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The twenty-third special session of the General Assembly "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-first Century" concluded today, with governments reaffirming their commitment to the goals and objectives contained in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.
Adopting its outcome document, containing a Political Declaration and "Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action", delegates agreed that, although significant positive elements could be identified, barriers remained, and they pledged to take further action to ensure the full and accelerated implementation of the Platform.
In his closing statement to the session, the President of the Assembly, Theo Ben-Gurirab (Namibia), praised the outcome and noted that there had been "no backward movement on any of the Beijing language" in the final document. The Platform remained fully valid for national and international actions. Further, the new text updated the Platform in the areas of violence against and trafficking in women, health, education, human rights, poverty, debt relief and globalization, armed conflict, sovereignty, land and inheritance rights for women, political participation and decision-making. If governments demonstrated the necessary political will and allocated required resources, the goals of gender equality, development and peace would become a reality very early in the twenty-first century, he said.
On the issue of violence against women, governments agreed to establish or strengthen legislation to handle all forms of domestic violence, including marital rape and sexual abuse of women and girls. The delegates agreed that violence against women and girls was a human rights violation, noting that many governments had introduced educational and outreach programmes, as well as legislative measures criminalizing that practice. Meanwhile, many of those measures in the criminal justice area to eliminate forms of violence against women and children, including domestic violence and child pornography, were weak in many countries. Prevention strategies also remained fragmented and reactive.
Among the goals set by the text in terms of women’s education is the time- bound target of the year 2015, set for a 50 per cent improvement in adult literacy, as well as ensuring free compulsory primary education for both girls and boys. Also, governments agreed to develop gender-sensitive curricula to address gender stereotyping as one of the root causes of segregation in working life.
The governments further agreed to develop and fully implement laws, policies and educational programmes to eradicate harmful customary or traditional practices, including female genital mutilation, early and forced marriage and so- called honour crimes. There was also agreement to work towards the elimination of commercial sexual exploitation, as well as economic exploitation, including, among other things, trafficking in women and children and female infanticide.
On the issue of women and armed conflict, it was agreed that women’s contribution in peace-building, peacemaking and conflict resolution was increasingly being recognized, and that progress had been made in disseminating and implementing guidelines for the protection of refugee women. It was also agreed that women were increasingly participating in the labour market and that there was increased awareness of the need to reconcile employment and family responsibilities.
Regarding women’s health, it was decided that the reduction of maternal morbidity and mortality was a priority and that women should have ready access to essential obstetric, post-partum and maternal care. Priority attention should be given to prevention, detection and treatment of breast, cervical and ovarian cancer, osteoporosis and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, as well as prevention of unwanted pregnancies and the health impact of unsafe abortion. Every attempt should be made to eliminate the need for abortion.
At the international level, the document stresses the need to ensure and support the participation of women in development activities and peace processes, including conflict prevention and resolution, post-conflict reconstruction, peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace-building, and to support the involvement of women’s organizations and community-based organizations. Women should also be included as special envoys and special representatives of the Secretary-General in those matters.
The Assembly also reached agreement on issues governing women and the environment, the media, institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women and on their human rights. It also made recommendations for actions to be taken at the national level by governments and at the international level by governments, regional and international organizations, including the United Nations, as well as international financial institutions and other actors.
Prior to the adoption of the final document, 50 speakers took the floor on Friday afternoon and evening, stressing the importance of the Beijing review process and stating that improvement of the situation concerning the attainment of equal rights for women was a universal issue of great importance. Many speakers said that a valuable contribution of the special session would be creation of a conducive environment for the promotion of gender equality and that new partnership was needed for the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.
Taking the floor in the afternoon session were Ministers of Mauritius, Niger, Indonesia, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Peru, Cameroon, Morocco, Sao Tome and Principe, and Chad, as well as the Director-General of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Manpower Development of the Seychelles, Director of Women’s Affairs of Vanuatu, Vice-Ministers from Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of Bahrain; Assistant-Secretary of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs of Samoa; Chairperson of the Women’s National Committee of Yemen; and representatives of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Marshall Islands and Nauru.
Speaking in their observer capacity were the Head of the Federal Office for Equality between Women and Men of Switzerland, Minister for Internal Affairs of Cook Islands, Chargée of the Mission for the Advancement of Women of the International Organization of La Francophonie, Head of Gender Affairs of the Commonwealth Secretariat; Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross; Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs of the European Community (on behalf of the European Commission); Secretary of the Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men of the Council of Europe; Vice-President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; Deputy Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE); Assistant Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity; and representatives of the Holy See, Organization of the Islamic Conference, International Organization for Migration, Sovereign Military Order of Malta, representative of the League of Arab States, International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, and the African Development Bank.
