COMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN TO HOLD FORTIETH SESSION AT HEADQUARTERS, 11-22 MARCH
Press Release
WOM/903*
COMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN TO HOLD FORTIETH SESSION AT HEADQUARTERS, 11-22 MARCH
19960308 Background Release Will Examine Implementation of Beijing Conference's RecommendationsMeeting for the first time since the Fourth World Conference on Women adopted the Beijing Declaration and Programme of Action last September, the Commission on the Status of Women will employ a new interactive format to follow up on the emerging issues brought out in that document when it holds its fortieth session at Headquarters from 11 to 22 March.
The question and answer dialogue format to be utilized by the Commission is in keeping with the general trend within the Economic and Social Council to eschew prepared statements in favour of a more spontaneous approach. The discussions will focus on the implementation of recommendations concerning specific issues raised in the Platform for Action's critical areas of concern. Such issues include poverty; women and the media; child and dependant care, including the sharing of responsibilities between men and women; and education for peace.
As in previous years, the Commission will discuss the situation of Palestinian women and the status of women working in the United Nations Secretariat, as well as the Organization's response to violations of women's human rights. Also on the matter of women's human rights, the Commission is expected to constitute a working group to review a report of the Secretary- General on the perspectives of various members of the international community regarding an optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (document E/CN.6/1996/10). The proposed optional protocol would enable the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which monitors the Convention's implementation, to consider complaints submitted by individuals or groups whose rights have been violated by a State party.
In addition to considering such substantive matters, the Commission's multi-year work programme will also be on its present agenda. The work programme is being reviewed to bring it in line with the Commission's mandate
* Press Release WOM/903, dated 6 March, should have been numbered WOM/902.
as the chief monitoring body of the Platform's implementation. A report before the Commission describing ways to enhance the Organization's capacity to support follow-up to the Beijing Conference will address the financial requirements entailed in that endeavour (document E/CN.6/1996/3).
Reports before the Commission will serve to stimulate dialogue on substantive questions in an innovative manner; rather than just providing information, as is the standard practice, they also pose pertinent questions to be addressed by participants. Among the questions raised in the reports are:
-- What are the main differences between women's and men's attitudes to peace, security, peace-keeping and peace-making, as well as conflict resolution which, if mobilized, would help to create a more peaceful environment?
-- What issues related to transforming the existing culture of violence to a culture of peace would need to be addressed through public policy as a matter of highest priority?
-- What kinds of public policy could de-legitimize violence, particularly violence against women, and encourage measures against it?
-- What role can media education play in raising awareness of violence against women?
-- What role can governments play in defining media codes of conduct as well as enforcement mechanisms for such codes?
-- What is required to increase men's share of family responsibilities?
-- How can attitudes and stereotypes about gender roles best be changed? and
-- What changes in family and labour legislation are needed to ensure child and dependent care based on sharing?
These questions and others are posed in the context of evidence presented in the reports concerning social trends affecting women. For example, the Secretary-General's report on education for peace (document E/CN.6/1996/6, to be issued) states that recently, attention has begun to focus on the issue of war-related violence against women since in many armed conflicts, women were subjected to rape and forced prostitution as a "weapon" to humiliate adversaries. The fact that women have not been involved in decisions on war or peace but were their victims has prompted governments to
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consider the issue of women's participation in decision-making in the area of peace and security.
Credence was also being given to the theory that all forms of violence, from family and personal violence to large-scale armed conflicts, were inter- related and had common roots, according to the report. "It is argued that peace between and within nations cannot be achieved without the elimination of all forms of violence, oppression, discrimination and militarization, as well as the preservation of a healthy environment, participatory democracy and the elimination of instruments of war. It also requires the development of new types of interpersonal and international relations based on a comprehensive concept of security, partnership and tolerance."
Also addressing the issue of violence is another report of the Secretary-General before the Commission, on the elimination of stereotyping in the mass media (document E/CN.6/1996/4). "The representation in the media of violence against women, particularly sexual violence, has increased tremendously in past years." The production and marketing of sexually explicit material has become a business, with established links to forced prostitution and traffic in women, which is also increasing at an alarming rate and reaching global dimensions as a form of organized crime.
While stating that new technologies have the potential to democratize information and communications, the report poses questions about women's access to them, citing evidence that fewer women than men master the new technologies. For example, women make up only about 10 per cent of Internet users in the United States. In addition, criticism has arisen about the existence of sexually explicit material and the depiction of violence against women on the Internet.
"Despite increased attention to the fair portrayal of women in the media, there are not many success stories to report", the Secretary-General states. While some steps have been taken to combat gender stereotyping, there has also been a significant backlash against such efforts. The portrayal of women and men in the media mirrors socio-economic conditions, but it is also an expression of political ideology. For example, in the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the portrayal of women has gone from one extreme to the other: previous images of political and working women have been replaced, in the democratization process, by images of the fashion model, beauty queen and mother.
The report of the Secretary-General on child and dependant care, including the sharing of work and family responsibilities (document E/CN.4/1996/5) is also before the Commission. It points to evidence that despite the fact that women's income is increasingly necessary, there has been no corresponding reduction in their domestic responsibilities. The world's
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women account for a third of the global labour force and it is estimated that women will make up half the labour force in most countries by the year 2000. During the last several decades, women's share of the labour force has increased in almost all regions while that of men has fallen.
The report goes on to describe the rising proportion of female-headed households. Among the reasons for this are the dissolution of marriages for a variety of reasons, migration and non-marital child-bearing. The effects of drug and alcohol use by males constitute another factor. In countries ravaged by the AIDS epidemic, caring for the rapidly growing number of AIDS orphans has been largely left to women, whose family support network may be dramatically depleted by the disease. Some studies suggest that men's unwillingness to marry or to assume family responsibility, or their readiness to leave the household, is a result of their inability to sustain a family.
"Women's and men's use of time is different and unequal", the report continues. In both developed and developing countries, women -- whether mothers or not -- generally work much longer than men in both developed and developing countries. Women's increased participation in the work force has an impact on children, especially girls, and on relationships within the family, especially with men. "The double burden of working women could be a principal cause for their predominance in low status and low paid employment and often precarious working conditions, offering them little income, job security and prospects for advancement."
The report contains recommendations to address the problem of the "double burden" endured by women taking on financial and family responsibilities through measures related to maternity, paternity and parental leave; working-time arrangements; the provision of child-care and elder-care services; support for persons with disabilities; and changing attitudes and stereotypes.
Other Reports
In addition to the reports mentioned above, the Commission will have before it the following reports, to be summarized in future press releases as they are taken up: report of the Secretary-General on follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women (document E/CN.6/1996/2, to be issued); note by the Secretary-General containing draft proposals for the sub-programme on advancement of women for the proposed 1998-2001 medium-term plan (document E/CN.6/1996/14, to be issued); report of the Secretary-General on progress in improving the status of women in the Secretariat (document E/CN.6/1996/7, to be issued); report of the Secretary-General on the joint work plan of the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Centre for Human Rights (document E/CN.6/1996/13, to be issued); and report of the Secretary-General
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on the extent to which violations of women's human rights have been addressed by human rights mechanisms (document E/CN.6/1996/9).
Membership
The 45 members of the Commission on the Status of Women are: Algeria, Angola, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Greece, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Namibia, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Sudan, Swaziland, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia and United States.
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