RECOGNITION OF RAPE AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE AS WAR CRIMES HAS BEGUN TO REVERSE CLIMATE OF IMPUNITY, THIRD COMMITTEE TOLD

14 October 1998

Press Release
GA/SHC/3473

RECOGNITION OF RAPE AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE AS WAR CRIMES HAS BEGUN TO REVERSE CLIMATE OF IMPUNITY, THIRD COMMITTEE TOLD

19981014 Committee Takes Up Advancement of Women And Implementation of Fourth World Conference on Women

The recognition of rape and sexual violence as war crimes had begun to reverse the climate of impunity that sexual crimes in war had long enjoyed, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told this morning as it began consideration of issues related to the advancement of women and implementation of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

Addressing the Committee, the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Angela King, said the conclusions of the preparatory conference on the establishment of an International Criminal Court and the inclusion of the crime of rape at the International Tribunal for Rwanda had advanced the world's treatment of rape and sexual violence, and marked a significant step towards holding the perpetrators of gender-related crimes accountable. Women and children were victims of massive violations of human rights in armed conflicts, and they faced the particular risk of rape and sexual violence, including systematic rape, she added.

On implementation of the Platform for Action issued by the Fourth World Conference on Women, she said there had been some progress, but there was a long way to go. The current global financial crisis only made implementation of the plan more challenging. It had substantially reduced national incomes and growth in many parts of the world, including Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. During what was widely considered the most uncertain period of the global economy in the last fifty years, it was crucial to focus on the gender dimensions of the consequences of the crisis, as well as on the issue of globalization in general.

Speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, the representative of Austria welcomed the designation of rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization and other forms of sexual violence of comparable gravity as crimes against humanity and war crimes under article 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

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The representative of Pakistan said violence against women was more profound in situations of armed conflict, as evidenced by atrocities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the Great Lakes region in Africa. In South Asia, in the disputed State of Jammu and Kashmir, women and girls were persistently subjected to all kinds of violence by Indian security forces. Sexual violence and systematic rape had been used as a strategy of war.

The representative of the Netherlands said there was a close link between violence against women and their restricted enjoyment of economic and social rights. Women's economic dependence had proven to be a major cause of violence against them. Empowerment of women, both economically and in their sexual autonomy, as necessary, and national and international programmes should tackle the problem in a holistic, multidisciplinary way. She added that it was deeply regrettable that the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action still lagged behind original expectations.

"Why is it then that when it comes to stocktaking, we find out that so much more needs to be done; so many objectives we had ourselves set remain partially fulfilled, unfulfilled, or worse still, unaddressed?" the representative of Bangladesh asked. There was enough commitment on paper; compliance in action was needed.

Statements were also made by the representatives of Indonesia (on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China), Malawi, China, Norway, Japan and Mexico. The observer for the Holy See also made a statement, as did Noeleen Heyzer, Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women; Salma Khan, Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; and Rosina Wiltshire, Deputy Director, Social Development and Poverty Elimination Division & Manager, Gender in Development Programme, United Nations Development Programme.

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 14 October, to continue its consideration of issues related to the advancement of women and the implementation of the Fourth World Conference on Women.

Committee Work Programme

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) met this morning to begin consideration of issues related to the advancement of women and the implementation of the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995).

The Committee had before it a report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Secretary-General's reports on the status of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, implementation of the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women, traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women, trafficking in women and girls, improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat, as well as a note by the Secretary-General transmitting a report on the activities of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

The combined reports of the eighteenth and nineteenth sessions of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (document A/53/38/Rev.1) are before the Third Committee. That Women's Anti- Discrimination Committee meets twice a year to monitor implementation of the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The report on the eighteenth session, which was held at Headquarters from 19 January to 6 February, notes several decisions and suggestions brought to the attention of States parties. The Committee decided that representatives of the specialized agencies and bodies of the United Nations, as well as national and international non-governmental organizations, should be invited to provide country-specific information to the pre-session working group on those States whose reports were before the Committee.

The Committee also decided that representatives of the specialized agencies and bodies of the United Nations should be invited to address the Committee as a whole in a closed meeting on those States parties whose initial reports were before the Committee. It proposed that the pre-session working group should meet at the end of the previous session, and that the transition to this pattern of work should take place at its twentieth session, in January 1999.

The report states that during the eighteenth session, the Committee considered reports submitted by eight States parties. Initial reports had been submitted by Azerbaijan, Croatia, Zimbabwe and the Czech Republic. Combined second and third periodic reports had been submitted by Bulgaria and Indonesia. A combined second, third and fourth periodic report had been submitted by the Dominican Republic, and a combined third and fourth periodic report submitted by Mexico.

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The report on the nineteenth session, which was also held at United Nations Headquarters, from 22 June to 10 July, noted that during that session, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women adopted a statement on the adverse impact of reservations to the Convention.

According to the report, the Committee has extensive experience of the impact of reservations gained from the examination of States parties' reports. It has also noted the increasing concern expressed by other human rights treaty bodies, the International Law Commission, some Member States, the World Conference on Human Rights and the Fourth World Conference on Women, as well as scholars and non-governmental organizations, at the number and extent of reservations to human rights treaties, and to the Convention in particular.

