Sunila Abeyesekera

In part, the framing of this question of difference stems from the fact that in the post-Vienna phase, those of us who were involved in lobbying and campaigning for women's rights before Vienna have not come to any clear agreement about what strategies and methodologies we would adopt in order to continue working on women's human rights issues as a collectivity. Consequently, many of us continue to work on issues related to women's human rights in our individual capacities or within our own particular groups. While this work is very necessary and important, and in fact has provided the basis for the global campaign for women's human rights, my experiences of the past months, (especially observing the working of the UN human rights systems and all its various mechanisms and procedures, has led me to feel that a vacuum still exists in terms of a collective strategy to deal with issues of women's rights at the international level. There is also no structured process for consul-tation or discussion about issues related to women's human rights that could be of common interest and could lead to collective action. This lack of a 'process' can only lead to further fragmentation among us, as well as increasing mistrust regarding questions such as 'who determines the agenda?'.

It is in this context therefore that I want to emphasise who urgently we need to develop a more consistent strategy to influence the international community, and in particular, the UN human rights systems, if we are to ensure the implementation of the Vienna Declaration in a way that enhances women's capacities to fully enjoy their human rights, or to guarantee that the Special Commissioner on Violence Against Women has the backing she needs in order to fulfill her mandate as envisaged.

At the same time, I want to urge that as activists in the women's rights campaign, we need to discuss a future 'Plan of Action' for the campaign. In this context, I also feel it is critical to assess our role in women's movements worldwide, not only in terms of further in-volvement in the UN human rights system but also in terms of our involvement in the activi-ties leading up to and beyond the World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.

In a way, the campaign for women's human rights served as a temporary 'unifying' factor for a large number of very disparate groups and organisations from all over the world. However, the end of the Vienna Conference demonstrated very clearly that this unity was indeed a very fragile one; the divisions that emerged in Vienna on the basis of region and language have never been openly addressed until now. Contentious issues of power and control over decision -making processes are also perhaps partly responsible for our reluctance to structure a post -Vienna process for the women's human rights campaign. The national, regional and interna-tional activities of preparing for Beijing have brought further divisions in women's move-ments to the surface.

This clearly indicates that we cannot embark on the process of structuring a follow-up to Vienna and, for example, speak of setting up specific procedures for monitoring and facili-tating the implementation of the Vienna Declaration from women's perspective without first addressing the divisions and struggles for power that exist within our circles. Although our experiences show us that such a discussion of 'differences' can become very conflictual and divisive, I feel that it will be impossible for us to continue working together unless we have the courage to ontake this discussion. The challenge before us is that of placing the discussion of difference on the agenda in a open and honest way, so that we may evolve a strategy for dealing with differences that is positive and constructive and conducive to collective actions by women who come from a variety of backgrounds and contexts.

I feel that the present moment is an opportunity to evaluate our experiences since Vienna in terms of outlining a future plan of action for an on-going and systematic campaign for women's human rights. As you can see from what I have set out above, there is an urgent need to take some concrete steps towards consolidating the gains we achieved in the Vienna Con-ference. There are two areas which are of particular concern to me: dealing with the UN human rights system as a totality and dealing with differences among us as members of the women's human rights campaign.

The campaign for including women's human rights as a principal focus of concern in the Vienna Declaration was one to which hundreds of thousand of women all over the world contri-buted in a variety of ways. However, it seems that, in many ways, we had considered placing women on the agenda of the Vienna Conference as the 'end' of the process. In fact, we must see it as only the beginning of a long-term struggle to place women's concerns on the agenda of the UN human rights system as a whole.

As always, unless we as women's human rights activists continue to press our claims for inclusion and integration, neither the UN nor the mainstream human rights organisations will 'give' us our place. In order to do this, we must consider the ways in which we can maintain a systematic and consistent follow-up to the gains of the Vienna Declaration. I feel this is essential if we are to press ahead with maximising the impact of our achievements so far.

Among the areas I feel to be critical are:
1. The need to initiate a process of consultation through which we can develop a structure for monitoring the implementation of the Vienna Declaration in a systematic way; the form and nature of the structure, the location, the woman-hours involved in this work as well as its financial implications are all matters that need to be discussed in detail.

Among the areas that would need to be addressed through the establishment of such a permanent structure would be:
- methodologies and procedures for analysing the agendas and reporting procedures of the UN rights system (the Committee, the Commision and the Sub-Commission) to see where we can most effectively direct our demands regarding the protection of women's rights:
-  development and maintenance of a network and system of coordination which will enable us    to gather and disseminate information regarding abuses of women's human rights in the    most efficient and effective manner;
-  linkage of such a network with the office of the Special Commissioner on Violence against    Women;
-  ensuring the effective participation of women's NGO representatives in sessions of the UN    Human Rights Committee, Commission and Sub-Commission on a regular basis as well as    ensuring submission of oral and written interventions at every stage of deliberation;
-  facilitating access to the UN human rights system for women's NGOs, including assistance    in gaining accreditation and advisory status;

2. The need to discuss methods of strengthening the links between the women's human rights    campaign and other organisations and groups working in similar areas in order to develop    a better mutual understanding of the possibilities for working together on women's rights    issues. Among the groups we should pay special attention to in this respect are:
-  the Geneva-based NGO Women's Committee;
-  other women's groups and organisations that do not necessarily have a specific human    right focus but work on women's rights issues.
-  other human rights groups and organisations that do not necessarily have a women's rights    focus but work on human rights issues;

3. The need to continue working towards the expansion of human rights standards and concepts    to include the needs and concerns not only of women but of all socially disadvantaged    groups in each and every aspect of human rights standards, instruments, mechanisms and    treaty bodies.

