****************************************************************************** This document has been made available in electronic format by the United Nations. Reproduction and dissemination of the document - in electronic and/or printed format - is encouraged, provided acknowledgement is made of the role of the United Nations in making it available. ****************************************************************************** UNITED NATIONS FOURTH WORLD Distr. CONFERENCE ON WOMEN GENERAL A/CONF.177/1 24 August 1995 Beijing, China 4-15 September 1995 ORIGINAL: ENGLISH PROVISIONAL AGENDA 1. Opening of the Conference. 2. Election of the President. 3. Adoption of the rules of procedure. 4. Adoption of the agenda and other organizational matters. 5. Election of officers other than the President. 6. Organization of work, including the establishment of the Main Committee. 7. Credentials of representatives to the Conference: (a) Appointment of the members of the Credentials Committee; (b) Report of the Credentials Committee. 8. General exchange of views: (a) Second review and appraisal of the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the year 2000; (b) Main conclusions and recommendations of regional preparatory conferences; (c) National priorities and commitments. 9. Platform for Action. 10. Adoption of the Declaration and the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women. 11. Adoption of the report of the Conference. Annotations 1. Opening of the Conference The Fourth World Conference on Women will be convened at the Beijing International Conference Centre (BICC) on Monday, 4 September 1995. 2. Election of the President Rule 6 of the provisional rules of procedure of the Conference (A/CONF.177/2) provides that the Conference shall elect a President from among the representatives of participating States. Rule 45 provides that all elections shall be held by secret ballot unless, in the absence of any objection, the Conference decides to proceed without taking a ballot when there is an agreed candidate or slate. 3. Adoption of the rules of procedure The provisional rules of procedure (A/CONF.177/2) were approved by the General Assembly in decision 49/482. Documentation Note by the Secretariat transmitting the provisional rules of procedure (A/CONF.177/2) 4. Adoption of the agenda and other organizational matters The provisional agenda set out in the present document was approved by the Commission on the Status of Women, acting as the preparatory body for the Conference, at its thirty-ninth session, on 6 April 1995. 5. Election of officers other than the President Under rule 6 of the provisional rules of procedure, the Conference shall elect, in addition to the President, 27 Vice-Presidents, and an ex officio Vice-President from the host country, a Rapporteur-General and the Chairpersons of the Main Committees established in accordance with rule 47. Those officials shall be elected on the basis of ensuring the representative character of the General Committee. The Conference may also elect such other officers as it deems necessary for the performance of its functions. 6. Organization of work, including the establishment of the Main Committee In its resolutions 45/129 and 46/98, the General Assembly endorsed Economic and Social Council resolution 1990/12, in which the Council recommended that a world conference on women should be held in 1995 and requested that the Commission on the Status of Women act as the preparatory body for the world conference. The organization of work proposed by the Commission envisaged two main committees. Following the thirty-ninth session of the Commission, the Chairperson and Bureau held further consultations, and an organization of work based on a single main committee was perceived to have a broad consensus. Accordingly, it is proposed that the Conference organize its work around a plenary, one main committee and two working groups. Rules 47 and 49 of the provisional rules of procedure provide that the Conference may establish one or more Main Committees, which may set up subcommittees or working groups, subject to the decision of the Plenary of the Conference. Under rule 49, the Conference may establish, in addition to the Main Committees, such committees and working groups as it deems necessary for the performance of its functions. According to rule 51, except as provided in rule 6 or otherwise decided, each subsidiary body shall elect its own officers. The provisional rules of procedure also provide for the appointment of a Credentials Committee (rule 4) and a General Committee (rules 10-12). A note by the Secretariat on organizational and procedural matters will be before the Conference for consideration. It will include a proposed timetable for the work of the Conference. The pre-Conference consultations, to take place on 2 and 3 September, are expected to make recommendations to the Conference on the basis of that note. Documentation Note by the Secretariat on organizational and procedural matters (A/CONF.177/3) 7. Credentials of representatives to the Conference: (a) Appointment of the members of the Credentials Committee Rule 4 of the provisional rules of procedure provides that a Credentials Committee of nine members shall be appointed at the beginning of the Conference and that its composition shall be based on that of the Credentials Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations at its forty-ninth session, which consisted of China, Fiji, Honduras, Namibia, Portugal, the Russian Federation, Suriname, Togo and the United States of America. (b) Report of the Credentials Committee In accordance with rule 4, the Credentials Committee shall examine the credentials of representatives and report to the Conference without delay. 