PRESS CONFERENCE ON PREPARATIONS FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY SPECIAL SESSION ON 'WOMEN 2000: GENDER EQUALITY, DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE'

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE ON PREPARATIONS FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY SPECIAL SESSION ON 'WOMEN 2000: GENDER EQUALITY, DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE'

Progress and developments made so far in preparation for the General Assembly special session on "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century" were discussed this morning in a press conference at Headquarters.

The special session, scheduled to be held from 5 to 9 June 2000, will appraise and assess progress achieved in the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and the Beijing Platform for Action. From 15 to 19 March, the Commission on the Status of Women has been meeting as the preparatory committee for the special session.

Participating in the press conference today were: Angela King, Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women; Irma Engelbrecht (South Africa), Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women acting as the Preparatory Committee; and Vice-Chairpersons of the Preparatory Committee: Kirsten Mlacak (Canada) and Christine Kapalata (United Republic of Tanzania). Mian Qadrud-Din, Director, Public Affairs Division, Department of Public Information (DPI), introduced the participants.

Ms. King provided an overview of the activities in the last four weeks. She said a meeting of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) was held to discuss preparatory work being done in the various funds and programmes of the United Nations. There it was decided that a manual would be issued on gender analysis and gender mainstreaming based on information from the United Nations agencies and based on good examples at the national level. A gender budgeting project was also being worked on, which will be finished by 2000. There would also be a statement on the basis of which all the agencies will have a thorough discussion in the year 2000 to review commitment to gender mainstreaming.

She added that, on 4 March, International Women's Day was celebrated at Headquarters with resounding statements on women's rights by the Secretary- General and the United States First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the Commission on the Status of Women, an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was adopted on 13 March. That Protocol gave individual women the right to bring complaints to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and it gave that Committee the right to make inquiries into reports of violations of the Convention. That was a new step in the advancement of women's potential for exercising their fundamental rights and freedoms.

Ms. King said the Commission also addressed questions of health, including discussions on mental health and environmental health for women. It moved on to several resolutions which dealt with such topics as: HIV/AIDS and women, Palestinian women, and women and girls who were held hostage in armed conflicts. There still remained two draft resolutions to be acted upon -- one was on women in Afghanistan, which ensures that gender questions there were addressed by authorities, and the other was on the question of mental health of women.

She said the Secretariat was looking forward to the decisions that would emerge from the Commission in order to prepare papers on future actions on such topics as: globalization and its impact on women, the impact of science and technology on women, women and leadership, and human security and safety nets for women in armed conflict.

Speaking next was Ms. Engelbrecht, who said the Preparatory Committee had been working all week on a draft resolution which would allow it to move forward to its next session, scheduled for March 2000. The issues contained in that resolution deal with the initiation of the review and appraisal of implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. It also addressed the United Nations system and the role it should play in that regard. The agenda and documentation for the special session were still under discussion, but had to be completed today. That agenda would include discussions on such topics as: review and appraisal, good practices, lessons learned, obstacles encountered and further actions and initiatives. The resolution also discussed participation by non-governmental organizations and it allowed for inter-sessional consultations to bridge the gap between now and next year's preparatory committee session. She hoped to complete work early this afternoon on that resolution.

Also during the briefing, the Vice-Chairpersons of the preparatory committee commented on panel discussions that they moderated during the session. Ms. Mlacak said the panel discussion held on Monday, 15 March, focused on such topics as: the changing status of women due to urbanization and globalization, the mobilization of non-governmental organizations and governments following the Beijing Conference, and partnerships between men and women in promoting gender equality.

Ms. Kapalata said her panel discussion, on Tuesday, 14 March, touched on such issues as: women and leadership, gender-based violence, women in Latin America, and the necessity of overcoming the negative effects of globalization on women.

A correspondent wanted to know whether the resolutions on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan and women and mental health would be adopted today and asked for more elaboration on the resolution concerning Afghanistan. Ms. King said the text would not be adopted today. It was part of the first

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two-week session of the Commission. Since that body did not finish its work on time, before becoming the preparatory committee, it had to hold a resumed session to formerly adopt the agreed conclusions on health, national machineries and the two resolutions. That would take place after 25 March, when the Economic and Social Council resumed and gave the Commission permission to hold that session.

The text of the resolution concerning Afghanistan was similar to the last one. It renewed the call to governments to ensure that the Taliban authorities did their best to give rights back to women for education, health and movement. It particularly mentioned the gender missions and related findings. It welcomed the fact that there was now a gender adviser in place in Islamabad and a human rights adviser. Both those posts were recommendations of the gender mission. The text also recommended that "we keep up the monitoring and that the whole gender situation does not have a back seat to other questions in Afghanistan".

Responding to a request to elaborate on the mental health resolution, Ms. King said that the contents of that text looked at trauma and post-trauma support for women who had either suffered under conflict, through extreme poverty or in other situations. It would ensure that the United Nations system, particularly the World Health Organization (WHO), did the research and data to guarantee assistance to governments in supporting women all over the world who were in those situations.

A correspondent then raised the issue of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and asked about the restrictions in it such as the rights of non-governmental organizations to petition on behalf of groups of women who had not formally given their consent. Ms. King said that the Protocol was a tremendous step forward. It was the result of four years of hard work and negotiations where some countries that had reservations about non-governmental organizations speaking on behalf of others had clearly put their cases forward. Through the negotiations of various groups, however, they were able to come to a consensus and agreement.

At the moment, continued Ms. King, the Protocol was quite strong. There was a clause in article 2 which stated that others, although it did not say non-governmental organizations, could intervene on behalf of individuals with or without their consent if it was justifiable. Also there were no reservations to the Protocol. It was definitely an instrument that was moving the whole treaty body regime ahead.

A correspondent wanted to know how many countries had given assessments of where they stood in terms of Beijing compliance. Ms. Engelbrecht said that national action plans were around 110. The questionnaires that were sent out

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in that regard in October 1998 had given 30 April as a deadline. "We are still waiting for those responses to come in."

When questioned about what was being asked by the questionnaire, Ms. Engelbrecht said it was an effort on the part of the Secretariat, in coordination with Members States and regional commissions, to try and get some responses, in the time left, that would fill the gaps in the area of national action plans which had not been submitted. The questions addressed what had been achieved in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, obstacles encountered along the way and the way forward from there.

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