Fourth World Conference on Women    			WOM/BEI/28
Main Committee    						11 September 1995
2nd Meeting (PM)


    MAIN COMMITTEE HEARS DELEGATIONS OBJECT TO NON-AVAILABILITY

    OF ITS DOCUMENTATION IN ALL OFFICIAL UN LANGUAGES


    Yielding to a request from non-English-speaking delegations objecting to
the fact that the texts they were being asked to consider were not available in
all six United Nations official languages,the Main Committee of the Fourth World
Conference on Women this afternoon cut short a meeting at which it was expected
to hear preliminary reports from its subsidiary groups on the status of their
work on the Conference's draft Declaration and draft Platform for Action.

    At the outset of its meeting this afternoon, the representative of
Mauritius, speaking on behalf of French-speaking delegations, protested the fact
that the texts awaiting Main Committee's scrutiny were unavailable in all six
official languages of the United Nations.  Failure to provide crucial
documentationin all languages threatened the integrity of the Conference's work,
she said.Her views were supported by Spain, on behalf of the European Union, as
well as France, Benin, Mauritania and Guatemala.  Tunisia asked whether the
Secretariat could not make the texts available in all languages by tomorrow, 12
September.

    The Committee was to examine a statement elaborated by the United Nations
Secretariat on financial and budgetary implications of the Platform for Action
(A/CONF.177/L.6).  The informal proposals represent texts agreed on in the
various working groups during the course of their work and forwarded to the Main
Committee for its approval.  Those texts were at present available only in
English.

    The Committee Chairman, Patricia Licuanan (Philippines), indicated that
this was standard practice at international conferences, adding that versions in
all the Organization's official languages would be available before the close of
the Conference. (The six official languages of the United Nations are Arabic,
Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.)

    (more)

Main Committee    			- 2 -			Press Release WOM/BEI/28
2nd Meeting (PM)    						11 September 1995


    Following consultations between the Chairman and the Secretariat, it was
initially proposed that translations of the amended texts be provided tomorrow,
but that in the meantime delegates might avail themselves of the interpreters'
services in order to follow the amendments before them.  That solution was
rejected, however, after the representative of Benin and several other non-
English-speaking delegations refused to pass judgement on texts unavailable in
written form.  Representatives added that they could scarcely be expected to
express their reservations over the amendments before them -- as formally
requested by the Main Committee Chairman at the outset of the meeting -- before
those amendments could actually be approved by the Committee.

    After further consultations with the Secretariat, the Chairman announced
that the amended texts would be made available to the Committee tomorrow.
Meanwhile, she said, the time set aside for this afternoon's scheduled meeting
would be more fruitfully spent in a continuation of Working Group deliberations
and informal consultations.  The meeting was then adjourned and representatives
moved into informal consultations.

    The Main Committee is charged with negotiating agreement on the language of
the Conference Declaration and the Platform for Action, which is then to be
forwarded to the Conference Plenary.

    The Committee is scheduled to meet again tomorrow, 12 September, at a time
to be announced.




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