women who hold on to hope in times of extreme devestation. "If we dare to dream, it is possible to find ways to dream," she said.

SHAPING POLICIES

As individuals, these women, some might argue, can only achieve limited change. But, collectively, they have the potential to be powerhouses, shaping and influencing international policies. If Hunt has her way, the U.S. will be at the forefront of a major shift in perception. To her work at WPP, she brings a vast network of national and international contacts with key policy-makers, whom she is calling upon to take notice of the women in her group. Hunt's goal is to make the very women working for change at the community level active participants and contributers to the international peace dialogues.

In organizational environments that stress quantitative analyses, individual stories of heroism are not enough to effect and transform national policies. High level policy makers, intrigued by Hunt's proposition, will still turn to data and analyses to define the weld between the present framework of institutions and the efforts of WWP. Luckily, studies consistently show that investment in education of women and girls has been proven to have the biggest effect on the development of society and fostering of peace. In fact, many theorists agree that economic empowerment is the most powerful shot in the arm that one can give developing economies.

In light of these analyses, when Vice-President Al Gore's National Security Advisor, Leon Fuerth, one of Hunt's allies, asked himself, "What gives you the biggest bang for the buck in dealing with foreign engagement," the answer that came back to him supported WPP's fundamental philosophy. "Investment in and engagement with women," he said.

General Wesley Clark, Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO forces in Kosovo, who spent the past 6 years watching men engage in war, is one of the admirers of Hunt's effort. "It is not enough to put the troops in," he said. "We have got to have mobilization of people to bring peace because wars don't end until people truly, deeply and courageously want them to end. For peace, we need the will of the people." Clark recognizes women as a "positive force in ongoing political transformations."