Message from Jean Shinoda Bolen
(November
2008)
The election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States brings us some good global warming of the collaborative kind. I hope that there will be a climate change at the 2009 March CSW meetings toward holding a 5th World Conference on Women. The proposal from Finland for this conference was tabled by ECOSOC until the July 2009 meeting, where it could be taken up or just die there. I hope that NGOs with the leadership of the NY CSW NGO will strongly support this in March and work towards this beforehand.
Input into the appointment process:
- The CSW appointment will fill out a four-year term (2008 –2012).
- The United States seat on ECOSOC ends after the July 2009 meeting.
- If CSW and ECOSOC supports a proposal, the conference could be held in 2012.
I believe in the necessity for a UN 5th Women’s World Conference to implement principles and goals already stated in the Beijing Platform for Action, UN Security Council Resolution 1325, and the Millennium Development Goals. There is no need to create further documents. There is a huge need to mobilze the women of the world without which, there is a lack of motivation and resources needed to bring about gender balance or take care women, children and the planet. Unless it is a UN sponsored conference, women from many developing countries will be unable to get visas and support.
(NOTE: 5WWC.org has been lobbying at the CSW-NGO events since 2002 toward this. I put forth a need for a critical mass to end patriarchy through a proliferation of grassroots women’s circles and a 5th conference in Urgent Message From Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World and in The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and The World. )
The 4th UN World Conference on Women was held in Beijing 1995. 40,000 participated. The 5th WCW would be the first one held in the 21st Century in the era of the Internet and World Wide Web. It would raise consciousness, inspire and mobilize effective action through learning what has worked, and create collaborative networks that would endure after the conference. Also, a 21st Century conference could simultaneously reach anywhere and everywhere through the many technological advances in communication including the Internet and big-screen satellite television.
Yes We Can!