GENERAL ASSEMBLY
FIFTY FIFTH SESSION
Closing Statement
By
Ms. Angela E.V. King
Assistant Secretary-General
Special Adviser on Gender Issues and
Advancement of Women
10 October 2000
Distinguished delegates
Representatives of NGOs and agencies
Friends and colleagues,
On behalf on the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Regional Commissions, INSTRAW and UNIFEM, the specialized Agencies, funds and programmes, I wish to thank the Committee for its recognition and appreciation of the Secretariat’s work, particularly for the:
That Beijing +5 was a landmark in the journey along the road started in Mexico in 1975 and greatly accelerated by Nairobi and Beijing, has been clearly reaffirmed.
Your statements have recognized that the international community not only have been a blueprint for basic and far-reaching actions but updated with a set of actions and initiatives.
The Political Declaration and Outcome Document and the work that went into their crafting and final approval have been likened to the recent Sydney Olympics. It happened only because all participants worked in partnership whether Governments, the UN, specialized agencies, funds and programmes, including the BWI and WTO, other international and regional organizations, NGOs and civil society.
Together your interventions have highlighted the importance of decisions on globalization, deep poverty and their impact on women, on violence, trafficking, HIV/AIDS, women’s participation in decision-making and peace negotiations. You also spoke of the gender gap in the area of ICTs and an amazing set of actions some of you have taken at national level since June last, such as adoption of laws and establishment or reinforcement of national machinery.
What is also welcomed is the stress on gender mainstreaming, gender analysis, and gender budgeting in all policies and programmes, not just throughout international agencies, but especially at the Government level.
Recognition has been given to the importance of gender perspective in all aspects of development and political stability.
Several delegations, for example, reaffirmed the importance of gender issues in the work for the International Event on Financing for Development.
The forthcoming Open Discussion of the Security Council on 24 October to bring women fully into all peace activities, peace-building and post-conflict efforts in line with the Brahimi Report and the Windhoek Declaration shows a widening awareness of the need for gender mainstreaming in fora other than those dealing with social development issues.
In closing, I wish to thank you for the guidance and proposals you have given us on how to focus on implementation, particularly on the measurement for tracking implementation of the time-bound goals set in the Outcome Document for eliminating discrimination, for girls education and access to health and to strengthen CEDAW so that the Optional Protocol will live up to the expectations of women all over the world.
We look forward to working with you to strengthen the work of the Commission on the Status of Women and to implement the Beijing Platform for Action and the Political Declaration and Outcome Document so that sooner not later, gender equality goals will be fully achieved.