ECOSOC/6005
WOM/1343
10 June 2002
Economic and Social Council to Hold Panel Discussion on Gender Mainstreaming, 11 June
NEW YORK, 7 June (UN Headquarters) -- A panel discussion on "Gender Mainstreaming in the Functional Commissions of the Economic and Social Council" will take place on 11 June from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Economic and Social Council Chamber.
Panellists will include Iftekhar Chowdhury, Chair, Commission on Social Development; Javier Paulinich, Vice-Chairperson, Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice; and Gustavo Eduardo Ainchil, Vice-Chairperson, United Nations Forum on Forests; Johan Scholvinck, Director, Division for Social Policy and Development; Eduardo Vetere, Director, Centre for International Crime Prevention; and Jagmohan Maini, Coordinator and Head, Secretariat of the United Nations Forum on Forests.
Economic and Social Council Vice-President Marjatta Rasi will chair the panel. Othman Jerandi, Chairperson, Commission on the Status of Women, and Angela E.V. King, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, will make introductory statements on gender mainstreaming. Carolyn Hannan, Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women, will moderate.
The aim of the panel discussion is to support preparations for the Council's deliberations under the new sub-item "Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes of the United Nations system", created by Council resolution 2001/41. Under this new sub-item, the Council intends to monitor and evaluate progress and obstacles in gender mainstreaming.
Gender mainstreaming was established as a major global strategy for the promotion of gender equality in the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. In 1997, the Council adopted agreed conclusions 1997/2 to promote a coordinated and coherent policy of gender mainstreaming, clarifying the concept and central principles of mainstreaming, as well as addressing specific recommendations to all actors within the United Nations system.
Panellists are expected to provide an assessment of progress -- what has been done to integrate gender perspectives in the sectoral areas of the three functional commissions -- present good practices, identify and discuss gaps and challenges, and discuss potential for increasing attention to gender perspectives in the future.
Additional information is available from Anna Modersitzki, Division for the Advancement of Women, Tel.: (917) 367-3124, e-mail: modersitzki@un.org, or on the Web at: www.un.org/womenwatch/daw.
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