A number of States entered reservations to particular articles on the ground that national law, tradition, religion or culture is not congruent with Convention principles, and purport to justify the reservation on that basis.

As at 1 July, 161 States parties had ratified the Convention. Fifty-four States had entered reservations to one or more articles in the Convention. Articles 2 and 16 are considered by the Committee to be core provisions of the Convention. Although some States parties have withdrawn reservations to those articles, the Committee is particularly concerned at the number and extent of reservations entered to those articles.

Referring to a decision reached at its eighteenth session, the Committee decided at its nineteenth session, held from 22 June to 10 July at Headquarters, that the pre-session working group for the twenty-first session would meet as a third working group during the twentieth session and would remain, if necessary, for up to three days after the twentieth session to consolidate the lists of issues and questions with respect to the reports to be considered at the twenty-first session.

It also decided to revise its procedures and format for the elaboration of concluding comments with a view to streamlining them, while retaining flexibility, and it requested the Secretariat to prepare drafts, lists of issues and questions with regard to periodic reports, based on an analytical comparison of current States parties' reports, with previous reports and the Committee's discussion thereon and other relevant information, including concluding observations of other treaty bodies.

The report says that at its nineteenth session, the Committee considered reports submitted by eight States parties: initial reports from Slovakia and South Africa; combined second and third periodic reports from Nigeria, Panama and the United Republic of Tanzania; combined third and fourth periodic reports from New Zealand and Peru; and the third and fourth periodic reports of the Republic of Korea.

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A related report of the Secretary-General on the status of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (document A/53/318), stated that the Convention was adopted by General Assembly resolution 34/180 of 18 December 1979, and entered into force on 3 September 1981. As at 1 August, a total of 161 States parties had ratified, acceded or succeeded to it. In its resolution 51/68, the Assembly invited States parties to make all possible efforts to submit reports on the implementation of the Convention, in accordance with its article 18. Since its establishment in 1981, the Convention's monitoring body held 19 sessions and reviewed a total of 179 reports. It also considered five reports submitted on an exceptional basis from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As at 1 August, there were 203 overdue reports, of which 60 were initial reports.

At its seventeenth session, the Committee invited the Secretariat to advise States parties whose reports were overdue that advice on receiving assistance from the United Nations system in that regard could be obtained from the Division for the Advancement of Women.

In its resolution 51/68, the Assembly urged States parties to limit the extent of any reservations lodged to the Convention; to formulate any reservations as precisely and as narrowly as possible; to ensure that no reservations were incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention or otherwise incompatible with international treaty law; to review their reservations regularly, with a view to withdrawing them; and to withdraw reservations that were contrary to the object and purpose of the Convention. It also welcomed the report of the Open-ended Working Group on the Elaboration of a Draft Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and decided to authorize it to meet for 10 working days, in parallel with the Commission's forty-first session in March 1997.

At that session, the Group completed a first reading of a compilation text prepared by its Chairperson. In a July 1997 decision, the Economic and Social Council renewed the mandate of the Open-ended Working Group and endorsed a draft decision of the Commission on the Status of Women to invite a representative of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to attend the meetings of the Open-Ended Working Group to be held in parallel with the forty-second and forty-third sessions of the Commission in 1998 and 1999.

According to the report, in the period under review, the Division for the Advancement of Women has significantly developed the space on its home page on the World Wide Web devoted to the Convention. The Convention, the reports of States parties and documents of the Committee, including general recommendations and concluding comments, are posted on the page for easy access. In addition, there was a page dedicated to developments relating to

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the proposed optional protocol. The Division cooperates closely with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, maintaining links between its website and that of the High Commissioner's Officer.

Annexes to the report include a list of States that have signed, ratified, acceded or succeeded to the Convention; reservations and declarations to the Convention; objections to the Convention; and the status of overdue reports and reports submitted by the States parties.

An annex on the Committee's contribution to the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that the Committee wishes to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration and the five-year review of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action with a statement concerning the adverse impact that reservations to the Convention have on the achievement, by women, of full and substantive equality with men. It adds that removal or modification of reservations, particularly to articles 2 and 16, would indicate a State party's determination to remove all barriers to women's full equality and its commitment to ensuring that women are able to participate fully in all aspects of public and private life without fear of discrimination or recrimination.

Also before the Committee is a report of the Secretary-General on improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat (document A/53/376). It contains an overview of the representation of women in the Secretariat, and reviews measures undertaken for the achievement of gender equality as well as conclusions and strategies for improving the representation of women. The report also contains statistical data on the gender distribution of Secretariat staff.

According to the report, in the past year, significant progress was made in improving the representation of women at the D-1 level and above. However, the incremental pace at which women's overall representation has increased is a cause for concern. In large part, the small increase is due to low staff turnover. While strategies are in place to support gender equality, managerial commitment and accountability are key to successful implementation of measures to improve gender balance.

