WUNRN
UN News Centre
16 November 2009 – Nearly 15
years after the landmark United Nations conference on women, countries in
Participants are meeting at the Bangkok headquarters of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) for a three-day review of the follow-up to the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, specifically to assess progress in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action – a wide-ranging blueprint for promoting and protecting the rights of women and girls.
“As
we rejoice in the Platform’s coming of age, the achievements and the progress,
we must continue with its implementation and ask for accountability for gender
equality and women’s empowerment,” said Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary of
ESCAP. “Women must be legitimate participants in all spheres of public life –
as leaders in government, businesses and the broader community.”
While
there are signs of progress since the creation of the agenda, including the
nearly universal adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), persistent obstacles and challenges
remain.
Joanne
Sander, Deputy Executive Director of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), said, “Accountability is
particularly crucial at this time. Who will answer for the painfully slow
progress on reducing maternal mortality when it is entirely preventable? Who
will answer for the inadequate progress in increasing women’s meaningful
political participation in most countries in the region?”
Carolyn
Hannan, Director of the UN Division for the Advancement of Women, emphasized
accountability on the issue of violence against women. She highlighted the
importance of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s campaign UNiTE to End Violence
against Women, and drew attention to the adoption by the Security Council of
two new resolutions on sexual violence in armed conflict.
The
opening session of the three-day review meeting drew about 250 delegates,
including a number of ministers, and was opened by a trio of ESCAP musicians
who performed the song, “Keep on Moving Forward,” sung at the Non-governmental
Organization (NGO) Forum held at the time of the Beijing Conference in 1995.
The
next two days of the meeting will focus on topics such as gender and the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the pledges world leaders made to slash a
host of social ills, including extreme hunger and poverty, infant and maternal
mortality, and lack of access to education and health care – all by 2015, as
well as CEDAW and a regional campaign to end violence against women.
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