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THE WORLD CONFERENCE OF
WOMEN: Canada played a leadership role in the Nairobi World Conference (1985), which greatly enhanced our country's profile at the international level. With the Canadian delegation's able assistance, consensus was reached on the final document of the Conference, called "The Nairobi Forward-Looking: Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the Year 2000 (FLS)". "Adoption by consensus means that there is unequivocal international acknowledgment that women across the world share common concerns. Governments now have a responsibility, both to their own citizens and to the international community, to implement the Forward-Looking Strategies..." (The Decade for Women: Special Report - CCLOW 1986, which quoted extensively from Status of Women Canada). A few excerpts from "The Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies" are quoted below: Paragraph 6 .. .the Forward-Looking Strategies reaffirm the international concern regarding the status of women and provide a framework for renewed commitment by the international community to the advancement of women and the elimination of gender based discrimination... Paragraph 44 One of the objectives of the Decade ( 1976-85 ) entails the full observance of the equal rights of women and the elimination of de jure and de facto discrimination...
Paragraph 46 ...Although there is no physiological basis for regarding the household and family as essentially the domain of women, for the devaluation of domestic work and for regarding the capacities of women as inferior to those of men, the belief that such a basis exists perpetuates inequality and inhibits the structural and attitudinal changes necessary to eliminate such inequality. Paragraph 48 ...Discrimination promotes an uneconomic use of women's talents and wastes valuable human resources... Ultimately, society is the loser... Paragraph 128 ...Governments should recognize the importance of and the need for the full utilization of women's potential for self-reliance and for the attainment of national development goals and should enact legislation to ensure this. Program's should be formulated and implemented to provide women's organizations, cooperatives, trade unions and professional associations with access to credit and other financial assistance and to training and extension services... non-governmental organizations committed to the cause of women should be created and maintained to facilitate the integration of women in mainstream development. CANADA AFTER NAIROBI (1985) At the conference of Federal and Provincial Ministers Responsible for the Status of Women, held in Halifax, N.S., November 28-29, 1985, the Ministers endorsed a statement which reads, in part: We, Canada's Ministers Responsible for the Status of Women, reaffirm the commitment of our governments to the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. . . We further endorse the specific goal of full and equal participation of women in the Canadian economy...One key to economic equality for women is labour force equality... |
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