| JOHANNESBURG--At
Monday morning's launching of the Women's Action
Agenda for a Healthy and Peaceful Planet, the
operative word used liberally by the panelists
was, quite
approprately, "action. Organized by the
Women's Environment and Development Organization
(WEDO)
and the Brazil Network for Human Development,
the collection of panelists at the Sandton Convention
Center ballroom were all architects of the original
Women's Action Agenda 21 created at the first
earth
summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992.
In Rio, the agenda served as a framework for
the basis of implementing concrete strategies
for alleviating
the plight of struggling women around the world.
In
Johannesburg, delegates will continue deliberations
to design methods of reaching their original goals
by 2015.
"The most vital lesson of the Women's
Action Agenda 21 was to stress the importance
of women organizing beyond our ethnic, cultural,
linguistic, political, and religious differences,"said
Jocelyn Dow of WEDO, one of the panelists who
played a key role in spreading awareness on
the Action Agenda. "We are women, first
and foremost ? we are bonded by a common oppression."
The Women's Action Agenda 21, as formulated
in Rio, was a product of a collaboration among
1,500 women representing 83 countries, shedding
light on issues such as governance, the environment,
the global economy, poverty, land rights, health,
science, and education ? particularly how these
issues relate to women.
"It has been ten years since we drafted
the Women's Action Agenda 21," said Vandana
Shiva, a world-renowned activist for women's
issues and sustainable business practices. "We
need to go beyond Rio, for the crisis has grown
since then."
According to a recent report released by WEDO,
some of the recommendations drafted by the
Agenda advise the international comunity to
re-allocate funds from military budgets to
human needs; implement UN Security Council
Resolution 1325, which assures women's equal
participation in a variety of military and
diplomatic peace-keeping operations, and promote
non-violent forms of conflict resolution, among
many other suggestions.
"Thirty percent of the South African
parliament is comprised of women," said
the South African minister of health Dr. Manto
Tshabalala, one of the panelists. "But
we cannot be complacent about out advances
? we must increase access and disseminate information
while assisting our women in networking with
each other to get the maximum level of support."
Monday's morning's briefing was one of many
events inaugarating the World Summit on Sustainable
Development, scheduled to run until September
4. Women's issues pomise to secure the spotlight
for a variety events with the intent of continuing
toward implementing the Action Agenda of Rio
while remaining sensitive to the newly emerging
needs of women in the 21st century.
|
