Onsite report from Libay Linsangan Cantor, Isis International Manila
02 July 2004, Mahidol University, Salaya Campus, Thailand

Issues that affect the personal, political, social and economical lives of women worldwide were discussed with vigor on July 02, the third day of the Asia-Pacific NGO Forum on Beijing +10 in Thailand.

The discussions began with plenary speakers challenging the women present in the Forum - both the veterans of feminist women's movements who have participated in the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China in 1995 and the new feminist participants of regional convergences such as this Forum - to take a look at ourselves while taking a look at the world around us and the events that affect all aspects of our lives on a daily basis. This was presented during the first plenary entitled "Transnational Women's Movements: Challenges and Future Politics in the Period of Globalization and War" which featured panelists Claire Slatter of Fiji, Hisako Motomaya of Japan, Nandita Shah of India, Jeanne Frances Ilio of the Philippines and Ruby Kenny of Papua New Guinea.

Slatter identified the foremost major setback that the women's movement experienced lately, and that is the erosion of hard-fought sexual and reproductive rights with the implementation of the Global Gag Rule by U.S. President George W. Bush. This Gag Rule pertains to the withdrawal of financial support of the U.S. government to aid agencies that provide "controversial" services such as the distribution of artificial contraceptives like condoms and counseling women who have undergone abortions. Motomaya seconded this observation, making her home country of Japan as an example of the old anti-women regimes coming to power and contributing to the subtle erosion of women's rights in general, not just in their sexual and reproductive rights. When it comes to education and activism, Ilio pointed out that academic thinking informs activism, and vice versa. She also discussed the teaching of feminism, and how teachers with advocacy affect the emerging generation of feminists.

Amidst the discussion of feminism, anti-women regimes and the erosion of women's rights, Shah upped the ante by throwing the question of criticizing back to the women in the Forum, saying that the feminist movement needs a radical shift. She observed that women needed to "sharpen our critique and turn slogans around to discuss not sisterhood, but solidarity." Shah observed that perhaps women in the movement tend to be too focused on their "own little advocacies" that they forget to look at the larger picture of activism, as well as neglecting to take up the issues of the other social justice movements and newly-emerging movements such as the anti-globalization and anti-war movements. She encouraged women to "take on each other's issues and go beyond our multiple identities" in order to converge women into having a common vision and not just engaging on the dichotomies of differences. This challenge was further supported by Kenny, as a representative of the Network of Asia-Pacific Youth (NAPY), by positing that heteronormativity should be analyzed in the women's movement. She made herself as an example of a "neglected sector" in society whose identity is compounded by the complexities of being a woman, belonging to the youth sector, and being a lesbian. She also asked how come the issues of lesbian women were not discussed much, and if so, she asked if the women's movement could be referred to as "all-inclusive" then when a sector of women remain absent in spaces such as this Forum.

It turns out that lesbians present in the Forum were thinking of this very same thing. As an immediate result of these challenges, a Lesbian Caucus was set up in the afternoon wherein about 14 individuals from six countries concerned with lesbian issues discussed what strategies they could do regarding this space. One observation that came out of that caucus is that the lesbian movement in the Asia-Pacific region has waned severely and it is very hard to revive it as of the moment, seeing that lesbians in the region wear multiple hats that have duties which are sometimes more prioritized than this issue. An agreement was made to further the linkages among these women and discuss about the best solution/s to this pending challenge not only in the duration of the Forum but regarding future work as well.

The second plenary entitled "Women's Rights, Democracy and the Challenge for Sustainable Development" continued the questions raised during the firs plenary. The keynote speech was delivered by Kamala Chandrakirana of Indonesia with comments from Huang Shu of China, Gulnora Makhmudova of Uzbekistan, Titi Sumbung of Indonesia and Hyun-back Jung of South Korea. However, more challenges were posited during the afternoon workshops, especially in the merged sessions of "Roadblocks to Another World: Feminist Strategies" conducted by Pakistan-based Shirkat Gah and "Women, World Social Forum (WSF) and the Search for Alternatives to Neo-liberal Globalization" conducted by the International Gender and Trade Network-Asia (IGTN-Asia), WSF Network-Japan, International South Group Network (ISGN) - Women and Globalization Program. Here, the roadblocks mentioned referred to globalization, new fundamentalisms and extremism and even militarism.

Being a product of capitalism, globalization has wielded its influence the world over, often leaving women behind the changes. But with militarism, the subject of women's oppression becomes the usurped issue that propels war among nations. However democratic this may seem - the so-called "liberation" of women belonging to an oppressive regime - it still does not justify killing lives and maiming spirits. These "hegemonic tools" are further sharpened with the creeping influence of corporate media, usually observed coming from the Global North dumped towards the Global South. In the end, new social authorities begin to be created, and panelists in these workshops asked for collaboration in creating new critical strategies. While no definite alternatives and strategies were drawn up in this workshop, it was concluded that women need to dive into finding solutions now that they have taken off from the platform of knowing there is something lacking in the present situation.

To be updated directly of the Forum discussions, please tune in to the special web broadcast being presented by the World Association of Community Broadcasters or AMARC. To listen in, please visit this link: <http://www.amarc.org:8000/apngo>. The broadcast is also available as downloadable files at the Isis International-Manila website at <http://www.isiswomen.org/radio/ap-webcast.html>. To download papers presented at the plenaries, please go to the official Forum website at <http://ap-ngo-forum.isiswomen.org>.