International
Health
The Office on Womens
Health in the Department of Health and Human Services (OWH) provides leadership in
international womens health activities, to exchange scientific knowledge, public
health programs, and broad-based educational initiatives to improve womens health
around the world. OWH specially works to promote womens health through the
activities listed below:
Presidents
Interagency Council on Women (PICW)
President Clinton established the Council in August 1995, on the eve of the United
Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, in order to "make sure that all
the effort and good ideas actually get implemented when we get back home." At the
Fourth World Conference, 189 countries adopted the Beijing Platform for Action. The
platform calls for economic opportunity and security for women, quality education and
health care, full political and economic participation of women, equality, and the
promotion of human rights for women. It is one of the strongest policy statements
promoting women's advancement ever made by the international community.
Former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton served as the
Councils Honorary Chair, Former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala served as its first
chair, followed by Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The Council included high
level representatives from executive branch agencies.
The Council was charged with coordinating the implementation
of the Platform for Action adopted at Beijing, including the U.S. commitments announced
there. It also developed related initiatives to further women's progress and engaged in
outreach and public education to support the successful implementation of the Conference
agreements. The Council coordinated various outreach events across the United States to
celebrate the progress made since the UN Fourth World Conference on Women. These regional
events were organized in partnership with non-governmental organizations; colleges and
universities; and regional community organizations, and offered opportunities to share
best practices, achievements, and lessons learned.
In 2000, the Council published a 5-year review of U.S.
Government programs, policies, and initiatives that promote the advancement of women.
Entitled America's Commitment, this was a comprehensive, 5-year review which includes
federal government programs, policies and initiatives that advance the status of women and
girls, catalogued according to the 12 areas of critical concern highlighted in the
Platform for Action.
The Council was also charged with leading the U.S Government
preparation for Women 2000: the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly in
June 2000 which marked 5 years since Beijing, and whereby countries were provided an
international forum to celebrate the achievements made since the historic 1995 conference
and to reaffirm the worldwide commitment to the Platform for Action.
The session titled: "Women 2000: Gender Equality,
Development, and Peace for the 21st Century" or "Beijing +5" included a
week of seminars and activities related to the 12 critical areas documented in the
Platform for Action. Delegates to the United Nations negotiated a substantial Outcome
Document that denotes accomplishments and goals for the future to improve the status of
women and girls. Portions of the Outcome Documents can be viewed through the PICW website:
http://secretary.state.gov/www/picw/beijing/index.html
For more information visit the Presidents Interagency
Council on Women web site or contact:
Theresa Loar, Director,
The President's Interagency Council on Women
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW, Room 2906 Washington, DC 20520
(202) 647-6227
Fax: (202) 647-5337
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USA/Israeli
Womens Health Conference
The Office on Womens Health in the Department of Health and Human Services
(OWH) participated in the joint Israel-USA Womens Health Conference. This effort
represents a partnership between HHS, and the Israeli Ministry on Womens Status,
Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Information and International Relations.
Representatives from HHS included the Office of International and Refugee Health, the OWH
and other members of the PHS Womens Health Coordinating Committee.
Dr. Jonelle Rowe
was the coordinator of this historic event.
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U.S.
Mexico Binational Commissions Working Group on Womens Health
The Binational Commission was established in 1981 as a forum for meetings of
Cabinet-level officials from the United States and Mexico. The 1996 session of the
Commission included the first meeting of the Health Working Group, which was co-chaired by
former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Donna Shalala and Mexicos
Secretary of Health, Juan Ramon de la Fuente. The Working Group defined four priority
areas for immediate emphasis: migrant health, smoking prevention with an emphasis on
adolescents, womens health, and immunization.
The Core Group on Womens Health, a component of the
Health Working group, agreed to look at commonalties between the health ministries and
identify specific activities or initiatives which could be jointly tackled by 1998. In
general, the group agreed to focus on (1) the development of administrative and policy
strategies that would enhance womens health within the respective national agendas,
(2) the development of leadership within our respective ministries to promote and
institutionalize a womens health focus, (3) the building of partnerships with our
respective States, medical groups, and non-governmental organizations, and (4) the
creation of effective, continuous communication channels for information exchange on
womens health meetings and conferences, research, and clinical guidelines. The
Office on Womens Health in the Department of Health and Human Services (OWH) staff
also maintains contact with womens health representatives from the U.S. and Mexico
border states.
Action items for the near future are to update the core group
list, to convene a conference call in early 2001 to discuss White House accomplishments,
results, and analyze future plans, and to discuss the status of a health card in
development for migrant women to carry and use to document their health care history.
The OWH contact person is Carolyn Lofgren.
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World
Health Organization Global Commission on Womens Health
The Global Commission on Womens Health was established by the World Health
Organization (WHO) in 1993. Its purpose is: to promote the adoption and implementation of
effective measures at all levels for improving womens health, and to carry out
international and national advocacy on behalf of womens health centers. In addition
to being an essentially political body, the Global Commission is an advisory and
supportive body to the World Health Organization and relevant agencies of the United
Nations that work with the WHO on womens health. In carrying out this dual role,
members of the Global Commission wished to address many issues spanning a multitude of
areas, but agreed that their main role as a strong political body consisted of informing,
advocating, and proposing actions to ensure womens health issues remain high up on
national and international agendas and in the media. The Commission therefore saw not only
a global role for itself, but also a regional and national one.
The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in
Beijing, China, in September 1995, was seen as an important marker toward which efforts of
the Global Commission could be directed, particularly at the national level to ensure that
governments and non-governmental organizations adequately addressed womens health
issues.
To that end, members of the Global Commission worked on three
specific areas of concern in order to build its agenda for the UNs 1996 Congress on
the Status of Women: policy, advocacy, and normative aspects of womens health.
Within the area of policy, the Commission focused on nutrition, education, work
environment, reproductive health, aging, and lifestyle-related health conditions. Areas
for advocacy encompassed emerging technologies, strengthening capacities, convening media
roundtables, organizing days of action for womens health, and developing symposia on
womens health issues. Normative aspects would include, for example, health
legislation, clinical trials, codes of conduct, human rights, and others. As a product of
its work, the Commission presented several reports at the United Nations Fourth World
Congress on the Status of Women in Beijing in 1996. The Global Commissions work
continues.
The OWH contact person is Dr. Jonelle Rowe.
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