WHAT KIND OF WORLD DO WE LIVE IN ?

This document was distributed to the delegates during the International Preparatory Meeting of 16-18 October, 1998

We live in a world where, at the turn of the millennium, profound disparities still exist between North and South, rich and poor, women and men, human beings and Nature.

We live in a world where unrestricted globalization of markets coupled with unbridled speculation are giving rise to extreme poverty. A total of 1.3 billion people, of whom 70% are women and children, live in abject poverty. It is a world that is hungry, a world where the richest 20% possess 83% of the planet’s revenue.

We live in a world where the State is neglecting its responsibilities and obligations due to the dictatorship of the market. It is a world where institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund impose their rules on governments through structural adjustment policies.

We live in a world where discrimination against women is the main source of gender inequality. It is a world where, since time immemorial, women have contributed to humanity’s development without their work being truly acknowledged. Thus, although women actually supply two-thirds of work hours, they only receive one-tenth of world revenue. Since the earliest times, the economy, no matter what kind, has been largely based on women’s work, whether paid or unpaid, visible or invisible.

We live in a world where violence against women continues to be a universal reality. Conjugal violence, sexual aggression, genital mutilation, rape in wartime are the plight of thousands of women. Racism and homophobia add to the bleak picture.

The March of Women worldwide intends to counter the neoliberal vision of the economy and social organization through the globalization of solidarity. It also intends to denounce all forms of violence against women. It was during a workshop at the NGO Forum on Women in China (1995) that women from Quebec proposed the World March of Women in the Year 2000 as a mobilizing action for all the world’s women.

What kind of world do we want to live in?

Women over the world are marching so that in the third millennium, their fundamental freedoms, indissociable from their human rights and undeniably universal in nature, are implemented once and for all. They are determined in their belief that all human rights are interdependent and that the values of equality, justice, peace, and solidarity will predominate.

Women over the world are marching in the knowledge that they have a responsibility to participate in political, economic, cultural and social life.

Women over the world are marching against all forms of violence and discrimination to which they are subjected.

Women over the world are marching to consolidate actions, based on principles of cooperation and sharing, aimed at instituting crucial changes.

Women are marching in affirmation of their desire to live in a better world.

1. We Are Marching to End Violence Against Women

The term "violence against women" means any act of violence directed at women that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to them, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life. Violence against women both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. (Summarized from the Declaration and Platform for Action of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995.)

The World We Live In -- A Few Observations:

Violence against women is a consequence of the historically unequal power relations between women and men and is a legal violation of a woman's human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is a universal reality, existing in all societies regardless of income, class, and culture.

Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family includes battering, sexual abuse, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women and girls, marital rape, dowry-related violence, non-spousal violence, and violence related to exploitation.

Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring within the general community includes battery, rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, trafficking in women and forced prostitution. The commercialization of women's bodies is related to the increased poverty of women that is mainly a result of unbridled economic liberalism.

Physical, sexual, and psychological violence is perpetrated or condoned by States that invoke custom or tradition rather than the respect of fundamental freedoms.

Violence affects all women but particularly those who are the most vulnerable: women belonging to minority groups, indigenous women, refugee women, women migrants, destitute women, female children, women with disabilities, lesbians, elderly women, etc.

Violence against women is also exercised as a weapon of war in situations of armed conflict, taking the form of murder, systematic rape, sexual slavery, hostage-taking, and forced pregnancy.

Acts of violence against women also include acts of terrorism, coercive/forced contraception, forced sterilization or forced abortion, prenatal sex selection, abortion of female foetuses, and female infanticide.

The Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on violence against women has named an additional violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms: the trafficking in women and girls for the sex trade, forced prostitution, rape, sexual abuse and sex tourism that have become a focus of international organized crime. She has also stated that additional measures should be taken to abolish all forms of forced labour, commercialization of sex, and forced marriage. Women and girls are at an increased risk of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection, including infection with HIV/AIDS.

Violence against women generates high human, social, and economic costs and is one of the factors in the increasing poverty of women.

The World We Want to Build

Women know what kind of action is needed to end violence against women: women's rights education, access to services, legal reform encompassing the harmonization of national laws with international laws, court reform, training of legal and judicial personnel as well as other public services professionals, institution of reporting mechanisms, allocation of adequate funding within the government budget for actions related to the elimination of violence against women.

Women must all denounce the inaction, inefficiency, and silence of governments who are under the obligation to provide the means to fight violence, particularly by the criminalization of aggressors, compensation of victims, and the creation of public awareness and education campaigns concerning violence against women. In addition, governments should include violence against women among the criteria for obtaining refugee status. Finally, as mentioned in the Beijing Platform, custom, tradition, or religious considerations should be subordinated to human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Women demand that respect be accorded to their bodies and their person. They expect significant action and a concrete investment in the elimination of all forms of violence perpetrated against them. They want a society where men commit themselves to the value of equality and where Governments take seriously their responsibility to assure the safety and well-being of the whole population.

