Watered down, but still a cause for hope and pride

The 'Platform' is not binding, but will create a climate of expectation , reports Teresa Poole eporepor

It is not a binding document, its message was watered down by hardline Catholic and Muslim delegations who then ''reserved'' against key parts, and there was no promise of money to pay for the ambitious programme of action. So does the final outcome of the 362-paragraph Platform for Action matter? Its advocates yesterdayhailed the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women as a watershed for women's equality. But will it prove to be more than an expensive waste of paper?

As the conference drew to a close, one NGO (non-governmental organisation) representative, Maria Pineda, of the Colombian Women's Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, put a case for the defence: ''There is a lot of paper, but that is not the point. It is still a very important conference because countries make a commitment and you can use this commitment when some governments don't go the way you want them to.''

Three weeks ago, when 23,500 foreign women started to arrive in Peking for the parallel NGO forum, there was not much international interest in the official conference, or much respect for the poorly assembled draft Platform. The antics of China's plainclothes security police were far more absorbing as they harassed an assortment of Tibetans, human rights activists and lesbians.

Sceptics argued that fine-sounding agreements negotiated by almost 5,000 government delegates from 189 countries would make little difference to the plight of the thousands of Thai woman sold into prostitution, the 2 million African girls whose genitals are mutilated each year, the five Indian women burned in dowry disputes each day, or even to the untold numbers of women in the Home Counties who are victims of domestic violence. Indeed, they pointed out that countries where women fare worst were exactly those which would lodge strongest reservations against the Platform, pleading cultural differences. Saudi Arabia, for example, did not bother to send a delegation.

But any gathering as large as this was bound to gather momentum. Negotiations over the Platform provided a global focus for discussion of women's issues and many NGOs argue that the document provides a ''moral tool'' with which to lobby governments.

The inclusion of a new UN definition of women's sexual rights and a commitment to review the punishment of women who have illegal abortions will, despite the reservations that were made, set a precedent for future UN documents.

Most delegates agree, however, that the Platform is the least of the benefits. They believe the process, not the end-product, was the achievement. Women's groups and NGOs who braved the rain at the NGO Forum site in Huairou, an hour's drive from Peking, had been preparing for the gathering for more than a year.

''Peking was a good reason for Mexican women to organise themselves,'' Cecilia Savinon, of the Women's Popular Education Group, said.

''The process of organisation to come here involved 250 Mexican women's associations over a period of two years. Now we have a proper national network.'' Any Western visitor to the African regional tent at the NGO Forum could see the highly organised women's groups discussing plans to combat poverty, discrimination against girls and the female death toll from Aids.

Government's have been forced to acknowledge gender discrimination and there is now a climate of expectation, in spite of the non-binding nature of the Platform. Even the UN last week announced it was putting its house in order, with a commitment that two out of three jobs before the year 2,000 will go to women.

The World Bank yesterday said it would earmark $900m (pounds 580m) over the next five years for girls' education. The British government was less ambitious; Baroness Chalker, the delegation leader, merely offered an overdue withdrawal of reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, and a 20 per cent increase in the target for childcare places in England by next March.

The most telling criticism voiced by delegates was that the meeting took place too soon after last year's Cairo UN conference on population and development. That consensus had not had time to settle, and time in Peking was wasted on re-hashing arguments over abortion, reproductive rights and health education. The emphasis of liberals was on defending Cairo rather than advancing the debate on these issues.

Amid yesterday's self-congratulation by conference organisers, the woman who acted as ringmistress in the final stages issued a warning. "Many of these issues - reproductive health, sexuality - were so heated and so controversial, [that] there is a sign of conservative reaction ... about liberating women too much,"Patricia Licuanan, of the Philippines, the head of the conference's main committee and of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, said. "Some people are getting scared about too much change too fast.''