Statement by Mr.
Jose Antonio Ocampo
Under-Secretary-General
for Economic and Social Affairs
48th
session of the Commission on the Status of Women
1 March 2004
Madam
President,
Madam
Chairperson,
Distinguished
delegates,
Colleagues
Ladies
and gentlemen
It
gives me great pleasure to address the Commission on the Status of Women for
the first time in my capacity as Under-Secretary-General for Economic and
Social Affairs. I would like to begin by congratulating you, Madame
Chairperson, and the other members of the Bureau, on your effective
inter-sessional preparations for the forty-eight session of the Commission,
which I am sure will be highly successful. I extend my warmest greetings to the
distinguished Members and Observers of this important body. Please be assured
of the fullest cooperation and assistance of the Department of Economic and
Social Affairs in your work.
This
Commission has had a long and distinguished history in promoting gender
equality and the empowerment of women, dating back to its creation in 1946. It played a critical role in
preparing for and following up the four global conferences on women, in Mexico
in 1975, in Copenhagen in 1980, in Nairobi in 1985 and in Beijing in 1995, as
well as in the special session of the General Assembly to follow-up on
implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 2000. The
Commission will have an important role in the review and appraisal of
implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the
outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, mandated
as part of its multi-year programme of work at its forty-ninth session in 2005.
I
would like to congratulate the Commission on the considerable attention given
to enhancing the opportunities for interactive exchange on national experience
in promoting gender equality during its sessions, as evidenced in the two
expert panels on the themes before the Commission, as well as the High-level
Round Table organized in collaboration with the Statistical Commission. I also
note the keen interest in the work of the Commission with the high levels of
participation from Capitals, the significant representation of United Nations
entities and the large numbers of non-government organizations participating in
your work. The almost 170 panels, workshops, exhibitions and other events in
the context of the Commission over the coming two weeks illustrates the
relevance and importance of your agenda at global, regional and national
levels.
In
the context of its catalytic role on gender mainstreaming, the Commission on
the Status of Women has over the past decade made a significant contribution to
the preparatory processes of international conferences that have led to the
development of a comprehensive and
holistic global development agenda. As a result of the work of the Commission,
the contribution of the global conferences on women, as well as the efforts of
civil society, gender perspectives have become increasingly recognized as
integral to development efforts in all areas. The effectiveness of these
efforts can be seen in the outcomes of some of the recent major events, such as
the Second World Assembly on Ageing in 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (2002), and the International Conference on Financing for
Development (2002) as well as the World Summit on the Information Society
(2003). Having made progress in bringing attention to gender equality in the
outcomes, the challenge now is to ensure that in the implementation and
follow-up consistent attention is given to gender perspectives, and that the
agenda for gender equality in these areas is further advanced. In addition,
despite the significant advances in these and other areas over the past decade,
the gaps and challenges to gender equality and the empowerment of women in many
other areas remain extremely serious.
The
opportunity for review and appraisal provided in the forty-ninth session of the
Commission on the Status of Women should be utilized to assess progress in
implementation, through exchange on achievements, good practice and lessons
learned at national level, with involvement of all relevant stakeholders, in
keeping with the General Assembly resolution 57/270B on coordinated and
integrated follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences
and summits in the economic and social fields. A challenge will be to link the
review and appraisal in the Commission with the review of the overall framework
of the Millennium Declaration, also planned for 2005. The Millennium Declaration
identified the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women as
effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate
development that is truly sustainable. It is positive that gender equality has
been highlighted as one Millennium Development Goal, but it is critical to
ensure that gender perspectives are identified and addressed in all the
Millennium Development Goals. This is not only important for the promotion of
gender equality but also essential for the achievement of all other goals. The
review of the Millennium Declaration in 2005 provides a unique opportunity to
strengthen the focus on implementation, targets and indicators in the area of
gender equality, within the framework of the global commitments made in the
Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action. This Commission should play a
key role in ensuring the gender perspectives are integral to the review process
in 2005.
The
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), which I head, has a critical
role in relation to intergovernmental processes, as it services several
functional commissions of the ECOSOC, including the Commission for Sustainable
Development, the Statistical Commission, the Commission on Population and
Development and the Commission on Sustainable Development. I will be working to
ensure greater collaboration between the secretariats of the functional
commissions. An important part of the mission of DESA is to promote an
integrated and coordinated approach to economic and social development. A
critical element is clearly integrating the social objectives into economic
policy-making, as key to achieving inclusive development. As I pointed out in
my statement to the Third Committee last year, the challenge is to ensure that
growth is equitable, inclusive, pro-development and supportive of equality
between women and men. In order to reduce extreme poverty, enhance social
integration and achieve gender equality, we must be able to reconcile economic
growth, employment generation and social and gender equality policies, within a
consistent macroeconomic framework.
I
would like to commend the efforts of the Commission on the Status of Women to
work collaboratively with other functional commissions. The High-level Round
Table at this session is a good example of such collaboration. The Commission
has also had the practice over the past few years to provide an input to the
ECOSOC high-level segment and the Commission has before it a Note by the
Secretariat on Resources mobilization and enabling environment for poverty
eradication in the context of the implementation of the Programme of Action for
Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010, which could be used as an
input to the high-level segment of the 2004 session of the Economic and Social
Council. Such coordination and collaboration, as called for in General Assembly
resolution 57/270B, is critical for the dynamic development of
intergovernmental processes.
The
Commission has before it at its forty-eighth session, a broad range of issues,
including the role of men and boys in achieving gender equality; the equal
participation of women in conflict prevention, management and conflict
resolution and in post-conflict peace-building; gaps and challenges in relation to statistics for measuring
progress in implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly;
and communications on the human rights of women. You will also be considering a
number of important aspects related to the future work of the Commission,
including working methods, the preparations for the review and appraisal in
2005 and the future of the communications procedure.
The
two themes under consideration by the Commission are critical for the future
work in promoting gender equality. Gender equality concerns women and men and
the relations between them and cannot be achieved by women alone. Men need to
be actively involved in the processes of change for gender equality and should
provide strong leadership in all the areas to be discussed over the coming two
weeks. It is important to identify the positive efforts already made by men and
boys in many contexts and to find ways to encourage and support other men to
understand the value of gender equality and to become active in its promotion.
Conflict
and insecurity have devastating consequences for women and girls and for gender
equality, as was well outlined in the Secretary-General's study on women, peace
and security and the Secretary-General's report presented to the Security
Council in 2002. Security Council resolution 1325 has been path breaking in
clearly setting out the gender perspectives on peace and security and
identifying an agenda for change. This Commission will make an invaluable contribution
and complement the work already done, by focusing on the two critical areas of
peace accords and peace processes and women's participation in elections in
post-conflict situations.
The
Department of Economic and Social Affairs will endeavor to incorporate the
outcomes of the Commission into our ongoing work and will support the efforts
of our partners at national level in this regard. We will also encourage other
United Nations entities to give full consideration to the recommendations of
the Commission in their work, including in the context of the Executive
Committee on Economic and Social Affairs which I chair.
I
believe the discussions at this Commission will be very interesting and the
outcomes relevant and useful. I wish you success in your deliberations, and
reiterate the full support of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs to
your important work.