Section Four
Anatomy of the Five-year Review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action

A review process begins with the UN General Assembly or the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) passing a resolution that calls on Member States and the United Nations to hold the review. In the case of the five-year review of the Fourth World Conference on Women, the GA, in Resolution 52/100 in 1997, decided to:

"...convene, in the year 2000, a high-level plenary review to appraise and assess the progress achieved in the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and the Platform for Action, five years after its adoption, and to consider further actions and initiatives..."

The GA designated the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) as the PrepCom for the review. The Special Session is being organized to reaffirm commitments to the PFA and further focus on obstacles to implementation, as well as strategies for overcoming those obstacles.

As is often the case in five-year reviews, a Secretariat is set up within the United Nations to staff the review process. Among other functions, the Secretariat prepares UN documentation, which is circulated to Member States. Member States develop their own policies and positions, prepare reports, convene delegations, and participate in related intergovernmental meetings. In some cases, Member States convene meetings within their country in consultation with NGOs, other civil society organizations, and the private sector.

In the initial stages of a review process, a PrepCom is formed which will hold a series of meetings at which Member States develop an agenda and program of work. Member States negotiate most of the content of the major documents and outcomes at these preparatory meetings. In addition to the established PrepCom meetings, inter-sessional and informal meetings may also be held to advance the negotiating process.

The Actors: Participants in Beijing +5

The United Nations is an international body with a membership of 188 Member States (as of November 1999).

As President of the GA, Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, Foreign Minister of Namibia, will also serve as the President of the GA Special Session to review the Beijing Declaration and PFA.

Member States determine the agenda of a Special Session. They decide the priority areas of consideration and what information is required in order to assess these priorities, and agree to the final documents. They participate as 'delegations.' The size and composition of delegations can vary greatly. In general, delegations include senior ministry representatives, technical experts, representatives from the mission or embassy where the meeting is held, and, occasionally, NGO representatives. While Member States are encouraged to include NGOs on official delegations, they are not required to do so.

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which meets annually in March, is a functional commission of the UN Economic and Social Council. It prepares recommendations and reports to the Council on promoting women's rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields. It also makes recommendations to the Council on urgent problems requiring immediate attention in the field of women's rights. It served as the preparatory body for the FWCW. Following the FWCW, the Commission was mandated to follow up to the conference, and regularly review implementation of the PFA. In addition, the CSW now serves as the Preparatory Committee for the review and the officers (Bureau) of the CSW, acting as the PrepCom,3 have been authorized to convene informal consultations to prepare for the Special Session.

United Nations System funds, programs, and agencies are expected to contribute to the preparations of five-year reviews of UN world conferences in a number of ways. They report on their own activities and support governmental and NGO preparations. UN organizations have no formal role in decision-making or voting with respect to specific recommendations and resolutions emerging from the five-year review.

UN organizations' reports on activities to implement the PFA are sent to the UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW). DAW consolidates the reports as part of an ongoing effort to provide an update on the UN System-Wide Medium-Term Plan for the Advancement of Women (SWMTP). DAW will circulate the synthesized information at the third PrepCom for Beijing +5.

The Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) is the Secretariat for Beijing +5. As the Secretariat, its responsibilities include:

• Preparing background and substantive documents;
• Preparing questionnaires that can serve as a basis for national reports submitted by Member States and collating national and regional information and data;
• Providing updated information on the planning for the review;
• Making copies of official documents available to governments and the public;
• Providing information on the status of national and regional reports;
• Servicing and facilitating negotiations between governments;
• Registering NGOs.

NGOs and civil society are often active in helping to shape UN agendas, but have neither an official negotiating role nor the right to vote. In preparation for Beijing +5, many NGOs and networks are preparing 'alternative reports' which they will circulate throughout the review process. These alternative reports may enhance the government reports, or contradict or present different perspectives and priorities.

From National to Global Action

In addition to the Special Session itself and the PrepCom sessions, a range of other meetings will take place at the national level, the 'sub-regional' level and the regional level.4 Regional meetings coordinated by the UN regional economic commissions (the Economic Commission for Africa, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the Economic Commission for Europe, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia) formally contribute to the preparatory process. Many other meetings, organized by governments and NGOs alike, will bring critical information, advocacy strategies, and recommendations to national, regional and global sessions.

