process was emphasized. The substantive framework for the review needed to be established as soon as possible and should provide for active contributions from the regional commissions, the specialized agencies, and United Nations funds and programmes. Delegates welcomed the prospect of the African regional conference, to be convened by the Economic Commission for Africa in 1999. 8. A number of representatives thanked the Division for the Advancement of Women for the preparation of high-quality reports and endorsed the recommendations in the reports of the expert group meetings, convened by the Division in partnership with other institutions, on gender-based persecution, adolescent girls and their rights, and promoting women’s enjoyment of their economic and social rights. The previous Bureau of the Commission was commended for its efforts inter-sessionally to prepare for the Commission and its panel discussions. B. Human rights of women: Moderator’s summary 9. On 3 March 1998, at the 4th meeting, the Commission held a panel discussion, followed by a dialogue, on the human rights of women, one of the critical areas of concern in the Platform for Action. The panellists were: Rose M. Migiro (United Republic of Tanzania), Head, Department of Civil and Criminal Law, University of Dar es Salaam; Cecilia Medina (Chile), member, Human Rights Committee; Shanthi Dairiam (Malaysia), Director, International Women’s Rights Action Watch in Asia and the Pacific; and Shelagh Day (Canada), Special Adviser on Human Rights, National Association of Women and the Law. 10. Participants noted that the Beijing Platform for Action reaffirmed that all human rights were universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated, and that the human rights of women and girls were an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. Building on the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and taking it further, the Platform stressed that enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms by women and girls was a priority for Governments and the United Nations and was essential for the advancement of women. The Platform underlined the importance of gender analysis in addressing the systemic and systematic nature of discrimination against women. 11. Women’s enjoyment of their human rights required a holistic approach to, and a better understanding of, women’s human rights, including violations thereof, and Governments had primary responsibility for ensuring women’s full enjoyment of their rights. A compartmentalization of rights - for example, of civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights, on the other - was not in keeping with the spirit of fundamental human rights and not conducive to achieving women’s equality, advancement and empowerment, since development and human rights complemented each other. 12. Although progress had been made in many countries in achieving women’s de jure equality, women’s de facto lack of, or limited enjoyment of, human rights was particularly visible in their economic inequality, which contributed to women’s poverty. That constituted a significant obstacle to women’s economic empowerment and to development. Women’s enjoyment of human rights would strengthen democracy and contribute to more accountable and transparent government. 13. Representatives cited factors contributing to women’s lack of enjoyment of human rights, including the continuing prevalence of discriminatory cultural -66-