[Index]
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