1. In its resolution 54/142 of 17 December 1999 on preparations for the special session of the General Assembly entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century", the General Assembly encouraged all regional commissions to carry out activities in support of the preparations for the special session, inter alia, through holding preparatory meetings to ensure a regional perspective on implementation and on further actions and initiatives, and to make their reports available in 2000 to the Commission on the Status of Women acting as preparatory committee.
2. The following preparatory meetings were held in the five United Nations regions under the auspices of the regional commissions, in some cases as part of previously scheduled regional meetings:
(a) High-level intergovernmental meeting to review regional implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok, 26-29 October 1999);
(b) Sixth African regional conference on women to assess progress in the implementation of the Beijing and Dakar Platforms for Action (Addis Ababa, 22-26 November 1999);
(c) Second Arab meeting to follow up the Beijing Conference (Beirut, 12-15 December 1998);
(d) Economic Commission for Europe regional preparatory meeting on the 2000 review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (Geneva, 19-21 January 2000);
(e) Eighth regional conference on the integration of women into the economic and social development of Latin America and the Caribbean (Lima, 8-10 February 2000).
3. The results of those meetings will be issued as addenda (E/CN.6/2000/PC/6/Add.1 to Add.5) to the present document, in the form and language received by the Secretariat.