Subject: [fem-women2000 304] Cyber access to UN decisions on women
From: lalamaziwa <lalamaziwa@jca.apc.org>
Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000 03:42:22 +0900
Seq: 304
>Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 14:20:44 +0200 >Originator: b5ngonews@lists.sn.apc.org >Subject: [B5NGONEWS] GWENT PARTICIPANT LIST: press release (fwd) PRESS RELEASE 26 May 2000 Cyber access to UN decisions on women From June 5-9 WomenAction 2000, a global coalition of women's information and media organisations will ensure world access to the decisions made during the UN special session of the General Assembly entitled 'Women 2000 Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century'. Through a daily newspaper (distributed at the conference and through Internet), daily radio programs, daily interactive TV programs and daily press releases, WomenAction 2000 will bring the latest information from New York to readers, listeners and viewers all over the world. 'Women 2000 Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century' is the follow-up to the 4th World Conference on Women held five years ago in Beijing, China, attended by the world's governments and 35,000 representatives of women's NGO's. World leaders will review the implementation of agreements made and promises to improve the position of women and their access to their human rights - laid down in the 'Platform for Action'. In other words: what is the present state of the rights of women in the various parts of the world? Which agreements have been honoured and which need to be strengthened? In this review process the UN will look at a range of issues, including: the increasing poverty of women, women's human rights, women's access and inclusion in the media, the challenges for girls, women's education, the health of women, the glass ceiling, trafficking in women, violence against women, women and armed conflict, women and property rights, women in power and decision-making, women as partners in peace negotiations, women and the environment. Women and women's organizations will follow this process with great interest. Women's communication and information organizations throughout the world have formed a global network entitled 'WomenAction 2000'. This network was set up to empower women to participate in the Beijing + 5 review process. It is the cooperation between 50 women's information and media organisations grouped into four regional information networks and international networks. The regional networks Flamme/Flame in Africa, European and North American WomenAction 2000, Mujeres Accion 2000 in Latin America and the Carribbean, and AWORC in Asia have web sites that can be accessed through links at www.womenaction.org. Throughout the Special Session, the global www.womenaction.org site will host the daily newspaper, the link to the interactive TV site and to the radio site. A daily newspaper WomenAction 2000, in collaboration with the NGO Coordinating Committee, will produce a daily magazine throughout the 'Beijing +5' conference, edited by a team of journalists from Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America. The daily will be produced in French, Spanish and English and will be made available in print form, on the web and through a listserv. If you would like to receive the news, subscribe to the free listserv through info@womenaction.org. African daily newspaper A coalition of African media NGOs will produce a French and English language daily newspaper concentrating on African issues. This follows the success of The Flamme newspaper which was produced at the 6th African Regional Conference on Women held in Addis Ababa in November 1999. This is an important contribution to increasing the visibility of African issues during the Special Session. The African newspaper will be published daily from 5th to 9th June and made available in print form, on the web and through a listserv. The Flamme web site address is http://flamme.org. To subscribe to the listserve send an email to listproc@lists.sn.apc.org in the body of the message write subscribe flamme your name A radio programme WomenAction 2000 will work closely with FIRE: Feminist Information Radio Endeavour from Costa Rica. In this way WomenAction 2000 Beijing +5 information will be made accessible via the radio. FIRE programme's can also be heard through Internet: www.fire.or.cr/indexeng.htm. One hour daily interactive TV broadcast In a special cooperation led by the French European WomenAction 2000 partner, Les Penelopes, Womenaction 2000 will provide a one hour daily interactive TV broadcast. One or several guests will comment in English, French and Spanish, on the event each day, and reportages made by an audiovisual team covering the conference will contribute to the on-line discussion. The on-line chatroom will broaden and enrich the next day's discussion. People will be able follow the discussions and contribute whether or not they are actually attending the meeting. Background texts, texts written at the time of the program and still photos taken during the meeting will make up the rest of the online broadcast. The program will be archived and stored on Internet, at least until October 2000. This program will be available on Penelopes' program named Cyberfemmes: http://www.canalweb.net/vers/cyberfemmes.asp The footage produced will be re-packaged and made into educational TV and video material. (See press release Cyberfemmes at Beijing +5 below for daily program) Media Caucus Women and Media Caucus: An informal network of women media practitioners and women's groups working on issues of media, information and communication that was formed during the 44th UN CSW Session in March 2000. The group works on the continuing assessment of the implementation of the Women and Media Section of the Beijing Platform for Action and lobbies for its full implementation. The Women and Media Caucus is supported by WomenAction and is coordinated by two of its members: Isis International-Manila and the Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacion. Media Team A team of NGO women and women journalists from Asia, Pacific, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America will produce and disseminate media-ready materials on an daily basis. They will send articles and press releases to media organisations