The following representatives of the United Nations also spoke: Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; Executive Directors of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM); and the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Speaking on behalf of non-governmental organizations were the Chairperson of Women in Law and Development in Africa; Vice-President of Mahila Dakshata Samiti; representative of Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women; President of the Centro De La Mujer Peruana "Flora Tristan"; and Chairperson of the Alliance for Arab Women.
Also during the afternoon meeting, delegates were informed that Bosnia and Herzegovina had reduced its arrears to the United Nations according to the provisions of Article 19 of the Charter. (Article 19 states that any Member State in arrears to the United Nations for two years would lose its right to vote in the Assembly.)
When the meeting was resumed on Saturday, after a lengthy suspension to conclude negotiations on the final document, statements in explanation of position were made by the representatives of Honduras, Qatar, Poland, South Africa, Suriname (on behalf of the Caribbean Community), Nicaragua, Nigeria (on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China), Malta, Argentina (on behalf of the Southern Common Market), Rwanda, United States, Gabon (on behalf of the African Group), Senegal, Colombia (on behalf of several Latin American countries), Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Libya, Bahrain, El Salvador, Kenya, Sudan, Indonesia, Cuba, Algeria (on behalf of the Arab Group), Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Philippines, Portugal (on behalf of the European Union and associated countries), Canada, New Zealand, Oman, Mauritania, Iraq, Norway, Iran, Jordan, Syria and the Russian Federation, as well as the Observer for Holy See.
At the beginning of the resumed meeting, the President expressed condolences to the people of Syria on the death of the President of that country. In his honour, the Assembly observed a minute of silence. All the speakers joined in expressions of sorrow at his passing. The representative of Syria thanked all those who had spoken in sympathy.
Round-up
The special session, entitled "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-first Century", reviewed and appraised progress and identified current challenges in the implementation of the Platform for Action. The final documents of the Beijing Conference set the goals reflected in the title of the special session and constituted an agenda for the empowerment of women. Recognizing that the commitments of the Platform for Action had not been fully implemented, the participants of the special session agreed upon further actions and initiatives at local, national, regional and international levels to accelerate its implementation.
Held at Headquarters this week, the session enjoyed a high level of participation: 207 speakers addressed the Assembly in the course of 10 plenary meetings, including 178 Member States, three non-Member States, 16 observers, four heads of United Nations programmes and specialized agencies, one United Nations Committee and five non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Seventy-seven per cent of the speakers were women.
Apart from the staff of the Permanent Missions, some 2,300 delegates participated in the New York session. Both the Beijing Conference and the special session benefited from NGO participation: 1,036 accredited NGOs were represented by 2,043 delegates. Special events and panels this week were devoted to many specific issues related to gender equality, including good practices in gender mainstreaming; training of women; micro-credit programmes; protection of internally displaced women and girls; sexual and reproductive health; emergencies affecting women; gender perspective in various international activities; and gender awareness.
Speakers in the general debate stressed that the review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing outcome was occurring in a rapidly changing global context. Among the new challenges to the full implementation of those documents, they cited globalization and increased disparities in the economic situation among and within countries, coupled with a growing interdependence of States. Structural adjustment programmes and high costs of external debt servicing had worsened the situation in many developing countries. Women and girls were increasingly involved in internal, regional and international labour migration. Technological advances could have an impact on the position of women, and the impact of armed conflicts on women could not be ignored.
At the opening of the session, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the international community should put the world on notice that "the future of this planet depends on women". Focusing on the importance of education, he stressed that it was both the entry point into the global economy and the best defence against its pitfalls. There was no development strategy more beneficial to the society as a whole—women and men alike—than one involving women as central players, he said.
Most speakers agreed that Member States should make full use of the tremendous human resources that women represented, overcoming the traditional stereotypes that women were inferior to men. They agreed that allowing women to take power positions in society would benefit country’s economies, and that it was essential to eliminate all forms of violence against women. The need to speedily conclude negotiations on the additional protocol to the Convention on Transnational Organized Crime concerning the trafficking of human beings was emphasized as a future tool of fighting against the spread of trafficking in women. Speakers also stressed that the pandemic of HIV/AIDS was taking a heavy toll on women.
Describing their national programmes of action, representatives of many countries outlined their governments’ legislative efforts to ensure gender equality, as well as steps to empower women, which included affirmative action quotas for elections to local structures. Among economic measures implemented by States, micro-credit programmes and development of labour standards to achieve equality in the workplace were mentioned. Governments pledged their commitment to the inclusion of women in decision-making processes and promotion of their human rights.