Democratic Palestine : 10 (ص 26)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 10 (ص 26)
- المحتوى
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UN World Conference on Women
Representatives from 160 coun-
tries convened in Nairobi, Kenya, from
July 15th until 26th, to participate in the
World Conference to Review and
Appraise the Achievements of the UN
Decade for Women: Equality, Develop-
ment and Peace. The conference con-
cluded by ratifying a 366 paragraph
document entitled «Forward-looking
Strategies of Implementation for the
Advancement of Women for the Period
up to the Year 2000, and Concrete Mea-
sures to Overcome Obstacles to the
Achievement of the Goals and Objec-
tives of the UN Decade for Women:
Equality, Development and Peace, and
the Subtheme: Employment, Health and
Education, Bearing in Mind the Interna-
tional Development Strategy for the
Third UN Development Decade and the
Establishment of a New International
Economic Order.»
As reflected in this title, the themes
of the Nairobi conference, like the two
previous international women’s confer-
ences in Mexico City, 1975, and Copen-
hagen, 1980, reflect the concerns of the
majority of women in the world. These
themes put the question of women’s op-
pression in its proper political, economic
and social context, evaluating it in terms
of the effects of economic exploitation,
colonial and neo-colonial domination,
and racism. Specific paragraphs of the
«Forward-looking Strategies» docu-
ment deal with the problems of women in
detention, refugee women and children,
migrant women,women and children un-
der apartheid, Palestinian women and
children and a multitude of other specific
problems.
What distinguished the Nairobi con-
ference from the ones of Mexico City
and Copenhagen, was that the pro-
imperialist and reactionary forces were
better organized this time. Led by the
daughter of Reagan, they orchestrated a
concerted campaign to «depoliticize»
the conference, i.e. to have it abstain
from dealing with women’s oppression
in a social and political context and thus
avoid criticism of the policies of the US
and its reactionary allies.
C J
Overall this campaign did not suc-
ceed. Progressive delegations from
socialist countries, developing countries
and liberation movements persistently
linked women's oppression with its
deeper causes. There was much criti-
cism of the US’s aggressive policies,
most recently affirmed in the Star Wars
project, which is a real threat to women’s
concern and need for peace. Many dele-
gates stressed that women's advance-
ment is retarded by the policies of reac-
tionary dictatorships which have US go-
vernment support. Heavy criticism was
directed against the apartheid regime in
South Africa and Zionism’s depriving the
Palestinian people of their rights.
On one point, the reactionary forces
did score a formal victory. The confer-
ence delegates had decided that the
final document should be ratified unani-
mously rather than by majority rule as at
the previous conferences. Thus the US
was able to exercise a veto over the
entire document by insisting that the
mention of Zionism be deleted from pa-
ragraph 95 which lists the obstacles to
achieving equality, peace and develop-
ment.
There was heated debate on this
deletion with many progressive forces
having voiced their condemnation of
Zionism. Yet in the end, it was agreed to
acquiesce on this point in order to attain
unanimous approval of the document as
a whole. The Zionists presented this as a
big victory, but in fact it is only a formal
one. The majority of delegates, like the
peoples and progressive forces around
the world,have condemned Zionism and
will continue to do so, despite its being
removed from this particular document.
Palestinian Women’s Role at the Conference
As part of the UN World Conference on Women held in Nairobi, Kenya in July, women from all over the
world gathered from July 10-19 for a pre-conference forum. Among those attending were women from
national liberation movements and socialist countries. The UN estimated that 11-13,000 people partici-
pated in the week of non-official proceedings. «Democratic Palestine» interviewed one of the women
from the Palestinian delegation.
What role did Palestinian women play in the pre-
conference forum?
Our Palestinian delegation was concerned with issues
dealing with Palestine, the question of national liberation
movements and overall Arab issues. We attempted to attend
as many workshops as possible and to demonstrate our pre-
sence. There were over 140 workshops a day and obviously
we were not able to cover them all. In spite of the pressure from
Zionist groups, it was interesting for us to find that the work-
shops were generally in tavour of socialist countries and pro-
gressive forces as a whole. It was clear that the Zionists wanted
to pose the question of peace merely as a personal issue with-
26
Out dealing with the role of the state and the settler-colonial
aspects of ‘Israel’. Most people were fed up with the Zionist
propaganda and we felt that we gained new supporters. In the
workshops, many people spoke positively on the question of
Palestine - from the human rights perspective, or about Israel's
relationship to the South African apartheid regime, or from
other perspectives; it was all connected together. The most
well-attended workshops dealt with Palestine, the Arab word
as a whole, Central America, Nicaragua and Southern Africa.
For our part, four Palestinian women who had been
released in recent prisoner exchanges spoke in workshops,
explaining their experiences as Palestinian women in prison - هو جزء من
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