The community of nations came together and addressed every area of women's lives -- as individuals with human rights; as mothers, wives, sisters and daughters with family roles and responsibilities; as workers, employers, entrepreneurs and activists; and as leaders at the community, national and global levels. It concluded that the empowerment of women, through investing in their health and education, eliminating violence and discrimination against them, and ensuring their access to all levels of political and economic life, is not simply a matter of justice. It is a pragmatic necessity for the well-being and advancement of the family, community, nation and world.

The final document -- the Platform for Action -- is a powerful and progressive statement regarding the empowerment of women and the imperative to advance their status. The consensus and the document itself would have been unimaginable twenty years ago when the United Nations proclaimed 1975 to be International Women's Year, thus setting into motion the cycle of events that led us to Beijing. That the nations of the world could have come to such a consensus regarding the status of women, the obstacles to their advancement, and the actions necessary to empower them, is testimony to the women of the world who have organized themselves into a powerful force -- an international women's movement of activists, advocates and advisors to the nations of the world.

The consensus reached in Beijing will now serve as a standard toward which each government should strive, spurred on by the network of non-governmental organizations that was so effective and central to the discussions in preparation for the Conference and in Beijing itself.

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Honorary Chair of the United States delegation, contributed greatly to the success of the Conference. By force of her superb speech before the Plenary Session and her powerful presence throughout her two-day visit, she brought the Conference and its purpose into focus.

As she said at the Plenary session, "If there is one message that echoes forth from this Conference, it is that human rights are women's rights - and women's rights are human rights." Her presence and words have helped make that the message. She caught the world's attention.

The Platform is indeed a map, a detailed map of concrete actions we can and must take to realize the overarching goals for the year 2000: equality, development and peace. It contains recommendations for governments, international and local institutions, the private sector and non-governmental organizations, including youth groups, and individuals to take in response to each of the critical area of concerns outlined in the Platform.

The outstanding and unifying feature of this Platform, and one that distinguishes it from those of previous United Nations conferences on women, is its particular attention to the human rights of women. The concept of the human rights of women is so integrated into the Platform that it provides the foundation and framework for the broad public policy agenda that the document sets out.

For all the painstaking and numerous details, the principles behind them can be simply stated:

• Violence against women in all its forms must be stopped.

• Girls must be protected and valued equally with boys in their families and by societies.

• Women must have access to education and health care of a high quality and to the levers of economic and political power.

• Family responsibilities must be shared.

• The right of women to control their own fertility, and equality in sexual relations, are fundamental to women's empowerment.

• Freedom of expression is a prerequisite to human rights, which are women's rights.

• The human rights of women, including action to end violence against women;
• A life-span approach to and improvements in education and health;
• Efforts and arrangements to balance work and family responsibilities for both women and men;
• Economic security and self-reliance;
• The importance of the private sector and non-governmental organizations as partners in building sustainable communities locally, nationally and internationally;
• The full participation of women in political and economic decision-making;
• The recognition of women in all of their diversity, such as race, ethnicity, age, disability, and other status, and the fact that some women face additional obstacles to their advancement because of their diversity.

The universality of human rights and sovereignty: The Platform strongly and unequivocally reaffirms the universality of all human rights. It recognizes the significance of national and regional particularities and historical, cultural and religious differences, but declares that it is the duty of States to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, regardless of these particularities. It firmly states that implementation of the Platform is the sovereign responsibility of each State.

Violence against women: The elimination of all forms of violence against women was a central theme of the Conference. The Platform addresses violence in the form of pre-natal sex selection, infanticide, female genital mutilation, child prostitution, trafficking of women and girls, dowry burning, wife battering, rape, including spousal rape and rape in times of armed conflict, and violence against displaced and refugee women. It recognizes the responsibility of governments to take action to eliminate violence against women. It contains specific recommendations regarding the education of women about their rights, the training of officials in human rights, including rights of refugee women, and bringing to justice perpetrators of violence against women.

Education and health - a lifespan approach: The Platform calls for a comprehensive approach and improved access to health care and education for women of all ages. Countries agreed that withholding investment in women's well-being and educational development is, ultimately, too costly and makes it impossible to meet our broad goals. The United States delegation played a leadership role in including a life-span approach to health. A broad range of issues were addressed: breast, ovarian, and other cancers; smoking and other substance abuse; reproductive health, including safe motherhood, family planning and HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases; environmental and occupational health; medical ethics; and the inclusion of women in all medical and clinical trials.

Women and the environment: The Platform reaffirms sustainability as the overarching goal of international development efforts and makes clear that women's roles in environmental protection and natural resouces management are important components of sustainable development. The Platform recognizes and specifies action to address the data gap concerning women's susceptibilities and exposures to environmental hazards and toxic substances, issues of environmental justice, the participation of girls and women at all levels of decision-making in both formal and informal arenas that influence environmental protection and natural resource management objectives.

Work and family responsibilities: The Platform recognizes the importance of sharing family responsibilities. It encourages flexible work arrangements and the ability of women and men to take temporary leave from employment without sacrificing their prospects for advancement. It breaks new ground by recognizing the importance of, and need to take steps to measure and value in quantitative terms, the unwaged work that women do, whether in the home, on the family farm, or in the community.

