5 -9 June 2000, New York
The 23rd session United Nations Special Session (Beijing+5) was held between 5 -9 June 2000 in order to be able to evaluate what governments have done to fulfill their commitments following the Fourth World Conference on Women, and to develop forward-looking strategies. Prior to the meeting, both government and NGO representatives met separately at Prep-Coms to plan for meeting. The first of these Prep-Coms were the Regional Meetings that took place in different parts of the world. The UN Division for the Advancement of Women prepared a draft text based on the outcomes of these meetings. Later, in the Prep-Com that took place in March 2000 government delegations met to work on the draft text and discuss which items to add/delete. The General Coordinator of Women for Women's Human Rights attended both of these Prep-Coms and provided significant input to the draft text.
After these two Prep-Coms, in March 2000, Women for Women's Human Rights called upon the Equality Watch Platform (Anakultur, Association for the Support of Women in Politics, The Istanbul Bar Women's Rights Implementation Center, The Purple Roof Women's Shelter Foundation, the Soroptomists Federation and Women for Women's Human Rights), and women’s groups joining forces worked hard in preparation for the June meeting. The three most crucial points tackled during this preparation phase were the following:
- NGO representatives must also be part of the government delegation;
- The chosen NGO representatives must be experts in their field and be democratically elected by the NGO community;
- The government delegation, NGO representatives and State Minister Hasan Gemici (the Minister Responsible for Women's Affairs) must meet for the duration of the meeting to evaluate developments and to exchange information, on a daily basis.
On the evening of the final day of negotiations, a group of NGO representatives from Turkey came together and prepared the press statement which was subsequently read at the press conference held at the Atatürk International Airport in Istanbul.
Once back in Turkey, Women for Women's Human Rights and Anakultur, immediately organized a national meeting entitled "International Gender Policies in Turkey: The State, NGOs and Democratization during the Beijing+5 Process" on 15 July 2000. The aim of the meeting was to make available information pertaining to Beijing+5 and its outcomes. The meeting focused on the importance of governments standing behind their commitments at UN meetings such as the Beijing+5, information on the Optional Protocol and the significance of gender policies in terms of EU-Turkey relations and the accession process.
Comments by a WWHR representative in Beijing+5 to Pazartesi: Newspaper for Women
I attended the "Beijing+5" meeting that took place during 5-9 June 2000, on behalf of Women for Women's Human Rights (WWHR). Because WWHR was an accredited NGO, I was able to attend the Special Session that took place in the United Nations building and follow the negotiations of the government delegations firsthand. I would like to assess the process both in terms of the team that attended the meeting from Turkey (the government delegation and representatives of non-governmental organizations not on the government delegation), as well as the outcomes of the Special Session.
I believe that making it possible for 4 representatives of accredited NGOs to be selected as part of the government delegation as a result of the intense lobbying efforts of the Equality Watch Platform (Anakultur, Association for the Support of Women in Politics, The Istanbul Bar Women's Rights Implementation Center, The Purple Roof Women's Shelter Foundation, the Soroptomists Federation, and Women for Women's Human Rights) prior to leaving for New York, was a crucial landmark within the democratization process of Turkey. These 4 representatives had been selected via a democratic voting process from among other accredited NGOs. As a consequence, the exchange of information and ideas between the NGO representatives not on the government delegation and the members of the delegation during the Special Session on a satisfactory level.
The delegation of the Turkish government was one of the few delegations that kept a high level of NGO-state cooperation throughout the Special Session. Concerning the Special Session; as is common knowledge, the negotiations proceeded in a slow and difficult manner. Many progressive items concerning women were at times discussed for hours due to the opposition of the religious right, and these discussions did not always result in favor of women. The views of this clique became especially evident during discussions concerning the right to abortion and sexual orientation.
In the Outcome Document, many of the decisions taken did not specify time bound targets, indicators and resources in order to implement the Beijing Platform for Action. Items on which consensus could not be reached were either deleted or language was repeated mot-a-mot as is in the Beijing Platform for Action. Yet, the Beijing+5 Outcome Document is a strong tool for the global feminist movement and it is possible to list several very important key gains that came out of the process, and I believe that it is important to highlight these gains. For instance, language such as "crimes of honor" and "forced marriage" appeared for the first time in a United Nations document. The need to develop widespread mechanisms with the aim of eradicating "marital rape" was emphasized. A call to governments encouraging them to sign the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination Against Women was included in the document.
It is my sincere hope that the Beijing+5 Outcome Document will be used by both women and women's groups in Turkey and worldwide as a tool that supports our lobbying and activism towards the improvement and protection of women's human rights, and for governments who have signed it to show the political will to effectively implement the measures outlined in the document.
