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5 June 2000

With us today is Ms. Yakin Erturk, Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women. She is here to answer any substantive questions you may have concerning the special session.

As Fred told you at the outset, the General Assembly convened this morning for its twenty-third Special Session, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”.

Over the next five days, Member States will review and appraise the progress made towards implementing the Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women. At that 1995 Conference, held in Beijing, China, Governments committed themselves to ensuring that a gender perspective would be reflected in all their policies and programmes, and they adopted the Platform for Action which spelled out actions to be taken, at all levels, in 12 critical areas, to remove existing obstacles to women’s advancement.

At the conclusion of the Special Session, on Friday, 9 June, Governments will adopt an outcome document containing further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Elected as President of the Special Session was the current Assembly President, Dr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Information and Broadcasting of Namibia.

Addressing the Special Session, the President said it was most timely and fitting that Member States should turn their collective attention to reviewing the progress made since they met to discuss action for gender equality, development and peace in Beijing in 1995. The Special Session offered an ideal opportunity to assess how far Member States had come in fulfilling their promises, to address the shortcomings, to face the new challenges and to renew their commitments. The international community could then move forward with renewed dedication and energy to achieve the goal of women’s equality and empowerment in all walks of life, particularly in the developing countries.

There was still a long way to go in achieving the goals set out in the Beijing Platform for Action, the President said, but he believed that the time for urgent and speedy progress had never been more propitious. At the same time, Governments’ policies on gender equality and the implementation of the Platform could not be an afterthought or remain simply at the level of political pronouncements or election ploy. Resources for gender equality goals must be mobilized and utilized. Resources for gender equality must be a visible part of international development cooperation.

The President concluded by saying: “This Special Session must strive to live up to the expectations of billions of women in the world…. Our deliberations this week will encourage and strengthen the devotion of all those struggling but brave women. Let us not disappoint them. We have the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as our inspiration and shield in the face of all the odds and uncertainties. The victory is certain.” (Copies of the President’s statement are available in room 378.)

Addressing the Special Session, the Secretary-General said that five ago, delegates and NGOs went to Beijing to right wrongs and promote rights; to show the world that when women suffer injustice, we all suffer; that when women are empowered, we are all better off. There had been progress since then, but much remained to be done. All the many challenges could be met only if women were enabled to build on the best this new world has to offer, rather than condemn them to suffer the worst of it. That meant, above all, that women must be educated and enabled to play their part in the global economy.

Study after study had confirmed that there is no development strategy more beneficial to society as a whole – women and men alike – than one which involves women as central players, the Secretary-General said. And he believed that implementing the Beijing Platform would be crucial to achieving all the Millennium goals he had asked the world’s leaders to adopt on behalf of all the world’s people.

The Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women acting as the preparatory committee for the Special Session, Ms. Christine Kapalata (United Republic of Tanzania), introduced the Commission’s report (document A/S-23/2 and Adds. 1 and 2 (Parts I to IV) on the intergovernmental process.

A total of 31 speakers are inscribed for today’s debate, among them, the Vice-Presidents of the Gambia and Gabon, and the Prime Minister of Namibia. The Journal lists the names and titles of all the speakers.

Over the next five days, 179 Governments will address the Special Session in plenary, along with 26 observers and heads of United Nations programmes, specialized agencies and other entities in the UN system, for a total of 205 speakers. Time permitting, a limited number of non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council may make statements in the debate in plenary.

Statements will also be made in the Special Session’s Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole, established by the Assembly and which started its work at 11 a.m. in Conference Room 2. Ms. Kapalata (United Republic of Tanzania) was elected Chairperson.

The Assembly adopted organizational arrangements for the Special Session, adhering to the same membership as the fifty-fourth session for the Vice-Presidents, the Chairpersons of the Main Committees, the Credentials Committee and the General Committee. The Assembly also took decisions concerning the participation of observers, including Palestine, representatives of UN programmes, specialized agencies and other entities in the UN system, non-governmental organizations and the Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

There will be 10 plenary meetings over the five-day period, with two meetings per day starting promptly at 10 a.m. and at 3 p.m.

The Assembly adopted the 10-item provisional agenda (A/S-23/1) recommended by the preparatory committee, and decided to consider all the items directly in plenary. At the same time, it allocated items 8 and 9 to the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole. Under those two items, the Ad Hoc Committee will consider a text entitled “Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform of Action” (document A/S-23/2/Add. 2, Parts I to IV).

In one document before the Special Session (A/S-23/6), the Secretary-General informs the President that 38 Member States are in arrears under Article 19 of the Charter,

I would like to draw your attention to Information note/Rev.1 of 19 May 2000, on arrangements for the Special Session, in particular to section G, on media arrangements and services.

Prior to presiding over the Special Session, the Assembly President, Dr. Gurirab, met at 9:30 a.m. with Prime Minister Hage Geingob of Namibia. He will attend the luncheon, at 1:15 p.m., hosted by the Secretary-General on the occasion of the Special Session. At 5 p.m., the President will meet with Madame Wu Yi, State Councillor of China. And at 6:30 p.m., he will host a reception, on the occasion of the Women 2000 Special Session.

Today is World Environment Day. In a message to mark the occasion, the Assembly President said: “If generations to come are to enjoy this Environment Millennium, the time to act to save our planet is now. We have only one Earth. Let us, therefore, commit ourselves to ecologically sustainable development and pledge to preserve Planet Earth as a healthy and precious environment for generations of today and generations yet unborn.” That message was issued in Press Release GA/SM/170 of 2 June.