he Roman Catholic Church has joined a dubious club of authoritarian nation-states which organizers of a special U.N. conference say has actually worked to oppose, and even reverse social progress for women throughout the world. The charges were made as over 10,000 delegates from around the world gathered in New York to evaluate the status of women's rights, and find ways of implementing a plan adopted back in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing.

   The five-year-old statement maintained that women's rights are human rights, that poverty and violence affect women disproportionately, and that rape is a war crime. The Beijing declaration also declared that women should have the right to decide freely whether and how often they would have children, and other issues relating to their sexuality. The international gathering -- opposed by the Catholic church and religious fundamentalists in the United States -- also called for equal and basic education of girls, and end to discrimination, and more participation of women in the public sphere.

   This week, the U.N. General Assembly gathers to hear representatives from the world's nations report on what they have done to implement the ambitious Beijing platform. Various women's groups working with the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University are also meeting. At yesterday's symposium, Amnesty International's Secretary-General Pierre Sane told delegates that Libya, Algeria, Iran, Pakistan and the Vatican were playing "a very destructive role" in negotiations on an updated draft of the Beijing documents. Sudan was also mentioned as another major offender violating the rights of women.

   A similar list of offenders was chronicled by Linda Tarr-Whelan, the U.S. ambassador to the Commission on the Status of Women. She cited Iran, Sudan Libya, Algeria "and to a lesser extent, the Vatican" as being responsible for a "backlash" against progress for women over the past five years.

   Sane stressed that supporters of women's rights should begin pressuring their respective governments to send a message "that we're not regrouping, or retrenching, or going backwards."

   "We need to fight. We know that in previous world conferences, advances have been made because of the pressure..."

   Mary Robinson, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, told another gathering that millions of women and girls still face huge inequalities in jobs, education and living standards, and were victims of sexual and racial discrimination, domestic violence and forced prostitution. She urged her audience to ensure that there would be "no dilution" of the Beijing program, and added that "national, cultural, religious and historical considerations ... can never be allowed to be used as justifications for the infringement of women's human rights."

   Numerous governments and groups either oppose the Beijing program, or are working to soften its impact. Developing nations, for instance, have spoken out against the affirmation that countries have a "duty" to respect human rights "regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems." In many Islamic countries, progress for women lags substantially, especially in areas where women are not permitted to own property, hold jobs, or determine whether or not they wish to marry and have offspring. Delegates from India charge that young girls and women there are victims of arranged marriages and "bridal murders," which are not always punished by the authorities.

   The Roman Catholic Church has been uneasy about the Beijing conference's call for widespread birth control and family planning initiatives. Religious conservatives in the United States have also argued that the programs includes an implied sanction of homosexual unions, single parenthood, or couples living together outside of the institution of cleric and government-sanctioned marriage. The Holy See and its allies remain opposed to many of the programs aimed at reducing the incidence of HIV/AIDS, and calls for adolescent sex education in schools.

   Delegates are divided over specifics in the U.N. program. Many western observers see the growth of market economies, secularism and economic progress as a plus for women, whereas other fear that this opens the door for abuse by creating sweatshops and exploitation of labor.

   The New York conferences, including the series of week-long U.N. meetings is sure to have its impact on the current U.S. elections. One issue is the "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, an international treaty which has been signed by 165 nations but remains in legislative limbo in the United States. The draft agreement was formulated in 1979 and signed by then-President Carter, but remains stuck in the Senate where it requires a two-thirds vote for ratification.

   Led by religious conservatives, the treaty has been sidetracked by Sen. Jesse Helms, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

   The conference's endorsement of reproductive rights is sure to be a contentious issue, especially with Al Gore and George W. Bush staking out different positions on abortion and school sex education programs in anticipation of the November election. Complicating matters is the status of the Vatican at the United Nations. A coalition of over 400 national and international groups has joined with Catholics For a Free Choice in demanding that the Holy See be downgraded from its present special standing within the international body. Critics note that the Vatican is the only religious entity given special permanent observer status. While the papacy does not have a vote in the Security Council or General Assembly, it can vote and participate in important international conferences like the Beijing event in 1995. This, say critics, gives the Catholic Church unequal status with the world's other religious movements, and undue influence at gatherings exploring matters such as reproductive rights, population restraint and other issues.

   The New York conferences continue through the rest of this week.

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