COMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN TO HOLD FORTY-THIRD SESSION AT HEADQUARTERS, 1 - 19 MARCH
Press Release
WOM/1098
COMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN TO HOLD FORTY-THIRD SESSION AT HEADQUARTERS, 1 - 19 MARCH
19990226 Background Release Discussions on women's health and institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women will be the main focus of the forty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women when it meets from 1 to 12 March. The Commission will also meet from 15 to 19 March as the preparatory committee for the special session of the General Assembly entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century", which will review and appraise the implementation of the Beijing outcome.The Commission, which is a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council, is charged with monitoring implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which is an agenda for women's empowerment. Its session will be extended by five days this year and next year to perform preparatory work for the General Assembly's special session to be held from 5 to 9 June 2000.
Under its multi-year programme of work until 2000, the Commission has been focusing on clusters of the 12 critical areas of concern identified in the Platform for Action, adopted at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. This year's topics -- women's health and institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women -- will be debated by expert panels and are expected to result in action-oriented recommendations for adoption by the Commission.
The Secretary-General's analytical report on the thematic issues before the Commission (document E/CN.6/1999/4) provides recommendations and conclusions of expert group meetings convened during 1998 by the Division for the Advancement of Women of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs on two of the critical areas of concern being taken up by the Commission.
On "women and health", the focus was on mainstreaming gender into the health sector. The expert group meeting also addressed reproductive health and a number of specific health concerns of women such as mental health, environment and occupational health, and infectious diseases. The expert group meeting adopted specific recommendations with regard to these sectoral women's health issues and problems. It also developed a framework for a gender-sensitive health policy which is a useful tool for gender mainstreaming.
Discussion on "institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women" considered the role of national machineries in mainstreaming gender in all programmes and policies at the national level. The expert group also addressed the relationship of national machineries with civil society and the accountability of governments for gender mainstreaming. It endorsed a sample project to strengthen national machineries, to be carried out by the Division for the Advancement of Women. It also requested the Secretariat to summarize the best practices described in the experts' papers, in order to provide governments and national machineries with practical examples.
During the session, the Commission will also hold discussions on the review of mainstreaming in organizations of the United Nations system. Among the topics to be considered under this heading are the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system; the situation of Palestinian women; the release of women and children taken hostage in armed conflicts; improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat; violence against women; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the situation of older women; and the 1999 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development.
In relation to those topics, the Commission will have before it the following reports of the Secretary-General: follow-up to and implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (document E/CN.6/1999/2 and Add.1); the differential impact of population ageing on men and women (document E/CN.6/1999/3); and progress in improving the status of women in the Secretariat (document E/CN.6/1999/5).
It will also discuss a note by the Secretary-General transmitting information provided by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) on the implementation of General Assembly resolution 50/166 (document E/CN.6/1999/6). By that resolution, the Assembly emphasized the importance of taking holistic, coherent and coordinated actions to eliminate violence against women at the national region and international levels.
Preparations for Special Session
In resolution 52/100, the General Assembly decided to convene in the year 2000, a high-level plenary review to appraise and assess the progress achieved in the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and the Beijing Platform for Action, five years after its adoption, and to consider further action and initiatives. The Assembly also decided that the preparatory work for the special session would be carried out by the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-third and forty-fourth sessions.
In relation to that topic, the Commission is scheduled to discuss a report of the Secretary-General containing suggestions on further action and
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initiatives that might be considered during the special session of the General Assembly entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century" (document E/CN.6/1999/PC/2). It is also to consider a report of the Secretary-General on the initiation of the comprehensive review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and preparations for the special session (document E/CN.6/1999/PC/3). A note by the Secretary-General transmitting a report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (document E/CN.6/1999/PC/2) will also be before the Commission.
During the five-day session, the Commission will hold two expert panel discussions on further actions and initiatives. Its deliberations are intended to lead to the adoption of a report on the work of its session.
Membership
The 45 members of the Commission on the Status of Women are elected for four-year terms on the following basis: 13 from African States; 11 from Asian States; four from Eastern European States; nine from Latin America and the Caribbean States; and eight from Western European and Other States.
The 1999 membership of the Commission is as follows: Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Burundi, Chile, China, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Senegal, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom and the United States.
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