RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH TO WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT AND ADVANCEMENT TO BE FOCUS OF ROME WORKSHOP, 5 - 7 OCTOBER
Press Release
WOM/1075
RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH TO WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT AND ADVANCEMENT TO BE FOCUS OF ROME WORKSHOP, 5 - 7 OCTOBER
19981001 The implications of a rights-based approach to gender equality for the activities of bilateral and multilateral organizations will be the focus of a three-day United Nations workshop to take place in Rome from 5 to 7 October.The workshop, organized by the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, brings together gender experts and focal points from the Administrative Committee on Coordination's (ACC) Inter-Agency Committee on Women and Gender Equality and from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/Development Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC) Working Party on Gender Equality.
The workshop will review and clarify the understanding and implications of a rights-based approach to women's empowerment, advancement and gender equality, taking into account both policy and operational considerations. The participants are expected to elaborate a common framework regarding the practical requirements of this approach in policy development and programming, particularly for the work of bilateral and multilateral institutions. It will also assess the role of human rights in women's empowerment and gender equality.
Speakers at the opening session will include Angela E.V. King, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women and Chairperson of the ACC Inter-Agency Committee on Women and Gender Equality; Merete Wilhelmsen, Chairperson of the OECD/DAC Working Party on Gender Equality; and Sissel Ekaas, Director, Women and Population Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Savitri Goonesekere, from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Cees Flinterman, from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, will serve as resource persons.
Participants will assess how a rights-based approach is changing programming strategies to achieve gender equality. They will present examples and case studies on such topics as: the challenges of integrating a rights- based approach and gender equality development objectives; the implications of a rights-based approach in the areas of land and natural resources tenure, property rights, and land rights; and women's right to health: implications for programming.
- - Press Release WOM/1075 1 October 1998
A rights-based approach to planning and programming is being advocated by a growing number of entities of the United Nations system. The Secretary- General, in his United Nations reform proposals, has underlined that human rights are a cross-cutting element that should be reflected in all policies and programmes. At the same time, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has also advocated that the United Nations system as a whole strengthen its attention to human rights.
Achieving gender equality -- a paramount national and global responsibility for governments and international organizations -- has been reaffirmed at recent United Nations conferences and summits as a matter of human rights and social justice, and essential for overall social and economic development. These forums have elaborated on the links between respect for human rights, gender equality, sustainable development, humanitarian goals and democracy. The Beijing Platform for Action, the core document of the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, cites the lack of respect for, and inadequate promotion and protection of, the human rights of women as one of the 12 critical areas of concern identified as the main obstacles to the advancement of women.
The Rome workshop represents a contribution by the Inter-Agency Committee on Women and Gender Equality to the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The FAO is hosting the event. The workshop is the second of its kind where gender experts from bilateral and multilateral entities will exchange experiences.
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