The report states that the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women is analyzing the representation of women overall as well as by grade and occupation in each department and office. On the basis of that analysis, programme managers will be developing action plans with specific targets to achieve the goal of gender balance at a departmental level. A sample gender action plan illustrating the different strategies that might be envisaged to improve the representation of women has already been devised.

The report also notes that in view of the current age and gender distribution of the staff population, more men than women will be reaching

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retirement age in 1998 and the years ahead. Nearly 400 staff members, the majority of whom are men, will retire by 31 December 2000. Those retirements will provide much needed opportunities for the improvement of women's representation in the Secretariat, particularly at senior levels. The increase in the retirement turnover rate illustrates the need for proactive human resource planning, elements of which will be reflected in the departmental gender action plans.

Ultimately, the report concludes, there are still too few opportunities for women and men on equal terms to represent governments at the international level and for them to participate in the work of international organizations. The work would be greatly facilitated by Member States proposing more women candidates from a broader array of occupations for appointment to intergovernmental and expert bodies, as well as to positions within the Secretariat.

The report of the Secretary-General on trafficking in women and girls (document A/53/409) provides information about steps taken within several forums of the United Nations, as well as regionally and nationally, to implement the recommendations for action contained in resolution 52/98, which emphasized the need for more concerted and sustained action over the alarming levels of trafficking in women and girls.

Reviewing action at the national level, the report cites, among other examples, the fact that the United States established inter-agency working groups comprised of senior officials from various agencies to focus on prevention, protection and enforcement, while the Italian Government also created an inter-ministerial coordination group for government action against trafficking in women and minors for sexual exploitation. Several countries had also introduced legislation that allowed them to prosecute their own citizens if crimes were committed against children abroad, and some countries were introducing legislation to combat cybercrime.

The report also states that the Commission on the Status of Women adopted agreed conclusions on four critical areas of concern identified by the Beijing Platform for Action. It called on governments and organizations to support and encourage partnerships for the establishment of national networks and to provide resources for shelters and relief support for women and girls so as to offer a safe, sensitive and integrated response to women victims of violence, including programmes designed to heal victims of trafficking and rehabilitate them into society.

The Commission on Human Rights invited the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to include the issue of trafficking in women and girls in its programme of work under its advisory, training and information activities with a view to providing assistance to governments in instituting preventive measures against trafficking through education and appropriate information campaigns.

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Country-level programmes during 1997-1998 have included the Daughter's Education Programme, which incorporates a series of activities implemented at the local level to provide relevant education for girls at risk of falling victim to prostitution and trafficking in northern Thailand, the report states. A subregional programme against child trafficking in South Asia and the Mekong Basin countries was also introduced in 1997.

Reviewing other regional measures, the report states that the Foreign Ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) adopted a convention on preventing and combating trafficking in women and children for the purposes of prostitution. States parties to the text are required, among other measures, to provide for the punishment of any person who keeps, maintains, manages or knowingly finances or takes part in the financing of a place used for the purpose of trafficking and knowingly lets or rents a building or other place for the purpose of trafficking.

The Secretary-General's report on traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women (document A/53/354) is a follow-up to the General Assembly's adoption last year of the first resolution on that issue since 1954. Since the 1950s, several intergovernmental bodies of the United Nations had urged Member States to take immediate steps to abolish progressively all customs that violated the physical integrity of women.

The report notes that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women expressed dismay at the persistence of certain discriminatory practices in Senegal, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania and Nigeria. In 1990, the Committee adopted a general recommendation that States parties take appropriate and effective measures to eradicate the practice of female circumcision. Another general recommendation concerned violence against women over forced marriage, deaths related to bride price (dowry), acid attacks and female circumcision. It recognized dietary restrictions for pregnant women, preference for male children and female genital mutilation, perpetuated by culture and tradition, as potentially harmful to the health of women and children. Further, it identified early marriage and motherhood as factors that could adversely affect the health of women and girls.

The report also states that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) conducted a technical consultation in 1996 on female genital mutilation in Ethiopia, which resulted in a framework for the integration of activities into three core programme areas: reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health; population and development strategies; and advocacy at the national, regional and international levels. The UNFPA supported community- based workshops to assist the community to examine the practice, recognize its harmful aspects, and replace it with socially relevant ceremonies. In 1998, the UNFPA's United Nations Population Award was awarded to the Northern Ugandan Sabiny Elders' Association, which had substituted gift-giving and public celebration for female genital mutilation. The UNFPA also appointed

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Waris Dirie as Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation in 1997.

The report on the activities of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) (document A/53/363) notes that during the past year, UNIFEM focused on organizational reassessment and giving greater coherence and clarity to its programme directions. In fulfilment of the recommendations of the Beijing Platform for Action to strengthen its operational work and maximize the impact of its projects, UNIFEM's programmes focus on three thematic areas: strengthening women's economic capacity; engendering governance and leadership; and promoting women's human rights, and eliminating all forms of violence against women.

