A CALL TO ACTION
THE CALIFORNIA WOMEN’S AGENDA (CAWA)
AND THE CALIFORNIA COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN (CCSW)
MOVING THE AGENDA FOR CALIFORNIA WOMEN 2005
AND BEIJING+10
at SBC MEDIA CENTER SBC COMMUNICATIONS: GOING BEYOND THE CALL

Friday, December 3 and Saturday, December 4, 2004
A working assembly of one hundred and seventy California
activists – representatives of California based grassroots
organizations, commissions on women and elected women, convened
at SBC Media Center, San Francisco, CA, on December 3rd and
4th, 2004. They set priority issues and recommended strategies
for a California Women’s Action Agenda 2005 –
2010 and adopted a California-focused action plan to address
the twelve platform issues identified at the 4th World Conference
on Women, Beijing 1995.
They cheered legislators who spoke passionately about their
districts and neighborhoods and heard panelists who brought
expertise, experience and exciting new ideas to the table.
They agreed that health, education and economic equity are
still priority issues for women and girls in California, that
the full implementation of CEDAW in our cities and counties,
the election of progressive women to local, state and federal
offices and the support of progressive men can move the agenda
forward
They drafted Policy Papers following panels
on health, education
and economic justice that
are available for review by the full CAWA network on our web
site and in the published REPORT AND PLAN OF ACTION. CAWA
Task Force Chairs on the other critical concerns of Human
Rights (CEDAW), Violence
Against Women, Media,
Environment,
Girl Child,
Peace & Militarism
and Institutional
Mechanisms are also on line and in the publication. These
issues intersect and cross-cut issues such as racism, disabled
women, immigrants, gay and Lesbian rights, religion, indigenous
women and globalization. We invite you to read and comment
at the bottom of each document and to give us your feedback
on the survey “Your
Voice Counts”. Over 600 organizations partner with
CAWA, our 19 regional and county conveners and the task force
chairs for a larger voice in public policy in California.
For our introductions to the published Report and Call To
Action: Still Moving Forward...
Locally and Globally and Welcome
to The Second Decade.
In acceptance of the Circle of Courage Award, our Congressional
Representative Nancy
Pelosi said to us: "Setting an Action Agenda is essential.
The status of women and the well being of our children and
families are in great danger. We must use our resources wisely
and we cannot afford to waste one minute in implementing an
agenda that will protect and enhance the status of and opportunities
for women and girls throughout California, the United States
and the World."
We accept Congresswoman Pelosi's challenge and intend to
keep on moving forward locally, state wide, nationally and
globally.
We made our voices heard globally by taking our agenda to
the United Nations Ten Year Review of the Beijing Plan of
Action, New York City, February 27 - March 11, 2005 and will
take it to the 50th Session of the UN Commission on the Status
of Women in March, 2006. In 2000 we had the advantage of a
US Secretary of State who arranged for the 10 Federal Regions
to present plans to her for a National US Women’s Agenda,
as most of the other 189 countries do who signed off on the
original Plan of Action. In 2005, the Bush Administration
refused to join 84 heads of state and governments in signing
a statement that endorsed the 10-year-old U.N. plan and presented
an amendment at the 49th Session in 2005, which was voted
down by 187 other countries at the 2005 CSW Session. We recommend
the summary document “Beijing Betrayed”, published
by the Women’s Environment and Development Organization
as the Global document for action.
Your voice counts! Give us feedback on your prority issues
and progress in your county on our survey Your
Voice Counts
Beijing+10 Call to Action Reports:
Health, Education,
Media, Environment,
Peace, Girl
Child, Violence,
Institutional Mechanisms,
Poverty, Economic
Justice, Power Sharing,
and Human
Rights
We are grateful to SBC
Communications for hosting our third CALL TO ACTION

click to learn more about the Beijing +5 conference
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last updated 1/07 by Molly Klett |