Commission on the Status of Women

Forty-ninth Session

20^th Meeting (Resumed) (AM)

WOMEN’S COMMISSION SESSION ‘CLEAR, UNQUALIFIED REAFFIRMATION’

OF BEIJING ACTION PLAN, SAYS CHAIR, AS FINAL REPORT ADOPTED

 

The Commission on the Status of Women, unable to conclude its session on 11 March, adopted the report of its recent forty-ninth session this morning, bringing to a close its 10-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

At the end of the Commission’s two-week session, which had focused on the implementation of measures for gender equality and the advancement of women agreed upon at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing), the Commission had adopted 10 wide-ranging resolutions on improving women’s status, but ran out of time to finish its business.

Reflecting on an enriching and, at times, challenging session, Commission Chairperson Kyung-wha Kang, of the Republic of Korea, said that the Commission’s commemoration of 30 years of United Nations efforts to promote gender equality was a memorable way to galvanize women and men around the world.  Despite a full schedule of formal meetings, the Commission had been able to work on and adopt 10 resolutions.  “And most importantly, we have come together in clear, unqualified reaffirmation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session, and re-energized ourselves to stay the course with greater resolve and see to it that they are fully and speedily implemented.”

Now, she continued, it was up to all stakeholders to seize that momentum and to turn it into real, effective action.  After 10 years of implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the glass was far from full.  The next time the Commission gathered for a review, it must be able to say that the glass was indeed full.

In closing remarks, Rachel Mayanja, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, said the session had taken stock of women’s accomplishments during the past 10 years and showed how effective women could be when they were equal partners at all levels.  Member States, non-governmental organizations and the United Nations system confirmed, loud and clear, that all issues concerned women.  Women must carry out their rightful and equal role in the world’s quest for solutions -- whether it was shaping new economic or social programmes, preventing conflict, or establishing and maintaining peace.  The Commission adopted a political declaration and a total of 10 resolutions.

However, she believed the significance of the session went far beyond those documents.  First, it showed that the “spirit of the Beijing consensus” was very much alive.  Second, the session demonstrated that “what unites us is bigger than what divides”.  Third, the session had started a new era in implementation.  “We cannot rest, we must continue to work hard to implement the Platform for Action and link it to the Millennium Declaration.  We must ensure that there is never any slipping back.”  The road blocks ahead were still formidable.  But she was confident that women, in partnerships with governments, civil society, international organizations and all men would overcome those obstacles.

Commenting on the Commission’s working methods, New Zealand’s representative, speaking also on behalf of Canada and Australia, noted that two years ago, the Commission’s forty-seventh session had ended in confusion and disarray, having had to close the session in a resumed session, much as today.  At that time, just as two weeks ago, the issues had been too numerous to arrive at consensus.  In contrast, the forty-ninth session had made significant achievements.  He applauded the reaffirmation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.  He hoped the Commission would, in the future, be able to have more rational discussions on the issue of sexual and reproductive health rights.

The presence of a record number of gender equality experts had added much to the exchange of ideas.  It was unfortunate that the focus of the experts had been diverted to the Commission’s negotiations in the second week, when it had been faced with 10 parallel negotiations.  Negotiation was a poor way to learn and it was not a substitute for rich dialogue.  A new approach was needed.  While some formal documents might need to be adopted, negotiated outcomes were not the full measure of the Commission’s value.  Next year the Commission would have an opportunity to re-examine its working methods.  It should do that by examining the work of the other functional commissions.

Also this morning, the Commission appointed several members of the Working Group on Communications on the Status of Women for the next session, including Abdelouahab Osmane of Algeria from the African States Group; Lara Romano of Croatia from the Eastern European States Group; and Jorge Cumberbatch of Cuba from the Latin American and Caribbean States Group.  The appointment of the two remaining members representing the Asian States Group and the Western European and Other States Group was deferred to the Commission’s next session.

In other action, the Commission took note of a series of reports by the Secretary-General, including on measures taken and progress achieved in the follow-up to and implementation of the outcomes of the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the 2000 General Assembly special session; the situation of and assistance to Palestinian women; the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan; joint work plan of the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; and the review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of the General Assembly special session.  It also took note of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s note transmitting information provided by the United Nations Development Fund for Women on the implementation of General Assembly resolution 50/166.

The Commission decided to include in its report the Chairperson’s summary of the high-level round table on “Innovations in institutional arrangements for promoting gender equality at the national level”.

The Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women, Carolyn Hannan, introduced the provisional agenda as contained in document E/CN.6/2005/L.13.

The representatives of Cuba, Guatemala and Azerbaijan made comments on the provisional agenda.

Making comments on the draft report were the representatives of Burkina Faso and China.

The representatives of San Marino, on behalf of the Western European and Other States Group; Jamaica, on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China; Bangladesh, on behalf of the Asian Group; Madagascar, on behalf of the African Group; the United States; and Azerbaijan, on behalf of the Eastern European Group, expressed gratitude to the bureau and the Secretariat for its work in making the Commission’s work a success.

Also this morning, the Commission adopted the provisional agenda, as corrected, and elected its bureau for the fiftieth session.

The representative of El Salvador made a statement on behalf of his ambassador, Carmen Maria Gallardo, who was elected Chairperson of the fiftieth session.  Other bureau members elected today were:  Szilvia Szabo of Hungary, Abekunbi Abibat Sonaike of Nigeria; Thomas Woodroffe of the United Kingdom and Dicky Komar of Indonesia.

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