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..Press
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UNESCAP News Services
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Date 10
September 2004
Press Release No: G/19/2004
REGIONAL BEIJING +10 MEETING PLEDGES TO
'REMAIN STEADFAST' IN PURSUIT OF GENDER EQUALITY FOR DECADES
TO COME
UNESCAP meeting sets strategies for future
action
Bangkok (United Nations Information Services Bangkok)
-- With one voice today members of the Bangkok-based UN Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific recommitted themselves
to 'remain steadfast' in promoting gender equality and empowering
women for decades to come.
Meeting ten years after the Fourth World Conference
on Women (Beijing, 1995) under the theme "Partnerships:
Moving Beijing Forward," the High-level Intergovernmental
Meeting to Review Regional Implementation of the Beijing Platform
for Action and its Regional and Global Outcomes reaffirmed the
consensus of the Beijing Platform for Action, a wide-ranging
declaration of commitments to gender equality adopted at Beijing.
The Meeting focused on achievements, gaps and
challenges since 1995, and identified strategies and initiatives
for promoting gender equality in the region.
Delegates including a dozen at the Ministerial level reported
significant progress since 1995 including the formulation of
national action plans to promote gender equality, improvements
in women's health, longer life expectancy, revision of discriminatory
domestic laws and regulations, affirmative measures to improve
women's political participation, increased basic education levels
and significant decrease in women's illiteracy rate, and poverty
reduction and alleviation through micro-credit, micro-entrepreneurship
development programmes and income generating activities.
Despite the many achievements in the region several
countries identified persisting common gaps and challenges such
as women's disproportionate representation among the poor, the
high prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS amongst women, low level of
women's participation in the decision-making at various levels,
all forms of violence against women including trafficking in
women and children, feminisation of migration, addressing the
gender-negative impacts of globalization and trade liberalization
such as job insecurity and unemployment, gender stereotyping,
lack of reliable and relevant sex-disaggregated data and gender
statistics, and internal political conflict.
The Meeting called for a more holistic approach
to understanding the multi-faceted nature of gender concerns.
Future strategies identified include gender mainstreaming, a
rights-based approach including economic and social rights,
working with men, and partnerships. Five levels of partnerships
were identified as (1) between men and women, (2) between governments
and civil society, (3) amongst government line Ministries, (4)
between and among countries in terms of regional cooperation
on transboundary issues such as trafficking, migration and the
spread of HIV/AIDS, and (5) at the global level.
Recommendations and strategies from the Meeting
will serve as the regional input to the global review and appraisal
of the Beijing Platform for Action to be held in March 2005.
More than 450 delegates from over 40 countries
attended the Meeting held in Bangkok from 7-10 September 2004.
Participants included Ministers or government representatives
as well as participants from numerous civil society organizations,
UN agencies and development partners.
For further information please contact:
United Nations Information Services Bangkok
Tel: +(66-2) 288-1861-69, Fax: +(66-2) 288-1052
E-mail: unisbkk.unescap@un.org
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