Engendering world conferences: the international women's movement and the United Nations.

Abstract

This article gives a brief history of how women's groups internationally have shaped UN and World Conferences for Women, the changes in the relationship between women's nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the UN over time, and effective strategies for putting the women's agenda on international agendas. The article focuses on three recent UN conferences: the Rio conference on the environment, the Vienna conference on human rights, and the Cairo conference on population. The UN Decade for Women reshaped the international women's movement by including new players and by increasing the number and types of women's groups, particularly in developing countries. Women's NGOs learned how to operate on a global scale and to gain attention. New NGO alliances and networks were formed that were cross-regional and crossed North-South divisions. An increasing number of women's groups contributed to national and international policy-making situations. Women's groups were successful in receiving international and national recognition because of the effort expended to become well prepared in collecting, knowing, and analyzing their facts and in building broad-based coalitions. The key strategies that were used in participating effectively in the conference preparatory process and formal policy-making groups involved five types of activities: 1) NGOs mounted global campaigns on a variety of issues having to do with women's rights and women's involvement in the process; 2) NGOs held multiple strategic planning meetings and built coalitions and consensus at all levels; 3) women's NGOs drafted policy documents, resolutions, treaties, protocols, conventions, and platform documents; 4) women's NGOs gained seating on official delegations by publishing reports, holding meetings, and lobbying and nominating women as representatives; and 5) women's NGOs formed caucuses that met at a daily time and place for holding dialogues with official delegates and policy-makers.