Feminist Footsteps: A View from the Pacific Women's Triennial Conference: Opening Session



 



40 years since the first Pacific Women's Conference (1981) the Government of French Polynesia is once again hosting the much-delayed 14th Pacific Women’s Triennial Conference.



This conference is a major regional event that brings 22 Pacific Island countries and governments to reaffirm their commitments to gender equality and women’s rights, to identify strategies will learn from ways in which governments, the women’s rights and feminist movement is progressing work to improve the status of women by sharing and building partnerships which is now more necessary than ever, including because of COVID19 said Édouard Fritch, the President of French Polynesia in his opening remarks:



“There is still a lot more to do but we must move on with determination. We have a duty to act and our ties across our ocean, we will demonstrate our Pacific cohesion for the cause and rights of women and girls”



Referring to the theme of the conference “Our Ocean, Our Heritage, Our Future – Empowering All Women in the Blue Pacific Continent” President Fritch emphasized the rich, traditional wealth that exists building on Pacific traditional knowledge and wisdom of elders.



This, he said, requires the conference to consider how more Pacific women can be empowered supporting their creativity and innovation in the social and economic environments. This also requires a recognition of women’s rights and access to training and education which will enable them to exercise their fundamental rights. This he said this requires a culture of women’s rights “The process of reviewing the Beijing Platform for Action is an opportunity to assess our respective progress.”



Gender equality must be a standard of our society said Honourable Isabelle Sachet, Minister for Family, Social Affairs & Women, French Polynesia, noting that the spirit of the Beijing Conference of Women has enabled positive change.



But she also reminded the conference that there was still a need to remove the obstacles still faced by women that will enable women to be equal partners in determining how guiding social and economic recovery “we need to focus on the specific needs of women and implement the Beijing Platform for Action. We need to make the protection of their rights and interest a priority of their agenda. We need to fight the infringement of their rights.”



As work begins now to adopt a relevant declaration, she called for stronger commitments “we need to make this a living document and share it beyond our Blue Pacific Continent. To build an inclusive society we still have a lot of work to do. We have to ramp up our efforts.”



In his welcome, Dr Stuart Minchin, Director General, of the Pacific Community reminded participants of the need to agree on concrete actions to address the gender equality gaps “We are all here today, there are more than 1000 participants is a demonstration of commitment to the issues and the resilience of Pacific people”



Dr Michin reminded the conference of the increasing vulnerability of Pacific Island Countries and Territories: “Today, we are faced with more frequent and severe tropical cyclones, flooding and droughts and now with the added burden of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are at a critical point in Pacific history, where greater levels of political commitment are required to ensure that our collective efforts are gender responsive on all fronts and that we forge ahead through robust regional and national planning and programming, exploring innovative, empowering, and inclusive funding models for gender equality.”



Michin also committed to ensure gender equality guides the work of the Pacific Community:



“More SPC programmes today are undertaking gender assessments of their respective sectors such as energy, disaster risk management and climate change and all my staff emerge from these undertakings with renewed energy and knowledge that our work must include women’s role and their knowledge in the respective sectors, their access to and control over resources is so diverse, we cannot afford to take this lightly. We also note our need to work with local women’s organisations and continuing to strengthen our collection, use and analysis of sex disaggregated data. And very soon, SPC will be designing and implementing a comprehensive project to strengthen the leadership of women in all parts of our organisation, including at the very highest levels”

Like this story?
Join World Pulse now to read more inspiring stories and connect with women speaking out across the globe!
Leave a supportive comment to encourage this author
Tell your own story
Explore more stories on topics you care about