Submitted by crinadmin on
The Commission on the Status of Women this afternoon concluded its fiftieth session by adopting its agreed conclusions, and recommending its priority themes for the period 2007-2009, for adoption by the Economic and Social Council. For 2007, the priority theme would be: “The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child”; for 2008, “Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women”; and for 2009, “The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS”. The themes are based on the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome document of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly. Unanimously approving a draft resolution on its future organization and methods of work, as orally revised, the Commission also recommended to the Economic and Social Council that annual panel discussions would take place on the means of accelerating implementation of previous commitments, with regard to the priority theme. The Commission would also continue to discuss emerging issues, trends and new approaches to gender equality issues. Among other issues, the text addresses the forthcoming discussion, during the fifty-third session, of the possibility of conducting, in 2010, a review and appraisal of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly. Also adopted without a vote, were the two texts containing agreed conclusions of the Commission on promoting equal participation of women in decision-making processes at all levels, and enhancing participation of women in development. By the first of those texts, as orally revised, the Commission, while recognizing that some progress in women’s participation in decision-making at all levels has been achieved, expressed concern at the serious and persistent obstacles, “which are many and varied in nature”, that still hinder the advancement of women and their participation in decision-making, including feminization of poverty, lack of equal access to health, education, training and employment, armed conflict and lack of security. In the second text, as orally revised, the Commission elaborated on the measures needed to create an enabling environment “for achieving gender equality and the advancement of women, taking into account, inter alia, the fields of education, health and work”, through such actions as promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, mainstreaming of a gender perspective, promotion of full participation and empowerment of women, and enhanced international cooperation. In closing remarks, the Commission’s Chairperson Carmen María Gallardo ( El Salvador) said that, during two weeks of intensive work, delegations had shown a strong political will to advance the status of women, and a spirit of dialogue, consensus and flexibility. The session had concluded at a historic time, as yesterday, the creation of the Human Rights Council had been approved. The Commission hoped to inform that Council, as it had done to the Human Rights Commission. She highlighted the high-level panel on the gender perspective in international migration and the International Women’s Day, and paid tribute to all women who, throughout the Commission’s 50-year existence, had made inspired contributions to its work. The representatives of the United States, New Zealand (also on behalf of Canada and Norway), Egypt, Syria, the Sudan, Japan and Venezuela spoke in explanation of position on the agreed conclusions. In further action, the Commission appointed Jiakun Guo ( China), Jennifer Feller ( Mexico) and Janne Jokinen ( Finland) to the Working Group on Communications of the Commission at the fifty-first session. It also adopted its report on the fiftieth session, introduced by its Rapporteur Dicky Komar ( Indonesia), as well as the provisional agenda, as orally revised, for its fifty-first session.