Beverley Turner attended the AP NGO Forum on Beijing +15 in Philippines. She arrived back on Labour Day from being part of a gathering of 640 women, age range 18 - 80s, including a good number of women from the Philippines as they had held their national consultation over 2 days before the Forum. She represented Pacific Women's Watch (NZ) as proxy for Jane Prichard, PWW(NZ)'s Convenor who was committed to another international meeting at the same time... The Forum covered 3 very full days of plenaries and workshops and involved 640 registrants from 18 to 80+ years old, about half of whom were from the Philippines.
The whole forum buzzed with very high levels of energy and commitment from an amazing array of women, whether keynote speakers, workshop leaders or participants They came from almost all countries in the region including several Aghani and Iranian women working on women's rights issues but living outside their home countries. She said it was good to catch up with Daisy Alik Momotaro, WUTMI, Marshall Islands who had been funded by UNIFEM Pacific to attend as the sole representative from Micronesia, also 'Ofa-Ki-Levuka Guttenbeil, National Centre for Women and Children, Tonga and Naeemah Khan, Fiji Women's Rights Movement, Fji both of whom had been funded by Global Fund for Women and who made noteworthy contributions to plenary panel presentations. Also represented were femLINKpacific, pacfaw and there were some young women from Timor Leste and PNG as well as a small Australian contingent - BPW, Girl Guides, AFUW and several working/researching in Philippines etc, about 20 all told from the Pacific region.
The Opening Ceremony was dramatic - symbolic of the many nations represented and of linkages back to UN Conference in Beijing, 1995.
UNIFEM's previous Executive Director, Noeleen Heyzer, gave a stunning, rousing speech and stayed on as long as possible before being whisked away to fly back to Bangkok where, as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, she delivered a Keynote Address to ASEAN ministers in Bangkok that afternoon.
Luz Martinez, Faculty of Social Work, Miriam College and a very active member of APWW Steering Committee as key organiser of the NGO Forum wrote as follows:
"Let's circulate the website to our networks so they too can read and listen to the wonderful speakers of our plenaries. Isis did a great job in recording and uploading papers on the speakers.
Besides recording and uploading on the internet all 29 speeches of the five main plenary sessions, Isis International published an article every day during the forum to highlight the discussions, debates and experiences of women - these speeches and daily articles can be found on the Isis International website and on the AP NGO Forum website.
** Charlotte Bunch, Centre for Women's Global leadership, (CWGL) at Rutgers University, USA spoke on GEAR and the next most important stages in its progression into a high-level, well-funded UN agency for women.
The last afternoon was a solid plenary working session to construct a strong Outcome Statement to be taken to the High Level Intergovernmental Meeting, Bangkok, mid November.I look forward very much to reading the final version of that and also to receiving the full proceedings...
Download Noeleen Heyzer's Keynote speech