NITED NATIONS - Declaring ''our work is far from done,'' Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday challenged a UN review of a landmark 1995 women's conference in Beijing to finish the work of establishing equality between the sexes.
When the first lady ended her speech, activists and UN officials in the audience of several hundred spontaneously sang ''We Shall Overcome,'' the hymn of the US civil rights movement that Clinton said has become a mantra for women's groups in India.
''We come here because, for all of the progress we can point to, our work is far from done,'' Clinton said in her speech.
''When girls are doused with gasoline, set on fire, and burned to death because their marriage dowries are too small and when honor killings continue to be tolerated, our work is far from done,'' she said.
Clinton addressed a panel on microcredits - small loans for poor women to start enterprises - which she promoted after she attended the Beijing conference, an event she called ''one of the most moving and meaningful experiences in my life.''
After her keynote speech, Clinton stayed until the end of the discussion, answered questions, posed some herself, and was nearly crushed by the throng of well-wishers, few of them voters, seeking to shake her hand.
Clinton, who has addressed women's issues at the United Nations several times, is campaigning for the US Senate from New York. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, explaining that he had to leave the meeting, commented with a smile: ''Obviously, you all know how busy I am. But she is also equally busy ... for different reasons.''
About 10,000 activists and delegates from more than 180 governments are in New York this week to evaluate progress in a platform of action devised five years ago at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, as well as to find ways to implement economic, political, and sexual rights for women.
Clinton said the global microcredits program was ''on track,'' and noted that loan repayment rates ''would be the envy of any commercial banks'' that were not used to having 94 percent to 98 percent repayment rates.
Clinton said she was often told that the transaction costs of handling so many small loans were not worth the time for commercial banks. But with changes in technology, ''we can go back to banks and tell them to try to do this,'' Clinton said.
Meanwhile, a poll released yesterday at the UN said more American women than men believe in emphasizing international cooperation and diplomacy over military action, the Associated Press reported.
Some 69 percent of women surveyed believe global problems make it necessary for the United States to work with other countries through international institutions like the UN, compared with 61 percent of men.
Nearly 10 percent more women than men believe the United States should emphasize diplomacy over military action in international policy, the poll reported.
