The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meeting,
Beijing +10, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the
Fourth World Conference on Women officially started in Beijing on
Monday with two plenary sessions.
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Gu Xiulian, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the
National People's Congress (NPC) and president of the All China
Women's Federation (ACWF), delivered a speech at the first plenary
session, which was convened just after the opening ceremony at the
Great Hall of the People.
The meeting will review the implementation of the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action passed at the
Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, and the 2000 Millennium
Development Goals. About 800 delegates, including women state
leaders, representatives of UN agencies, inter-governmental and
non-governmental organizations around the world, are attending the
meeting from August 29 to September 1. Items on the meeting agenda
include a discussion of new issues in women's development, and
proposing solutions to promote women's development and gender
equality
The Fourth World Conference on Women held 10 years ago in 1995
in Beijing was the largest international conference in UN history
and is regarded as an important milestone in the history of the
international women's movement.
Gu briefly introduced China's achievements in women's causes in
the last decade, and at the same time pointed out that “as a
developing country, China still faces a rather arduous task in
promoting gender equality and achieving common development.”
"China will keep up with vigorous efforts to promote gender
mainstreaming," Gu said.
As a global strategic slogan put forward at the Fourth World
Conference on Women, gender mainstreaming has been incorporated
into the UN gender development indicator system and exerts profound
impact on the development of national gender equality policies.
UN Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser of the
Secretary-General on Gender Issues Rachel Mayanja, Mozambican Prime
Minister Luisa Dias Diogo, and Convener of the Beijing '95 NGO
Forum Khunying Supatra Masdit also gave speeches at the first
plenary session.
The second plenary session, held on Monday afternoon at Beijing
Hotel, was a platform for delegates to present the state of women's
development in their countries over the past ten years, and to
analyze the emerging problems concerning women's issues.
Deputy Senate Speaker of Poland Jolanta Danielak, Deputy Prime
Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Chairman of the Women's
Committee Svetlana Inamova, First Lady of Mali Lobbo Traore Toure,
Queen Halaevalu Mata'aho of the Kingdom of Tonga, and Princess
Basma bint Talal of Jordan spoke during the second plenary
session.
They all expressed their sincere gratitude toward China for
providing this special opportunity for delegates to gather again in
Beijing to review women's development over the last ten years and
beyond.
A total of four plenary sessions and six seminars are planned
for the conference. Topics include women and decision making and
management, women and economy, human rights of women and violence
elimination, women and sustainable development, women and poverty
elimination, and women and AIDS.
A "Beijing Plus Ten Declaration" will be passed at the fourth
plenary session.
(China.org.cn by staff reporter Zhang Tingting, August 30,
2005)
