system, to identify emerging issues, trends and new approaches affecting the situation of women or equality between women and men, and to review and appraise progress achieved and problems encountered in implementation of critical areas of concern in the Platform for Action: (a) Should strengthen its cooperation with other relevant bodies of the United Nations system, including other functional commissions and their respective secretariats; (b) Should monitor progress on the system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women; (c) Should make relevant documents available, through the Economic and Social Council, to other functional commissions and relevant United Nations expert bodies and mechanisms in order to assist in the integration of a gender perspective in their work; (d) Notes, bearing in mind the role of the Economic and Social Council in overall coordination, that increased dialogue between the Bureau of the Commission on the Status of Women and the Economic and Social Council, the chairpersons and secretariats, as appropriate, of the other functional commissions, other subsidiary bodies and related bodies, including the relevant executive boards, would assist in identifying issues that could be addressed under the agenda item on emerging issues and trends; (e) Encourages the voluntary presentation of national information and suggests that such information should address the priority issues identified by the Commission on the Status of Women in its programme of work, bearing in mind that Governments are to develop comprehensive implementation strategies or national plans of action, including time-bound targets and benchmarks for monitoring, in order to implement the Platform for Action fully; (f) Encourages States to submit national reports by the year 2000 for the comprehensive quinquennial review and appraisal of the implementation of the Platform for Action in the year 2000. Agreed conclusions 1996/2. Women and the media* 1. The Beijing Platform for Action identifies women and the media as one of 12 critical areas of concern. As stated in the Beijing Platform for Action, gender stereotyping in advertising and the media is one of the factors of inequality that influences attitudes towards equality between women and men. Through a series of dialogues on the subject during its fortieth session, the Commission on the Status of Women examined measures to be used for increasing the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication. Everywhere the potential exists for the media to make a far greater contribution to the advancement of women. The conclusions emanating from the Commission’s dialogue contain proposals for successful implementation of the strategic objectives and actions in the Platform for Action, taking into consideration the importance of implementing all the elements of the Platform. * For the discussion, see chap. II, paras. 89-91. -11-