While Peru's Constitution prohibited discrimination, the society's structural discrimination could not be eliminated without temporary special measures, the 23 experts on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women told representatives from Peru this afternoon.
(Delayed in transmission.)
Secretary-General Kofi Annan left New York on Thursday, 25 June, for a European tour during which he spoke at the annual conference of a private foundation in Ditchley, England, and chaired a panel discussion on human rights in Vienna, Austria.
Dramatic gaps between the situation of urban and rural women in Peru were highlighted as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women began considering Peru's combined third and fourth periodic reports on implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
I wish to clarify that, contrary to press reports out of Bogota, Colombia, neither the Secretary-General nor any authorized official has proposed that the United Nations play a role in peace negotiations in that country.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights should develop a programme in East Timor tailored to the protection of the human rights of women and children, the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples was told as it continued its hearing of petitioners this morning.
