WORLD
UN to hold Global Conference on Women in 2015
Baku, March 9 (AZERTAC). As the race towards gender equality moves at an exceedingly slow pace, the United Nations is calling for a major international conference on women in 2015 - 20 years after a landmark meeting in Beijing in 1995. The proposal, made jointly by Secretary-General Ban Ki moon and the President of the General Assembly Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz Al- Nasser of Qatar, will go before the 193-member General Assembly for final approval. The announcement coincided with International Women`s Day which was being commemorated worldwide on Mar. 8. "Given that women make up half of humanity (out of a total population of over seven billion), and given the importance and relevance of women`s issues for global progress, it is high time that such a world conference is convened," said the statement released Thursday.
"It is all the more important because of the enormous changes the world is going through, with both positive and other implications for women." This will be the fifth major international conference focusing solely on women. The last one, the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, adopted a Platform of Action which is still in the process of being implemented.
Meanwhile, the joint statement released Thursday said the world body reached its "high point" with the establishment of UN Women in 2011 which "can be meaningfully substantiated with a global programme focusing on women that can be articulated at the fifth Conference." The president of the General Assembly and the secretary-general believe that a world conference on women could review the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The meeting could also cover aid effectiveness, food security, trafficking, drugs, migration, environment, climate change and information technology, all of which make an impact on women, and on nations and societies as a whole. "In all these matters, the role and involvement of young people, particularly women, would add an important dimension that was not properly reflected at earlier conferences." the statement declared.