Preparing at the National Level

What happens at the national level could significantly influence the value and outcomes of Beijing +5. The extent of preparation at the national level can vary widely. For instance, a Member State may:

• Prepare reports and collect data on issues related to implementation, achievements, obstacles/bottlenecks, lessons learned, best practices, etc. and complete and submit the questionnaire that has been circulated by the Secretariat asking for specific information about the current status of related issues, or about progress. The process that is used to respond to questionnaires or prepare reports may have a significant impact on their content.
• Select members of delegations to the Special Session, the PrepCom meetings and regional preparatory meetings. It is the responsibility of a delegation to present its country's policies in the process. Delegations vary significantly with regard to the extent of knowledge that members have on the topic, the extent to which a diverse range of experience is represented, and the autonomy that delegations have to make decisions. They also vary in size, with some consisting of only three or four people and others with many more.
• Hold meetings or consultations related to topics to be discussed at the Special Session and participate in regional meetings.

Regional Preparatory Meetings

All of the UN Regional Economic Commissions are holding regional preparatory meetings for Beijing +5. Member States determine their priorities at the national level and bring these concerns to the regional meeting for discussion, negotiation and--finally--consensus. In some cases, the national priorities reflect consultations held by governments with NGOs and civil society organizations.

The regional meetings consider the documentation to date on the five-year review and use this information to determine regional priorities and recommendations to the PrepCom. The regional preparatory meetings also take into account the Regional Plans of Action that were developed during the preparatory process for the Fourth World Conference on Women. The impact that regional meetings will have on the preparatory process for Beijing +5 will vary. In some instances, the regional meetings provide critical opportunities for governments to gather and develop regional positions. They may also be an important opportunity for NGOs to influence these positions.

NGO participation varies from region to region. The access of NGOs and their role in the regional meetings depend on the rules of each Regional Commission. NGOs must register with the Regional Commission in order to attend the formal sessions of the meeting. In some cases, the number of NGOs that can attend from each country is limited. In addition, each Regional Commission has criteria determining which NGOs can attend (for contact information, see Annex Two).

Each regional meeting prepares a document that outlines the main priorities and concerns expressed by Member States of the Regional Commission. This document becomes significant background information for the next PrepCom. Further, it will serve as a statement of principles and recommendations for action from which the regional groupings will determine their priorities and negotiating strategy at the PrepCom and the Special Session.

Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) Sessions

The preparatory process is the period during which those involved try to build the commitment to the agreements being sought. It is also the key time for NGOs to become involved and work with other NGOs that are active on the issues of the review.

The majority of recommendations and outcomes of a UN session are determined during the preparatory process (i.e. through the regional meetings and the PrepComs). By the time the official delegations gather at the site of the Special Session in June, the positions, agreements, and disagreements will have been discussed and debated.

The Beijing +5 review process includes three PrepCom meetings. The third PrepCom will be held 3-17 March 2000, following the CSW regular session (28 February - 2 March). The major task of a PrepCom is to decide the structure and priorities of the review, and initiate and advance negotiations towards the adoption of the final documents. Throughout the PrepComs, the Secretariat manages the process of drafting and re-drafting working documents and incorporating changes and agreements as they are decided by Member States. Any item or language that has not been agreed to, and is still under negotiation, will appear as 'bracketed text' in the official documents.

The initial stages of the preparatory process for the five-year review of the PFA set out the basic concerns, emphasized that the PFA would be reaffirmed, and developed the basic elements and hence the scope of the final outcome. Member States stressed that the review would focus on:

• A review and appraisal of the progress made in the implementation of the twelve critical areas of concern in the PFA; and
• Recommendations for further actions and initiatives for overcoming obstacles to the implementation of the PFA. In their reporting, Member States were asked to reflect on good practices, positive actions, lessons learned, the use of qualitative and quantitative indicators for measuring progress, key challenges remaining in the critical areas of concern of the PFA, and obstacles encountered.

The PrepCom also recommended that NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC and NGOs accredited to the FWCW be able to participate at the Special Session. The question of the form of NGO participation (whether NGOs will be allowed to speak; if so, how many will be allowed to speak; in which sessions; for how long; etc.) may be taken up during the third PrepCom session.

This (third) PrepCom will also be responsible for determining and drafting the outcome documents for Beijing +5. The PrepCom will be dominated by negotiations among Member States on the issues. Delegates will receive draft copies of the final documents. Passages that appear in bracketed text will be the focus of the negotiations with a view toward reaching consensus among Member States on the draft.