[women-rights] CSW 47th Session: Commission adopts provisional agenda for next session; texts on gender perspective, Palestinian women, HIV/AIDS introduced

UNITED NATIONS
Press Release

Commission on Status of Women
Forty-seventh Session
10 March 2003

9th Meeting (PM)

As the Commission on the Status of Women met this afternoon, it
decided to adopt, without a vote, the provisional agenda for its
forty-eighth session and heard introductions of draft resolutions on
women and HIV/AIDS, the situation of Palestinian women, and gender
mainstreaming within the United Nations system.

Carolyn Hannan, Director of the Division for the Advancement of
Women, introduced the provisional agenda for the forty-eighth
session. She said that as a follow-up to the Fourth World Conference
on Women and the special session of the General Assembly entitled
"Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the
twenty-first century", the Commission would look at the role of men
and boys in gender equality, as well as women's equal participation
in conflict prevention and conflict-resolution during the next
session.

The representative of Morocco, on behalf of the "Group of 77"
developing countries and China, introduced a draft resolution on the
situation of and assistance to Palestinian women (document
E/CN.5/2003/L.5) and said that the foreign occupation in the
Palestinian Territories was presenting severe obstacles to women's
rights. The draft expressed the Commission's concern about the
deteriorating conditions for women in the area and aimed to
contribute to the promotion and protection of Palestinian women.

On behalf of the Southern African Development Community, another
draft resolution on women, the girl child and human immunodeficiency
virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) (document
E/CN.5/2003/L.2), was introduced by the representative of Angola. She
said the text aimed to encourage the international community to keep
its focus on the HIV/AIDS pandemic, highlight the particular
vulnerability of women and children in Africa to the disease and
recognized the link between HIV/AIDS and violence against women.

Introducing the draft text on mainstreaming a gender perspective into
all policies and programmes in the United Nations system (document
E/CN.5/2003/L.3), the representative of the United Kingdom said the
draft focused on efforts by entities of the United Nations system to
not only develop and implement specific gender equality strategies,
but also to mainstream gender perspectives into sectoral activities.
The draft, therefore, completed the gender mainstreaming policy
picture by inviting monitoring and evaluation of the impact of those
strategies.

The Commission will reconvene at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 11 March, to
hear the introduction of a draft resolution on the situation of women
and girls in Afghanistan.

* *** *