Despite mud, rain and a late panelist, the "Bringing Beijing Home" panel discussion took place last night, presenting an inside look at the events of the fourth United Nations Conference on Women held last summer in Beijing.
Panelists described the Platform for Action, drafted at the conference, as both a practical solution to women's problems and a global document to more than 70 people in Dartmouth Hall.
The Platform for Action is a 160-page comprehensive document detailing the obstacles to women's advancement and the progress that must be made in various areas of the world.
History Professor Marysa Navarro moderated the panel discussion, which was assembled by the Dartmouth World Affairs Council.
Navarro began by commenting "people heard less about the conference in Beijing than they should have."
Navarro then stressed the importance of the Platform for Action drafted by the people who participated in the conference.
"It's an important document," she said. "It's a document written by experts of all types. In Beijing, all parts in the document were discussed. And the final text was approved by consensus."
Panelist Sharon Kotok, from the office in charge of International Women's Programs at the International Organizational Affairs in the Department of State, described the successful completion of the document as, "a miracle."
"It was supposed to be a practical solution to current women's problems, not a global document," Kotok said.
"But we got both. It has lots of down-to-earth language on how to solve problems. It exceeded expectations," she said.
Navarro enumerated the obstacles listed in the Platform document -- among them poverty, education, health and domestic violence. Navarro cited other issues of concern, such as economic structures, salary equity, genital mutilation, and pre-natal sex selection.
Mallica Vajrathon, senior advisor to the Secretary General of the Fourth World Conference on Women and a native of Thailand, began by commenting on the difficulty of presenting a male-oriented view of the conference.
She followed by commenting on a selection she read from Plato's "Republic" when she was a political science and history student.
"This was a dialogue of men who were talking about the role that women should play in society," she said. "So, I figured, why can't I do the same thing?"
Kotok began by commenting that the media focused on the wrong issues such as the issuing of visas and the presence of Hillary Clinton.
"The accomplishments were overshadowed or not covered," she said.
Kotok emphasized one point of distention in the conference -- the struggle with Iran regarding the statement that women had equal rights with men.
"Iran wanted the document to say that women had equitable rights but not equal rights," she said. "Islamic fundamentalists believe that women and men have distinct roles."
Marie Wilson, president of the Ms. Foundation for Women, finished the speeches by praising the work that led up to the Beijing conference.
Wilson reserved special praise for Clinton's speech for women's rights.
"It was an incredible moment when Hillary Clinton announced: 'Women's rights are human rights,'" she said.
Elaine Wolfson, president of the Global Alliance for Women's Health also participated in the panel.
