Commission on Status of Women

Forty-fifth Session

4^th Meeting (PM)

COMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN CONSIDERS WORK PROGRAMME

FOR PERIOD 2002-2006

The Commission on the Status of Women met this afternoon and considered a draft proposal on its multi-year programme of work for the period 2002-2006 entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”.

By the terms of the proposal, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) would adopt the multi-year programme of work which would provide a framework to assess progress achieved in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly. 

The Council would further decide that the agenda for the forty-sixth session of the Commission should consist of election of officers; adoption of the agenda and other organizational matters; and follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the twenty-third special session of the Assembly. 

That follow-up would include:  reviewing gender mainstreaming in United Nations entities; emerging issues, trends and new approaches to issues affecting the situation of women or equality between women and men; and implementation of strategic objectives and actions in the critical areas of concern and further actions and initiatives; gender mainstreaming at the national level, good practices, indicators and time-bound strategies.

By the draft, the agenda would also consist of communications concerning the status of women; follow-up to Council resolutions; and the provisional agenda of the forty-sixth session of the Commission.

Also by the draft proposal, the Council would decide that the Commission’s calendar themes would be as follows: 2002 -- eradicating poverty through the life cycle of women in a globalizing world, and gender and environmental management and natural disasters; 2003 –- the role of information and communication technologies: a gender perspective, and women’s human rights and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls; 2004 –- equal participation of women and men in decision-making structures, and leadership and women’s equal participation in conflict resolution, peace-building and post-conflict situations.

For 2005, the Council would decide that the Commission’s calendar themes would be:  review of further implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome document of the twenty-third special session; and current challenges and future-oriented strategies for the advancement and empowerment of women.  For

2006, the themes would be:  institutional capacity-building for implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome document of the twenty-third special session including gender mainstreaming; and the role of men and boys in achieving gender equality.

Discussion

During a short discussion today, a number of speakers expressed support for the proposed multi-year programme of work, acknowledged the progress made so far and expressed the hope that the outstanding issues would be concluded shortly.  Others called for flexibility in the Commission’s working methods and urged it to cooperate more effectively with other United Nations bodies.  It was also stressed that work methods should ensure credible outcomes and provide leadership that was effective, innovative, dynamic, flexible and capable of carrying out the Commission's functions.

It was further pointed out that the Commission's work methods should underscore that change was necessary to adapt to current developments.  Yet, since issues were also important, the process of change should be transparent and involve as many delegations as possible in in-depth and extensive discussions.  Others urged caution, stating that they did not recommend any dramatic transformations in the Commission's working methods.

The Commission considered the relevance of the connection between the fight against poverty and globalization.  Since they were both very important issues, it was suggested that perhaps they should be separated.  In addition, it was noted that connecting the plight of ageing women to women's right to work might overshadow the issue of the latter, which was very important.

A number of speakers concurred that the method of thematic link was a highly effective way of mainstreaming gender.  It was pointed out, however, that there was no reference in the programme to education and training in the area of women's health.  It was noted that the health theme, although included in the HIV/AIDS theme, was not reflected in the theme on women and the economic media.

Comments on the draft proposal were made by the representatives of Sweden (on behalf of the European Union and associated States), Tunisia, Australia, Mali, United States, Philippines, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, Iran (on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China), China and Cuba.

The Commission will meet again tomorrow at 11 a.m. to continue its general discussion on follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century.

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