| Around
thirty women leaders from
across Asia and the Pacific
will meet in Bangkok on
February 13-14 to plan the
Asia-Pacific NGO Forum to
prepare for the tenth year
anniversary of the Beijing
World Conference on Women.
The year 2005 will mark
the end of a decade-long
implementation of the Beijing
Platform for Action by governments,
international development
agencies and civil society
in order to remove discrimination
against women and to promote
their development. Tagged
as Beijing + 10, the year
will see the United Nations
conducting a review and
appraisal of how much of
the actions were carried
out and what results were
achieved. The women's movement
in Asia and the Pacific
will undertake their own
review in an attempt to
present a balanced and true
picture of extent of implementation.
Attending
are Shu Huang of All China
Women's Federation, Cecilia
Young Dongling of the
East Asian Women's Forum,
Titti Sumbung of the Indonesian
Centre of Women in Politics,
Nalini Keshava Raj and
Rathi Ramanathan of ARROW,
Gigi Francisco of International
Gender and Trade Network,
Sheryl Lagunera of Women
and Gender Institute,
Mylene Soto of Association
for Progressive Communications,
Aurora de Dios of the
Coalition Against Trafficking
of Women, Bandana Pattanaik
of the Global Alliance
Against Trafficking in
Women, Vanita Nayak Mukherjee
of the Development Alternatives
for Women in the New Era,
Alison Aggarwal of the
Center for Refugee Research,
Yvegenia Kozyreva of the
Feminist League of Kazakstan,
Nurgul Djanera of the
Forum for Women's NGO
of Kyrgyztan and the Balijinyam
of the Mongolian Women's
NGOs.
Members
of the Steering Committee
of the Asia-Pacific Women
Watch (APWW) will be there
in full force, to be led
by Patricia Licuanan and
Eileen Pittaway, who are
APWW co-chairs. The Asia-Pacific
Women Watch, which initiated
the preparatory activities
for the Beijing + 10 among
the women NGOs, is organizing
this planning meeting.
Thai Women's Watch is
the meeting host. Lucy
Lazo, Regional Programme
Director for UNIFEM in
East and Southeast Asia,
and Thelma Kay, Division
Chief at the UN ESCAP,
are also attending.
The
theme of the upcoming
Asia-Pacific NGO Forum
is "Celebrating women's
gains; confronting emerging
issues" to highlight
both progress in the status
of women and the new challenges
in their lives as a result
of runaway globalization
and economic restructuring,
terrorism and counter
terrorism, rise of fundamentalism
and greater democratization,
among others. It will
be held on July 1-3, 2004
in Bangkok, Thailand.
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