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 On 1 July 2005, the first day of the
Assembly's Session in Washington a great deal of work was done on
promoting gender issues and gender equality in the OSCE.
A Working Breakfast on Gender Issues was hosted by President Alcee L.
Hastings, and was chaired by OSCE PA Special Representative on Gender
Issues, Vice-President Tone Tingsgård. In his welcoming remarks, President
Hastings reaffirmed his commitment to advancing female representation in
the Assembly and regretted the slow progress in this regard. Ms. Tingsgård
welcomed President Hastings' participation in gender related activities as
a very important political gesture. Speakers expressed support for the
work being done by the OSCE PA on gender issues, and Ms. Tingsgård invited
the members of the PA to support the participation of the Assembly in the
March 2006 UN Conference on Equal Participation of Men and Women.
During the Plenary Session in the afternoon, the Assembly unanimously
adopted the Supplementary Item on improving the gender equality in the
OSCE, presented by Ms. Tingsgård. The resolution, which forms a part of
the Washington Document, calls upon the OSCE Secretary General and
participating States to take positive action to promote the recruitment of
women candidates within OSCE bodies and institutions, especially at higher
levels, as well as to improve the culture and working conditions in the
Organization. In this regard, OSCE PA Delegations are called upon to
monitor the work of their national delegations to the OSCE to ensure that
they promote gender balance.
 In conjunction with this resolution, Ms.
Tingsgård presented the OSCE PA Gender Report 2005, commenting that "The
conclusions of the Report are very discouraging; the OSCE PA has struggled
for several years to promote gender equality within the OSCE, but the
so-called 'glass ceiling' still prevents women from advancing into the
leadership level in the Organization. It seems that all the good will
stops when it comes to implementation." Ms. Tingsgård ended her
presentation with a proposal for the Standing Committee to set up an Ad
Hoc Committee on Gender Issues to promote the implementation of the
Resolution and to further the debates on gender issues within the
Assembly.
The OSCE PA Gender Report 2005 (603
kb.) | 
