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The Beijing Plus Five Special Session, officially known as Women 2000: Gender Equality Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century, will take place June 5-9, 2000 at the United Nations headquarters in New York to assess the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, the document created in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women to guide the countries of the world to achieve full equality for women. Top officials and 5,000 – 20,000 non-governmental leaders will represent over 189 countries. While the United Nations is in special session, numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals will gather for five days of forums and symposiums on the issues of human rights, women’s health, women and spirituality, and women’s economic empowerment. These forums will celebrate the success of countries in advancing women and girls and to further examine policy solutions for the problems that still exist.
Linda Tarr-Whelan, CPA President and Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), will be the Vice Chair of the U.S. delegation. She was a member of the U.S. Delegation to Beijing, leading negotiations on women and the economy. Following her return, CPA produced "Women’s Rights are Human Rights: A Report to American Women and Men on the Occasion of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women."
This report outlined the programs across the states that incorporate the Platform for Action.
On June 6th, 2000, CPA will co-sponsor an Economic Empowerment Forum with the AFL-CIO Working Women’s Department in New York. As a member of the U.S. host committee for Beijing Plus Five, CPA will organize the one-day forum focusing on achieving women’s economic empowerment and equality across the states. Among our distinguished guests are Lawrence H. Summers, Secretary of the Treasury, and Linda Chavez-Thompson, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President, who will speak at the opening plenary. Women leaders from around the world, from government and non-governmental sectors representing a variety of countries, ethnicities and religions will participate in the forum.
The premise of the forum is to evaluate the achievement of implementing the Beijing Platform for Action and press ahead for full equality and CPA plans to use the workshops to discuss innovative strategies in the states.
Ambassador Tarr-Whelan recognizes the importance of this event: "The United Nations is a critical player in the fight to achieve women’s full economic and political equality. Women 2000 will refine the blueprint set in Beijing in 1995. There has been great progress but there is much more to be done."
We hope that you will join us for this exciting forum. Registration is free of charge and is open to the public. To receive copies of the 1995 Beijing Conference report or CPA’s 2000 analysis of state policy activity on economic empowerment since 1995, please contact Ericka Hines, 202-387-6030.
StateAction.Org Links
For more information about CPA’s Beijing Plus Five activities, click on the following links:
Women And The Economy Platform For Action:
- Promote women’s economic rights and independence, including access to employment, appropriate working conditions, and control over economic resources.
- Facilitate women’s equal access to resources, employment, markets, and trade.
- Provide business services, training, and access to markets, information, and technology, particularly to low-income women.
- Strengthen women’s economic capacity and commercial networks.
- Eliminate occupational segregation and all forms of employment discrimination.
- Promote harmonization of family and work responsibilities for women and men.
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