According to the report, the economic empowerment programme of UNIFEM focuses on the identification of opportunities for and threats to women's sustainable livelihoods within the context of globalization, trade liberalization and the emergence of new technologies. It supports programmes designed to increase options for women, especially those living in poverty. At the macro level, it has been focusing on the issue of globalization, supporting research and the creation of regional forums to analyze the ways in which trade policies have differential impacts on women and men, and identifying strategies and opportunities for women to become more involved in the process of influencing trade policy-making.

At the intermediate level, the report goes on, UNIFEM develops programmes to strengthen women's organizations, associations and unions, both to advocate for policy changes and to bargain for increased and equal access to economic resources. At the micro level, it supports women to organize around the collection/growing, processing and marketing of products. Organizing and networking enable women to take control over resources, to alter bargaining relationships at home, in their community and the market place and to influence national economic policies, the report stresses.

The Fund's governance and leadership programme promotes women's transformational leadership as a critical element in creating just, peaceful and democratic societies, the report states. Its strategies and activities in the area of human rights are geared primarily to promoting the realization of women's rights and ensuring that women's rights are recognized as human rights.

In 1997, UNIFEM initiated inter-agency regional awareness-raising campaigns on violence against women, currently in varying stages of development and implementation, says the report. The Latin American and Caribbean Campaign to Eliminate Violence against Women, formally launched in March, is an example of the United Nations system collaborating at the regional level to increase impact and fulfil commitments to gender equality goals.

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The report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women (document A/53/308), outlines the efforts undertaken by the Secretariat in support of mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes of the United Nations system and other follow-up activities. It also provides information from entities of the United Nations system, as well as a review of activities undertaken at the national level and by non-governmental organizations and other institutions in civil society on the follow up to Beijing.

Reviewing activities by the Secretariat, the report states that the Department of Public Information continued its ongoing multimedia communications strategy to support the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action through, for example, its network of United Nations information centres and services in 67 countries, which produced radio and television programmes and also collaborated with non-governmental programmes. The Office of Human Resources Management had organized a gender mainstreaming training programme for the Department of Political Affairs and piloted a General Effectiveness Training Programme to be conducted Secretariat-wide, benefiting mainly female staff members in the General Service category.

Reviewing action by other bodies, the report states that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) had established an internal inter-divisional task force to assist in preparing the 1999 World Survey of the Role of Women in Development, focusing, among others, on issues of globalization of trade and finance. The Food and Agriculture Organization chose the theme "Women feed the world" for World Food Day 1998. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had issued a checklist on the integration of gender equality issues in the evaluation of its programmes for use by programme specialists. The UNFPA continued to employ strategies to address linkages between women's economic empowerment, gender equality and the exercise of reproductive and sexual rights. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) held a Latin American and Caribbean regional workshop to create a strategy for addressing adolescent pregnancy from a rights perspective.

Concerning national strategies and action plans, the Division for the Advancement of Women had analyzed a total of 86 of the 99 national plans submitted as of 10 August, the report states. Some covered all critical areas of concern, others reflected national priorities and were limited to certain critical areas, reflecting regional differences and preferences. The majority contained both general policy recommendations and concrete action proposals. Only a few established comprehensive time-bound targets and benchmarks or indicators for monitoring. Most action plans did not propose budgets or indicate sources of financing for the actions indicated. It would be up to the General Assembly to examine how policy declarations had been converted into concrete policies followed by actions, which benchmarks had been met, and which indicators were appropriate for the measurement purposes, the report adds.

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While the activities of non-governmental organizations and other institutions of civil society are not reported systematically to the Secretariat, some had been brought to the attention of the Division for the Advancement of Women, the report states. Among the activities noted by the report, the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) issued in March its latest report with information collected from governments and non- governmental organizations in 90 countries and analyzed successes and setbacks in addressing the 12 critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action, with special emphasis on the impact of macroeconomic policies on women's rights to employment, health and education.

The report also provides information on gender-sensitive programming and budgeting and resource mobilization as well as initiatives to increase the proportion of women in professional jobs within the United Nations system. In its conclusion, it states that the adoption by the Economic and Social Council of agreed conclusions on gender mainstreaming and the follow-up resolution adopted by the Council in 1998 (resolution 1998/43) constituted the most comprehensive intergovernmental actions to date on gender mainstreaming. They constituted a firm basis from which to proceed with concrete steps to achieve measurable progress in gender mainstreaming at all levels and in all areas.

Statements

ANGELA KING, Assistant Secretary-General: Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, introduced the agenda items on the advancement of women and the follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women. She began by saying the cross-cutting nature of the advancement of women and of gender mainstreaming had a clear impact in many forums: intergovernmental, governmental and those of civil society. The last session of the Economic and Social Council had paid significant attention to women and gender issues under various agenda items. The conclusions of the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of the International Criminal Court held in Rome this July marked a significant step in the quest to hold the perpetrators of gender-related crimes accountable. The Conference conclusions made it clear that the international community would no longer tolerate such crimes.

She cited the historic conviction of the former mayor of the Rwandan town of Taba, Jean Paul Akayesu, by the International Tribunal for Rwanda. In making rape part of the perpetrator's conviction for genocide, the Tribunal had advanced the world's treatment of rape and sexual violence and begun the long process of reversing the climate of impunity that sexual crimes in war had enjoyed.

