Fourth World Conference on Women	FWCW / 3
Beijing	30 August 1995


	PRESS RELEASE

	The United Nations and the Advancement of Women, 1945-1995:
	Sixth Volume in the "Blue Book" Series Issued
	

	BEIJING, 30 August, 1995 (U.N.) -- The United Nations 
Department of Public Information (DPI) has released a new 
book, The United Nations and the Advancement of Women, 1945-
1995, on the eve of the Fourth World Conference on Women in 
Beijing.  The sixth volume in the "Blue Book" series outlines 
United Nations efforts to promote women's rights and includes 
over 100 historic United Nations documents.

	The book features detailed chronologies of events and 
United Nations conferences and seminars designed to elevate 
the human rights of women to a prominent place on the 
international agenda.  As Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-
Ghali writes in his introduction, "No enduring solution to 
society's most threatening social, economic and political 
problems can be found without the full participation, and the 
full empowerment of the world's women."  

	As the book points out, four progressive phases are 
discernible in the evolution of the efforts to promote the 
advancement of women.  In the first period, from 1945 to 1962, 
the United Nations worked to secure women's legal equality.  
With the creation of the Commission on Human Rights and the 
Commission on the Status of Women in 1946, and the adoption of 
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the 
Organization began its work on behalf of women with a drive to 
establish the legal basis for the promotion of their equal 
rights.  As part of this effort, the United Nations embarked 
on a vast research and polling effort to assess the status of 
women worldwide, the results of which became the basis for 
global standards that were incorporated into international law 
through a series of treaties and conventions.

	During the second period, from 1963 to 1975, more and 
more governments responded to the United Nations by adopting 
laws and programmes to protect women's rights.  Impetus for 
this came in 1967 when the General Assembly adopted the 
Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against 
Women.  The Organization's focus broadened to encompass the 
economic and social realities of women's daily lives.  
Recognition grew among the international community that 
development was essential if women were to achieve equality. 

	The campaign for the advancement of women gathered 
momentum with the proclamation of 1975 as International 
Women's Year and the convening, that same year, of the first 
major conference on the status of women.  Held in Mexico City, 
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the World Conference of the International Women's Year helped 
mobilize women around the world, expanded the working 
relationship between the United Nations and NGOs and led to 
the elucidation of a three-part theme -- equality, development 
and peace -- which became the basis for the Organization's 
work for women in the years to follow.

	The third phase, from 1976-1985, coincided with the 
United Nations Decade for Women, a period which saw the 
international community undergo an important transformation in 
its understanding of the role of women and their essential 
contributions to the entire development process.  The 
undervaluation of women was identified as both a cause and an 
effect of underdevelopment, closely linked to such global 
problems as poverty, overpopulation, illiteracy, food 
shortages, malnutrition and poor health conditions.

	This period saw adoption by the General Assembly of the 
1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 
Discrimination against Women, a landmark in the struggle for 
women's rights.  Another watershed was reached in 1985 with a 
world conference on women in Nairobi, held to mark the end of 
the Decade for Women and assess its achievements.  Delegates 
adopted the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the 
Advancement of Women to the Year 2000, a blueprint for the 
future of women in all aspects of life. 

	In the fourth and current phase, from 1986 to the 
present, the post-cold-war era has allowed the United Nations 
to redouble its efforts in many areas of long-standing 
concern, among them the advancement of the status of women.  
United Nations institutions and mechanisms have been 
strengthened, and support for women has been woven into the 
mainstream efforts of all the Organization's agencies and 
bodies.  

	The book concludes that due to the efforts of the United 
Nations, Governments and NGOs, public acceptance and awareness 
of the rights of women has never been so widespread.  
Nevertheless, it says, much remains to be done.  In developed 
and developing countries alike, women suffer 
disproportionately from social disintegration, unemployment, 
environmental degradation and war.  And in many countries 
there is a vast gap between women's rights on paper and their 
actual experience.

	The United Nations and the Advancement of Women, 1945-
1995, will be on sale, in English and Chinese, at the Fourth 
World Conference on Women in Beijing.  It will also be on sale 
at the United Nations bookstores worldwide.  

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