UN to hold global conference on women in 2015

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the president of the 66th session of the UN General Assembly Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser proposed the idea here Thursday of holding a global conference on women's issues in 2015, 20 years after the last women's summit held in Beijing.

The joint announcement was released on the International Women's Day, which is held to draw attention to the challenges faced by women as well as to their contributions.

"Given that women make up half of humanity and given the importance and relevance of women's issues for global progress, it is high time that such a world conference is convened," said the announcement, read out to reporters by Nihal Saad, spokesperson for the UN General Assembly president.

"It is all the more important because of the enormous changes the world is going through, with both positive and other implications for women."

The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, in 1995, adopted the current Forward-Looking Platform of Action. The Beijing summit was preceded by three world conferences, beginning in 1975 in Mexico City, and followed by Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985.

According to the joint announcement, both Ban and Al-Nasser are confident that the international community will welcome a fifth world conference.

"They also hope that the member states, who have the final authority to convene the proposed conference, could take the necessary steps during this 66th session of the General Assembly," said the announcement.

"They believe that the high point that the United Nations reached with the establishment of UN Women in 2011 can be meaningfully substantiated with a global program focusing on women that can be articulated at the fifth conference."

The announcement said that Ban and Al-Nasser see a fifth conference "as an opportunity to review the Beijing Platform for Action."

They also believe it could tackle emerging issues, in particular those relating to women and political participation, UN Security Council Resolution 1325 that deals with women and peace and security, equal access to decent work and to decision-making and the involvement of rural women and girls, said the announcement.

It could also cover aid effectiveness, food security, trafficking, drugs, migration, environment, climate change and information technology, all of which make an impact on women, and on nations and societies as a whole, it said.