Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Colleagues and Friends,

I. Introductory Remarks

It is with an immense pleasure that I join this distinguished panel and I feel very honored, on behalf of the Conference of NGOs (CONGO), to be once more associated as partner to this event.

For those of you who like a brief up-date on CONGO: We are an umbrella association of some 360 international (and some national and regional) organizations and networks from North and South with the mandate to nurture UN/NGO relations, to assist the great variety of NGOs in consultative status promoting their common aim: supporting and enriching with day to day life experiences the United Nations Charter. At our last General Assembly under the theme: "UN/NGO Dynamics in the 21st Century: Together for Social Justice, Equality and Peace," I outlined my VISION FOR CONGO under the three headings: Outreach, Dialogue and Training to become even more inclusive, in particular through NGO capacity building in developing countries with the view to enable NGOs to respond effectively to the overarching challenges confronting us: poverty, racism, globalization, HIV/AIDS, environmental issues, how to achieve gender equality and a new child rights agenda and how the enjoyment of all human rights can be assured for all.

II. African Women's voices --- the process

Many of you already know, but I want to stress again: Not only since I accepted the leadership of CONGO, I had my eyes open for and my heart committed to Africa, in particular for support of African women, bringing them to a number of UN meetings.

While in relation to this Conference the topic of women and racism has played and is playing a major role, at the beginning of the year concern was raised that African women may be poorly represented and that they may not benefit from the results of the Conference.

I recall only too vividly the January Meeting Bineta Diop, (Executive Director, Femmes Africa Solidarité) and I had with Ms. Robinson during which we deplored the lack of African women's voices in the whole WCAR process. This meeting took place shortly after last-minute rescheduling of the Dakar Regional Preparatory Conference for WCAR in January and precluded in particular African Women Committee on Peace and Development (AWCPD) members from participating, because they had already arranged a meeting in Tunis. Ms. Robinson expressed her deep concerns 1) that issues of African women were critically important for the WCAR; 2) that awareness of the importance of these issue was not understood; 3) and that there appeared to be little support that could enable African women to participate. When she learned that these African women leaders could not attend their own regional PrepCom, the High Commissioner agreed to send a special message to the meeting in Tunis.

This meeting initiated a whole new process. AWCPD decided to arrange WCAR planning meetings with and for African women, and succeeded, with CONGO and others as partners, to organize the June Dakar Consultation for African women (19 -22 June) The Consultation - as you know by now - met with a phenomenal success. Women from all African regions came, were made aware of and discussed the WCAR process as well as the Protocol on Women's Rights in Africa, (to the Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights).

Participants reached important conclusions on the preparation and participation of women in the World Conference as well as on the process of preparation, adoption, ratification, entry into force and implementation of the Protocol on Women's Rights in Africa. Moreover, the June Dakar meeting was successful in mobilizing and bonding African women to make their contribution to the WCAR through the adoption of an African Women's Platform of Action.

III. Mainstreaming African Women's Voices - CONGO's activities

The large turn out of African women at this Conference and here at this panel discussion today is therefor a result (and enlargement) of the Dakar Consultation. Your (African women's )presence powerfully underlines the importance of issues which needed to be addressed in the context of this Conference because they impact on African women's every day lives. These issues include:

• Racial and Ethnic Discrimination
• Armed Conflict
• Migrants
• HIV/AIDS
• Poverty
• Globalization
• Poverty
• Lack of Access to Education, Health Care and Other Social Services
• Religious Intolerance
• Violence and Trafficking

These issues were stated as major concerns in the African Women's Platform for Action. They were also at the centre of discussion in a series of events which CONGO organized during the last six months - in addition to the Dakar meeting - to bring African (women) NGOs to major UN meetings in Geneva (CHR), Brussels (LDCIII) and New York (Special Session on HIV/AIDS). These activities helped to further explore African linkages, to follow up on Beijing + 5, and mainstream African women's concerns into every possible policy decision making process at the UN.

It included the High-Level Segment of ECOSOC on the theme of sustainable development in Africa (16 -18 July) to which CONGO organized a new ground-breaking event, the first ever hold NGO Forum (13 July). Many African NGOs, including African women, participated. They came from different sectors, i.e. Economic and Social Development, Human Rights, Gender and Environment. CONGO also facilitated their participation in Ministerial Breakfast Round Tables during which they could bring their concerns face to face to important decision makers. The recommendations and principal messages from the day's Forum were brought to the Plenary of the High-Level Segment itself. The interaction at all levels between NGOs and ECOSOC High-level personalities, including Heads of UN agencies, was a good practice in need of systematic follow up.

IV. Intersectionality of Gender and Race

Coming back to this Conference, during which we have all witnessed and listened to "multiple forms of discrimination", "compound discrimination" to which women, and African women in particular, are subjected to, we want to know what are the next steps, where do we go from here. The concept of "intersectionality" has emerged, which seeks to capture both the structural and dynamic consequences of the interaction between two or more forms of discrimination. Per definition: "Intersectional subordination may be described by the metaphor of a traffic intersection. In this metaphor, race, gender, class and other forms of discrimination or subordination are the roads that structure the social, economic or political terrain..."¹

You/we have denounced multiple disadvantages or conditions which interact to create a distinct and compound dimension of disempowerment. You have/we laid open the historical and present causes of armed conflict, of ethnic bias and hate and have made known the grave human rights abuses African women are victims of. You/we have demanded:

• that roads need to be cleared of all Sexual Violence as a strategy or weapon of war, including rape, forced pregnancies, sexual abuses and -slavery;
• that compensatory measures will be taken to undo the wrongs of the past;
• that avenues be freed of poverty and ignorance, on which the HIV/AIDS Pandemic breeds;
• that cultural attitudes harmful to women such as FGM be thrown into the dustbin of history;
• that environments and intersections be created on which women and men, boys and girls can traverse freely without injuries and collisions in the dignity and light of Human Rights.

V. Conclusion

In conclusion, Mme Chair, CONGO will continue to give visibility to and support to African women's voices not only as victims of multiple forms of discrimination, in which gender, race, class and various other forms of intolerance intersect, but also as agents of change leading to new ways of conflict resolution, peace negotiation and reconciliation. CONGO looks forward to strengthening ties with regional and sub-regional networks and mechanisms such as the African Women Committee, with whom we set up a preliminary framework of shared values. Our outreach programs aim to empower national and regional NGOs to establish strong regional partnerships who also work intersectorially in pursuit of development and peace, and with the mandate of combating all forms of racism.

(A vital step forward would/will be the announced/agreed National Plans of Action Governments have agreed to establish). For CONGO specific steps will include to monitor progress of such Plan of Actions in regional Consultations which we plan next year for Africa (in co-sponsorship with the NGO Section of UN/DESA) and for Asia. We will also be part of the world movement against Racism, (highlighting always African women in particular), in recommending to our members to take bold steps to come closer to the goal: