UN WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

As government ministers and heads of states continued negotiations on a final document for the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, NonGovernmental Organizations and other major and grassroots groups took to the streets and also to the FIREPLACE airwaves in addition to intensive lobbying to condemn states for their "lack of political will" and to demand that states not backtrack from environmental commitments made 10 years ago at the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

Calling the WSSD more about "sustainable greed" than about "sustainable development," the Indigenous People's Caucus presented a declaration about the central role of indigenous peoples in sustainable development at a press conference on Monday, August 26th that was covered by Feminist International Radio Endeavour (FIRE) in its live FIREPLACE webcasts.

On its daily broadcast, FIRE also interviewed indigenous women, including an Aoretora woman from New Zealand Paolina Tangori, as well as a Masai woman from Kenya, Lucy Malinke. Both women emphasized that although indigenous women are critical for creating and sustaining conditions that enable preservation of life and creation of new life forms, gender and race discrimination too often cripple their efforts.

Throughout the WSSD, many NGOs and other groups including some governments criticized the US Administration and President Bush for being obsessively focused on boosting it's so-called "war against terrorism," and refusing to compromise on its hardline stance against various environmental initiatives that represent a step backward from the Agenda 21 and other Rio declarations of a decade ago. Eva Quistop of Brussels told FIRE in a WSSD FIREPLACE webcast that both the Bush Administration and multinational corporations have posed serious obstacles to sustainable development. As noted in the WSSD GEM daily newspaper of Monday, September 2, 2002, "The US has so far held one press conference pouring cold water over all that has been achieved and then gone into hibernation, refusing to respond to press queries on its position."

Devaki Jain, a feminist economist from India called on women in a FIRE webcast to form a "united political voice" in the face of ever greater corporation domination of globalization and efforts at sustainable development. Likewise, Anita Nayar, originally from India, from the Strategic Analysis for Gender Equity, noted that the increasing privatization of resources including water, energy and land, gave corporations a growing amount of power, but expressed concern that there are few mechanisms to ensure corporate responsibility and accountability, unlike governments.

Perspectives of members of the Women's Caucus were also featured on the FIREPLACE, including Irene Donkelman of the Netherlands and WEDO (Women's Environment & Development Organization), a co-facilitator of the caucus. Donkelman noted that the caucus was most concerned about language in the health section of the final document that would present a serious setback for women's sexual and reproductive rights. This language obliges governments to provide basic health services to all, taking account agreements reached at other UN conferences, but "consistent with national laws and religious values." This would make women vulnerable to serious oppression in exercising their reproductive rights.

Despite extensive lobbying by the women's caucus and others, the final document language remained unchanged. FIRE interviewed Daphne Roxas of the Asian Network of Women in Development who also expressed the concerns of the Women's Caucus about the way that the final declaration fails to affirm human rights including women's human rights. Specifically, Roxas noted that the final document does not include the rights that women have earned in many prior conferences, and places women in danger of repression from cultural laws that promote such practices as female genital mutilation, forced marriages, honor killings, and other practices harmful to women.

June Zeitlin, director of WEDO (Women's Environment & Development Organization), who also coordinated the Women's Caucus in the conference, addressed the need to reaffirm the human rights framework so that women's achievements cannot be pushed backward and lost.

Prisca Molotsi of the University of South Africa and the International Alliance of Women talked to FIRE in its FIREPLACE webcast about the importance of including a gender perspective in the final WSSD documents and in the enforcement of Agenda 21 "because women are central to sustainable development."

However, as noted by María Suarez, co-director of FIRE on a radio interview with Diane Bradley on the program, "Women Today" on SA-FM in Johannesburg, "10 years ago in Rio women were invisible, but unfortunately today even though there are far more women involved in the process, women remain 'transparent,' because their views and perspectives are not being taken into account in a serious manner in the development of the final documents. So I call it 'business as usual,'" noted Suarez.