Violence against women in its many forms was no longer suffered in silence but had become part of public debate, she said. Ethnic, communal and other forms of violent conflicts were a reality everywhere, with women and children suffering most. Women and children constituted 80 per cent of the

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world's refugees and displaced persons. Civilian fatalities had climbed from 5 per cent of war-related deaths at the beginning of the century to more than 90 per cent in the wars of the 1990s; once again, most of the casualties were women and children. They were victims of massive violations of human rights in armed conflicts, and they faced the particular risk of rape and sexual violence, including systematic rape.

Better communications technology -- including the Internet -- as well as ease of travel, had led to an increase in trafficking in women and children, mainly for sexual exploitation, she said. Increased poverty had allowed the unscrupulous to prey on the naive and uninformed. Just as progress had been made on gender-based crimes against women during war, she called for attention to be placed on addressing trafficking in women and children. Governments, international and regional organizations in civil society had recently taken bold measures to realize the twelve critical areas of concern of the Platform for Action. They had aimed at strengthening gender mainstreaming in all policies and programmes. The number of national machineries for the advancement of women had increased and, in many instances, had influenced national policy-making processes. There had been unprecedented progress in building the human capabilities of women, particularly in the productive economy, especially in agriculture. Finally, poverty eradication was not possible without an emphasis on the situation of women.

Despite some progress, there was a long way to go before meeting the challenges of the Platform for Action, she said, especially in light of current global realities characterized by a financial crisis. That had substantially reduced national incomes and growth in many parts of the world, including Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Many considered it the most uncertain period for the global economy in the past fifty years, threatening even the richest and most powerful. At this time, it was crucial to focus on the gender dimensions of the consequences of the current crisis, as well as of globalization in general.

She said those gender dimensions were not insignificant. Deep cuts in public expenditure, soaring unemployment, severe decline in consumption and increasing poverty had put pressure on social services and destroyed years of progress in the creation of social infrastructure, the fostering of communities, social cohesion and the promotion of economic development. The 1998 Human Development Report confirmed those effects. Empirical studies showed that shrinking social infrastructure led to a disproportionate growth in unpaid women's work. While women's share in the formal economy was growing, the conditions of their employment were often inferior and exploitative. The cumulative burden of their work in the formal sector and in the household had increased.

The challenge was to maximize the beneficial effects of current global, regional and national realities, and to reduce those that were harmful, she said. It was a time of risk and opportunity. To harness the beneficial

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effects of globalization for women, there must first and foremost be a clear recognition that policies impact differentially on women and men. Consequently, all measures needed to take into account their social implications, and thus their implications for women and men. It was not only in the interest of governments, international organizations and civil society to ensure that women's needs and expectations were reflected, but it was their responsibility to do so.

She said that, regarding the Secretariat, progress in gender mainstreaming in all policies and programmes -- with the goal of 50/50 gender distribution in the Secretariat -- departmental policies and procedures dealing with representation of women, as well as individual cases, were discussed. In some duty stations, securing spouse employment remained one of the main obstacles in women's recruitment and mobility. She invited Member States to review that matter with a view to devising more flexible provisions to enhance women's employment opportunities in the United Nations.

NOELEEN HEYZER, Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), introduced the report on the activities of UNIFEM. She said the work of the Fund was focused on three thematic areas: strengthening women's economic capacity, engendering governance and leadership, and promoting the realization of women's rights and the elimination of gender- based violence. The Fund's programming was focused on being innovative and catalytic to assist in pursuing those goals.

Two critical opportunities had guided the work of the Fund in the past year, she said. One was the focus of the United Nations system on the Secretary-General's reform agenda, and the other was the attention being paid to commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The reform agenda had benefited UNIFEM's work, she continued. With its emphasis on partnership and collaboration, gender mainstreaming and United Nations follow-up, the reform agenda created new opportunities to leverage financial resources and political will for women's empowerment and gender equality. Both in New York and at the country level, there were new openings for UNIFEM to work collaboratively with United Nations funds and programmes.

The second strategic opportunity was the widespread interest from governments and civil society partners in supporting commemorations of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, she said. By late 1997, UNIFEM had understood that there were unparalleled opportunities to use the anniversary to highlight a persistent and pervasive human rights abuse -- violence against women in its many forms. Programming for the year was thus strongly focused on maximizing interest in innovative strategies for eliminating violence against women.

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SALMA KHAN, Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), said the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, with 162 States parties as of 30 August, was second only to the Convention on the Rights of the Child as the most widely accepted human rights treaty. However, since early this year, there had been only one new ratification or accession, which was of concern to the Committee. Both the 1993 Vienna Programme of Action and the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action had set the year 2000 as the goal for universal ratification.

This year, the human rights of women were at the centre of CEDAW's commemorative activities for the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, she said, and the Committee had strengthened its campaign of universal ratification of the Convention. However, the Convention did not automatically confer the rights it articulated, and mechanisms designed to actualize them were often not available to women. There remained a sizeable gap between vision and reality, and the Committee called for increased effort and renewed commitment to bridge the gap between ratification and implementation.

She also discussed the Committee's concerns about the backlog of overdue reports, required by all States parties to the Convention, and about the large number of reservations lodged by States parties to the Convention.

MALIKUS SUAMIN (Indonesia), speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, said the downturn in the global economy would in all probability have a negative impact on the situation of women, but equality should not be a matter of economics. The international community should work together to ensure that the negative impacts of the current global economic situation did not derail the progress made in the advancement of women. He was seriously concerned by the increasing feminization of poverty. Innovative measures were needed to address that, he said, underlining the usefulness of microcredit as a tool which should be applied more widely.

If women were to make progress and to maintain that progress, then they must join the mainstream of development, in the political, social and economic decision-making process, he said. The Group of 77 and China placed great emphasis on the approaches offered by the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The legal framework that the Convention provided for women was essential not only to attaining the ultimate goal of full equality, but for protecting their inherent rights. He called on all States to sign the Convention with the goal of universal coverage by the year 2000.

ERNST SUCHARIPA (Austria) spoke on behalf of the European Union, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Iceland. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action had stated a clear and unequivocal goal of the achievement

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of "equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of humanity". However, statistics proved the persistence of glaring discrepancies women and men were facing today. He said that of the world's one billion illiterate adults, two-thirds were women; of the world's 1.3 billion poor people, the large majority were women; and globally, women worked approximately twice the unpaid time as men. Swift and uncompromising policies were needed to empower women and girls. The commitments, policy guidelines and calls for action contained in the Beijing Platform for Action, constituted the bedrock for national, regional and international action targeting the advancement of women. In that regard, gender mainstreaming was a central and proven strategy.

The European Union valued the voices, the expertise and the tireless efforts of non-governmental organizations, grassroots movements and women's groups, he said. The elaboration of policies that addressed the causes rather than just the symptoms and consequences of women's persisting inequality had to include a thorough analysis of adverse gender stereotypes. The situation of women could not be addressed in isolation. Changing men's roles and attitudes, as well as their access to rights and control over resources and decision-making were crucial to creating an enabling environment where women and men could enjoy equal rights, equal opportunities and equal obligations in all spheres of society. To that end, changes in institutional practices and social relations which reinforced and sustained disparities were necessary.

The Union believed that the outcome of this year's high-level operational segment of the Economic and Social Council on "women in development" would have a positive impact on the ability of the United Nations system to integrate gender concerns into operational activities as a contribution to the full implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The Union was pleased that the Economic and Social Council had decided to dedicate the high-level segment of its substantive session in 1999 to the "Role of employment and work in poverty eradication: the empowerment and advancement of women". Ongoing activities under the aegis of the Economic and Social Council on an "integrated and comprehensive follow-up to major United Nations Conferences and Summits" were leading in the right direction.

The European Union accorded highest priority to the human rights of women, including their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, as well as their sexual and reproductive health. The Union would also stress the importance of establishing and strengthening national machineries in order to support the advancement of women.

The Beijing Platform for Action remained the blueprint for international efforts to achieve gender equality, he said. The special session in the year 2000 would enable governments, relevant entities of the United Nations system, interested intergovernmental as well, as non-governmental organizations, to evaluate the status of implementation of the commitments agreed upon by the

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189 Governments in Beijing. A thorough stocktaking of success stories, lessons learned and obstacles encountered, and an analysis of progress in the field of gender mainstreaming would enable the international community to determine how to pursue women's and gender issues in the framework of the United Nations after the year 2000.

The European Union had developed and institutionalised a number of concrete programmes and initiatives to facilitate and review the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, he said. Legislations adopted included: the new Treaty of Amsterdam to strengthen the legal basis for community action in favour of equality between men and women; the fourth medium-term Community Action Programme on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (1996-2000); and the Group of Equality Commissioners chaired by the President of the European Commission.

He said the European Union emphasized that female genital mutilation constituted a definite form of violence against women and girls and a serious form of violation of their human rights. Further, the Union welcomed the designation of rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity as crimes against humanity and war crimes under article 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

ANWARUL KARIM CHOWDHURY (Bangladesh) said everyone agreed that development could not be ensured without the advancement of women. "Why is it then that when it comes to stocktaking, we find out that so much more needs to be done; so many objectives we had ourselves set remain partially fulfilled, unfulfilled, or worse still, unaddressed?" he asked. Having believers was not enough. What was actually needed was doers with enough dedication and drive to deliver. There was enough commitment on paper; compliance in action was needed.

As poor and vulnerable groups stood to suffer most from the adverse social impact of globalization, the feminization of poverty was more apparent, especially in the least developed countries. Innovative measures, such as microcredit to empower women should be applied more widely. The action taken by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 1997 through the agreed conclusions on gender mainstreaming, and in a follow-up resolution this year, was the most comprehensive intergovernmental decision to date on gender mainstreaming, providing a firm basis to proceed with concrete steps to achieve measurable progress at all levels.

