NEWS AND VIEWS: UNWLA participates in conference "Vital Voices: Women and Democracy" (11/09/97)

NEWS AND VIEWS

UNWLA participates in conference "Vital Voices: Women and Democracy"

by Iryna Kurowyckyj

The "Vital Voices, Women and Democracy" conference was held in Vienna, Austria, on July 9-11. It brought together 300 women leaders from government and the private sector in Central and Eastern Europe, the U.S. and the European Union to explore ways to strengthen the role of women in developing open, democratic societies.

The conference was sponsored by the U.S. and European governments, with extensive private sector participation.

The conference objectives were: to define the common challenges faced by women in emerging democracies and explore concrete policy initiatives to meet those challenges; to energize and equip women leaders to assert their influence in their home countries; to establish a wider East-West network of women leaders in support of democracy-building efforts in Central and Eastern Europe; and to increase public understanding about the economic, political and social contributions women make to a democratic society.

The General Secretary of the Austrian People's Party, Maria Rauck-Kallat, opened the plenary session. The US. ambassador to Austria, Swanne Hunt, chair of the conference steering committee, underlined in her opening address the unique opportunity that the participants will have to build networks and explore ways to strengthen democratic societies.

Ambassador Hunt introduced Melanne Starinshak Verveer, assistant to President Bill Clinton and chief of staff to Hillary Rodham Clinton, and a third generation Ukrainian American. Ms. Verveer is also a member-at-large of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America and was instrumental in having the UNWLA invited to the conference. The UNWLA was one of only 75 participants from the U.S.

After Ms. Verveer's speech about the importance of the conference, other speakers followed, including the vice-president of the Czech Senate, Jaroslava Moserova; former Italian Foreign Minister Susanna Agnell; president of the National Bank of Poland, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Walts; and senior coordinator for international women's issues at the Department of State, Therese Loar.

The following day the plenary continued with other distinguished speakers, who shared their knowledge and experiences in their policy-making positions.

Following the plenary, the participants broke up into three groups of workshops titled "Law and Leadership," "Politics and Persuasion" and "Business and Beyond." The workshops provided an opportunity to explore specific issues and strategies that will help in building connections across interests and expertise, as well as across geographical lines.

Oksana Kuts, president of the Association for Women in Media in Ukraine, was one of the speakers at the "Politics and Persuasion" workshop. Her topic was "Unheard Voices in Media." In her presentation she stressed that one cannot have a true democracy without the existence of a free democratic media, and one cannot call a media democratic if women's voices are not heard. Oksana Horbunova, chief consultant at the Department of Foreign Databases in Ukraine, was one of the speakers at the "Law and Leadership" workshop. In all, there were 10 women from Ukraine at the conference.

As a U.S. UNWLA participant, this writer worked at the "Law and Leadership" workshop with the following topics: "NGO's as a Force for Change" and "Parliamentary Power." I was privileged to work with Lilly Boykens from Belgium, the former president of the International Council of Women, and Eleanor Hauer-Rona, the vice-president of the ICIW.

At the last plenary, the keynote address was given by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. She offered the Eastern European participants suggestions on how to best preserve a fragile and hard-won democracy and said that the work of building democracy is never finished. She added that in building democracy, one must give voice to the voiceless. "We ignore the needs of all our people at our own peril, when we do not respect the dignity of others, we do not make the dignity of any of us safe from attack," said Mrs. Clinton.

She announced an extra $3 million intended for programs to promote women in business, politics and law in the regions where societies are undergoing often brutal transformations.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was the last speaker at the closing plenary.

The conference participants were hosted by Ambassador Hunt at her residence and by the mayor of Vienna. The closing reception was hosted by the Austrian government.

The conference put into action many of the ideas that came out of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

The U.S. participants were strongly encouraged to explore ways to maintain their connections with the European attendees after the conference. "Vital Voices" is an event in progress for the advancement of women and should generate much follow-up activity.

| Home Page |