This could not be a more critical session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The events of the past year have brought us to a turning point. We arrive here empowered by the great success of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the content of its Platform for Action; inspired by the breadth and depth of the NGO Forum and the force of the NGOs themselves; and in a spirit of renewal and rededication that the celebration of the United Nations 50th anniversary occasioned.
And we enter the new year with two new appointments at the United Nations that give us strong encouragement. The designation by the Secretary General of Rosario Green as coordinator of all women's issues in the UN system and the appointment of Angela King as director of the Division for the Advancement of Women come as good news. They are women of great ability and reputation. We place our confidence in them without reservation. We wish them every success and we stand ready to offer them our assistance.
We must take advantage of this moment and seize the momentum. We have reached consensus. Now is not the time to re-discuss those topics where our discussions and negotiations led us to this point. Now we have a different and difficult task. It is time for the members of the CSW to raise the questions and work together to find the answers that will enable the CSW to meet the goals of the Beijing Platform for the equality of women and girls in the next century.
What is our vision for the CSW? Specifically what is our vision for its role within the UN system; with governments in implementing the Platform?
The United States strongly supports the agreements we reached at the Fourth World Conference and later in the General Assembly, that the Commission must have:
This is hard work, but the four world conferences on women that have been held since 1975 have paved the way. At Beijing governments recognized women's issues and legitimate concerns of nations. And, as the Platform for Action makes clear, the world now recognizes that all its issues have an impact, and are of concern, to women.
Twenty years of organizing, advocating, gathering and analyzing data, discussing and working together came to fruition in Beijing: women as equal partners and decision makers in the political and economic spheres; men as equal partners in family life transcended individual issues. No longer are women simply victims of oppression but activists for change. Beneficiaries of programs are instead becoming constituents of civil society. Women have become a political force and they are claiming their place in creating equality, development and peace.
As it is for the United Nations, so it is for the United States. My country is very serious about the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and about fulfilling our particular commitments announced at Beijing. For the first time, the United States has created a formal mechanism especially for implementation and follow-up.
On the eve of the fourth World Conference, President Clinton announced the establishment of the "President's Interagency Council on Women" to, in the President's words, "make sure that all the effort and good ideas actually get implemented when we get back home."
We are proud to say that the Council is in operation, and that it operates out of the White House; that a member of the President's Cabinet, Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, who was a part of the leadership of our delegation to Beijing, chairs the Council. And we are especially happy to have the strong support of the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is honorary chair of the Council, just as she was of the U.S. delegation.
Time is short and the task before us great. The United States is determined to waste no time and the President's Council has begun the work of implementation now. It is our goal to institutionalize as much change as possible.
As we proceed with this work of implementation, the Council's members, all of whom are high level representatives of all government agencies and many of whom were delegates to Beijing, are overseeing implementation for their individual agencies.
Fortunately we are not starting from ground zero. In many respects our laws and practices already meet the standards set forth in the Platform for Action.
But failings, shortcomings and discrimination persist. Poverty is a reality for too many. Violence against women continues at high levels. Life can and should be better for women in our country, especially those women facing additional forms of discrimination beyond those that all women share. The U.S. government has a firm policy of non-discrimination. And we must be able to offer our girls a future where equality, opportunity and security enable them to be their best.
As we now work to implement the Platform, we continue to look to women in non-governmental organizations to help us define the problems and find solutions and to hold their government accountable. We will work in partnership and, as recommended in the Platform, take joint responsibility for the work of implementation.
As many of you will remember, the United States took the position at the Fourth World Conference, and at the preparatory conferences, that implementation must be done within existing resources, through refocusing, reordering priorities, thinking creatively. This is hard to do.
Nevertheless, we have no choice in the United States at this time but to take our own advice. This is not a time when the U.S. can or will allocate new and additional resources to implement the Platform in our country. We are proceeding with implementation at a time when many federal agencies are undergoing severe budget reductions and reductions of personnel. We do not celebrate this, but neither will we use it as an excuse to do nothing.
We cannot wait for an ideal set of circumstances. We are moving ahead and are determined that this difficult situation will bring out the best in us.
Our efforts are both national and international. We shall be releasing a report following up on our commitments made at Beijing and on additional efforts at implementation during the course of this CSW meeting.
These are sometimes small, but always significant steps. Not surprisingly, however, we are learning, or perhaps confirming what we knew in our hearts, that the hardest work of all is not that of taking new initiatives. Our work at home may very well parallel the work we do together in the Commission on the Status of Women. Integrating women, and issues of concern to them, into the mainstream of society and its institutions can be very difficult work.
So too the application of a gender perspective to the identification, analysis and solution of problems. Adopting a gender perspective means changing much more than policies and programs on papers. It cannot be done by fiat, although it certainly helps to have the support and direction come from the highest level. It means changing the way we think, changing our world view, internalizing and assimilating this perspective into the body politic so that never again will women be marginalized and their issues put on the agenda as an afterthought, something to be considered only if time and resources allow.
As one NGO said of her own organization's efforts to implement the Platform and integrate a gender perspective into the issues, "As we now get specific, we find we're meeting resistance." Abstract concepts are just so many lofty ideals. However, as they become concrete, reality sinks in.
A word about CEDAW. Ratification remains a priority for the Clinton Administration. However under our Constitution treaties must be ratified with the advice and consent of the Senate. Despite the Administration's support, and we are still waiting for the Senate to act. Although we are not yet a state party to CEDAW, we look forward to making a positive contribution as participants in the drafting session of the optional protocol during this session.
In the meantime NGOs in the United States, many of whom have worked for the past 10 years for CEDAW's adoption, have begun a massive campaign with two strategies. They seek to create widespread grassroots support for CEDAW through public education, showing Americans, especially American women, in concrete terms why CEDAW is important for the U.S. not only diplomatically but to American women at home. They intend also to work for governmental and institutional support, urging universities, other institutions, and state and municipal legislatures to "adopt" or endorse CEDAW.
Whether it is ratification of CEDAW, action on a particular issue or the entire Platform, one phenomenon continues to astound us. There have been hundreds, and probably thousands of post-Beijing events across the United States. This is not a government effort but a community and grassroots effort. "Bringing Beijing Home," and "Beijing and Beyond" have become commonplace phrases in cities and towns from Tacoma, Washington to Atlanta, Georgia, from San Antonio Texas to Poughkeepsie, New York. With the Platform as its model, a coalition of women's groups in Pittsburgh, PA is at work on the "Pittsburgh Plan of Action." This week leaders in Colorado and Massachusetts unveiled state plans. And in Louisville, Kentucky a group of middle school students put on a post-Beijing event for 300 young people, and the boys in the group led the workshop on the image of women in the media.
In short, we realize that something profound happened in Beijing and it inspired not only the women who attended but those at home also. There is an energy, and a desire to get involved and get to work on these issues that renews our hope and confidence in the future. We think the United States is not alone in this. And that is why we are so hopeful about this meeting of CSW and the future of the Commission and we look forward to joining in the dialogue on the three agenda items of poverty, women and the media and child and dependent care.
How can the Commission on the Status of Women help the United Nations and individual states to implement the Platform for Action? How can it ensure that its most difficult task is accomplished -- the equality of women and their integration into the mainstream of society? In a spirit of goodwill and cooperation we must fix our gaze on the future and plan together how we can do things better to move humanity towards our goal of equality, development and peace.