Also interviewed by FIRE was a group of women including Angela Weber of Viva Verde of Brazil, who presented an initiative to the UN to create a permanent UN Commission on World Environmental Ethics and Justice.

African Women's Peace Train Stresses Peace Before Development
The African Women's PeaceTrain was covered by FIRE for its two-week journey from Kampala, Uganda to the WSSD in Johannesburg, South Africa, culminating in a final interview on the FIREPLACE with Litha Musyimi-Agana, Coordinator of the Women's Peace Train and Regional Director of ACEGA (African Center for Empowerment Gender & Advocacy) of Kenya. Litha proclaimed the peace train a great success, giving women from several African countries the opportunity to make a strong statement as they passed the peace torch across borders of the importance of peace in order to promote sustainable development.

FIREPLACE Webcasts From Former Women's Center Under Apartheid
The FIREPLACE webcasts were transmitted during the first week of the WSSD from the Women's CyberCafe, which was organized and run by WomensNet at a new Women's Centre, originally a women's prison under apartheid. Sally Shackleton of WomensNet was interviewed by FIRE about the creation of the CyberCafe as well as other WomensNet activities.

Also interviewed was Sheila Meintjes, Commissioner of the South African Commission on Gender Equality, who directed the renovation of the prison into the new Women's Centre. During her interview, Meintjes looked back at apartheid and talked about the way that it discriminated on the basis of both gender and race, and the changes she sees in South Africa today. Joyce Seroke, Chairperson of the Commission on Gender Equity, talked to FIRE about her history as an anti-apartheid activist, which also included two months in detention in the women's prison, also known as the "Old Fort," now converted to a Women's Centre.

Young women's perspectives growing up in South Africa today were also featured on FIREPLACE webcasts, with interviews of Kate and Thuli, both from Suweto, as well as Onobbercia Motimele-Tiawolin, Smah Radebe, and Roselynn Mwale. Overall, the young women who are volunteers at the Women's Centre, expressed pride in the history of their country and the struggle of black women in particular to overthrow apartheid. They were also very hopeful for the future, despite serious problems facing women ranging from poverty to domestic violence.

Intersection of New Technologies & Traditional Media
The role of new technologies and media were featured on a special broadcast of the FIREPLACE, which was a collaborative effort with the Estlow Center for International Journalism & New Media at the University of Denver. The broadcast which itself involved multiple technologies including webcasting and a conference call via cell phones featured Laura Ruel, director of the Estlow Center in Denver, Samita Paul, freelance journalist and new media instructor at Colombia University in New York, along with Natasha Primo of WomensNet of South Africa, and María Suarez of FIRE, with facilitation by Margaret Thompson of FIRE and the Estlow Center. The discussion focused on the issue of how new technologies can be used in collaboration with traditional media, globalization of media and alternative forms of media, and the need for more training of journalists and also NGOs such as women's groups in ways of using both new technologies and media more effectively to bring in a greater diversity of perspectives.

Women's media was the focus of another webcast by FIRE featuring Rosemary Okello of the African Woman & Child Feature Service, and also Co-ordinator of the daily WSSD newspaper, GEM WSSD. Okello talked about the emphasis of this daily publication featuring women's perspectives, which are all too often missing from mainstream media.

FIRE is produced in Spanish and English by women from Latin American and the Caribbean, and was the first women’s radio station in Internet worldwide.FIRE webcasts from the WSSD were broadcast from the Women's CyberCafe and the UN Official Conference site from August 25-September 4, 2002. The programs featuring women's perspectives were produced in collaboration with various international, regional, and local partners, including AMARC (The World Association of Community Radios) and WomensNet of South Africa, the Women’s Tent sponsored by WEDO (Women’s Environmental & Development Organization) at the Global Forum, GEM WSSD, a daily publication of the African Woman & Child Feature Service, and the Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media at the University of Denver, in Denver, Colorado USA.