I welcome the opportunity to continue my contribution to this debate. Given that Asia was hosting the women's conference this year, it was appropriate that it was held in China despite the concerns about civil rights in that country. Holding the conference in China ensured there was a focus, not just in China but world-wide, on civil rights issues. The focus on the rights of the girl-child, which emerged primarily because the conference was being held there, was very important. The mass media controls and the restrictions in China continue to be very strong, but despite that I am hopeful that the holding of the conference in China will have a beneficial effect in the long term on civil rights in that country.
The question must be asked: was the UN conference on women a success and worthwhile? I believe it was. The initiatives which flowed and will continue to flow from the conference are important nationally but also internationally in relation to the development of human rights and women's rights. There is an increased focus on the girl-child, a phrase with which we are not very familiar because we do not have to face this issue in the way it must be faced in many countries where baby girls are so devalued that their very lives are threatened. I will speak about this in some detail later.
Another initiative I believe will attract increasing focus in the attempts world-wide to deal with the increasing poverty of women. The enormous problems that subsistence economies create for women in particular means that they carry the brunt of poverty. Women are very vulnerable and this is evident when major crises occur in countries such as a famine or a war which result in a large movement of women and children in particular.
A number of other issues featured prominently in the conclusions of the conference. For example, consideration was given to the involvement of women in decision making and new strategies to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls. Ireland has made great progress in dealing with many of the issues tackled at the conference and we are far ahead of some countries in many aspects. Consideration was also given to the elimination of unequal access to health care and related services. While there is scope for further improvement we have made great strides in developing very good health services. There was a great deal of focus on the steps necessary to ensure the advancement of women in the context of peace and the attainment of general and complete disarmament.
I believe the points made at the conference would have the support of many men. The reports on the conference did not refer to the number of men from all over the world who participated in the discussion on equality. There needs to be more discussion on how women and men can work together to ensure an equal society. The conference focused mainly on the contribution which can be made by women.
The conclusions reached at the conference were given the title "Platform for Action". On the question of women's health, important new responsibilities were placed on governments. Ireland is the first county in Europe to publish a document on women's health and to engage in the process of developing a women's health policy. This is in line with the recommendations agreed at the conference.
More work could have been done at the conference on the issue of disarmament and the problem of landmines. Unfortunately the EU was divided on this issue. We must adopt a much tougher position in relation to this terrible scourge. Countries such as Sweden and Finland have a particular interest in this area. Landmines have been laid along the Finnish border while both countries are engaged in their production. It was difficult for these countries to take a strong stance on this issue at the conference. Further work needs to be undertaken at an EU level to ensure that this issue is properly tackled.
The cohesion among EU countries was much stronger at this conference than it was at the Nairobi conference ten years ago. This is to the advantage of both women and men and it reflects the post-Maastricht situation. The EU presented its views on the development of women's equality in a very strong way. This was to the advantage of women throughout Europe. However, this is not to say that the EU got its own way on everything, and this was important in some respects. After all, the conference was about negotiation and compromise on what should be done at a world level.
A total of 185 countries participated in the conference and the level of consensus between countries with divergent views such as Iraq, the United States, Ireland and India was extraordinary. The situations in these countries are very different. For example, Iraqi women do not have the freedom to decide what clothes they wear, yet they spoke about how the education system is paying more attention to women. In spite of their obvious political differences, countries are faced with the same issues.
I want to refer to some of the issues raised at the conference. The points made by the women from Asia and India were very different from the issues raised by us. Nevertheless there was dialogue and the previous agreements reached in Cairo and Vienna were built on. The preparatory work carried out by women's groups in Ireland and at a European and international level meant that there was 95 per cent agreement on most issues. While there were different ethical approaches to women's health we still managed to emerge with a stronger definition of women's rights in the area of health. One of the recurring themes of the conference was that women's rights are human rights. Improving the lives of women and girls is an incredibly important goal which will help to alleviate poverty throughout the world and ensure that all children are wanted and cared for.
While most of the media coverage of the conference was excellent some of it was superficial and dismissive of the amount of work done. It is important to realise that the discussions were very detailed. In this respect I pay tribute to the officials of the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Equality and Law Reform and Health who worked incredibly hard and maintained a strong voice for Ireland throughout the negotiations. The conference dealt with issues such as the economy, politics, human rights, education, health, the environment, science and technology etc., on which there is ongoing work.
It is important to make available information on the Platform for Action, to ask Departments what they are doing about the recommendations and to set up a monitoring committee to ensure that the work is carried on. I have spoken at a number of meetings since the conference and there is a great interest among women in what happened, a desire to get more information on the issues agreed and on the proposed action for tackling the many problems still facing us. It is important to make that information available.
The inter-parliamentary union held a day long meeting which focused on the role of parliamentarians in furthering equality for women. More than 600 women and men parliamentarians came together to discuss how our work within parliaments can ensure that the measures agreed at Beijing are implemented. It was agreed that women still play a minority role in decision making, particularly in politics where there is still a major imbalance. I welcome the strong programme for action adopted by the inter-parliamentary union to ensure that action is taken to redress this imbalance. This issue is not out of our control; it can be tackled if there is the necessary political will.
According to surveys carried out by the inter-parliamentary union, women account for only 11.3 per cent of world parliamentarians, a slight improvement on the position 50 years ago. All countries must ask why the disgraceful situation whereby women are so under-represented in parliament has been allowed to continue. We have a responsibility to tackle this issue. As long as there are so few women parliamentarians we will have unfinished democracies. Women account for more than 20 per cent of parliamentarians in only 20 countries, a woman presides over a parliament or parliamentary chamber in only 17 countries and there are only 15 women heads of state or government world-wide. These figures clearly indicate the total imbalance in decision making. The parliamentarians at the conference pledged that this issue would be addressed and it is clearly one which should be given priority in this country.
I said I believed much more attention would be given to the rights of the girl child as a result of the Beijing conference. It is extremely disturbing to note that in parts of southern India approximately half the new born baby girls are killed, sacrifices to the cult of the boy child. All things are not equal for baby girls in parts of Asia, northern Africa and China.