***************************************************************************
The electronic version of this document has been prepared at the Fourth
World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
Secretariat.
***************************************************************************
AS WRITTEN


Boutros Boutros-Ghali
ADDRESS TO THE FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN 

Madam President,
Mrs. Mongella,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,


My first words are words of welcome: welcome to all of you. 
I wish you every success in your deliberations and in your work. 

Secondly, words of thanks: on behalf of the international community, and 
of all of us present today, I thank the Chinese Government and people 
for their generous and gracious hospitality. 

It is both fitting, and significant, that China is host to this historic 
global Conference. 

China is, of course, a permanent member! of the Security Council China 
takes part, therefore, in the work of the United Nations for the 
maintenance of international peace and security. By welcoming us all 
here this week, China is making clear its intention to play its full 
part in the international community across the entire range of its most 
important work. I see this Conference, therefore, as cementing a new era 
in the relationship between China and the United Nations. 

This is an important milestone on the road to the future. 
China has the resources, natural and human, to contribute significantly
to global progress. China has the ability to take an active and 
enthusiastic part In the Organisation’s work toward sustainable 
development, particularly in Africa. 

Without the full and active support and participation of (China the 
United Nations cannot act as a truly universal forum. China's decision 
to be the host for this major event in modern life is a symbol of its 
future place in the world, and that of all the- 3 nations of Asia within 
the international community. 

Madame President, I ask you to convey to all the Chinese people our 
message of thanks and appreciation. 

Thanks are also due to the delegations of Member States. This Conference 
is the product of many years of hard preparatory work. I know what a 
great effort you have undertaken to make this Conference a success. 
And thanks are due to the organisers of this Conference. In particular, 
we thank the Secretary-General of the Fourth World Conference on Women, 
Gertrude Mongella, and her team. 

This global conference is unique.
It brings a new universality, and therefore a new legitimacy, to the 
deliberations of the international community. Gathered here is a deep 
and rich representation of governments, of women's groups, of the 
organisations of civil society. 

There is evident here, in all its diversity and vibrancy, the new 
partnership in international life which has been forged between 
governmental and non-governmental organisations. We see here the new 
legitimacy of the organisations of civil society as actors on the 
international scene.

The effectiveness of our work -- both here, and in the future --
will depend to a considerable extent on our willingness to 
be open and receptive to ideas and suggestions coming from those 
organisations. 

This is an historic gathering: not only because of its membership and 
participation, but also because of the subject of our discussions. ~ 

Securing the equality of women and men, in law and in fact, is the great 
political project of the twentieth century. A crucial role in the 
realisation of that project has been entrusted to the United Nations. We 
are meeting to take that great enterprise forward into the twenty-first 
century and beyond: to consolidate the legal advances, to build on the 
political understandings, and to commit ourselves to action. 

As the millennium approaches, we look back over a century of 
unprecedented social and political change on our planet. No country, no 
people, has been untouched by its great upheavals. Some have already 
concluded that the twentieth century was a dark age in the history of 
humanity. No-one can deny that its wars, its struggles, were 
characterised by great violence and enormous human suffering. But out of 
that suffering came also a new spirit: a spirit of hope, and a resolve 
that there should be change.

The founding of the United Nations, fifty years ago, was one achievement 
of that new spirit. Then, the world looked back: to seek the lessons to 
be learned, and the mistakes to be avoided, after the cataclysm of world 
war. And the world looked forward -- not simply to re-construct a 
shattered international community, but to build a new and better one. 

The recognition of the dignity and worth of women, and of the essential 
contribution of women, on an equal basis with men, to life in all its 
aspects, was to be an essential element of that better world. 

Thus States made, in the United Nations Charter, a clear commitment to 
the rights of women: 

" ... to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and 
worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women ... " 

This was more than a statement of high ideals about the
world of the future. It was a commitment to ensure that men and women 
have and enjoy the same rights. And -- unlike any other commitment made 
in the Charter -- this was a commitment which could be measured.