8. General exchange of views: (a) Second review and appraisal of the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the year 2000 By its resolution 1987/18 on monitoring and review and appraisal of the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, the Economic and Social Council affirmed the appropriateness of a five-year cycle of longer-term review and appraisal to continue the cycle established by the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace. The first review and appraisal was conducted in 1990, by the Commission on the Status of Women and the Economic and Social Council, the results of which were adopted by the Council in its resolution 1990/15. By its resolution 36/8, the Commission on the Status of Women, acting as the preparatory body for the Conference, decided that the agenda of the Conference would include the second review and appraisal of the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the year 2000. In addition, the General Assembly, in its resolution 49/161, requested the Secretary-General to prepare a report for the Fourth World Conference on Women on the extent to which gender concerns had been included in the activities of the relevant human rights mechanisms of the United Nations, such as treaty monitoring bodies, rapporteurs and working groups. Moreover, the Commission on Human Rights, in its resolution 1995/85 on the elimination of violence against women, requested that the preliminary report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women be made available to the Conference, and the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, in its resolution 1994/30, requested that the Plan of Action for the Elimination of Harmful Traditional Practices affecting the Health of Women and Children be transmitted to the Conference. The requested reports are available to the Conference. Documentation Note by the Secretariat transmitting the report of the Secretary-General on the second review and appraisal of the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women (A/CONF.177/4) Note by the Secretariat transmitting the 1994 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development to the Conference (A/CONF.177/5) Note by the Secretariat transmitting the update of The World's Women: Trends and Statistics to the Conference (A/CONF.177/6) Report of the Secretary-General on progress achieved in the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (A/CONF.177/7) Report of the Secretary-General on the extent to which gender concerns have been included in the activities of the United Nations human rights mechanisms (A/CONF.177/9) Note by the Secretariat transmitting the preliminary report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, and the Plan of Action for the Elimination of Harmful Traditional Practices affecting the Health of Women and Children (A/CONF.177/10) (b) Main conclusions and recommendations of regional preparatory conferences The Commission on the Status of Women, acting as the preparatory body for the Conference in its resolution 36/8, considering the importance of activities for the advancement of women that had taken place at the regional level since International Women's Year and recognizing the necessity of providing for an exchange of national experiences and the elaboration of regional priorities and perspectives for the Fourth World Conference on Women, and to the year 2000, recommended that regional conferences already scheduled include in their agendas preparations for the World Conference and suggested that, in those regions that had not yet scheduled them, regional conferences to prepare for the World Conference be organized under the auspices of the corresponding regional commission. Regional conferences to prepare for the Fourth World Conference on Women were held in all five United Nations regions. Each of the conferences adopted a regional platform for action or programme for action. The results of these conferences, as well as of other United Nations conferences of the present decade, are before the Conference. Documentation Note by the Secretariat concerning the report of the Secretary-General transmitting the results of the regional and other international conferences (A/CONF.177/8) (c) National priorities and commitments In its resolution 35/4, the Commission on the Status of Women, acting as the preparatory body for the Conference, considered that the world conference on women should focus world attention on the situation of women and should result in a renewal of political commitment. In its resolution 38/10, the Commission invited Member States at the Fourth World Conference on Women to specify actions which they would take in their own countries to bring about change by the year 2000. At its thirty-ninth session, the Commission decided to include in the provisional agenda for the Fourth World Conference on Women an item on national priorities and commitments. Participating States are invited to make statements of national priorities and/or commitments, inter alia, by specifying actions which they will take in their own countries to bring about change by the year 2000, taking into account the Platform for Action (Commission resolution 39/1, annex). 9. Platform for Action The Commission on the Status of Women, acting as the preparatory body for the Conference, decided, in its resolution 36/8, that the final document of the Conference should be called Platform for Action. In its resolution 37/7, the Commission emphasized that the Platform for Action should be concise and accessible and should accelerate, through concerted and intensive action in the coming years, the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women in critical areas so that equality becomes a reality by the twenty-first century. In its decision 39/4, the Commission on the Status of Women decided to transmit to the Conference for its consideration the material for a draft declaration contained in an informal paper and the draft platform for action contained in documents E/CN.6/1995/L.17 and the relevant addenda, and the informal papers containing amendments thereto, as orally amended. By its decision 1995/225, the Economic and Social Council authorized the Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women to conduct open-ended informal consultations from 31 July to 4 August 1995 to further consider the draft platform for action of the Fourth World Conference on Women, specifically to consider portions of the text of the draft platform for action that remained within brackets. The Council decided that the results of such consultations would be transmitted in the form of a non-paper to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing for its pre-Conference consultations. The open-ended informal consultations were conducted by the Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations Headquarters from 31 July to 4 August 1995. The draft platform for action, together with the results of the informal consultations, is before the Conference. Documentation Note by the Secretary-General transmitting proposals for consideration in the preparation of a draft declaration and the draft platform for action (A/CONF.177/L.1) Note by the Secretary-General transmitting the report on the informal consultations convened by the Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women (A/CONF.177/L.3) 10. Adoption of the Declaration and the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women 11. Adoption of the report of the Conference The Conference will adopt a report of its activities, a draft of which will be prepared by the Rapporteur-General and presented to the Conference for its approval. -----