He added that in preparing for the special session of the General Assembly in the year 2000 for the review of the outcome of Beijing, increased resources and international support were absolutely essential to make progress.

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DAVID RUBADIRI (Malawi), speaking on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), said the status of women in the United Nations Secretariat was of major concern. The pattern of lack of representation or under-representation of women persisted, and the number of women at the D-1 level and above remained unacceptably low. Although the March 1998 Administrative Committee on Coordination statement symbolized a commitment to action, the findings of the forty-seventh session of the International Civil Service Commission indicated that the rate of progress had been too slow. The situation was unacceptable: words should be matched by deeds. He called for an accelerated realisation of the goal of 50/50 gender representation in the Secretariat and all United Nations agencies at all levels.

Gender disparities were very apparent in the decision-making processes in some countries in the SADC region, he said. Regionally, about 8 per cent of legislative -- and a lower percentage of ministerial -- positions were held by women. Headway was being made by establishing institutions for the advancement of women, but women often continued to be marginalized in national government structures, particularly in cases where there was no clear mandate.

In most SADC countries, women comprised more than half of the total population, and only 38 per cent were in income earning activities, he said. Between one per cent and 35 per cent of women were real estate owners, a situation aggravated by the fact that 90 per cent of the land fell under the patriarchal allocation principles. Similarly, in employment, pay and education, the equal participation of women was constrained. Nevertheless, SADC Member States reaffirmed that their political commitment towards the advancement of women was very high.

YUAN XIAOYING (China) said that despite the goals set forth in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, there was a wide gap between those goals and the sober reality. Poverty remained a major problem facing the world today. In that regard, achieving the eradication of poverty required reversing the feminization of poverty. Though the international community had accepted that the human rights of women were an inalienable and inseparable part of universal human rights, there was widespread discrimination and violence against women, as well as inequality between men and women.

Her Government had always attached the utmost importance to women's development and advancement, and had made gender equality a basic State policy in Chinese society, she said. In China, women were called "half the sky" as they were involved in managing all aspects of national and social affairs, contributing to democracy and the legal system of China. Among almost 3,000 delegates to the Ninth National People's Congress last March, about 22 per cent had been women. The 1995-2000 National Programme for the development of the Women of China had been promulgated by the Chinese Government in July 1995. The goals set forth would be attained by the end of the century through women's participation in the political process, employment, labour protection,

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education, health, family, the rights of the person and the eradication of poverty. Since China had ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, her Government had made effective implementation of the obligations which were part of the promotion of the Chinese women's cause.

INGER JOHANNE WREMER (Norway) said the assumption that globalization benefited everyone and was gender neutral in its impact had proven to be utterly untrue. Increasing feminization of poverty in large parts of the world had highlighted how women were subordinated in their access to resources. There had been an increase in trafficking in women. Trafficking was a violent activity and a deprivation of women's and children's human rights.

In March 1999, the Norwegian Gender Equality Act would have been effective for 20 years, she said. The Act applied not only to working life, but covered all sectors of society, including education, political life and family life. Most important, a section of the Gender Equality Act stated that any form of discriminatory treatment of men and women on the grounds of their sex was prohibited. However, legislation was only one of a number of instruments for the promotion of gender equality. The aim of the Act was to ensure substantive gender equality and equal opportunities, and to influence attitudes about the roles of women and men. It also stipulated that teaching methods in schools would be based upon the principle of gender equality. Some of the sections of the Gender Equality Act regulated areas of working life, she said. For example, employers were required to treat men and women equally. Although direct and visible discrimination on the basis of sex in working life was seldom seen, statistics told a different story. Norwegian women still earned and owned less than men. Also, although there was greater awareness of differences among women, women with disabilities and immigrant women did not enjoy the same opportunities as other women.

SONOKO NISHITATENO (Japan) said the Beijing Conference had contributed to the effort to promote the human rights of women more than any other single event, and Japan had adhered to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action since its adoption in 1995. It had formulated a national plan of action for gender equality, which worked alongside regional plans that had been formulated all over the country. Firm political commitment, concrete action and vigorous follow-up would continue to be essential to succeed in creating a society in which men and women alike enjoyed a higher standard of living.

Because of women's longer life-expectancy, women were more affected by the issues confronting the elderly, she said. It was therefore necessary to build an environment in which the elderly could lead healthy, independent and fulfilled lives. Bearing in mind the gender perspective, Japan was taking several measures relating to its ageing society, in fields such as work and income, health and welfare, and learning and social involvement.

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Japan also strongly supported the UNIFEM Trust Fund in Support of Action to Eliminate Violence against Women, she said. Japan had contributed to the Trust Fund since its establishment in 1996, and she called on more Member States to do likewise.

GUSTAVO ALBIN (Mexico) said there had been major advances in the representation of women in his Government. Women made up 16 per cent of the Mexican Government, including a female Minister for Foreign Affairs. He recognized that those figures were not adequate, but the general trend was very encouraging.