And it pointed the way forward in other ways, too. That commitment was 
inserted in the Charter because women's non-governmental organisations 
worked with government representatives to put it there. 

The then First Lady -- Eleanor Roosevelt -- of the United States was 
instrumental in that process. 

Since its very founding, the United Nations has actively encouraged 
Member States to honour their commitment. 

In the early years, from 1945 to 1962, the United Nations concentrated 
on securing equality for women under the law. In 1946, the General 
Assembly established the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on
the Status of women. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted
in 1948. f In these ways, the United Nations sought to build on the legal
basis for the equality of women set forth in the Charter. 

In a second phase, from 1963 to 1975, the international community began
to recognise the importance of development in achieving the advancement
of women. The focus of the Organisation’s work included the economi
 and social realities of women's daily lives. In 1967, the Declaration
on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women was adopted.

 In 1975 the first global conference on the status of women was convened 
in Mexico City. It proclaimed 1975 as International Women's Year. The 
Conference led to the elucidation of a three-part theme -- equality, 
development and peace. This became the basis of the Organisation’s work 
in the upcoming years, and of our work today.

Between 1976 and 1985, the United Nations observed the
Decade for Women. The Decade was the third phase of United Nations 
work for women. This period brought tile crucial new recognition of 
women as active agents of, and contributors to the development process. 

1979 was a landmark year. The United Nations General Assembly adopted, 
that year, the Conventional on the Elimination of All Forms of 
Discrimination Against Women. It was-the first international legal 
instrument to define discrimination against women. It was, in other 
words,  an international bill of human rights for women. But it also 
stressed the importance of action, including action in the fields of 
employment and education, to ensure Women’s progress in fact as well as 
in law. The Decade for Women's major conferences -- Copenhagen in 198û, 
Nairobi in 1985 -- offered a forum in which women’s organisations had a 
voice in shaping the work of the- 10 United Nations The Decade also 
brought agreement on the need for practical measures to improve women's 
lives. 

The adoption of the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies for the 
Advancement of Women to the Year 2000 was another milestone in the 
advancement of women. They included guidelines for national measures to 
promote women's participation in efforts to promote peace, and education 
for peace. They singled out for special attention the need for measures 
to help women in special situations of distress. 

Over the past decade, we have seen a fourth phase of United Nations 
activity for women. A continuum of global conferences has worked to 
define the new global agenda. These conferences have made it clear that 
no progress is possible without the full and equal participation of 
women and men: in promoting peace, in safeguarding the environment, in 
securing sustainable development, in human rights, in population, in 
health, in education, in government, in the home, and in civil society. 

The 1990 World .Summit for Children established goals for health, 
education and nutrition for women and children.

The role of women in safeguarding the environment, and in promoting
sustainable development, was recognised at the United Nations Conference
on the Environment and Sustainable Development, held at Rio de Janeiro.
Women were seen as having a central role in implementing Agenda 21.

The Vienna World Conference on Human Rights reaffirmed the universality
of human rights. It was understood that women should exercise the same
rights as men on the basis of equality.

The Cairo International Conference on Population and development recognised
the central role of women in population and development. Its consensus
language reflected a concept of reproductive rights that is firmly based
on human rights instruments. It also set forth the linkage between women's
empowerment and development.

The World summit for Social Development, meeting at Copenhagen in 1995, 
adopted a Declaration and Programme of Action. One of its central 
principles was the full integration and participation of women in 
spurring social development and eradicating poverty. 

Today, we celebrate fifty years of unceasing effort, spearheaded by the 
United Nations, to advance the cause of women. 

One of the themes of our conference is equality. Equality before the law 
is being achieved in many countries. But equality in fact remains an 
elusive goal in all countries. Equality of dignity is far from being 
achieved, with discrimination on the basis of gender still widespread. 
Real and concrete steps are still required -- to ensure equality of 
opportunity in education, and equality of access to health systems, to 
jobs, and to political power. 

