PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR ASSEMBLY'S HIGH-LEVEL REVIEW OF NAIROBI STRATEGIES AND BEIJING PLATFORM RECOMMENDS HOLDING OF SPECIAL SESSION IN 2000
Press Release
GA/9395
WOM/1044
PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR ASSEMBLY'S HIGH-LEVEL REVIEW OF NAIROBI STRATEGIES AND BEIJING PLATFORM RECOMMENDS HOLDING OF SPECIAL SESSION IN 2000
19980306 The Commission on the Status of Women met this afternoon as the Preparatory Committee for the General Assembly's High-level Review in the Year 2000 of the Implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and the Beijing Platform for Action.Continuing its consideration of the mandate entrusted to the Commission by Assembly resolution 52/100, of 12 December 1997, the Committee decided to recommend that the format of the high-level Assembly plenary review should be in the form of a special session.
Patricia Flor (Germany), the Chairperson of the Commission, said any decision the Preparatory Committee took could be formulated for consideration in a draft resolution or decision for adoption by the Assembly. The conference servicing requirements for a special session would be $825,000 at full cost to be included in the biennium 2000-2001 budget. The net additional requirements for that biennium would consist of $150,000 for the travel of representatives of the least developed countries.
After a 35-minute suspension for informal consultations, when the meeting resumed, the Committee decided to recommend that the special session be held from 5 to 9 June 2000. It also recommended to extend the session of the Commission in the year 2000 by five days in order to allow for good and thorough preparations for the special session.
Kate Starr Newell, Commission Secretary, said the estimated cost of the extra five days, to be held directly before or after the scheduled session, was $128,600.
The Committee further recommended that the Commission should call on the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to include a gender perspective in its human development report for the year 2000. The Statistical Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs would be asked to prepare a document on the status of women in the year 2000 as an input to the preparations for the special session.
The Preparatory Committee will meet again at a time to be announced.
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