Within the framework of the national programme for the advancement of women, there had been a variety of improvements in the situation of women in Mexico, he said. Monitoring systems had also been established to measure the progress of women. The network of technical cooperation institutions for rural women was effective in many areas, providing grants, training, and assistance in self-employment. Other relevant achievements included the reform of civil and criminal laws on violence against women. Conjugal rape had now been criminalized, for example.

The many recommendations made by the Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women were being taken on board, he said. Mexico was preparing to participate fully in the 2000 special session of the General Assembly on women. The cause of women was also the cause of mankind. He called on the international community to work together on an issue that was the common cause of humanity.

ELLEN LUKAS, observer for the Holy See, said that despite the reservations of the Holy See to certain sections of the Beijing Platform, it had joined the consensus, convinced that there existed a close correspondence between the "living heart of that Platform" and Catholic social teaching. Since that time, however, too many women continued to be poor, powerless and victims of violence. According to the 1997 UNDP Human Development Report, which had focused on poverty, income-poor persons worldwide were less likely to be adult males, and more likely to be children, elderly persons or women. Female wages were likely to be three-fourths of male wages. Men needed to spend only 47 per cent of their time working, while women spent 53 per cent of their time working -- because so many women had a triple workload of child-rearing, household management and income-generating work.

Aware of the injustice suffered by women, the Church had committed itself to renewed efforts to lift the status of women, she said. On the eve of the Beijing Conference, Pope John Paul II had pledged the Church to supporting an option particularly in favour of girls and women. He had called on all Catholic caring and educational institutions to adopt a concentrated, priority strategy directed to girls and women, especially to the poorest. Further, he had asked all educational services linked to the Church to guarantee equal access for girls, to instill in boys a sense of women's

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dignity and worth, to provide additional possibilities for girls who had suffered from disadvantages, and to identify and remedy the reason for girls leaving school prematurely. The Church was aware of the importance of the forthcoming reassessment of the progress made in implementing the measures of the Beijing Conference to better the lot of women in the world. The Holy See considered itself in solidarity with all authentic initiatives to improve the situation of women.

TINE VAN DER STROOM-VAN EWIJK (The Netherlands) said it was deeply regrettable that the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action still lagged behind the original expectations. National action plans often contained more plans than action, and only 50 per cent of the Member States had submitted such plans. Failing to include women in the political governance of societies constituted a democratic deficit. Economic equality, especially in leadership positions, did not come easily.

She said that a project initiated by the Netherlands aimed at raising the level of female participation within businesses, universities and the government, showed that setting percentage targets for female participation was not enough. More attention must be paid to changing structures and cultures within organizations, which often still reflected gender-based biases. A major shift in the minds of both men and women and a transformation of attitudes was needed.

There was a close link between violence against women and their restricted enjoyment of economic and social rights, she said. Women's economic dependence had proven to be a major cause of violence against them. Empowerment of women, both economically and in their sexual autonomy, was necessary, and national and international programmes should tackle the problem in a holistic, multidisciplinary way. On the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls, she noted that last year 800,000 women had died because of a lack of access to contraception and complications in pregnancy and child birth.

MOGAMMED SIDDIQUE KHAN KANJU (Pakistan) said violence against women became more profound and stark in situations of armed conflict. He cited the situations of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Great Lakes region in Africa. In South Asia, in the disputed states of Jammu and Kashmir, where people were struggling for their right to self-determination, women and girls were persistently subjected to all kinds of violence by Indian security forces. Sexual violence and systematic rape had been used as a strategy of war, and women had been raped in the presence of male family members. The international human rights organizations, Indian non-governmental organizations and Kashmiri human rights activists had fully catalogued Indian atrocities against innocent Kashmiri women.

Pakistan attached high priority to the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, he said. It had submitted a national plan as a follow-up

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to the Beijing Platform for Action to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and to ensure women's participation in economic, political and social life. His Government had taken several measures to that end, among them: a full-fledged Ministry of Women's Development headed by a female cabinet minister to develop and implement policies for the empowerment of women through mainstreaming gender perspective in national policies, and assistance in the development and enactment of appropriate legislation to address the needs of women and the girls. Pakistan also believed that employment generation played an important role in the eradication of poverty.

ROSINA WILTSHIRE, Deputy Director, Social Development and Poverty Elimination Division & Manager, Gender in Development Programme of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said freedom from poverty was a human right, and gender equality, along with being a human right, was essential for poverty elimination. Building country capacity for freedom from poverty involved addressing the intersecting inequalities of poverty and gender inequality. The UNDP promoted women's right to equal access to and control over resources as a key dimension of the fight to eradicate poverty. It was also collaborating with partners in strategic countries to research the gender dimensions of macro-economic policy.

At the intersection of rights and freedom from poverty was the right to control one's body, she said. A key factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS and in the expansion of the sex trade was the low status of women and their inability to negotiate control over their bodies. The status of women was not just a question of jurisprudence and governance, but a factor linking governance with development and the eradication of poverty. To promote effective government and administration, she also stressed both the increasing access of women to decision-making at all levels, and increasing the ability of all government personnel to understand and operationalize the gender dimensions of their work.

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