Background Release

COMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN WILL HOLD FIFTY-SECOND SESSION

AT HEADQUARTERS, 25 FEBRUARY – 7 MARCH

 

Will Focus on Financing for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women

NEW YORK, 21 February, (Division for the Advancement of Women) -- The Commission on the Status of Women will hold its fifty-second session from 25 February to 7 March 2008.  The Commission will continue to emphasize national-level implementation of commitments made at the Fourth World Conference in Beijing and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly.

The Commission’s consideration of substantive thematic issues is central to its work in advancing the global policy framework for gender equality.  The Commission will consider one priority theme, “Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women”, and examine one emerging issue, “Gender perspectives on climate change”.  In addition, the Commission will review the status of implementation at the national level of the recommendations on “Women’s equal participation in conflict prevention, management and conflict resolution and in post-conflict peacebuilding”, adopted at its forty-eighth session in 2004.

The report of the Secretary-General on financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women (document E/CN.6/2008/2) provides an overview of the gender perspectives on the six core areas of action of the Monterrey Consensus on financing for development.  It reviews innovative sources of financing for gender equality and empowerment of women, examines the financing of national mechanisms for the advancement of women and women’s organizations, and highlights challenges in measuring costs and resource allocations.  The report concludes that the failure to secure adequate resources to fully implement the Beijing Platform for Action constrains the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and proposes recommendations for further action.

A second report of the Secretary-General (document E/CN.6/2008/5) assesses the extent to which financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women is mainstreamed in policies and programmes at the national level.

A high-level round table on Monday, 25 February, will provide an opportunity for high-level representatives of Member States to share experiences, lessons learned and good practices in relation to financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women.  Two interactive expert panels, on Tuesday, 26 February, will provide additional opportunities to discuss the priority theme.

On Thursday, 28 February, an interactive expert panel will focus on the emerging issue, “Gender perspectives on climate change”, and an interactive dialogue on Friday, 29 February, will evaluate progress in the implementation of previously agreed conclusions of the Commission on “Women’s equal participation in conflict prevention, management and conflict resolution and in post-conflict peace building”.

The Commission will also hold two informal events.  On Thursday, 28 February, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Statistical Commission will convene a joint panel on indicators on violence against women, as part of the Commission’s continued focus on the need for reliable sex-disaggregated statistics and other quantitative and qualitative information to measure progress in implementation.  A dialogue will be organized on Wednesday, 27 February, on the Commission’s priority theme for its fifty-third session in 2009, “The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS”, to introduce some of the key issues to be considered in the preparation for this session.

A schedule of events is contained in the Commission’s annotated provisional agenda and proposed organization of work (document E/CN.6/2008/1).

The Commission will consider a report of the Secretary-General on ending female genital mutilation (document E/CN.6/2008/3), on forced marriage of the girl child (document E/CN.6/2008/4), on the situation of and assistance to Palestinian women (document E/CN.6/2008/6), and on release of women and children taken hostage, including those subsequently imprisoned, in armed conflicts (document E/CN.6/2008/7).

The following documents will also be before the Commission:  report on the joint workplan of the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (document E/CN.6/2008/8); note by the Secretary-General transmitting the Activities of the United Nations Development Fund for Women to eliminate violence against women (document E/CN.6/2008/9); note by the Secretary-General on the Strategic framework for the biennium 2010-2011:  Subprogramme 2, Gender issues and advancement of women (document E/CN.6/2008/CRP.4); report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on its thirty-seventh, thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth sessions (document A/62/38); and a note by the Secretariat transmitting the results of the fortieth session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (document E/CN.6/2008/CRP.1).

The Commission will also consider communications concerning the status of women and will have before it two notes by the Secretary-General transmitting the list of confidential communications concerning the status of women (documents E/CN.6/2008/SW/COMM.LIST/42/R and E/CN.6/2008/SW/COMM.LIST/42/Add.1/R) and a report of the Secretary-General on the future work of the Working Group on Communications on the Status of Women (document E/CN.6/2004/11 and Add.1 and 2).

The Commission will also follow-up on Economic and Social Council resolutions and decisions.  It will consider two letters from the President of the Economic and Social Council to the Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women, one dated 13 November 2007 (document E/CN.6/2008/10) and one dated 22 October 2007 (document E/CN.6/2008/10, annex II), as well as a note by the Secretariat on implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to sustainable development (document E/CN.6/2008/CRP.2).

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For information media • not an official record