STATEMENT

BY

H.E. KHUNYING SUPATRA MASDIT

MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE

HEAD OF THE THAI DELEGATION

BEFORE THE TWENTY-THIRD SPECIAL SESSION OF THE

UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

ENTITLED "WOMEN 2000: GENDER EQUALITY, DEVELOPMENT

AND PEACE FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY"

Mr. President,

May I, at the outset, congratulate you on your election as president of this special General Assembly session. The same also goes to other elected members of your Bureau. On behalf of the Thai delegation, I also wish to profoundly thank all concerned for the dedication and preparations leading to this milestone assembly.

At this special session of the General Assembly, I am delighted to see that a great number of colleagues from non-governmental sectors are part of their governments' delegations. This forged partnership between the government and non-governmental organizations, at this mid-decade review of the Beijing Platform for Action will lay a solid base for member countries to further renew their commitments made in Beijing and to reaffirm accelerated implementation of the Platform of Action.

Thailand has made substantial progress in its implementation of the Beijing commitments since 1995. We have been giving mindful attention to all areas of concern as addressed in the Platform of Action, prioritizing on the urgency of the problem and people's necessities. Those areas of concerns have been tailored to advance the three interconnected goals of the Beijing Conference -equality, development and peace.

Thailand has done much in recent years to enhance women's participation in public affairs -especially at decision and policy-making levels. Untiring efforts have been made to increase the proportion of women in politics as candidates, advocates, as well as voters. Our aspiration is to prove to the society how women's participation could help transform politics and ensure good governance. Women will make a difference in the society through their valuable contribution and partnership with men. Thailand strongly encourages women to rise to the challenge of political reform and ameliorating governance. As the year 2000 happens to be the year of elections at all levels in our country, women's political empowerment lies at the heart of our duties.

At the same time, involvement and participation of women in economic development has been given no less attention. In Thailand's case, we have seen women's most valuable participation in small and medium enterprises. They become major contributors to this sector of the economy. Thus, we pledge to continue to carry on our earnest support of women in the economic arena.

Mr. President,

I must say that the key word to describe Thailand's endeavours in this decade would be "empowerment". Empowerment of women in all spheres of life is in fact one of the main goals of our social policy. In order to reach this goal, we have emphasized not only the women themselves but also their community. Empowerment of the community focuses on strengthening the community capabilities to develop self-reliance. The main thrust of the efforts is to promote participation and allow members of the communities to play shared and active roles in planning, implementing, and solving their own problems. Women, who normally constitute more than half of the community, will be mobilized to foster sustainable development and peace in the society through their own voices and deeds.

I am in fact very proud to further inform the assembly that the review of our community empowerment program in the past two years has shown a significant progress. It is gratifying to note that women's groups have displayed such remarkable competence for their own good, which also benefits their communities as a whole. The success of those women is perhaps a most powerful demonstration of how capable women are. These examples have convinced my Government that we must strive to encourage women's roles as main actors and leaders of community empowerment.

Mr. President,

As we continue to promote the advancement of women at the dawn of the new millennium, Thailand is aware that we must be persistent in our arduous tasks of solving various problems facing our women. Thailand has devoted tremendous time and diligence to resolve certain social issues, such as violence against women, trafficking in women, the girl child, and the problems related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The issue of combating violence against women ranks high in the country's priorities in social policy. The Thai Government acknowledges November of every year as the month for campaigning against violence against women. With the cooperation from various governmental, non-governmental agencies, as well as the civil society, we work hard to raise public awareness of this problem. The Thai Government conducts activities all-year round to combat violence. We have been putting much emphasis on the elimination of this form of violence, as we wholeheartedly believe that violence is a cruel form of violation of human rights as well as women's rights.

Thailand has come a long way in terms of our commitment to the promotion of women's rights and their advancement. Through time, we've learned that one big and urgent task left to be done in the society is to mainstream gender perspectives into policies and programs of all sectors. The national mechanism and national focal point for gender equality have been set up with the responsibility of providing technical support on mainstreaming to concerned agencies. Capacity building workshops for gender awareness and gender sensitivity training programs have been organized regularly. The aim is to assist and familiarize planners and program executives with gender tools such as gender analysis, gender statistics, and gender indicators. This is to enable agencies to identify the differential impact of all policies on women and men so that appropriate measures can be devised to achieve gender equality.

Core curriculum will also be developed to institutionalize gender mainstreaming into the routine work of those departments and agencies. With such integrated measures, it is anticipated that gender issues will be moved to the top of the national agenda and be recognized by all sectors of the society.

Mr. President,

In conclusion, Thailand wishes to express her full support for the endorsement of the Political Declaration at this forum. We are certain that the Declaration will serve as an important instrument to ensure further monitoring of the progress made after Beijing. We also reiterate our determination to continue our implementation of the Platform, in consistence with further action and initiatives to be agreed upon at this juncture. In so doing, we underscore the fact that all efforts cannot be undertaken by any party alone. Collaborations between GOs, and NGOs and civil society, as well as regional and international cooperation, are integral to our accomplishments. Such coordinated efforts will indeed serve as the basis for our common cause toward gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century.

Thank you.