|
|
(Documentation)
When Gina
Vargas' turn to speak before the Plenary of the IV Conference of the United
Nations came, she presented her initial greetings to the authorities and participants
and read the first paragraph. Then, the Coordinator for Latin America and the
Caribbean kept silence during two long minutes. Right away she displayed a banner
with the following words written in it: TRANSPARENCY - NEW RESOURCES - ECONOMIC
JUSTICE. The fact produced a non expected impact throughout the Conference and
the media of the world. According to Gina Vargas everything has been said already
and sometimes it is better to keep quiet.
This is the unspoken text.
Mme. President
of the Conference,
The Representative of the Secretary General of the UN,
Representatives of the Chinese Government,
Members of Government Delegations and UN System Agencies,
Representatives of NGOs
We have heard so many speeches over the last ten years that this talk would seem unnecessary and repetitive. In this concert of words everything has been said. Almost everything. Except how to achieve economic justice. Except what mechanisms and resources are to be used to implement the platform.
We speak from Latin America and the Caribbean, a region where diversity has specific faces: where black women, lesbians, indigenous women, disabled women, refugee women, displaced women, persecuted women, young women, old women and women convicts, women in occupied and dependent territories and women in blockaded economies are mobilizing and claiming our right to have rights...Our sights are set on building democratic societies centered on people, where subordination, discrimination and violence, poverty, exclusion and environmental degradation have no place.
We have managed to make headway. Fragmentation, exclusion and violence have been resisted by this broad movement of women. Our efforts and contributions have rarely been repaid and almost never have been accompanied by government policies geared to an equitable distribution of power and resources among men and women. The impacts have been disproportionate; the costs, damages and disadvantages have been profound. We will not allow things to continue to add up this way, and we will not allow them to continue working against future generations of women...
We have come to affirm our status as full citizens. Democracies have a pending debt with women, and we demand that they pay up now.
The women of Latin America and the Caribbean, and women worldwide, deserve policies and commitments in line with the scope of our contributions. NO MORE AND NO LESS.
There are no women's issues, or issues on which we can be prohibited from giving our opinions and deciding. The world's big concerns are our concerns. Human rights, military and nuclear disarmament, eradication of poverty, deepening of sustained democracy while respecting differences, and sustainable development centered on people are key to humanity's future... As in no other conference, thousands of women are present here and millions in our countries are expecting commitments and concrete resources. For this reason, we deserve something more than words.
We have come to the 4th Conference to obtain firm commitments from governments and from the international community. Means that assure us gender justice. NO MORE AND NO LESS. Effective measures and resources guarantying efficient and comprehensive fulfillment of our objectives and goals...
In the country of the Great Wall we have come to demand that all walls stopping our progress be torn down.
Madame President, women's organizations of Latin America and the Caribbean urge governments and international agencies to consider the interests and perspectives of women on equal footing.
Poverty, like diversity, also has a thousand faces. The millions of women without productive employment and those without contracts or social security are poor. The women who do not have access to land and those who cannot decide are poor. Those who experience family violence are poor. Young women who do not have access to education are poor. All discriminated women are poor. The eradication of poverty demands the formulation of people-centered economic policies...
I call upon the persons of civil society and governments to recognize that happiness is based on the dignity of human beings. Being happy means not being hungry. It means being able to decide how many children to have and living our sexual options freely. It means not being overwhelmed by domestic tasks, or poorly compensated and relegated in our jobs. It means not living under the threat of toxic wastes or nuclear disaster.
The States and the international community have the responsibility of committing additional resources and NEW RESOURCES for the implementation of these objectives. We want what we deserve. NO MORE AND NO LESS.
Madame President, the women of Latin America and the Caribbean demand of this 4th Conference:
That it ensure the irreversibility and the strengthening of the conquests already made by women.
That institutional mechanisms and resources be committed to guaranty fulfillment of the Declaration and the resulting Action Platform.
That it guaranty the human rights of women, reaffirming the universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelationship of all such rights.
That the United Nations system grant the resources necessary so that UNIFEM, the women's agency, continue moving ahead on the consolidation of women's citizenship.
The women of Latin America and the Caribbean affirm that to achieve equality and equity among men and women, and among all social groups, our participation must be guaranteed in all decision-making spaces and processes, where the destiny of humanity is forged, where opinions are formed, where our interests are affected.
The 21st century starts in Beijing. The next millennium is ours. Thank you, Madame President.
VIRGINIA VARGAS, NGO COORDINATOR FOR THE LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN REGION
Translated by Evelyn Tavarelli