The Reagan Administration expressed its satisfaction today with the United Nations End of the Decade Women’s Conference which concluded in Nairobi, Kenya last Friday by unanimously adopting a forward-looking strategies document for women worldwide to the year 2000.
“With adoption of the forward-looking strategies we achieved our major goal for Nairobi, a goal which eluded us at women’s conferences in Mexico City in 1975 and Copenhagen in 1980,” State Department deputy spokesman Charles Redman said. He said the U.S. delegation, headed by President Reagan’s daughter, Maureen Reagan, did “a good job.”
While Redman did not elaborate, he was apparently referring to the U.S. votes against the final documents in Mexico City and Copenhagen because they contained anti-Zionist statements. Although there was much anti-Zionism, anti-Israel rhetoric in Nairobi, the final document did not contain a specific attack on Zionism, allowing the U.S. to vote for it. (See full story in July 29 Bulletin.)
Redman said the Nairobi document was a “hopeful achievement for the advancement of the status of women throughout the world.” He said that by keeping the “focus on women’s issues to a large degree, “which was the basic U.S. aim in Nairobi, the final document would be a “blueprint” for international women issues for the rest of the century.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
