General Assembly

Spain had made sweeping moves to empower and legally protect women since Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero took office in 2004, including enactment of laws to erase gender inequality and gender-based violence, as well as action plans to help the country’s most socially and economically vulnerable women gain access to health care, education, employment and housing, Spain’s first ever Minister of Equality, Bibiana Aido Almagro, said this afternoon.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, fearing that in the midst of the global financial crisis the rights of elderly women would fall by the wayside, was encouraging States parties to the women’s Convention to mainstream older women’s concerns into national strategies and development programmes, Committee Chairperson and expert from Egypt, Naela Mohamed Gabr, said this afternoon during a Headquarters press conference.

Security Council reform had come a long way since the beginning a new intergovernmental negotiation process in February, the facilitator on that issue in the General Assembly said at a Headquarters press conference today, announcing a third round of talks to begin on 27 August.

This year, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women should seize the opportunity of the thirtieth anniversary of the women’s rights Convention and the tenth anniversary of its Optional Protocol to raise their visibility and strengthen their impact for the sake of women worldwide, with the ultimate aim of getting more States to ratify both instruments and withdraw any reservations to them, Naela Gabr, Committee Chair said this morning.

Domestic violence, political participation, discriminatory family law, eliminating stereotypes and preventing trafficking will be among the areas explored by a committee of 23 experts charged with ensuring that Governments eliminate discrimination against women, when it meets in New York from 20 July to 7 August at United Nations Headquarters.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene a United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine on 22 and 23 July 2009 at the United Nations Office at Geneva. The theme of the Meeting is “Responsibility of the international community to uphold international humanitarian law to ensure the protection of civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in the wake of the war in Gaza”.

General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann said the international community should be “very happy” about the outcome of the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development, which had affirmed the 192-member body as the most suitable venue for discussion of serious economic matters.

After five days of debate, the United Nations Conference on the world financial crisis concluded today, with General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann urging delegates to be inspired by the work they had done on the outcome document “and sustain the same sense of urgency and commitment as we translate this bold new framework into effective action”.

Struggling to recover from steep declines in export earnings, tax revenues and overall economic growth, delegates from developing and middle-income countries alike today pressed rich nations to dismantle protectionist trade measures and fulfil pledges for official development assistance to avert a humanitarian catastrophe, as the plenary debate of the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development continued at United Nations Headquarters.

The outcome of the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development in its third day at United Nations Headquarters provided a means for continued discussion, but in no way measured up to the extreme gravity of the situation facing developing countries, representatives of civil society groups told correspondents today, also at Headquarters.