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From: HeatherD@edc.org
To: INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY <ipe@csf.colorado.edu>
Subject: Women's Conference List
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE, POST AND CROSS-POST AS APPROPRIATE
Invitation to the Beijing Conference List
PURPOSE OF THIS GROUP
The Fourth World Conference on Women (WCW) to be convened by the UN
General Assembly in Beijing in 1995, will bring together Heads of State
to agree on joint action around 11 issues:
- The persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women
- Unequal access to and inadequate educational opportunities
- Inequalities in health status and unequal access to and inadequate
health care services
- Violence against women
- Effects of armed or other kinds of conflict on women
- Inequality in women's access to and participation in the definition
of economic structures and policies and the productive process
- Inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and
decision-making at all levels
- Insufficient mechanisms at all levels to promote women's advancement
- Lack of awareness of and commitment to internationally and
nationally recognized women's human rights
- Insufficient mobilization of the mass media to promote women's
positive contributions to society
- Lack of adequate recognition and support for women's contribution to
managing natural resources and safeguarding the environment
In the spirit of the UN charter, the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) is sponsoring an Internet List, Beijing-Conf, to
facilitate broad discussion of the Women's Conference issues. The List
offers a forum for the exchange of ideas among all of those interested
in the Conference themes. The List currently has 600+ members in 55
countries. We seek wide participation in the discussion, and
especially encourage those in developing countries to participate.
For those wishing to affect the Conference directly, there are formal
channels for having input into the Conference. The List will offer
information about those channels, as well as other Conference concerns.
Our hope is that the List participants will discuss:
- Your proposals for what agreements should be made at the Conference
- Specific proposals for how agreements could be implemented and
measures for monitoring implementation
- Suggestions regarding sources of funding implementation of the
agreements
- Research findings that should inform the Conference representatives
- Examples of gender mainstreaming at work, success stories in actions
taken by governments or other organizations
- Links between the Social Summit and the Women's Conference
The Fourth World Conference on Women will be held in Beijing, People's
Republic of China, 4-15 September 1995. The NGO Forum on Women will
also be held in Beijing 30 August - 8 September 1995.
HOW TO JOIN THE LIST
Anyone who has electronic mail with Internet access (e.g., Bitnet,
Compuserve, Prodigy, Fidonet, etc.) can subscribe to the Beijing-Conf
List. To join please send an e-mail to the LISTSERV host:
MAJORDOMO@CONFER.EDC.ORG
Do *not* enter a subject. In the body of the message, type the text:
SUBSCRIBE BEIJING-CONF
Do *not* put your full name after BEIJING-CONF. You will receive a
Welcome Letter to the List. At the bottom of this letter you will find
a brief questionnaire; your answers will help us understand how the
Internet can enhance discussions about complex social issues.
OTHER RELEVANT RESOURCES
There are many documents on the Women's Conference available on the
Internet. Point your Gopher program at the address:
GOPHER.UNDP.ORG
Gopher will connect you to the UNDP Gopher Main Menu. To access the
documents on Fourth World Conference on Women, open the UN Conferences
folder; then open the Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995 folder
inside the Conferences folder.
The Sustainable Development Network (SDN), a UNDP initiative to develop
connectivity in many developing countries, also provides information on
Sustainable Development Issues.
LIST ADMINISTRATOR
This List is administered and monitored by Education Development
Center, a nonprofit organization. EDC is working collaboratively with
the UN system and is directly supported by UNDP for the activities in
this project.
The UNDP Project Officer in charge of this project is Sarah Murison
<sarah.murison@undp.org>
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information about Beijing-Conf, please contact:
Janice Brodman
EDC
JANICEB@EDC.ORG
Prof. Chris Chase-Dunn
Department of Sociology
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD. 21218 USA
tel 410 516 7633 fax 410 516 7590 email chriscd@jhu.edu