Sixth Asia-Pacific Congress of Women in Politics
Philippines
February 10-12, 2006
Welcome Message
Dr. Jung Sook Kim
President, CAPWIP
It is my great pleasure and honor to welcome all of you
to the 6th CAPWIP Congress this morning and thank you
very much for you’re participating in our congress.
Since the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women,
many countries have been formulating systems and
enacting laws to help women become more active
participants in their societies. Some countries have made
a positive contribution by giving women preferential
treatment in the fields where women were “behind’ to
make the best use of women’s power.
However, despite some noticeable progress in recent
years, women’s political participation remains still very
low including in the Asia-Pacific region.
We, today, Asian-Pacific Women gather here to rectify
this situation, to work together with great diligence, to
identify the impediments against women’s potential
participation and to consider strategies to remove them
once and for all .
As I reflect and look back, the Center for Asia-Pacific
Women in Politics (CAPWIP), like a candle in the night,
has been playing a critically important role in promoting
women’s political rights since it was founded in 1992.
With a dream to promote leaders who had a
transformative agenda…. Willing to make a difference
because they are women in politics understand what
women, men they serve, truly need.
CAPWIP has held the global Biannual regional
congresses, workshops and training programs.
We, CAPWIP have also established Common and
individual strategies for expanding women’s political
participation networking with other women’s
organizations for political empowerment.
Last night, I was with a few of you, having dinner. We
got to talking about how our world has changed. We got
to discuss about the girls in Nepal and India – and about
how they are being brought into prostitution thru
trafficking at such a tender and early age. Poverty was
cited the biggest reason for this.
Today, we start another milestone. We are gathered
here, as we have done so ten years ago, at the Dusit
Hotel, to draft a 10 year platform for Action for Women
in Politics and Decision-Making for the Asia-Pacific
Region.
It was during the First Asia Pacific Congress of Women
in Politics that the word “Transformative Politics” was
coined. It was described, defined, and characterized. For
the last ten years, CAPWIP carried the advocacy for this
type of politics to be promoted, until it became a
common concept which defined what kind of politics
women should promote.
In our last CAPWIP Board of Trustees and Membership
meeting, it was agreed that in the next decade of
CAPWIP, what we would like to promote is the concept
of “Building Transformative Communities.”
We realized, now after 10 years, after ten years that it is
not enough to be a transformative politician. In fact, it is
not possible to transform a society by simply being alone
as a transformative politician. What we need is a whole
community that is transformed.
What is needed is (for NGO’s like us, Civil society
groups, community organizations, and all the others who
share this same transformative vision) to band together.
We must define a common agenda for development,
choose leaders from among the community willing and
capable of carrying out the agreed agenda for
development. We must then help them win in the
elections. After winning, we must help them in the
implementation of this development agenda, and finally
hold them accountable to the community for their
actions.
In our last conference two years ago, we agreed that we
will devote our programs to building a successor
generation that appreciates the value of building
transformative communities.
It is no less than claiming back the right to governance as
our right… in fact, our very birthright.
Our friend, the Chair of UN CEDAW, Ambassador
Rosario G. Manalo, will tell us that we should claim this
right… as citizens of our countries, as community
members.
To you, our partners in behalf of the CAPWIP Board of
Trustees, we thank you for coming to this congress. Let
us band together and learn, in the next three days, what
we should include in this agenda. Let us not forget to
devote a lot of space and time for developing the
successor generation…. Our young.
As the saying goes: “As we advance and develop as
women leaders, let us not take the ladder with us.”
We are happy to say that the papers that will be
presented here at this Congress are all voluntarily given
by those who have something to share. This congress is
a community effort. And it is through this community
effort that we can help people such as the girls in Nepal
and India I mentioned earlier, who were driven to
prostitution because of poverty, and ultimately because
of bad governance.
Let us therefore listen with our hearts open, let us feel the
experiences and the feelings that will be poured out as
sharings and reflections.
From the lessons learned, let us draft the ten year
Platform for Action for Women In Politics and Decision-
Making. Above all, let us be guided by the concept that
the only way we can build transformative communities is
by claiming back our right to governance not only as
citizens, but even more importantly as a community.
Friends, welcome again to the Sixth Asia-Pacific
Congress of Women in Politics and Decision-Making.