WUNRN
CALL TO SUPPORT A 5th UN WORLD
CONFERENCE ON WOMEN
PETITION - 10039 SIGNATURES TO DATE
SIGN PETITION AT:
Published by Jean Shinoda Bolen on Oct 12, 2009
Category: Women’s Rights
& Empowerment
Region: GLOBAL
Website: http://5wcw.org/
Background (Preamble):
A UN 5th
World Conference on Women (5WCW) would be the most influential and far-reaching
women’s conference ever held. Grassroots activism and political leadership
needs to be mobilized or it won’t happen.
The 4th conference was held in Beijing in 1995, drew over 40,000 participants,
and led to the Beijing Platform for Action, which if implemented would have
created a world where women’s rights and human rights were one in the same. The
empowerment of women changes priorities: safety for women and children,
nutrition, health and education, and concern for the environment are women’s
concerns.
With the creation of a UN women’s super agency equivalent to UNICEF for
children, authorized by the UN General Assembly in September 2009, it is possible
that this new entity could organize a 5th world conference on women in 2015
(instead of a Beijing +20 review). The effect could be synergistic in advancing
a women’s agenda. Because this would not be an official UN conference of
governments -- but rather a UN -sponsored conference of non-governmental
organizations in civil society -- it could not re-open the many excellent
official documents already produced by the UN, but would focus on turning them
into reality in the lives of women and girls globally.
The 21st century is an era of communication: networking via emails, cellphones
and websites, information through youtube and live-stream coverage,
simultaneous regional conferences via satellite broadcasting could reach people
all over the world. The event would raise consciousness about unconscionable
conditions as well as solutions that could focus on the work of NGOs. It would
encourage the formation of women’s circles and mobilize a new wave of women’s
movement activism. It would inform the world that the Beijing Platform for
Action and UN Security Council Resolutions #1325 and its amendments on Women,
Peace, & Security--if implemented, would bring about gender equality, end
violence toward women and lead to peaceful solutions to conflicts.
A UN 5th women’s conference and the events preceding and following it would
create a critical mass, a tipping point of aware and involved women and men.
Information on website: www.5wcw.org.