World Movement for Democracy - Second Assembly Report

Confronting the Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century

Second World Assembly
November 12-15, 2000
São Paulo, Brazil

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Message from the Steering Committee (html, pdf)

Democracy as a Starting Point (html, pdf)
Excerpts from the Keynote Address by
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
President of Brazil

Greetings from Around the World (html, pdf)

Democracy Courage Tributes (html, pdf)

Workshop Reports

Topical (html, pdf)
Regional (html, pdf)
Functional (html, pdf)

Participants (html, pdf)

Press (html, pdf)

Assembly Support (html)

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Strengthening Networks to Increase Women's Participation in Politics

Organizer:
Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development and Peace (U.S.)

Rapporteur:
Ayesha Imam (Nigeria)
BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights

Moderator:
Mahnaz Afkhami (Iran, U.S.-based)
Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development and Peace

Presenters:
Ayesha Imam (Nigeria)
BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights
Jacqueline Pitanguy (Brazil)
Citizenship Studies Information Action
Olexandra Rudneva (Ukraine)
Kharkiv Center for Women's Studies

Given that women are the majority of the people in the world, having only 13 percent of decision-making positions is a matter of grave concern for at least two reasons. First, there is the issue of fairness and the lack of representation in decision-making that affects women. Second, decisions regarding democratic, sustainable, and equitable development cannot be made without the full and equal participation of women.

Workshop presentations and discussion reviewed international networks and meetings. For instance, the 1993 Vienna conference recognized, as a result of the international women's rights campaign over the previous two to three years, that women's rights are human rights. This changed the discourse on human rights to reflect not only state violations, but also private violations, namely, domestic violence.

Regional and sectoral network experiences were also discussed, such as the Women Living Under Muslim Laws network, the Asia and Pacific Women's Political Network, and national networks and movements in such diverse countries as Brazil, Nigeria, Burma, Lebanon, Egypt, and Sierra Leone.

Observations

Networks can be used to build solidarity, attract aid, facilitate information exchanges, and provide practical support.
Networks need to be horizontally based so that the loss of one focal point does not mean that others lose contact.

General Recommendations:

Recognizing that they are of concern not only to women, gender issues should be discussed and taken seriously in all democratic forums by all who claim to be democrats. At the same time, a women's movement of and for women is still necessary.
The status of women, along with that of all groups or minorities that face discrimination, should be one of the key and crucial indices of any democracy audit, whether of countries, regions, international bodies, or nongovernmental and democracy movements.
To support women's rights and their ability to contribute to democratic processes, national democratic movements should employ the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), as well as its Optional Protocol as an important part of their strategies. The Convention should be ratified, any reservations to it should be removed, and its provisions should be implemented. Democratic movements should also employ the procedure for reporting to the CEDAW committee.
Women's organizations should be trained in coalition building and advocacy to press for quotas and thus obtain more decision-making positions for women. Funds should be identified to support such training.
Young women (especially refugees and those who are internally displaced) should be encouraged to become active in movements for women's human rights and democracy through basic education. Such encouragement would help them relate principles of women's and general human rights to their own daily lives.
Democratic movements should press for means, such as affirmative action or quotas, to enable women to gain access to political power and decision-making positions on the basis of parity with men. These policies, practices, and provisions must go beyond the merely formal, to include structural changes.
Male leaders (and others) should be educated to see that the issue of rights is not a zero-sum game. That women have a greater capacity to exercise their human rights does not mean that there are fewer human rights for men.
International solidarity campaigns should be launched in support of women political prisoners and against violations of women's rights in territories under occupation or that are the scenes of armed conflict.
Like the movement for democracy in general, women's organizations should encourage the development of practices that incorporate the autonomous rights and activities of women and girls in diverse situations (rural, domestic workers, minorities, etc.).

Recommendations to the World Movement for Democracy:

Undertake a gender analysis of the Second Assembly and use the results to move towards gender parity and democracy for the next assembly. The analysis should examine the numbers of women at all levels, the representation of gender issues in workshop presentations and reports, and the "masculinist" organization of the program.
Link women's networks to the World Movement Web site.
Encourage donors to support women's networks with resources.
Encourage NED's Journal of Democracy to increase its attention to gender and democracy issues.
Encourage and support training for women in the use of information technology as a tool for political participation.
Provide citations on the World Movement Web site of literature about quotas and other means for protecting and promoting the rights of women and other groups facing discrimination. Provide a forum on the Web site for discussion and assessment of different countries' experiences.