NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS BRIEFING ON BEJING REVIEW AT HEADQUARTERS 11 OCTOBER

Press Release

NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS BRIEFING ON BEJING REVIEW AT HEADQUARTERS 11 OCTOBER

The Group on Equal Rights for Women in the United Nations and Equality Now will hold a briefing on the Beijing + 5 review process for government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) representatives at Headquarters, in Conference Room 8, on Monday 11 October from 1 to 3 p.m..

Charlotte Bunch, Executive Director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership, will be the keynote speaker for the briefing, which is entitled “Words and Deeds.” The review process will examine the progress in implementation of the Platform for Action at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. Equality Now and the Group on Equal Rights for Women in the United Nations believe that the minimum level of political commitment to the Beijing implementation process will require all governments to have eliminated laws that explicitly discriminate against citizens on the basis of sex, yet in an overwhelming number of countries such laws remain in force. The two groups, thus, call upon governments to repeal or amend these laws over the course of the upcoming year, prior to the Beijing + 5 Special Session of the General Assembly in June 2000.

Equality Now is an international human rights organization dedicated to action for the civil, political, economic and social rights of girls and women worldwide. Equality Now has recently published a report for the Beijing + 5 review process which highlights a cross- section of laws in 45 countries which discriminate against women with regard to personal status, economic status, marital status and violence against women. The report has been distributed to Heads of State; representatives of the various governments to the United Nations; members of United Nations treaty-based bodies; members of the international media; as well as to Equality Now's Women's Action Network of over 4,000 members worldwide.

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