Here Are the Demands We Will Present:

1.1) We, the women of the world, are marching for the recognition of our fundamental human rights, demanding the United Nations to bring extraordinary pressure to bear on member states to ratify the conventions and covenants relating to discrimination and violence against women and respect the universal declarations*. We also demand that states formulate plans of action to eliminate violence against women.

(*In particular, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Equal Remuneration Convention, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.)

1.2) We, the women of the world, are marching in support of the Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women allowing individuals and groups to bring complaints against their governments.

1.3) We, the women of the world, are marching in solidarity to support the protocols to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a means of bringing international pressure on governments to implement the rights set out in this convention and this covenant.

1.4) We, the women of the world, are marching in solidarity with women victims of war crimes to support the establishment of an international criminal court, for which the proposed treaty includes a provision defining rape, sexual abuse, and forced prostitution as war crimes.

1.5) We, the women of the world, are marching to affirm our solidarity with women victims of the sex trade by supporting the review of the 1949 Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others and the two resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly (1996) concerning the trafficking in women and girls and violence against migrant women and demanding that governments then rigorously implement these agreements.

2) We Are Marching to Eliminate Poverty

Since poverty is so difficult to define, generally its manifestations and consequences are used to identify it. Nonetheless, UN bodies associate poverty, particularly extreme poverty, with the denial of human rights, more particularly, those of women.

The World We Live In -- A Few Observations

Women are poor. They do not have access to resources such as food and drinking water, education and training, basic health services, social security, land, a decent, fair income, credit, jobs, new technologies, property, inheritance, measures to fight unemployment, etc. Women’s work is often barely recognized, be it a paid job, work in the informal economy or domestic chores.

They know that their democratic participation in building the collective wealth, in sustainable development and in political decision-making is crucial to the elimination of poverty.

Are we all aware, however, that $80 billion (United Nations Development Program figures) spent annually until the year 2005 would do away with poverty and that this amount represents less than the net assets of the seven richest men in the world?

The World We Want to Build

Women want to fight against the world dominant neoliberal model of economic development, against unemployment and social and environmental disintegration, against exclusion, inequality and different forms of discrimination against women, since these are the structural causes of their poverty.

They see sustainable development as a key factor in eliminating women’s poverty and they question international financial institutions, structural adjustment programs, the liberalization of financial and trade transactions with no social constraints, and the debt burden, especially in countries in the South. They believe that throwing open borders should go hand in hand with specific requirements regarding the observance of populations’ fundamental rights.

They demand the right to own land and they struggle for food self-sufficiency in their respective countries.

Women demand a gender analysis and perspective in policies and programs considered instrumental to counter their poverty.

Although women may not always know the names of international financial institutions, they are aware of the principal role these organizations play in the distribution of wealth and how they themselves are excluded through discriminatory practices. Thus they demand equal representation in all national and international decision-making bodies.

Women also demand recognition for the right to association and unionization.

Women condemn governments whose military spending exceeds their health and education budgets. They demand that the military industry be overhauled as part of the development of an economy based on sustainable development and respect for fundamental rights.

They demand the reduction or cancellation of developing countries’ foreign debt and the implementation of means such as the 20/20 formula between donor countries and the recipients of international aid. In this scheme, 20% of the sum contributed by the donor country must be allocated to social development and 20% of the receiving government’s spending must be used for social programs. The rich countries must renew their commitment to invest 0.7% of their gross domestic product (GDP) in aid for developing countries.

Women demand the elimination of the 37 tax havens, since their existence constitutes a legalized form of theft with respect to populations’ vital needs.

In short, they want a real distribution of wealth between women and men, between North and South and among women themselves. They want a world where commitments will be made to institute a world economic system that is democratic, fairer, more transparent and more accountable.

Here Are the Demands We Will Present

2.1) We, the women of the world, are marching to have included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights additional articles specifying what human beings’ fundamental needs are in order to ensure decent living conditions for all women and men.

2.2) We, the women of the world, are marching to demand that the ratification of all international conventions and agreements be subordinated to individual and collective human and fundamental rights.

2.3) We, the women of the world, are marching to demand the establishment of a world council for economic and financial security, whose mandate would be to define the rules of a new international financial system.

2.4) We, the women of the world, are marching to secure the end of banking secrecy and to support the Tobin Formula*, that is, the introduction of a 0.5% tax on the speculative movement of capital. The revenue of this tax would be paid into a fund for social development to which women would have preferred access.

(*Formula proposed in 1983 by James Tobin, Nobel Prize for Economics)

2.5) We, the women of the world, are marching to demand adequate financing of United Nations programs that are essential to defend the fundamental rights of women and children, for example, UNIFEM (program for women), the UNDP (development program) and UNICEF (program for children).