The emphasis on the indivisibility and universality of human rights as well as the critique of existing standards of equality and justice that have not sufficiently challenged all forms of discrimination were significant components of the contribution we made to discus-sions in Vienna. Aa activists in the women's rights campaign we must continue to work to re-define and re-conceptualize human rights standards and practices, including legal frame-works.

From conflicts to strategies

You may recall the events of the final session of the NGO Forum in Vienna, when the speech made by Mr. Jimmy Carter generated a great deal of conflict and division, not only within the human rights NGOs in general, but also within the women's caucus group. We never had the opportunity to discuss this in greater detail, in a self-critical way. Observing the proces-ses at many of the preparatory meetings for Beijing, it seems to me that the differences within the women's movements worldwide are rapidly multiplying. While the existence of dif-ferences among us is in itself very exciting and energising, the manifestation of these differences in a divisive and conflictual way and the transformation of differences into conflict is, to me, an indicator of our inability so far to deal with issues of identity and difference in a manner that will affirm our ability to take collective action, as women, to improve our situation.

I strongly feel that unless we begin a discussion about the ways in which differences are present and active in all our attempts to arrive at common bases for collective action, the meetings in Beijing and our future plans of action will be damaged in a lasting way. This discussion is no doubt a very difficult and sensitive one. On the other hand it necessarily means taking into consideration the many manifestations of religious fundamentalism, xeno-phobia and chauvinistic nationalism and all other forms of identity-based politics, espe-cially with regard to their impact on the position of women; on the other hand, it means giving serious consideration to the phenomenon of the large-scale involvement and parti-cipation of women in the movements based on identity politics.

Considering the implications for democratic and collective praxis, we must also look at the ways in which differential access to power, 'professional skills' and decision-making is creating discontent and divisions among women. There is no denying that things may get worse before they get better. However, the fear of heightening the tensions and divisions that already exist must not stand in our way; I feel it is absolutely imperative to recognise that continuing to ignore differences among us can only lead to negative and destructive consequences. In the final analysis, our energy should go towards developing methods of dealing with and affirming differences among us in a way that leads to better understanding between us and lays stronger foundations for collective political action.

In the context of preparing for the Fourth World Conference on Women which is to be held in Beijing, China, in September, 1995, I feel that the following areas should be ones which engage our concern:

1. The issue of difference among us should be given priority consideration. For example, we should look at divisive issues such as race, region, language, sexual orientation in an open and honest way; in this context, we should confront the examples of the Latin American/Asian divide at Vienna, the language issue (Anglophone vs. Francophone) in Africa, the issues of ethnicity and fundamentalism in South Asia, etc.

2. We should also look at other levels of differences among women. For example, we would look at North/South differences from the point of view of marginalisation experienced by many Southern women in terms of access to resources and opinion-building networks, as well as from the point of view of 'elite' southern women who themselves wield inordinate power over their less-privileged 'sisters'

3. At the same time, there is a need for women who are in various positions of 'power' due to their race, professional status and so on to discuss issues from the point of view of their privilege and their readiness to 'surrender' those privileges.

4. The specific issues of divergent attitudes and approaches to working within the UN system, towards professionalisation and alienation from the community as a consequence of professionalisation are also among those that need to be addressed.

5. One strategy to work out would be how to build in the discussion of our differences into every activity in Beijing, be it in workshops, seminars, open fora or cultural events.

6. We should also take into consideration the geo-political context of China and Asia, where the Conference is being held, if we are to make an accurate assessment of our possibilities to deal with the issue of differences, both when we bring it up ourselves and when we are forced to confront it as raised by others. In this context, it is important to understand that any discussion of the 'differences' that are seen to be problematic may be suppressed as part of official strategies for Beijing.

7. In this context, I feel it is critical to develop a code of conduct which could guide our responses and behaviour in situations where highly 'politicised' issues such as that of 'self-determination' for minority/indigenous communities are raised or where women repre-senting fundamentalist or chauvinist perspectives put forward their views.

8. The human rights framework may be an useful tool in constructing a basis of mutual re-spect and reciprocity on which this code of conduct could be developed both in terms of resolving conflicts as well as in structuring a space which allows every person the right to speak and to be heard without experiencing prejudice and discrimination and which permits the voicing of different and diverse opinions in an environment of respect.

9. Through discussions, we should try to identify areas of potential conflict and develop collective and democratic strategies for dealing with conflicts when they arise. (I hope you realise that I am not saying if they arise, since I am writing this on the basis of my con-viction that the conflicts will arise and need not necessarily be negative!).

10. We should also develop a strategy for dealing with media and journalists, especially in Beijing, since past experience has shown how conflicts between women are more than not sen-sationalised, blown out of proportion and used against us in a variety of ways.

Post-script: To my friends in the Global Campaign:

This piece was written largely as a part of very personal reflections. The thoughts and ideas contained in it are therefore all my own and I bear full responsibility for them. I should say that I have had many second thoughts regarding this exercise. I know very well that no matter how careful I have tried to be, some reactions to these reflections may be extreme. I also know that I may have touched on many potentially 'dangerous' and sensitive issues, first in speaking of the need to 'institutionalise' the women's human rights campaign to some extent, and secondly, in speaking of our 'differences'.

I was prompted to formulate these thoughts on paper mainly by my own fear that if an explo-sion for which we are unprepared takes place in the course of our preparations for Beijing and especially at the Conference itself, it would have disastrous consequences for the work that many of us are involved in. I strongly believe that the basis of trust and understan-ding between us has been built up in the course of preparing for Vienna can provide us with the possibility to view these problems openly and honestly.