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International Women's Tribune Centre, 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, Tel: (1-212) 687-8633. Fax: (1-212) 661-2704 . e-mail: iwtc@igc.apc.org

GLOBAL FAXNET NUMBER 19. June 27th, 1995

FORGET WHAT WE SAID YESTERDAY ABOUT THE HOTEL FORM...

1. For those of you who could not find your New Hotel Reservation Forms and/or any white-out yesterday, here is a late flash. The NGO Forum Office has now informed IWTC that, after negotiations by Sylvia Ordoez, the NGO Forum Logistical Officer now based in Beijing/Huairou, the China Organizing Committee (COC) has decided to accept the form faxed out via Global Faxnet. However, those of you who did use the white-out and resend your forms should not be too concerned as it will not affect your reservations. Your request for accommodation has now been received twice (or three times?) but this should be clear to the COC, because they now have the complete participants list from the NGO Forum Office in New York, on disk, using the same software, and therefore easy to install on the computers in Beijing. The workers at the COC can now match up registrations with hotel requests more speedily.

2. What did women of the world achieve in our struggle for a suitable NGO Forum site in China?

When the news first broke on March 31, 1995 that the Forum was being moved from the Workers Sports Complex in downtown Beijing, the worldUs women moved into action. Through fax machines, the mail, computer networks and telephones, the word spread and mushroomed into a mighty force.

Within hours, thousands of petitions and letters were pouring in. Women working on issues ranging from human rights to health, from management to media, from politics to food production, flooded the offices of the UN Secretary General in New York and the China Organizing Committee in Beijing with rivers of faxes, mountains of mail, and oceans of feelings! Over 3,200 organizations from 84 countries across all continents responded in a brief six week period. The corridors of power bristled in agitation; the UN moved into Tquiet diplomacyU with China. Governments, international agencies and NGOs agreed the site change could seriously affect the World Conference.

In the wake of the campaign, womenUs global networks meeting in the Dominican Republic, (June 16-18) at the invitation of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional NGO Steering Committee, noted that the Huairou site was not perfect for the Forum, but that womenUs NGOs had scored important victories in our efforts to become central players in global policy making. They came up with several points for consideration:

  • Women's swift and powerful global mobilization proved we are a political force to be reckoned with.
  • Women's expertise in lobbying and negotiating was evident at all levels of governance.
  • Women forced the UN to become involved in a struggle they initially said was nothing to do with them.
  • Women negotiated with China which led to a number of concessions.
  • Women showed a great deal of global solidarity even though there was not always full agreement.
  • Women received significant support from many governments, in some cases opening up opportunities to share our frustrations with sections of the draft Platform for Action.
  • Women were politically astute, maintaining a strong focus on the responsibility of the United Nations and its Member States, despite efforts by the Western press to turn the campaign into an anti-China issue.

Here at IWTC, we would add to that list the fact that Global Faxnet, comprising 500 NGO and government RmultiplierS groups in over 80 countries in every world region, and Global Net, an electronic-mail network linking over 60 groups and individuals worldwide, came into being.

-Let us know if you have an e-mail address and would like to be included on Global Net.-