The Commission on the Status of Women played a “catalytic” role in shaping global policy on gender equality, as well as in ensuring that the Economic and Social Council incorporated a gender perspective in its work, Council President Martin Sajdik told the women’s body today during day three of its fifty-eighth session.
Protecting women and girls from violence and discrimination was the ultimate responsibility of the State, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences told the Commission on the Status of Women today, pressing Governments to better address the legal gaps in protection, prevention and accountability.
With one year left to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by the 2015 target date, the international community must take decisive steps to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment became a reality, high-level speakers said today as the Commission on the Status of Women opened its fifty-eighth session.
The Commission for Social Development concluded its fifty-second session today with the approval of six draft resolutions for adoption by the Economic and Social Council that addressed issues of empowerment, older persons and the family, as well as one text that would hone the Commission’s own focus on visual health.
A lack of data, inadequate monitoring and evaluation of social programmes, as well as a dearth of trained professionals hindered the achievement of social development objectives, the Commission tasked with advancing those goals heard today, as it wrapped up its substantive work for the session with discussions on issues affecting vulnerable social groups.
The impact of social factors on sustainable development and the critical role of families were the focus of two panel discussions today in the Commission for Social Development as its first week drew to a close.
