Ten years ago, as a new graduate of teachers’ college but resistant to working in the oppressive school system in South Korea, I had just started working for a women’s organization when I heard about a big international conference happening in China called the “Beijing Conference.”  It was the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women and a number of women, young and old, from grassroots organizations, organized themselves—with traditional folk drums and dance troupes, and contemporary political-action agendas—to attend.

As the youngest and newest staff member at the organization, I was not able to attend the conference, but colleagues who participated in the NGO Forum said it was amazing. They were so busy organizing activities that they got little sleep, but they had a lot of fun and learned a great deal about women’s realities and actions around the globe, and the power of women and girls to resist oppression and survive. Conference participants recognized girls’ rights and violence against women as two of the 10 areas of major concern limiting access to equality, and made them important parts of the Beijing Platform of Action.

Ten years later, here in Toronto, on the other side of the globe, I hear about actions taken around the world, including in my home country of South Korea and my current home, Canada. Women did not stop with the success at the Beijing Conference. We continuously organize ourselves to review government practices to implement the action plan from the conference, and to push for further action that will increase recognition of women’s and girls’ rights as a step toward true world peace and development.

This article provides some idea about Beijing +10, how it is relevant to girls, and how to participate in the Beijing + 10 campaign. Significant work has been done, but there is much more still to be done to attain equality and peace for young women, and especially for marginalized young women.

Background
A goal of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women was to review and appraise the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the Year 2000, and adopt a Platform for Action (BPFA), which identified goals for and obstacles to the advancement of women in the world. The Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (the leading NGO in reviewing progress since Beijing) reports what the BPFA says on their website (http://www.fafia-afai.org/proj/b10/index.php, downloaded May 4, 2005) regarding actions to be taken to eradicate violence against the girl child, as follows:

By governments and, as appropriate, international and non-governmental organizations:

a.	Take effective actions and measures to enact and enforce legislation to protect the safety and security of girls from all forms of violence at work, including training programmes and support programmes, and take measures to eliminate incidents of sexual harassment of girls in educational and other institutions;
b.	Take appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the girl child, in the household and in society, from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse;
c.	Undertake gender sensitization training for those involved in healing and rehabilitation and other assistance programmes for girls who are victims of violence and promote programmes of information, support and training for such girls;
d.	Enact and enforce legislation protecting girls from all forms of violence, including female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, genital mutilation, incest, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, child prostitution and child pornography, and develop age-appropriate safe and confidential programmes and medical, social and psychological support services to assist girls who are subjected to violence.

(Strategic objective L.7.:283)

What’s Up This Year
This year, Beijing+10 actions include governments’ reports on their progress in meeting the goals for women’s equality and human rights established by BPFA in 1995, and NGOs’ reports on their progress and new challenges requiring further efforts to achieve equality rights for women and girls. Early in the spring of 2005, the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) conducted a 10-year review and appraisal of BPFA and commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of the First UN World Conference on Women, held in Mexico in 1975. As usual, women’s NGOs were active at this “Beijing+10” conference, reporting alternate views and lobbying government delegates to include progressive agendas in the resolution emerging from the conference.

UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah said that gender-based discrimination and violence are playing a major role in fuelling the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls, especially in areas of conflict. Rape, sexual exploitation, and abuse are all gross violations of the rights of girls and women. “Over the past two decades, the use of rape and sexual violence has increased as a deliberate tactic of war—a way of demoralizing, humiliating, and destabilizing entire communities and families,” Salah has said. She has also pointed out that over 130 million women have undergone female genital mutilation. In addition, 100 million girls will be married as children over the next decade. Salah has called for concrete actions for the world to achieve the goals set out 10 years ago.  

For more information, please visit: UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/review/ and Beijing and Beyond: Global Week of Action for Women’s Rights (Co-initiated by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership, WEDO and DAWN) at http://www.beijingandbeyond.org.