3rd International Meeting - Day 2

The day started with some remarks on yesterday’s meeting. In order to be able to start the decision making part of our meeting a proposal for the decision making structure was presented and adopted.

We then could start on the political evaluation of the World March based on the preliminary report, based on the evaluations sent in by 49 countries. Delegates gave their comments amendments and suggestions. In general it was felt that the media did not pay enough attention to our march but the international solidarity resulting from the WMW was seen as a very useful back up for the work on regional and national levels. We must however realise that we didn’t change the world overnight but this was never our goal. An evaluation report which takes into account the remarks of the national delegates will be written as soon as possible, so that we can continue our work while learning from previous strengths and weaknesses.

The current state of mobilization of the World March around the world was presented at the end of the morning session.

The goals, objectives and areas of intervention were discussed at great length in the afternoon. Several delegates proposed to add other topics to the two main issues of poverty and violence, such as peace. Most delegates felt that the issues of poverty and violence were broad and flexible enough for each country to give their own interpretation while at the same time providing us with an international umbrella.

Some delegates expressed the opinion that we should cooperate with others groups on issues such as anti neo-liberal globalisation. We must however assure that we keep our own identity as a feminist movement, instead of adopting other organizations’ agendas.

After this long debate there was an attempt to declare the continuation of the World March of Women. Although there was consensus on the intention to continue the March, the delegates asked for a more elaborate proposal. Therefore an official proposal for the continuation of the March will be discussed on Thursday.

The last point on today’s agenda was the declaration for a dignified and just peace, written by a committee formed yesterday.* The draft was handed out before lunch and the text was to be discussed at the end of the day. The remarks and changes suggested by the delegates will be incorporated into the text. The new declaration will be dealt with first thing tomorrow morning.

Jennifer De Boer and Charlot Pierik, the Netherlands