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6 JUNE 2000

The General Assembly is in day two of its twenty-third Special Session, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”.

Today, the Assembly is hearing a further 36 speakers, as Governments review and appraise the progress they have made towards implementing the Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995.  The Journal lists the names and titles of all the speakers.

The Platform sets out actions to be taken, at all levels, to remove obstacles to women’s advancement in 12 critical areas: poverty, education and training, health, violence, armed conflict, the economy, power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms for women’s advancement, human rights, the media, the environment and the girl child.

Informal consultations are continuing today in two parallel Working Groups of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole, on an outcome document entitled “Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action”.  All the parts of the document (A/S-23/2/Add. 2, Parts I to IV) can be found on the racks today.  Governments will adopt the outcome text at the conclusion of the Special Session, on 9 June.

Yesterday, after hearing statements by representatives of UN agencies and some non-governmental organizations, the Ad Hoc Committee divided into the two Working Groups to consider the outcome document.  Working Group I is dealing with three areas: part I, the  “Introduction”; part II, on “Achievements and obstacles in the implementation of the 12 critical areas of the Platform for Action”; and part III, on “Current challenges affecting the full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action”.  Working Group II has responsibility for part IV of the document, on “Actions and initiatives to overcome obstacles and to achieve the full and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action”.

Commenting on the progress being made in the Working Groups, the Chairperson of the Ad Hoc Committee, Ms. Christine Kapalata (United Republic of Tanzania), said that on the Introduction, agreement still had not been reached on two issues: reference to the report of the Fourth World Conference on Women; and to the sovereignty of Member States, the text of which is almost identical to paragraph 9 of the Platform for Action.

Concerning parts II and III, Ms. Kapalata said that contentious paragraphs -- on family, health and armed conflict -- had been sent to the Contact Group, whose task it is to craft language on which everyone can agree.  That group had made some headway yesterday, she said.

Overall, no paragraphs had been completely cleared in Working Group I, Ms. Kapalata added, but portions within paragraphs had been agreed.

As regards Working Group II, Ms. Kapalata said the mood was very positive, and that 23 paragraphs had been agreed.  Part IV constitutes the bulk of the outcome document.

Before presiding over this morning’s Special Session, its President, Dr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, met with the Minister for Equality of Portugal, Ms. Maria de Belem Roseira. At 11:30 a.m., he met with the First Lady of Egypt, Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, Chairperson of the National Council for Women.  At 2:45 p.m., the President will meet with the President of the Security Council for the month of June, Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France.  This afternoon, at 4:30, the President will meet with the President-elect of the 55th session of the General Assembly, Mr. Harri Holkeri, and with Ambassador Marjatta Rasi of Finland.