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

The Asia-Pacific NGO Forum on Beijing+10 ended on 03 July 2004 with women from the region bringing home new skills, renewed commitments and new hopes.

On the last day of the Forum, women from various NGOs in the region attended skills-training workshops that focused on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the use of Information and Communication Technologies, and gender-responsive human rights documentation. Discussions on topics that started in the previous days such as HIV/AIDS, analysis of power in administration and politics, and alternative feminist strategies were also continued on the last day.

On the afternoon of the closing day, indigenous, youth and other women's sectors discussed and revised the official Forum Statement. This statement reflected the full reaffirmation of the more than 700 women's commitment to the Beijing Platform For Action (BPFA) amidst the growing turmoil, insecurities and crises caused by neo-liberal globalisation, war, militarisms and extremisms. It also mentioned that as the women of Asia and the Pacific celebrate the BPFA as a strategic document for women's empowerment, the enormous and complex challenges still facing women in the region still need to be recognised.

The Forum report, which will be contained in the Purple Book-the official outcome of the AP NGO FORUM--was also examined. The report contained the synthesis of all the workshops and special sessions conducted within the four days of the Forum regarding the Beijing Platform for Action's (BPFA) 12 critical areas of concern. The participants' recommendations were also included in this report. This will then be circulated via e-mail to everyone on the conference list by 02 August 2004 and those who want to send further comments should do so before 16 August. The Purple Book will be finalised by 23 August. A condensed version called the Little Purple Book will also be drafted and finalized by 27 August. This one is for presentation at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) session on Beijing+10 this coming March 2005.

Keiko Okaido, the deputy executive director of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) delivered the Forum's closing remarks. Okaido stressed the need to build more effective relationships among women's NGOs, governments and UN bodies like UNESCAP, which she said had a long tradition of collaborating with NGOs. She also said women are presently living in a complex situation and face more demanding challenges, thus they should find more constructive solutions together.

The Forum officially closed with a farewell reception and a cultural show featuring dance and song performances from different countries.

Isis International-Manila and the World Association of Community Broadcasters Women's International Network (AMARC-WIN) conducted a live coverage of the AP-NGO Forum on the internet. The webcast provided a live feed of the four major plenary sessions as well as opening and closing ceremonies. The entire session on the workshop on women and media entitled "Section J Revisited: New Feminist Perspectives on the Interlinkages of Media and ICTs with Economic Globalisation, Fundamentalisms and Militarism" was also covered. These files may be downloaded from the Isis website at the following link: <http://www.isiswomen.org/onsite/ap-ngo/audio_files.html>. All files are in MP3 format and can be played on PC-based audio software such as RealPlayer or Winamp.

Previous onsite reports from the Forum are also available on the following link: <http://www.isiswomen.org/onsite/ap-ngo/index.html>.