Mr. Chairman,
Last June, the special
session of the General Assembly on women's issues held in
New York adopted the plan for further actions for realizing
the goals set forth in the Beijing Declaration and Platform
for Action. The plan has confirmed the objectives to be
achieved in enhancing women's status and promoting gender
equality both at the national and the international levels.
It is pertinent to say that the governments, the
international community and NGOs all attach importance to
the outcome of the GA special session and they are taking
positive steps to implement the results.
At the
same time, the difficulties faced by many countries, the
developing countries in particular, must be taken into
account. The benefit from globalization has not been
distributed equally. The gap between the rich and the poor
is getting wider; the impoverishment of women becomes ever
increasingly prominent and poverty constitutes a major
obstacle for the realization of women's rights. While facing
the scourge of various diseases, especially HIV/AIDS and
inability to pay high prices for drugs and medical care, the
number of woman victims is on the increase and the problems
are ever extending. The traditional prejudice and
discrimination against women deprive many of them of the
opportunities for employment and education.
In
this connection, I would like to focus on some priorities to
be dealt with in this area:
1. Poverty
eradication should be the foremost priority in our work.
Poverty is a source of evil. Faced with difficulties and
challenges, the developing countries should strive to
develop their economies and eradicate poverty. Only by doing
so, can an economic foundation be laid for enhancing women's
status and promoting their rights.
2. The level
of health for women should be raised effectively. Diseases
and poverty form a vicious circle. Poverty runs counter to
development. Governments in various countries, especially
those in developing countries, should take special care to
women's health issues and adopt practical measures to this
end.
3. Efforts should be made to improve
education, so that the quality of citizens including that of
women is enhanced. The levels of citizens' quality and of
education determine the pace and quality of the social
development and they are the important guarantee for women's
participation in the politics and employment. Therefore,
developing education and increasing the input for education
are the effective ways to enhance the status of
women.
We call upon the international community
and the developed countries in particular, to provide
positive and genuine assistance and support to back up the
efforts made by the developing countries in the
above-mentioned areas and to make utmost contribution for
women's well-being throughout the world.
Mr.
Chairman,
The Chinese Government has always
attached great importance to the protection of women's
rights, progress and development, and made tremendous
efforts in this regard. However, at today’s world,
women’s rights are trampled upon by various evil
powers, one of which is the Falun Gong cult. Among the Falun
Gong practioners, women constitute a considerable part. By
taking advantage of women’s sincere and kind nature
and their ardent eagerness for a happy life, the Falun Gong
entices them to be under the obsession of the cult. Falun
Gong practices inhumane mind control upon women, gradually
deprives them of freedom of expression, and makes them
abandon family and become irrational, which ultimately leads
to great misfortune to their families and
irremediable disaster to their health and even lives. Up
till now, several hundreds of women have died of curable
diseases just because they, by following the absurd doctrine
of the Falun Gong cult, refused to go to hospitals. What is
more striking and horrible about Falun Gong is that, many
female practitioners, tempted by the so-called
going-to-heaven, even paid the price of mutilating
themselves or committing suicide to escape the
“dooms-day” and enter the “heaven”.
On January 23, 2001, seven Falun Gong practitioners set fire
on themselves at Beijing Tiananmen Square. Among them five
are females. They are LIU Chunling, LIU Siying, HAO Huijun,
CHEN Guo and LIU Baorong. LIU Chunling and LIU Siying, the
mother and daughter, have died subsequently. Another couple
of mother and daughter, HAO Huijun and CHEN Guo, are still
at serious risk. The very reason that the Chinese government
banned the Falun Gong cult according to law, is to protect
more innocent women and girls free from danger and harms by
the evil cult. We would therefore take this opportunity to
call upon the whole international community to act together
for the eradication of all evil cults, one of the common
hazards of the world, so to protect women’s rights and
interests.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
|