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The protocol of Beijing conference
Many conferences discussed the conditions of the womans rights. The most important conference was the Fourth International Conference for Woman held in Beijing in 1995 (the first conference was in Mexico in 1975 – the second held in Copenhagen in 1980 – the third was in Nairobi in 1985) in addition to the International Conference for Inhabitant and Development held in Cairo in 1994, whose most important concept was “enabling woman” and Human Rights Conference held in Vienna in 1993 that emphasized on the woman rights as a part of human rights.
According to the historical development of the agreements concerned with woman, we found that these agreements began to concern with the moral field, then the labour field (equality in wages), after that it was the political field (the woman right in participation in the political life), finally the speech was around the family association. After the agreements had been concerned with preventing discrimination and violence against women, the protocol of Beijing conference was considered with the woman participation in decision-making and the woman right since girlhood.
The development of the living conditions through which the woman all over the world live is accompanied with the development of the international conferences concerned with the woman that the agreements become more specialized that are concerned with determined categories of women as the disabled women, the female immigrants, the women rights through the armed disputes, etc.
The Beijing conference asserted, “The women sufferings increased with the implementation of the policies of both the World Bank and the International Monterey Fund that impact negatively the livings of the poor in the whole world”.
The Beijing protocol was concerned with many important cases as the woman participation in planning different policies and strategies in addition to the continuous evaluation for the negative effects that woman may face during the implementation of specific policies. Moreover, it emphasized on the importance of the woman representation in the governing institutions that guarantees her fair participation in drawing policies and decision-making.
The protocol expressed its worry about the poor women in the whole world especially in the countryside, whose poverty is sharper. The protocol mentioned that the parentage of the poor women reached 60% (there are about one billion poor person live in the rural areas in the world). The protocol connected between the increase of the poverty rates and the implementation of the structural adjustment policies in the developing countries that impacts negatively the weak and marginalized categories as women. Moreover, it joined the poverty with the phenomenon of the external debts that obstacle the developing economies.
The protocol was concerned with the girls’ rights. It asserted that this category faces discrimination and violence that impacts their identities and the common classification of the roles of the two genders (female and male). In spite of the similarities in the problems that women face, the conference discussions revealed the differences between women, who belong to the different cultures and communities. Such differences are the social background of each country that validates some rights and prohibits the others.
The most important cases discussed through Beijing conference were:
- The reprcductive health.
- The girls’ rights especially that they face sexual abuse and violence.
- The woman right in determining her destiny (concerning pregnancy).
- Equality in heritage.
- The impact of the foreign occupation on the woman position.
- The impact of the structural policies on the woman.
Finally, we assert that the woman cases aren’t separate from the problems and cases of the whole society. Therefore, we have to pay more attention to the problems of the woman that suffers a lot in our depressed communities. We have to apply alternative policies that achieve social justice in order to improve the conditions of the poor and marginalized groups in our country. We as non-governmental organizations and activists have to aware these groups to enable them to defend their benefits through establishing their own associations and bonds. We call for cooperation with these groups to achieve more free and safe life.