Bangkok, October 26, 1999 -- Presenting the country report to the Intergovernmental meeting to review the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the Asia-Pacific region, Nepal's State Minister for Women and Social Welfare Ms. Kamala Panta, said that "Nepal fully supports the Beijing Declaration and is fully committed to the Beijing Platform for Action because the 12 critical areas of concern identified are indeed pertinent issues."
Organised by the ESCAP (Economic and Social Commission for the Asia-Pacific), the four-day conference began in Bangkok on October 26.
The meeting was inaugurated by Thailand's minister to the prime minister's office, Ms. Supatra Masdit.
Masdit said, "The Beijing platform for action, as agreed by all the countries represented here, is an agenda for women's empowerment. It is places primary responsibility for implementation on the government, but also contains recommendations for non-government organisations and other organisations and institutions."
Five years after the Fourth World Conference of Women that took place in Beijing in 1995, the United Nation General Assembly will be convening, in June next year, a special session to appraise the progress achieved in the implementation of Beijing platform for action.
The Bangkok meeting is to discuss the progress made by ESCAP member-countries in the 12 critical areas of concern listed in the Beijing Platform for Action - women and poverty, education and training, health, violence against women, women and armed conflict, women and the economy, the media and environment, women in power and decision making, institutional mechanism for the advancement of women, human rights of women, and the girl child.
With sixty countries presenting their reports at the meet, participants include an equally balanced number of government and NGO representatives. However, only the 200 government delegates will finalise the official report made from the region to the special UN session in New York next June.
* The Isis-UNIFEM media team for the High-level Intergovernmental Meeting to Review the Beijing Platform for Action in Asia and the Pacific is composed of Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, Lorna Israel, Isis International-Manila; Suchita Vemuri, Women's Features Service; Babita Basnet, Sancharika Samuha-Nepal ; Adelle Khan, Fiji Women's Crisis Centre; Ung Vanna, Khmer Women's Voice Centre; Lim Siu Ching, All Women's Action Society-Malaysia; Fatmawati Salapuddin, Bangsa Moro Women and Development Foundation-Philippines; Rina Jimenez-David, Philippines; Chitraporn Vanaspong, Thailand.
