Press Release No. G/30/99
26 October 1999
BANGKOK(United Nations Information Services) -- Countries in the ESCAP region were today urged to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
"It is with regret that we note here that of the remaining 27 States which have not yet ratified the Convention, a large proportion comes from the ESCAP region. We would urge these States to ratify the Convention, if possible before the Beijing + 5 special session", said a senior UN official at a regional meeting today. One of the goals of the Beijing Platform for Action, adopted in 1995 at the Fourth Wold Conference on Women, was universal ratification of the Convention.
The four-day High-level Intergovernmental Meeting to Review Regional Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) brings together over 800 representatives from governments, NGOs, international agencies and organizations, advocacy groups, private sector organization and professional bodies.
"This is the time not just to compliment our achievements but rather to look into where we fall short of implementation. We must evaluate the progress made in the Asia-Pacific region since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action by the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995," said H.E. Khunying Supatra Masdit, Minister to the Prime Minister's Office of the Royal Thai Government in her opening address.
"By freely exchanging views, experiences, and lessons learned in the past five years, we will be taking another crucial step to increase cooperation among international community, governments and civil society to strengthen partnership and networks for the empowerment of women," said the Minister.
The Platform based on a consensus of 189 countries is an agenda for fundamental change in 12 areas of concern for achieving gender equality. These 12 "critical areas" are poverty alleviation, education and training, health, violence against women, armed conflict, economic opportunity, power and decision-making, institutional mechanism, human rights, the media, the environment and the girl child.
"In recent years, we cannot speak of the Asian and Pacific women without linking them to with the impacts of globalization and the economic crisis", said the Minister.
The process of globalization has performed valuable service in the integration, liberalization and interdependence of the world economy, said the Minister, and warned that it could also have negative impact on the social and economic status of women. "This has resulted in the expansion of the network of organized crime and the growth of the illegal sex business and the trans-boundary trafficking, particularly of women and children?".
The Minister added that the traditional notion of "security" and "development" has to be changed due to the recent economic crisis.
"Security is now closely linked to economic and social progress. These concepts must focus on people-how they live and exercise their choices. The people; women and men, must be provided equally with all the basic necessities of life, including their basic rights and freedom".
In his opening statement to the Meeting, Mr. Adrianus Mooy, Executive Secretary of ESCAP said that we can take great pride in what the region has achieved during the last half century. The achievements, Mr. Mooy said, includes the heroic efforts of countless brave men and women to fashion a peaceful and prosperous future for all the inhabitants of this vast and diversified region.
"This is also the time to reflect on the lost opportunities and what we have failed to do which we could have done with a little more effort. Let us remind ourselves that women constitute an incredible resource or any nation, and many nations remain unnecessarily impoverished by neglecting that resource", said Mr. Mooy.
The Meeting also heard a statement by Ms. Carolyn Hannan, Principal Social Affairs Officer, Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI), United Nations who said that consolidating the gains made so far and further promoting the full implementation of the Beijing commitments remain the central goals of the gender equality agenda at the national, regional and international levels.
The Intergovernmental Meeting constitutes the first regional preparatory activity for the special session of the General Assembly entitled, "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century", to be held in New York in June 2000 to review implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action globally.
The four-day Intergovernmental Meeting is being held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok from 26-29 October 1999.