The Copenhagen Hearing on Economic Justice and Women's Human Rights was held on March 7, 1995 in conjunction with the NGO (nongovernmental organization) Forum during the UN World Summit on Social Development (the Social Summit). During the Copenhagen Hearing, 10 women from around the world testified on a wide range of topics connected with the issue of providing tangible meaning to the indivisibility of women's human rights. Also emphasized was the complexity of the US government in perpetrating abuses against women's human rights, either directly or indirectly. The NGO Forum resulted in several hundred NGOs signing The Quality Benchmark for the Social Summit and The Copenhagen Alternative Declaration, which pointed out the need to critique conventional economic and social policies. While many of the concerns raised at the NGO Forum were not reflected in the Summit's Programme of Action, one of the Programme's 10 commitments called for the promotion of gender equality and improvement in the status of women. The Programme also recognized the burden placed on women by poverty and social disintegration; accepted a broad definition of "family"; called for a quantitative consideration of the value of unremunerated work; and advanced the rights of workers in general, migrant workers, and indigenous people. The capacity of NGOs and other grassroots groups to demand implementation of international agreements and adherence to international human rights standards was also strengthened. Specifically, such groups may urge governments to 1) meet with women's NGOs to discuss implementation of the Social Summit Declaration and Programme of Action; 2) make a national commitment to implement the Platform of Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women; and 3) commit to the Pledge to Gender Justice, particularly to the implementation of international agreements in local and national laws and policies.
As UN World Conferences have become "global town meetings," the Fourth World Conference on Women (WCW) provides an important opportunity for women to relate to the UN as an arena of global activism. The first WCW in 1975 led to the establishment of the UN Decade for Women that culminated in the third WCW in 1985 during which the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies were approved. During the 1990s, women's issues have been a major part of the agenda at the Earth Summit, the World Conference on Human Rights, the International Conference on Population and Development, and the World Summit on Social Development. Women must continue to increase international understanding of the central role women play in their communities, and they must learn to exert more international leadership even as religious and political forces attempt to keep women firmly "in their place." The Fourth WCW must mirror how women see the world and their vision for the future. In order to use the Fourth WCW effectively, participants should consider the following questions. 1) What issues should gain media exposure? 2) What policy objectives can be achieved in the Platform for Action, 3) What opportunities exist to learn from the conference process. 4) How can the WCW process be brought home as an educational tool? 5) How can the WCW promote women's networking at all levels? 6) Finally, what commitments can be gained and how can implementation of the promises made during the WCW be achieved?
