UNUnited Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Press Release

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Ten years after Beijing Conference: Are women better off?


Geneva, 10 December 2004 - Ten years after the Beijing Platform for Action was adopted at the Fourth Conference on Women, has the status of women really changed? Are women better off in Europe, North America, Russia and Central Asia? Has there been any breakthrough in mainstreaming gender into economic policies? How to make budgetary mechanisms more sensitive to gender? How liberalization affected women’s jobs in Eastern Europe and CIS? Are women losers in pension reforms? What has been done to address the dramatic increase in trafficking of women?

Those are some of the questions which will be addressed by the Regional Preparatory Meeting for the 10-year Review of Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in the Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, on 14-15 December 2004 (see programme).

The meeting will be chaired by Canada and will focus on three areas of concern covered by the Beijing Platform for Action, which are of particular relevance for the UNECE region: (i) women and economy (employability, gender budgets, social protection); (ii) institutional mechanisms to promote gender equality; and (iii) trafficking in the context of migratory movements. On the first day, the high-level panel will provide an overview of the situation in the region and key challenges ahead.

For each of these themes the main objective of the meeting will be to review progress achieved in the UNECE member countries since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action. It will highlight good practices and remaining challenges in these key areas. In addition, UNECE member States will have an opportunity to discuss emerging issues in the context of the changing socio-economic and geopolitical situation in the region.

The outcome of the meeting will take the form of Chairperson’s conclusions. It will constitute the contribution of the UNECE region to the global 10-year Review of the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, which will take place on the occasion of a special session of the Commission on the Status of Women (New York, March 2005).

The meeting is organized in close cooperation with other organizations and institutions active on gender issues in the UNECE region, particularly the European Commission, UNDP, UNIFEM, Council of Europe and OSCE. Furthermore, an active involvement of civil society in this event is expected.

For further information, please contact:

Ewa Ruminska-Zimny
Coordinator, Beijing +10 Regional Meeting
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
Palais des Nations – Office 329-1
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 16 98
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 00 36
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.unece.org/oes/gender/beijing10.htm

Ref: ECE/GEN/04/P13