Economic security: The Platform joins the issues of rights and economic empowerment by committing governments to take steps to ensure the equal rights of women to engage in economic activity, including owning property, having the right to inherit, running businesses and obtaining access to credit. It calls attention to the feminization of poverty and focuses on giving women the means to overcome poverty, for instance by targeting the allocation of public expenditures to promote women's economic opportunities, encouraging links between financial institutions and NGOs, and simplifying banking practices.

Political and economic decision-making: The Platform makes the link between improving the status of women and increasing their participation in political and economic decision-making, so that their needs and perspective are integrated into the decision-making structures. It focuses on practical steps to help ensure this integration and urges governments, in nearly every chapter, to promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective so that before decisions are made, their effects on men and women respectively are analyzed.

Non-governmental organizations: The Platform acknowledges the important role that NGOs play in bringing about equality, development and peace and urges that governments respect their autonomy and include them in planning, implementation and monitoring programs directed toward these goals. Youth organizations were specifically included.

Diversity: The Platform recognizes that many women face multiple barriers to full equality and empowerment in the form of discrimination they face because of factors such as race, ethnicity, age, disability or other status. It became clear, in the final hours of the Conference, that there was not consensus to include an explicit reference to sexual orientation as such a factor. The United States joined many countries in delivering an oral, and later written, interpretive statement regretting the failure to include such a reference and clearly stating our firm policy of non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and our conviction that the deletion in no way justifies discrimination in any country.

Religion: The Platform recognizes the important role religion, spirituality, and belief play in peoples' lives and upholds the rights to religious freedom. It also states that any form of extremism may have a negative impact on women and lead to violence and discrimination.

Reproductive rights: The Platform applies existing human rights to the area of reproduction and sexuality. Reproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic rights of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, including family planning education and services, and to make these decisions free of discrimination, coercion and violence.

Equality and sexual relations: The Platform recognizes a woman's right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly related to her sexuality, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.

Parental responsibility: The Platform balances both the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents to provide, in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child, appropriate direction and guidance, with the rights of children with respect to access to information, privacy, confidentiality, respect and informed consent as they pertain to service provision for children.

We are confident that as this document is implemented, it will assist women everywhere in gaining access to opportunity, economic security, quality health care and education, personal safety, and the ability to participate in the decisions that affect their lives. Implementation will help lead to stronger, healthier and more loving families through its measures to ensure economic and personal security, and to foster a family environment based on mutual respect and shared responsibility. These same measures will also lead to better and more thriving communities and a better world. These are achievements that Americans can be proud of and will be able to support as individuals, in groups and through our government.

Changes in the work place. The Women's Bureau at the Department of Labor has launched a year-long campaign to solicit pledges from employers, organizations and community groups to make systemic changes in policies and practices in the workplace to benefit women and their families. The pledges will fall in the general areas of job security, work and family responsibilities and the valuing of women's work. More than 400 pledges have been received to date, from major multinational corporations as well as small local enterprises. In March, the Department will follow up on the pledges to assess their impact.

Prevention of violence against women. The Office on Violence Against Women at the Justice Department will lead a comprehensive national effort to fight domestic and other forms of violence against women by combining tough new federal laws with assistance to states and localities in law enforcement, victim assistance, prosecutions and crime prevention. Since Beijing, it has been taking steps to publicize the problem of domestic violence. The Administration declared October to be Domestic Violence Awareness month and programs have been held around the country in conjunction with this. In addition, President Clinton signed an Executive Memorandum directing all federal agencies to train their employees about domestic violence and resources that are available.

Microenterprise. The Treasury Department, though the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, is establishing an annual Presidential Awards for Microenterprise Excellence and will coordinate a Federal Microenterprise Initiative. This will help publicize micro-credit and micro- enterprise, set benchmarks for programs to use in assessing their own efforts, better coordinate and standardize existing efforts and hopefully help reduce red tape. The Treasury Department will soon be announcing further developments on this commitment.

Life-span health initiatives. The Department of Health and Human Services is taking action on a range of problems of concern to women throughout the life-cycle, recognizing the additional problems faced by women of low income and from ethnic and racial minorities. Programs include: a comprehensive plan to reduce smoking among children and adolescents by 50 percent; a new initiative to reduce teen pregnancy; the establishment of a Governing Council on Children and Youth; the inauguration of the National Women's Health Clearinghouse; new initiatives on breast and cervical cancer, the impact of poverty related diseases on women, and the inclusion of women in clinical trials; contraceptive research and development; a continued commitment to the Women's Health Initiative; a public policy agenda on HIV/AIDS specific to women, adolescents and children.

CEDAW. The Administration has reaffirmed its commitment to pursue ratification by the United States of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

International actions. The Agency for International Development is launching an initiative consisting of two distinct, mutually reinforcing programs, one in Women's Political Participation and one in Women's Legal Rights. USAID is also continuing its commitment to its Microenterprise Initiative which includes an Innovation Project and promotion of high-level policy attention to microenterprise through the new Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest, managed by a consortium of donors convened by the World Bank. Under Undersecretary Wirth's leadership, we now have a State Department inter-bureau team to work with AID in pursuing their efforts, particularly in Africa.