Women work longer hours, for less pay and in lower status jobs, than men 
in almost every country. Seventy per cent of the 1.3 billion people 
living in poverty in the world are women. Women and their dependent 
children form the majority of the 23 million refugees and 26 million 
internally displaced persons in the world. 

When the Charter was signed, no State had elected a woman as head of 
state or government. Since then, a total of twenty-four women have been 
elected to head states or governments. But there is far to go before we 
have equality between women and men in senior government posts. 

In 1994, there were no women ministers in twenty-five States. Overall, 
only 5.7 per cent of the world's cabinet ministers were women. In no 
country were women in the majority as elected members of parliament.

There were exceptions: in Sweden there was parity between men and women 
in ministerial posts. The Caribbean is the only region where more than 
20 per cent of senior government officials are women. 

In the United Nations itself, progress is being made. As Secretary 
general, I have appointed women to head several UN programmes, bringing 
the total number of women executive heads to five: 

The General Assembly took an historic step recently when it elected the 
first woman judge to the International Court of Justice. 

I have given clear instructions that the goals of the Charter for gender 
equality in the United Nations itself should be strictly followed. I 
have approved action plans within the Organization to foster a gender-
sensitive working environment and to ensure that the Organization 
addresses the gender aspects in all of its work. 

The role of women in peace is another theme of this
conference. In United Nations peace missions, women remain a
largely untapped resource. Missions should be designed to take account 
of the extraordinary potential of women in crisis situations.

Violence against women seems to be increasing. It should receive the 
unanimous and firm condemnation of the entire international community. 

National studies in ten countries estimate that between seventeen per 
cent and thirty-eight per cent of women have been physically assaulted 
by a partner. An estimated 100 million girls suffer genital mutilation. 

More women are today suffering directly from the effects of war and 
conflict than ever before in history. There is a deplorable trend 
towards the organised humiliation of women, including the crime of mass 
rape. 

We will press for international legal action against those who 
perpetrate organised violence against women in time of conflict. 

And another theme of this conference is development. The international 
community has recognised the great potential of women as agents of 
consensus and peaceful change. The challenge is to harness the energy, 
ideas and skills of women, not only in the re-building of formerly war-
torn societies, but also in promoting conditions of economic and social 
development generally. 

The burden of rural women in developing countries is well-known. The 
United Nations, in Geneva in 1992 convened the first international 
conference on rural women and development. We should be able to say of 
our development efforts, that not only is development necessary for 
rural women, but what is good for rural women is good for developmental 

This perception has grown and become widely understood. Women -- their 
lives, their roles, their aspirations -- are the key to development in 
every dimension. Equality, peace and development must reach every woman 
on earth. When the rights and hopes of women in all these fields are 
advanced, so will all human society come to benefit. 

This Conference is a milestone in the history of United Nations work for 
women. It is the culmination of a chain of global conferences. It 
embraces the issues covered by all of them. 

This Conference is a call to action. 

The Platform is comprehensive, and challenging. It takes an integrated 
approach to a wide range of issues. It cuts across all of the concerns -
- economic, social, cultural, and political -
of the united Nations system.

As we go forward, the partnership between government and civil society 
will be crucial. But the Platform will not become reality unless that 
partnership now extends into the implementation stage. 

Neither government decrees nor the isolated acts of small groups of 
citizens will be enough to make the Platform work. Both must work hand 
in hand. The partnership must be mobilised at all levels; the family, 
the local community, and the State. 

Government can garner resources. Civil society can reach down to engage 
all members of society. The movement's theme -- "think globally, act 
locally" -- is more relevant than ever. 

There is a growing awareness that attitudes as well as behaviour "- both 
of individuals and of institutions must change to take account of the 
real rights and real needs of women.

Let us not forget; the progress we make is measurable and it will be 
measured. Future generations will hold us accountable. They will look 
for concrete signs that Beijing, in 1995, was followed by real action. 

Let us not disappoint them. Let us not disappoint ourselves. Together we 
must follow our words with our deeds. 

We must take up the cause of the world's women. 

Thank you.