in their home countries. They will also set up radio phone patches and arrange radio and television guestings for key women's representatives. The Global Women's Media Team is co-ordinated by WomenAction participant Isis International-Manila. Internet Cafe WomenAction will provide an off-site Internet Cafe for NGO delegates, from June 5 - 9. Delegates will have Internet access, be able to send and receive e-mail; be trained in the use of e-mail services, information dissemination, and text processing facilities. WomenAction participants from APC-Women's Networking Support Programme are leading this activity. ============================================== About WomenAction 2000 WomenAction 2000 is a global information, communication and media network that enables NGOs to actively engage in the Beijing+5 review process with the long term goal of women's empowerment, with a special focus on women and media. Started in March 1999, the initiative was the result of meetings between women's media and information networks and NGOs who expressed their need for ways in which they could participate more in the development of the preparations for the Beijing +5 Special Session. Based on regional networks, and supported by global networks, the strategy of WomenAction 2000 has been: 1) training and supporting regional information facilitators who would be responsible for setting up working groups in every region and participating in regional and global Beijing+5 review online working groups; 2) training and supporting web site construction and maintenance people who would develop regional websites for the collection, sharing and linking of information on the review process; 3) developing a global web site that would serve as a central site for the collection, sharing and linking of information on the review process; 4) building strategic alliances with women's radio, video and print media networks to repackage and disseminate alternative information, national and shadow reports and electronic dialogues on the review process 5) developing a network of national and regional animators who can mobilise, network and liaise with women's organisations, UN Agencies and other organisations participating in the Review Process 6) building bridges between groups in 1-5 (above) and mainstream print and electronic media by providing the latter with information and analysis on developments since 1995 7) documentation of the proceedings of Beijing+5 activities in print and electronic form to serve as archival material as well as to be made available to mainstream media. For more information For more information on WomenAction 2000, contact Karen Banks - APC-WNSP UK: email: karenb@gn.apc.org and Lin Pugh IIAV The Netherlands email: l.j.pugh@chello.nl For information on specific projects taking place at the Special Session in June, contact: Interactive TV: Joelle Palmieri, (Les Penelopes) France email : joe_palm@hotmail.com (throughout UNGASS, thereafter: info@penelopes.org) Radio: Maria Saurez, FIRE Costa Rica email: femintra@hotmail.com WomenAction Newspaper: Daphne Plou, APC Argentina email: daphne@sinectis.com.ar African newspaper: email: flamme@sn.apc.org Media Caucus: Susana George Isis-International Manila, The Philippines email: susana@isiswomen.org and Sally Burch ALAI, Ecuador email: alaidir@ecuanex.net.ec Media Outreach: Ma. Victoria Cabrera Balleza Isis-International Manila ,The Philippines email: mavic@isiswomen.org For more information on the Special Session, please consult the official UN Beijing+5 Press Kit: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/session/presskit/presskit.htm ----------- Cyberfemmes at Beijing +5 (UN General assembly special session) 4th to June 9th, 2000 http://www.canalweb.net/vers/cyberfemmes/asp email : joe_palm@hotmail.com Les Penelopes would like you to meet and join them during six consecutive days, on "Cyberfemmes" to take part and follow in live the UN Special Session. Programs will be held live fom 1:30pm to 2:30pm New York time. A chatroom will be open at 3:30pm GMT, 9:30pm in France. You are therefore strongly encouraged to participate to the online debate. You can also send emails with your comments, the team in New York will post them the next day. Program Sunday June 4th MEDIA, with the participants of WomenAction2000 from each of the regions: Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and the participation of Karen Banks (APC-WNSP) Monday June 5th ARMED CONFLICT and VIOLENCE with African (Uganda) and Eastern European participants. Special guest will also be a woman from Kosovo and Anne Walker (IWTC). Anne Walker will provide a short history of the UN women's conferences particularly from the perspective of women's human rights. Tuesday June 6th GLOBALISATION with participants from Asia,and the United States. During the Special Session three days will be devoted to this subject Wenesday June 7th, REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH with participants from Asia, Africa and a special participation from PROCHOICE organisations in France and the US. Thursday June 8th ENVIRONMENT and FOOD SECURITY with participants from the Philippines, India, and Canada Friday June 9th Best-of, final conclusions, commentaries? The production will be French-language, and a text-version of the news will be available in English and French, in the section 'book' on the Cyberfemmes site. Les Penelopes will give NGOs a platform for sharing and talking about their groundwork and advocacy methods. Each participant will be speaking in her own language (English, French and Spanish). There will be short documentaries and on-the-spot interviews illustrating each theme. The daily news reader will provide a French synthesis of the day's news. Crucial items will be excerpted from the WomenAction daily newspaper. There will also be in-depth text describing the contributors and the subject matter treated during the programs. A photographic documentary will be available daily in the section 'book'. All the programs will be archived and publicly accessible. _________________________________________________________________________ fem-Women2000@jca.apc.org for Women 2000, UN Special Session on Beijing+5 Searcheable Archive http://www.jca.apc.org/fem/news/women2000/index.shtml visit fem-net HomePage for other mailing lists http://www.jca.apc.org/fem