2005年联合国大会为妇女的地位作出进一步的努力

U.N. Conference Asks Where Are Women in 2005

2005年联合国大会为妇女的地位作出进一步的努力

 

Thirty years ago, the first world conference for women was held in Mexico City, marking the beginning of what the U.N. called the "Decade for Women's Equality." Ten years ago, in Beijing, representatives set forth¹ a Platform for Action to achieve equality. And this month, at U.N. headquarters in New York, delegates from 130 countries and thousands of activists³ discussed equality and gender⁴ violence, education, legal reforms and security.

 

Noeleen Hayzer, Executive Director of the U.N.'s Development Fund For Women (UNIFEM) says the last decade has seen much progress.

 

Noeleen Hayzer: Many governments now, in fact 120 of them, have policies on gender equality on women’s empowerment. We have seen changes in "family codes" in some of the countries in Arab. Like in Morocco, we've seen changes in land inheritance laws and rights to land. In many countries, through wonder, there is the good example, and many women are participating in the political process. In fact, many countries coming out of conflict have some of the highest numbers of women anywhere in the world in their parliaments. Rwanda again is a good example at 49%.

 

But Ms. Hayzer acknowledges that change has been slow and there is still much more work to be done. Women still represent the majority of the world's poor. They are the fastest growing segment of those infected with HIV-AIDS. And in many countries, women are still denied education, and the right to vote, own property and hold public office.

 

The Women's Economic and Development Organization (WEDO) - an independent, activist² group - recently issued a report assessing the progress that has been made since 189 governments signed the Beijing Platform for Action ten years ago.

 

June Zeitlin: The title ever reported is called "Beijing Betrayed".

 

June Zeitlin, is WEDO's executive director.

 

June Zeitlin: It sums up our overall conclusion, and although it’s rather harsh, it is to serve the wakeup call for government that we can't continue to have business as usual where we talk about a commitment to gender equality but don't really act on it.

 

The report also acknowledges the advances governments have made for women in the last decade. Significantly, Ms. Zeitlin says it is the increase in the number of countries that have ratified⁵ CEDAW - the Convention on the Elimination⁶ of Discrimination Against women. Often referred to as the Women's Bill of Rights, 179 countries have now signed the treaty, up from 146 in 1995. But, she says there is one glaring omission⁷.

 

Ms. Zeitlin: Our own country, the United States is the only industrialized country that has failed to ratify⁸ CEDAW."

 

The United States has made some positive change, says Ms. Zeitlin, particularly in its laws against violence towards women. There has been an increase in public awareness⁹, better training of police and judges and more funding for resources for women in need.

 

But both U.N. representative Noeleen Hayzer and WEDOS's June Zeitlin agree the United States appears to have weakened its support for family planning and women maintaining their reproductive rights. Ms. Zeitlin says she considers that wakeup call.

 

Ms. Zeitlin: This is one area where we have gone backwards¹⁰ since Beijing. I think there is no other way to characterize it. Our policies are more restrictive. The amount of dollars for family planning both at home and abroad have been cut dramatically. This is not, should not be an ideological¹¹ issue. This is an issue of health, safety, survival and the human rights of women."

 

June Zeitlin says she is encouraged that this year's Conference on the Status of Women met its goal for unilateral reaffirmation by governments to uphold the Beijing Platform and pledge to do more to end gender discrimination. In September, those resolutions will be addressed at the United Nations' Millennium¹² Development Review -- a project established in 2000 aimed at eradicating¹³ poverty, combating diseases and promoting gender equality and empowerment for women.

 

This is Robin¹⁴ Rupli.

 

注释：

set forth 阐明，宣布，提出

activist [5Aktivist] n. 激进主义分子，行动主义分子

Morocco [mE5rCkEu] n. 摩洛哥，摩洛哥皮

Rwanda [ru5AndE] n. [国名] 卢旺达 (非洲国家)

elimination [i7limi5neiFEn] n. 排除，除去，消除，消灭

omission [Eu5miFEn] n. 冗长

ratify [5rAtifai] vt. 批准，认可

family planning n. 计划生育

ideological [7aidiE5lCdVikEl] adj. 意识形态的

1 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

2 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

3 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

5 ratified   

v.批准，签认（合约等）( ratify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The treaty was declared invalid because it had not been ratified. 条约没有得到批准，因此被宣布无效。
• The treaty was ratified by all the member states. 这个条约得到了所有成员国的批准。

6 elimination   

n.排除，消除，消灭

参考例句：

• Their elimination from the competition was a great surprise.他们在比赛中遭到淘汰是个很大的意外。
• I was eliminated from the 400 metres in the semi-finals.我在400米半决赛中被淘汰。

7 omission   

n.省略，删节；遗漏或省略的事物，冗长

参考例句：

• The omission of the girls was unfair.把女孩排除在外是不公平的。
• The omission of this chapter from the third edition was a gross oversight.第三版漏印这一章是个大疏忽。

8 ratify   

v.批准，认可，追认

参考例句：

• The heads of two governments met to ratify the peace treaty.两国政府首脑会晤批准和平条约。
• The agreement have to be ratify by the board.该协议必须由董事会批准。

9 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

10 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

11 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

12 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

13 eradicating   

摧毁，完全根除( eradicate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Objective: To study the acute and chronic toxicity of Ten-flavor-acne eradicating-capsule. 目的：探讨复方中药合剂十味平痤胶囊的急性及慢性毒性。
• We are on the verge of eradicating polio in the world. 我们已在世界消除小儿？痹症的边缘了。

14 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。