U.N. Women’s Talks Open With Partial U.S. Victory

The U.N. Women’s Decade conference opened today with a partial victory for the U.S. delegation led by Maureen Reagan in its bid to prevent Third World countries from dominating the meeting.

Tribal dancers gyrated and sang as the 4,000 delegates from more than 155 countries poured into the conference hall for the official opening of the 11-day conference marking the end of the Women’s Decade.

Margaret Kenyatta, Kenya’s representative to the U.N. Environment Program and daughter of Kenya’s late President Jomo Kenyatta, was elected president of the meeting by acclamation.

A bitter wrangle over procedural rules was resolved when Third World delegates agreed to seek “consensus” in passing resolutions and the final conference document, which will outline strategies for the women’s movement until the year 2000.

Veto System Charged

The U.S. delegation had been demanding that consensus--U.N. parlance for unanimity--be mandatory for the adoption of all resolutions and the final strategy document.

Both U.N. officials and Third World delegates charged that Washington was trying to establish a veto system to thwart the majority usually enjoyed when the East Bloc and developing countries vote together in U.N. forums.

In a compromise, the U.S. delegation dropped its demand to make consensus mandatory and Third World countries agreed to “make every endeavor” to reach consensus on passing resolutions.

“It places a moral burden on Third World nations to reach a consensus on all resolutions, including the final strategies document,” one U.N. official said.

The U.S. delegation denied that it was seeking a veto but acknowledged that it wanted to keep “extraneous” political issues out of the conference’s final document.

‘Views Beyond Consensus’

“Based on the history of this conference, the views beyond consensus always seemed to take precedence over the agreement and conciliation of women, and we don’t want to see this happen at this conference,” President Reagan’s daughter said.

“I have no plans to walk out of any conference but if they put my back to the wall they will see what we can do,” she said.

U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar opened the session with a speech in which he conceded that the conference must touch on political issues. However, he pleaded for a spirit of compromise.

“It is recognized that women’s issues cannot be disassociated from the political, economic and social problems which beset countries and peoples,” he said.