Commission of the Status of Women, and the Commission acting as preparatory committee for the special session of the General Assembly "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace in the 21^st century", 5 to 9 June 2000

28 February to 17 March 2000

Panel discussions

Note by the Secretariat

Two panel discussions will be held during the 44^th session of the CSW, and the PrepCom, respectively. These are:

Panel 1, 1 March 2000, am

Emerging issues, trends and new approaches to issues affecting women or equality between women and men

Panel 2, 6 March 2000, am and pm

Outlook on gender equality, development and peace beyond the year 2000

The bureau decided that the two panels should compliment each other, with the first panel focussing on new challenges, and the second panel focussing on the way forward. Consequently, the first panel should reflect on relevant issues that need to be addressed in view of the full implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. Building upon the first panel’s identification of emerging issues and challenges, the second panel would take a forward-looking approach so as to assist the PrepCom in gathering material for further strategies for implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.

Emerging issues would be addressed within the context of globalization in terms of its social, political, economic and cultural implications for gender relations. The second panel, should in particular focus on strategies for addressing emerging trends and issues.

Both panels will be organized in accordance with the established practice of the Commission on the Status of Women, as set out in the Commission’s agreed conclusions 1996/1. Accordingly, the experts selected for the panels should be chosen from the fields of study addressed, taking into account equitable geographical and gender distribution and the involvement of non-governmental organizations. They should include experts suggested from governments, civil society, the U.N. system and those appointed by the Secretary-General. The selection of experts, the composition of the panels, and the allocation of time to dialogues should be decided inter-sessionally by the Bureau of the Commission, taking into consideration the proposals of the United Nations Secretariat. The Secretariat should prepare a list of candidates for the panels based on suggestions from States and civil society.

Governments will be invited to nominate, no later than 10 January, experts to serve on the panels. When submitting candidates, Governments should specify whether the expert is proposed for Panel 1 or Panel 2, and which specific topic or issue the expert would address. An announcement to that effect will be placed in the Journal of the UN. The proposals of Government, together with proposals from non-governmental organizations and from the Secretariat, will be submitted to both Bureaux for decision. A decision on panelists should be made no later than 14 January in order to allow sufficient time for invitations to be issued to chosen panelists.