U.N. bickering ends women’s decade

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 15

U.N. bickering ends women’s decade

DAVID JULIUS, “Observer,” reports from New York on concerns that politics will destroy the Decade for Women conference in Nairobi.

The United Nations “Decade for Women” is almost over. The finale will be marked in July in Nairobi with a huge conference, already beset with huge political differences. The aim is to work out strategies for women’s interests to the year 2000. At one recent preparatory meeting in New York, to try to smooth the way for the Nairobi meeting, Western and Third World nations agreed that their dispute — mainly over what should or should not be discussed — be left unresolved. One Western diplomat puts it: “The Nairobi meeting will certainly turn out to be chaotic and disastrous.” More than 3000 delegates are expected to converge on the Kenyatta Conference Centre. Their deliberations will concentrate on reviewing the achievements of the “Decade for Women” and on

reaching agreement on a

United Nations secretariat report called “Forwardlooking strategies to the year 2000.” The secretary-general of the conference is Mrs Leticia Shehani, from the Philippines, who acknowledges there will be problems, and that some of them might be “non-negotiable.” At the crux of the matter is the split between Western nations as to what the conference should specifically aim for. Western diplomats have argued that 10 years devoted to women should not get bogged down with political issues, which are normally discussed in the United Nations General Assemblv. The only man who will be part of the American delegation — it will be led by President Reagan’s daughter, Maureen — is Alan Keyes, a deputy to the former United Nations ambassador, Jeane Kirkpatrick. “There are some coun-

tries that want (the disputes) so that the conference will be chaotic,” he says. “So that they will be able to push their particular political points.” Israeli diplomats are worried about the Nairobi meeting, and fear it will provide the Palestinian and other Arab delegations with a platform. “It’s not necessarily an Israeli problem alone,” says one Western diplomat. “We have to make sure that antiWestern rhetoric is not dominant at the conference, while the situation in Kampuchea, the gulags in the Soviet Union, or the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan is not discussed.” Mrs Sylvie Alvarez, a French delegate, says her Government views the conference seriously, and “hopes that real problems concerning women will be considered, without too much emphasis on politicisation.” Copyright — London “Observer” Service.