General Assembly

In what was seen as a major breakthrough in negotiations at the ongoing United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, delegates today received their first comprehensive paper from the Conference President containing elements to be incorporated into a legally binding text, and came together to discuss it in plenary after many informal meetings that lasted into the night and throughout the weekend.

As the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty entered its final week today, delegates heard an update on negotiations that took place over the weekend.

Despite high unemployment, rising crime and socio-economic woes arising from the global financial crisis and natural disasters, the Bahamas had steadily improved the lot of its women through a range of legal reforms, awareness-raising campaigns and action plans, members of the country’s delegation told the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today.

Common ground had emerged even as diverging views, multiple proposals and intense debate continued with a view to hammering out a legally-binding conventional arms agreement, delegates were told today, during an update on negotiations, as the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty neared the end of its third week of meetings.

Balancing the position of women in the national culture against step-by-step advances in their political participation, while ensuring that rural women participated in development, Samoa was meeting its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the country’s delegation said today.

New Zealand continued to uphold its proud record in women’s empowerment, with a high ranking in the Global Gender Gap report for 2011, its continuing efforts to increase female leadership in politics and the private sector and its solid progress in closing the gender pay gap, members of that country’s delegation told the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today.

Through a “juridical revolution” and a range of comprehensive assistance programmes, Mexico was gaining ground in its bid to end violence against women, including murder, bolster their political representation at the most senior levels and slash maternal mortality, members of that country’s delegation told the Women’s Anti-Discrimination Committee today.

With women outpacing men in education and leading the country from the highest political offices, Jamaica was taking great strides towards gender equality, members of that country’s delegation told the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today.

Bulgaria’s adoption of a gender-equality strategy and its enactment of legislation to combat domestic violence and discrimination had bolstered women’s status in politics and the workplace, led to better protection from abuse, and established a viable avenue for seeking redress, members of that country’s delegation said today while presenting its combined fourth to seventh periodic reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

The $2.2 billion worth of arms and ammunition that found their way into targeted countries in spite of United Nations and regional arms embargoes imposed on Liberia and other countries was proof that the current system was not working, the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty heard today as it concluded the high-level segment of its discussions.