..Press Release................................ UNESCAP News Services

Date 29 August 2005
Press Release No: L/35/2005

A Statement by Mr Kim Hak-Su, United Nations Under-Secretary-General
and Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacific (UNESCAP)
at Beijing 2005: the Tenth Anniversary Commemoration of the Fourth World Conference
on Women
Beijing, China, 29 August – 1 September 2005

Madam Chairperson,
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Special guests and participants,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great honour for me to be part of this celebration of the achievements we made during the past ten years, and particularly to be in the city exactly where the biggest landmark event to this date in promoting women’s empowerment and gender equality took place. In September 1995 in Beijing, the commitment of the international community to achieve equality for women as a goal in itself and as a means to achieve peace and development was materialized in the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Designed as an agenda for women’s political, economic and social empowerment, the Platform’s emphasis was not only on achieving equality and eliminating discrimination, but was also on the integration of women as full and equal partners in all policies and decision-making processes.

On behalf of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, UNESCAP, it is my privilege to join this reaffirmation of the commitments made in 1995. As a United Nations Regional Commission, UNESCAP organized a high level inter-governmental meeting in September 2004, in preparation for the Beijing +10 global review and appraisal. The meeting deliberated on sub-regional and regional achievements, gaps and challenges and provides an indication of areas where actions and initiatives are most urgent for further implementation. The meeting highlighted the importance of gender mainstreaming, the rights based approach, working with men and partnerships with civil society as effective strategies for bringing about gender equality. The meeting concluded by adopting the Bangkok Communique which outlined these issues.

I am proud to inform you that the major thrusts of UNESCAP’s efforts to reduce poverty, promote development and achieve gender equality include increasing women’s access to decision-making and governance, to economic resources, to education, and to information and communication technologies, and assisting in the collection of sex-disaggregated data and gender information for informed policy formulation processes as well as protecting and promoting women’s human rights and eliminating violence against women. UNESCAP is a dynamic and multi-faceted organization operating as a facilitator and catalyst, building linkages between governments, civil society and other local, regional and international development partners to encourage and strengthen channels of dialogue, interaction and involvement in national, subregional, regional and global policy development and implementation. UNESCAP also provides capacity building and training and supports cross-cutting and multi-dimensional approaches to progressive changes for women and girls throughout the region.

Let me cite a few examples of initiatives of UNESCAP, which demonstrate an effective integration of, and synergy among, the work of various sectors through the utilization of their comparative advantages, all in the name of promoting women’s empowerment and achieving gender equality.

UNESCAP recognizes women’s participation in decision-making as a critical aspect of governance. To this end, UNESCAP has been working closely with a network of local governments, local government training institutions, and line ministries on local governance for women’s advancement. In 2001 UNESCAP organized the first ever Asia-Pacific Summit of Women Mayors and Councillors held in Thailand, which was followed up by the national summits and national capacity development activities. UNESCAP continues to generate awareness, capacity and confidence amongst both women and men to increase the participation and representation of women in local government.

UNESCAP subscribes to gender mainstreaming as the key strategy for achieving gender equality. As part of the effort to promote gender mainstreaming in the Asia-Pacific region, the “Asian and Pacific Regional Symposium on Gender Mainstreaming” was convened in 2001. To further the agenda of gender mainstreaming at the national institutional context, in 2003, UNESCAP organized a Regional Meeting of National Machineries for Gender Equality in Asia and the Pacific Region in collaboration with the Government of Korea. A follow-up meeting will be organized in December this year, hosted by the Government of Indonesia.

A major element of UNESCAP programming is combating violence against women, including domestic violence and trafficking in women and girls as a violation of women’s human rights and fundamental freedoms. UNESCAP has been engaged in forging partnerships among men and women, involving men in movements to end violence against women, and focusing on men’s roles and responsibilities, and on men as part of the solution to combat violence against women. UNESCAP has been providing capacity development opportunities and promoting multi-stakeholder dialogues and regional collaboration. One significant achievement is UNESCAP’s widely-used publication of 2003 titled “Combating Human Trafficking in Asia: A Resource Guide to International and Regional Legal Instruments, Political Commitments and Recommended Practices”. UNESCAP is currently developing effective tools and strategies to identify key issues in fostering an intensification of regional and sub-regional cooperation for the purposes of preventing and combating human trafficking in the Asia-Pacific region.

UNESCAP recognizes the need to focus on women’s economic empowerment as one essential element in achieving gender equality. UNESCAP has been training women’s cooperatives, women small and medium entrepreneurs and associations of women entrepreneurs to develop and strengthen their own businesses. We have also assisted these groups to develop their capacity to operate e-business. Closing the gender digital divide is UNESCAP’s another priority. We have been promoting gender-responsive ICT capacity development and policy formulation.

What has been central to UNESCAP’s successful initiatives to promote women’s empowerment and gender equality is the multi-stakeholder approach which involved a number of closely connected partnerships with governments, civil society organizations, international development organizations, and most importantly, women and men themselves. Gender mainstreaming will not work without commitments and ownership expressed at every stage and by every one involved in the endeavour.

The Beijing Conference was a critical milestone in the advancement of women. Much progress has been made since then. However, the imperatives of making gender equality and empowerment of women a reality remain as strong, if not stronger, as at the time of the Beijing Conference. 10 years on, let us move forward with a renewed commitment and a sense of pride for what we have achieved so far. Listening to your deliberations in the last three days, I am convinced that we are making further decisive steps towards our goals.

Thank you.

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