Measures to implement women's 'forward-looking strategies' called for in Third Committee.

Measures to implement women's 'Forward-Looking Strategies' called for in Third Committee

Measures to implement the "Forward-Looking Strategies" to advance the status of women, adopted in July 1985 at the Nairobi Conference on the United Nations Decade for Women, were called for by the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) in November at the conclusion of its annual debate on women's issues.

In one of 10 texts approved for action by the General Assembly, Governments were to be asked to establish national machineries to promote the advancement of women and to monitor the implementation of the Strategies so as to ensure the "full integration" of women in the political, economic, social and cultural life of their countries.

By the text, adopted without a vote on 29 November, the Assembly was asked to invite Governments to set "measurable targets" for overcoming obstacles to the advancement of women, and to urge United Nations organizations to ensure implementation of the Strategies with a view to achieving "a substantial improvement in the status of women by the year 2000".

The Committee reviewed the report of the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, which had approved the Strategies. (For details, see UN Chronicle 1985, No.7.)

Leticia R. Shahani, Assistant Secretary-General for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs and Secretary-General of the World Conference, said the Strategies were "a set of comprehensive, democratic and realistic recommendations" based on an "informed review" of the achievements of the Decade (1976-1985) and "a realistic assessment of the obstacles which lay ahead".

They contained "a note of hope", she said, stressing women's crucial role in the achievement of reform and the need for men and women to work together to overcome obstacles to women's advancement. Women were now forming national, regional and international "coalitions", which would constitute "a powerful weapon" against economic stagnation, social unrest and moral confusion in their countries, she added.

The Committee acted on nine other texts on 19, 21, 27, and 29 November, all of which were also adopted without a vote. They related to: the role of women in society; incorporating the interests of women in the work programmed of the regional commissions; the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the United...