U.N. chief, Hillary Clinton, and activists demand women's equality

UNITED NATIONS - From all corners of the globe, high-ranking ministers and ordinary women joined the U.N. secretary-general and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday to demand that equality of the sexes become a reality at the start of the 21st century.

Five years after the biggest global gathering of women in history adopted an ambitious platform to achieve women's equality, nearly 180 nations met at a special General Assembly session to review progress. The initial report card found this answer: too little.

Speaker after speaker declared that the achievements since the 1995 Beijing conference are far outweighed by the remaining inequalities and persistent discrimination against women. ''Much remains to be done,'' said Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

''We come here because for all of the progress we can point to our work is far from done,'' echoed the first lady, now a candidate for U.S. Senate from New York. ''When girls are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are too small and when 'honor killings' continue to be tolerated, our work is far from done.''

As they did in Beijing, thousands of women from grass-roots organizations around the world came to New York to lobby the delegates. Their colorful opening ceremony across the street from U.N. headquarters included speeches by Annan, Queen Noor of Jordan and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and entertainment by singer Judy Collins.

Japanese women, who are running a workshop to increase women's participation in politics, wore sashes reading ''Don't be a Nobody.'' Members of the Indonesian Women's Forum for Democracy, wearing T-shirts saying ''Democracy is Not Enough, We Need Gender Justice,'' were selling textiles and jewelry made by women.

The conference is supposed to come up with innovative, practical ways to accelerate implementation of the 150-page plan of action adopted in Beijing.

It called on governments to provide equal education and employment, demanded that business and government put women in top decision-making posts, and stated for the first time in a U.N. document that women have the right to decide freely all matters related to their sexuality and childbearing.

But human rights and women's activists are concerned that the conference may roll back the gains from Beijing because of opposition from the Vatican and a few Islamic countries including Algeria, Iran, Libya, Pakistan and Sudan.

''There must be no going back on the commitments,'' Robinson said. ''The whole platform of action must not only be maintained but must be reinvigorated and given practical impetus around the world.''

At Beijing, Clinton took center stage, attacking China's human rights record and demanding that women become equal partners in building a better world - a demand she echoed at a panel on one of the issues she promoted in 1995, small loans to help poor women escape poverty.

''Let us not just mark, but celebrate, a new century in which women's rights are once and for all treated as human rights, fully respected in every country in the world,'' she said.

Her reception on Monday was overwhelming, just as it was in Beijing, which ranks among her finest hours on the international stage as first lady. At the start, she was cheered. At the end, the audience stood up spontaneously, started singing the American civil rights anthem, ''We Shall Overcome,'' and then mobbed her.

In his speech, Annan cited progress in women's health and education, in making violence against women illegal, and above all in having more countries understand ''that women's equality is a prerequisite for development.''

But he also reported that the gap between the salaries of men and women is widening, that women continue to be denied inheritance rights, that violence against women is increasing despite legislation and that ''a worldwide plague'' of trafficking of women and children has erupted.