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8 June 2000

The Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women, Ms. Yakin Erturk, is here to answer any substantive questions you may have concerning the Special Session.

The General Assembly is in the penultimate day of its twenty-third Special Session on “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”.  A further 37 speakers will be heard from today, as Governments continue their review and appraisal of the progress made towards women’s advancement, through their implementation of the Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995.

The two Working Groups of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole are continuing their negotiations on the outcome document entitled “Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action” (document A/S-23/2/Add. 2, Parts I to IV).  The Special Session concludes tomorrow, 9 June, at which time Governments are expected to adopt that document.

5 p.m. today is the deadline for submitting any text that has to be translated into the official languages.

Yesterday, according the Chairperson of the Ad Hoc Committee, Ms. Christine Kapalata (United Republic of Tanzania), Working Group I made appreciable progress.  It had agreed, in the Introduction, to include reference to the report of the Fourth World Conference on Women.  There had also been some semblance of agreement as regards paragraph 2, which refers to the sovereignty of Member States.  She believed that delegates might settle for language already contained in the Platform for Action.  Additional paragraphs in parts II and III of the document had also been agreed.

Ms. Kapalata said there was no meeting of minds between two delegations concerning references throughout the document to unilateral coercive measures and sanctions. Other delegations were, however, satisfied with the language.

Working Group II had made a lot of progress, she said, having tackled almost 50 per cent of what had been pending.  It should be able to clear up the rest of the text today, she said.

In the Contact Group, which has been considering the most difficult paragraphs, agreement had been reached on those dealing with globalization and the debt burden (29, 30 and bis and ter), she said.

Working Group I has been 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”.

On the racks today are additional parts of the draft report of the Ad Hoc Committee (document A/S-23/AC.1/L.1/Adds. 2, 3 and 4); Add .1 was issued yesterday.  They show the revised paragraphs of parts III and IV of the outcome document that have been agreed by delegations.

Also available today is the report of the Credentials Committee on the credentials of representatives to the Special Session (A/S-23/7).

The Assembly President, Dr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, is presiding over the Special Session.  He met, at 9:30 a.m., with Ambassador Antonio Monteiro of Portugal.  This evening, he is invited to a reception hosted by the Secretary of State for the Status of Women of Canada, Ms. Hedy Fry, on the occasion of the Special Session; and to a dinner hosted by Ambassador Ahmed Aboul Gheit of Egypt, in honour of First Lady Suzanne Mubarak of Egypt.