Palestinian women – CSW report(excerpts)

In draft resolution VII (Situation of and assistance to Palestinian women), the Council would demand that Israel accept the de jure applicability of the Geneva Convention to the occupied Palestinian territory, appeal to Governments and others to provide financial assistance to Palestinian women, request the Commission on the Status of Women to continue monitoring those paragraphs of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies concerning assistance to Palestinian women, and request the Secretary-General to assist in and review the situation of Palestinian women using all available resources, and submit to the Commission at its thirty-eighth session a report containing recommendations and a programme of action.

In draft decision I, the Council would approve the provisional agenda and documentation for the thirty-eighth session of the Commission.  In draft decision II, the Council would decide to convene an inter-sessional working group of the Commission for a period of five working days during the first two weeks of January 1994, open to all Member States and observer States, to further develop the structure of the Platform for Action contained in the annex to Commission resolution 37/7.

The Commission also adopted nine resolutions.

In resolution 37/1 (Preliminary proposals for the system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women for the period 1996-2001), the Commission recommended that the Council request the Secretary-General to revise the plan after the Platform for Action and the second review and appraisal of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies had been adopted in 1995; it recommended that any revised system-wide plan be more concise, take into account changes in the United Nations planning cycles and be more concrete.  It recommended that the Commission be given responsibility for monitoring progress in implementing the system-wide plan, that all the United Nations entities be held accountable for the components of the plan falling within their competence.  It made a series of detailed comments and recommended that they be taken into account in the final version of the plan.

In resolution 37/2 (Inter-agency coordination), the Commission recommended that the Secretary-General further promote and institutionalize coordination of initiatives of United Nations programmes related to women, promote the acceptance of gender-based strategic planning and assign the Division for the Advancement of Women responsibility for coordinating activities leading to the establishment of an official common definition of gender-focused planning for the United Nations system.

In resolution 37/3 (Rape and abuse of women in the territory of the former Yugoslavia), the Commission condemned rape and abuse of women in the territory, welcomed the request of the Commission on Human Rights to the Special Rapporteur to pursue an investigation into the situation, urged that the team of experts include a representative of the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women or both, urged the Security Council to reflect gender balance in any international criminal tribunal that would be established, urged development of long-term, action-oriented plans and programmes for rehabilitation, urged that counselling and other support form an integral part of health and welfare services, and requested the Secretary-General to make the reports of the Special Rapporteur available to the Commission at its thirty-eighth session.

In resolution 37/4 (World Conference on Human Rights), the Commission decided to present a contribution to the Preparatory Committee for the World Conference on Human Rights.

In resolution 37/5 (Women and legal literacy), the Commission made recommendations to Governments and other institutions to promote legal literacy, and requested the Preparatory Committee for the World Summit for Social Development to include in its agenda consideration of education for all, the eradication of illiteracy, and the promotion of legal literacy, particularly among women, and urged the World Conference on Human Rights to address the issue.

In resolution 37/6 (Women and development), the Commission made recommendations to Governments and other institutions to take a number of specific steps to improve the integration of women in development, requested the Secretary-General to include policy and programme recommendations on the basis of gender analysis in his biennial monitoring report on the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies and to ensure that the issues of women and development and of the integration of women in development programmes were an integral part of the International Development Strategy for the Fourth United Nations Development Decade.

In resolution 37/7 (Preparations for the Fourth World Conference on Women:  Action for Equality, Development and Peace), the Commission urged Governments to establish national preparatory committees and requested the Secretary-General to ensure that documentation was accessible and that Conference facilities catered to the needs of people with disabilities.  It requested a series of steps to permit non-governmental organizations not in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council to participate in the Conference.  It requested the Secretary-General to present a first draft of the Platform for Action to the Commission at its thirty-eighth session, taking into account the structure of the Platform agreed on at the thirty-seventh session and the results of the inter-sessional working group.  It made a series of recommendations on the process and content of the second review and appraisal of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies.  It suggested that steps be taken to strengthen an information campaign about the Conference.  Finally, it requested that the Secretary-General prepare for the Commission at its thirty-eighth session a report on institutional arrangements for the implementation of the Platform for Action containing options for considering that item at the Conference.

In resolution 37/8 (Women in extreme poverty), the Commission made a series of detailed recommendations to governmental and other institutions on measures to alleviate the situation of women in extreme poverty.

In resolution 37/9 (Work programme on the advancement of women and the proposed restructuring of the economic and social activities of the United Nations), the Commission called upon the Secretary-General to take the necessary steps to strengthen the structure for the advancement of women and maintain its identity with adequate resources, urged that in making decisions on the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs, due consideration be given to the long-and short-term impact of the decisions on the priority, substance and visibility of the United Nations commitment to women and to social development, requested the Secretary-General to ensure that any institutional arrangements strengthened the work programme on the advancement of women and improved coordination, and encouraged Member States to send high-level representation to future sessions of the Commission.