Section
Three
From
Beijing to Beijing +5
What Will be the
Focus of the Review and Appraisal in Beijing +5?
The detailed agenda for
the Special Session is scheduled to be decided at the
third preparatory committee meeting in March 2000.
Discussions will take place on an intermittent basis in
informal, open-ended consultations, convened by the
Bureau of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
acting as the PrepCom. PrepCom meetings to establish the
parameters for the Special Session have already been
held, in conjunction with the CSW sessions in 1998 and
1999.
As of November 1999,
decisions that have been taken with regard to the agenda
for the Special Session include the following:
- It will reaffirm
government responsibility for, and commitment to,
implementing the PFA;
- It will review and
appraise progress made in implementing the twelve
critical areas of concern in the PFA; and
- It will consider
further actions and initiatives to overcome
obstacles to implementation of the PFA.
The decisions of the
PrepCom for Beijing +5 have emphasized that the PFA
itself will be reaffirmed, not renegotiated, in the
context of the Special Session. For the Special Session
review and appraisal, governments have been asked to:
- Submit their
national plans for implementing the PFA to the UN
Secretariat;2
- Respond to a
questionnaire developed by the Secretary-General
in collaboration with UN regional economic
commissions; and
- Prepare national
evaluations of their efforts toward
implementation of the Platform, with the
involvement of civil society.
| |
|
The
Path to the Five-Year Review |
1995 |
|
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
agreed to at the Fourth World Conference on Women
(FWCW), Beijing, China. |
| 2-13 March 1998 |
The
UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) review
of the twelve critical areas of concern (see p.
16) of the Platform for Action (PFA). |
| 1996-1999 |
Resolution
adopted by the GA (52/100) deciding to convene a
high-level plenary review to appraise and assess
the progress achieved in the implementation of
the NFLS and the PFA, with the CSW as the
preparatory body for the Special Session. |
| December 1997 |
Discussions
at the 42nd session of the CSW, acting as the
first PrepCom for Beijing +5, to initiate a
comprehensive review of the PFA. |
| June 1998 |
Resolution
adopted by the GA (52/231) deciding that the
review would be held as a General Assembly
Special Session, to take place from 5-9 June
2000. |
| December 1998 |
Resolution
adopted by the GA (53/120) calling for full
participation in the preparations for the GA
Special Session. The Special Session will focus
in particular on suggestions on further actions
and initiatives that might be considered during
the review in order to achieve gender equality,
with attention to mainstreaming a gender
perspective and to common trends and themes
across the twelve critical areas of concern. The
resolution also calls for regional preparatory
activities, and emphasizes the important role of
NGOs in implementing the PFA and the need for
their active involvement in the preparations for
the Special Session. |
| 15-18 December 1998 |
Economic
and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA)
Regional Preparatory meeting for Beijing +5. |
| 1999-2000 |
Inter-sessional,
informal and Bureau meetings of the PrepCom for
Beijing +5. |
| 1-19 March 1999 |
Second
PrepCom meeting held immediately following the
regular 43rd session of the CSW. |
| 26-29 October 1999 |
Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
(ESCAP) High-Level Intergovernmental meeting to
review the implementation of the Jakarta
Declaration and Plan of Action and regional
implementation of the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action. |
| 22-27 November 1999 |
Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA) Sixth African
Regional Conference on Women to assess progress
in the implementation of the Beijing and African
Platforms for Action. |
| December 1999 |
Resolution
adopted by the GA in support of the preparations
toward the review of the Beijing Platform for
Action and the General Assembly Special Session. |
| 19-21 January 2000 |
Economic
Commission for Europe (ECE) Expert Meeting at the
intergovernmental level to review economic
issues, problems and policies relating to the
situation of women in ECE countries, in order to
provide a regional assessment for the 2000 review
of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for
Action. |
| 8-10 February 2000 |
Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC) Eighth Regional Conference on Women of
Latin America and the Caribbean. |
| 3-17 March 2000 |
Third
PrepCom meeting held immediately following the
44th regular session of the CSW. |
| 2-3 June 2000 |
NGO
Working Session for Women 2000. |
| 5-9 June 2000 |
General
Assembly Special Session, 'Women 2000: gender
equality, development and peace for the
twenty-first century.' |
| Note:
See the references in the Annexes or the
WomenWatch website for the documents referred to
above. |
Review of the Twelve Critical Areas of Concern of the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
In the first Commission
on the Status of Women session following the Fourth World
Conference on Women (March 1996), Member States set out a
work plan for the CSW that
included a comprehensive review of implementation of the
twelve critical areas of concern in the PFA. The twelve areas are: women
and poverty, education and training of women, women and
health, violence against women, women and armed conflict,
women and the economy, women in power and
decision-making, institutional mechanisms for the
advancement of women, human rights of women, women and
the media, women and the environment, and the girl-child.
Between 1996 and 1999, each of the twelve critical areas
of concern was reviewed by the CSW as follows:
| |
1996 |
Women and
poverty
Women and the media |
| 1997 |
Education
and training of women
Women and the economy
Women in power and decision-making
Women and the environment |
| 1998 |
Violence
against women
Women and armed conflict
Human rights of women
The girl-child
(Serving in its capacity as PrepCom, the CSW
also initiated the comprehensive review and
appraisal of the implementation of the PFA.) |
| 1999 |
Women
and health
Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of
women
(Immediately following the regular session of
the CSW, the second session of the PrepCom
convened.) |
As part of the review
process, several Expert Group Meetings have been held to
consider specific aspects of the PFA. These meetings were
coordinated by the UN Division for the Advancement of
Women.
|
