On Dec. 19 to 22, 2003, I attended the 5th East Asian Women’s Forum as a representative from the Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament, and spoke at the workshop “ Women and Peace”.

The 5th EAWF was scheduled in July of the year 2003 and had to postpone to December because of the SARS. It was held in the Hong Kong Baptist University. About 350 women from China, Japan, Mongolia, South Korea, Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei participated in. The main theme was “Embracing New Challenges: Women in Action”.
There were three plenary sessions, several workshops and special discussion areas, and the special forum on CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) as well. The Outcome Document and Recommendation were adopted in the closing ceremony

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Being mothers, wives and sisters, women have been among the most vulnerable in wars and other social turmoils from ancient times. They have been so deeply concerned about peace that they acted, are acting and will act as the main force in the peace movement. It was an honor for me to participate in the World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs in last August in Japan. It was through participating in that activity that I witnessed the great role women and women non-governmental organizations can play in the peace movement.

A peaceful world means a world not only without wars, but also with developed economy and advanced civilization. I very much appreciated the organizers of this forum for underlining that “peace” is a “comprehensive” concept: “peace” means paying close attention to everyone’s fundamental rights and needs, “peace” and “security” can at no time be separated.

From this point of view, we can discern that in the current world: although there is no large-scale wars, the local conflicts keep cropping up. Traditional and non-traditional security threats are interwoven. Everyday there are people losing their lives in flames of war. What is more, the contradictions and conflicts due to economic backwardness, ethnic strife, environmental degradation and sex discriminations are on the rise one after another. Under these circumstances, the situation of women is even harder.
We women in East Asia are relatively lucky compared to those women in Iraq and Afghanistan whose countries are occupied by the foreign forces and terrorist attacks happen frequently, or to those women in Africa who are trapped in the dire strait of Aids epidemic and lack food. However, we should never rest content with the status quo, never stop our efforts. We sincerely hope, as women from mainland China, that our beloved motherland will develop faster, the poor mothers will get rid of poverty, the girls who are deprived of education because of poverty will go back to school as soon as possible, and all women will live a happy, stable and well-off life. We sincerely hope, as women in East Asia, that the nuclear crisis in the Korean Peninsular will be resolved peacefully, the Japanese Koizumi government will abide by the Peace Constitution, and the regional stability in East Asia will continue for a long time to come. Sisters, let’s join our hands together and do our best to promote the progress of our respective country, to the development of our bilateral and multi-lateral relations, and to the prosperity and stability in East Asia!

The majority of women in East Asia love their families, respect their customs, and are ready to bear hardships and work hard. They are the active force in the fight for peace and stability. They are talented in solving various kinds of contradictions and conflicts. They are the first teachers to teach peace thought and peace culture to younger generations. Therefore, women play an irreplaceable part in realizing peace and promoting common progress.

There are a lot of ways for women to participate in the peace movement, such as directly join the government policy making, indirectly influence the policy making through non-governmental organizations. All China Women’s Federation is one of the member organizations of the Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament, and always actively takes part in the activities of the CPAPD. In the 4th World Conference on Women held in Beijing, the CPAPD successfully organized the forum of “women and Peace”. Last November, the CPAPD hosted the 15th Week of International Science and Peace together with other non-governmental organizations. The Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and President of the CPAPD attended the open ceremony and gave a speech. She said:“we live in a global village. The development of China cannot be achieved without the rest of world. And the prosperity of the world cannot be achieved without China. The Chinese people will continue to seek development and promote peace with the people all over the world.”

Women in East Asia are well known for their outstanding personalities. It is one of our priorities to pay more attention to our own development and our living environment. That will be our most direct and important contribution to peace. For this purpose, we should strengthen our contacts, communication and cooperation. We should play our special role in promoting peace, stability and development of East Asia and the world through our own efforts and our active participation.