Women: a UN priority; world conference may be held in 1995.

• Position: Includes related information on women's role in development

The General Assembly has asked the Commission on the Status of Women to consider the question of holding in 1995 a fourth world conference on women.

The first UN world conference on women was held in Mexico City in 1975, the second in Copenhagen in 1980, and the third in Nairobi in 1985.

Adopted in Kenya at the end of the UN Decade for Women (1976-1985), the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women set goals to the year 2000 in such areas as literacy, health, population, and environment. Economic policies would be more effective and sensitive to human needs", Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar told the Assembly, if women were involved.

The advancement of women is not "an impossible dream" dreamt by women, stated Margaret Anstee, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna, "but a component in the enhancement of life for all". She introduced on 18 October issues related to women to the Assembly's Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).

"By accepting to strive for equality between women and men by the year 2000, the international community has committed itself to one of the most ambitious targets attempted by social policy," she said. Bill of rights

The Assembly on 18 December commemorated the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women-an "international bill of rights" for women, according to Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar.

The UN system should pay particular attention to the role of elderly women as participants in political, economic, social and cultural development, the Assembly declared on 8 December. It also called on Member States to improve the situation of rural women and to integrate them into national development plans at all levels.

The International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) will observe its tenth anniversary in 1990. The Assembly...