Women – Third Cttee debate – Press release (excerpts)

Third Committee

13^th & 14^th Meetings (AM & PM)

SOCIAL COMMITTEE APPROVES DRAFT RESOLUTIONS ON COOPERATIVES,

VOLUNTEERS; CONCLUDES DISCUSSION OF WOMEN’S ISSUES

Draft Texts Introduced on UN Criminal Justice Programme,

African Institute for Crime Prevention, Eleventh UN Crime Congress

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Background

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) met today to continue its general discussion of advancement of women, hear the introduction of three draft resolutions and take action on two draft resolutions.

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Statements

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SUAD ABDULLAHALJOUIKI ( Libya) said the international community would not achieve the millennium targets if it didn’t realize both the Beijing and the millennium platforms.  She stressed the need in particular to focus on human rights and education for women who had been marginalized.  Women worldwide still lived in poverty; were victims of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases; and faced discrimination in society.  Violence against women knew no geographical boundaries.  It was necessary to create stable and secure environments for women that respected cultural differences.  All girls needed access to education.

Greater attention, she continued, must be paid to African women, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, suffering from abject poverty and disease, namely HIV/AIDS.  Many Palestinian women living under Israeli occupation had no access to food and medicine.  Pregnant Palestinian women had no access to hospitals and as a result often died during delivery and/or lost their babies.  This odious crime continued while the world community remained silent about it.

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Statements on Women’s Issues

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NADYA RASHEED, Observer for Palestine said that while significant progress had been made in advancing equality, development and peace for women in many parts of the world, millions of women still lived in conditions that deprived them of their fundamental human rights, limited their opportunities and impeded the development of their societies.  Palestinian women lived in difficult and unique conditions.  Every year, their situation worsened, particularly in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, over the past five years.   Israel had deliberately violated international law, including human rights law, bringing untold misery to the Palestinian population.  It could not be overemphasized how severely Palestinian women had been affected by these human rights violations and the grave and long-term consequences, which had compounded the pressures and constraints that already existed regarding women’s advancement.  Palestinian women faced two systems of subordination:  occupation and patriarchy.

Palestinian women were subjected to some of the occupying Power’s cruellest practices, she continued, with their homes bulldozed, innumerable indignities and harassment, construction of the separation wall and destruction of their property, livelihoods and peace prospects.  Restrictions on Palestinians’ movement meant that many women were forced to give birth at military checkpoints.  As noted in the Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 61 Palestinian women gave birth at checkpoints between September 2000 and December 2004, resulting in the death of 36 newborns.  Countless testimonies had been documented in that regard.  The situation, she said, was at an important juncture. While there were many unresolved issues, the end of the colonial settlement in the Gaza Strip, although on 6 per cent of the occupied area, was an important development.  Only through real peace and the reversal of colonization of the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory could genuine progress be made in Palestinian women’s advancement.

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For information media • not an official record