Proposed Demands

This document was amended by the delegates during the International Preparatory Meeting of 16-18 October, 1998. To consult the final version click here:
Advocacy Guide to Women's World Demands

1. That all governments adopt a legal framework aimed at eliminating poverty.

Governments must implement national anti-poverty programs, including specific measures to eliminate women's poverty : right to association and unionization; access and right to work; observance of the International Labour Office's labour standards; pay equity; access to safe water and decent housing; access to education, health care, culture, food security, land and equitable credit.

All acts, pieces of legislation, regulations and positions taken by governments will be assessed in the light of the human poverty index (HPI), introduced in the Human Development Report 1997; the human development index (HDI), put forth by the United Nations Development Program; and the gender-related development index (GDI), discussed in the Human Development Report 1995 and which measures instances of inequality between men and women.

2. That the Tobin tax be implemented immediately and the revenue from the tax be paid into a fund for social development. The fund would be managed democratically, with equal representation of men and women, and the 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty (70% of them women) would have preferred access to it.
3. That the debt of all Third World countries be cancelled.

• On an immediate basis, we demand the elimination of the debt of the 41 poorest countries on the planet, in support of a demand made by the Jubilee 2000 campaign.
• In the longer term, we demand cancellation of the debt of all Third World countries and the setting up of a mechanism to monitor debt write-off, ensuring that this money is employed in eliminating poverty and furthering the well-being of people most affected by structural adjustment programs, the majority of whom are women.

4. That a new world economic system, subordinated to the political power of the
   international community, be implemented.

The new world economic order must be founded on new democratic institutions subordinated to the political power of the international community (not only the Group of 7 countries) and on feasible short- and medium-term measures :

• A World Council for Economic and Financial Security. This body would be in charge of redefining the rules for a new international financial system based on the fair and equitable use of the planet's wealth. It would also focus on the increase of the well-being of the world population, particularly women, who make up over half that population. Gender parity should be observed in the composition of the Council's membership.
• Any ratification of trade conventions and agreements should be subordinated to individual and collective fundamental human rights. Trade should be subordinated to human rights, not the other way around.
• The elimination of tax havens.
• The end of banking secrecy.

TO ELIMINATE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
WE DEMAND :

1. That our governments dissociate themselves from any authority - political or
   religious - that aims to control women and girls and denounce any regime that violates our rights.
2. That nations recognize, in their statutes and actions, that violence against women is a violation of fundamental human rights and cannot be justified by any custom, religion, or cultural tradition.
3. That nations implement effective and adequately financed action plans to end violence against women.
4. That the men in our communities seriously commit themselves to denouncing and working against the diverse forms of violence directed against women and girls.
5. That the United Nations bring extraordinary pressure to bear on member states to ratify the conventions and covenants relating to the rights of women and children and respect the universal declarations, in particular, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
6. That, as soon as possible, protocols be adopted and added :

• to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women;

• to the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

• that allow individuals and groups to bring complaints against their governments. These protocols are a means to apply international pressure on governments to implement the rights set out in these covenants and conventions.

1. In solidarity with women victims of the sex trade, that there be a review of the 1949 Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, so that nations will implement the two resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly (1996) concerning trafficking in women and girls and violence against migrant women.
2. That states recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and conform to the provisions defining rape, sexual abuse, and forced prostitution as war crimes.
3. That the United Nations and member states formally accord homosexuals the rights and freedoms contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

That the United Nations implement an action plan to eliminate discrimination and violence against homosexuals exercised by states or their representatives.

That, in particular, homosexuals be accorded the right to asylum.