Each of the major UN World Conferences of the 1980s and 90s has a review mechanism that calls for five-year meetings to discuss the past and set goals for the future. These "Plus 5s" have examined decisions made at the Copenhagen Social Development Summit, Cairo Conference on Population and Development, Vienna Process on Human Rights, and Rio Environment Conference. Next in line is a review of progress on the Status of Women, scheduled for June 5-9 in New York.

A host committee is organizing many celebratory events, and an international committee has been set up to facilitate the activities of women actually lobbying at the UN. Women’s organizations from around the world have produced "shadow" or alternative reports to fill in the perceived gaps in their government’s assessments. These will be compiled and presented as a global shadow report, the non-governmental sector’s contribution to the debate. Since this isn’t a major conference but rather a Plus 5, no large NGO forum is planned. A two-day working session for NGOs will be held on the weekend prior to the meeting, and a variety of panel and cultural events will take place within and around the UN. read more

Ten thousand peace activists, Nobel peace prize winners, and celebrities met for four days last May at a conference center at the Hague, Holland, with virtually no US – and skimpy international – coverage. A few blocks away, the boys with the big cameras clustered outside the gates of the International Court of Justice, where Yugoslavia was charging NATO with violations of international law.

After all, there was a war going on.

Every day, young people trooped down with banners, urging the media to provide some coverage. No luck. As a Hague Appeal staffer later explained, "Unless the story has action and can be explained in two seconds, they don’t want to cover it." read more

The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference was quite successful in bringing together peace and justice activists from all over the globe to network, launch new coalitions, and renew pledges to make peace possible. Four thousand people were expected to attend the four-day event in May, but over 8,000 turned up. A thousand groups representing people from 100 countries took part. But unfortunately, it was held in the Netherlands, a NATO country engaged in war at the time, and that reality did affect the outcome. read more

Every March, Toward Freedom is dedicated to women’s issues. Since this will be the last such edition of the magazine in both the current century and millennium, it seemed appropriate to look back while simultaneously offering at least a glimmer of hope for an uncertain future.

This month’s pages contain many horror stories just barely tempered by a few grace notes of accomplishment. From India to Tibet to Latin America to Europe to the US and Canada, the world’s male-dominated societies have a dismal track record, to be sure. read more

With nearly 500,000 teenagers giving birth nationwide each year, most are unmarried and not ready for the emotional, psychological, and financial challenges of parenting, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Under federal welfare reform, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, the bulk of control over federal assistance for such families has been given to the states, with incentives such as bonuses for reducing teen, out-of-wedlock births, estimated at 76 percent of all teen births in 1994, compared to 15 percent in 1960. read more