SUMMARY
At its thirty-eighth session, the Commission on the Status of Women
recommended to the Economic and Social Council the adoption of three draft
resolutions and one draft decision. In addition, it adopted a resolution on the
preparations for the Fourth World Conference on Women that included
recommendations for action by the Economic and Social Council and nine other
resolutions on various subjects.
In draft resolution I (Improvement of the status of women in the
Secretariat), the Council would urge the Secretary-General to take further steps
to increase the proportion of women in the Secretariat, especially in seniorlevel positions and from developing countries and other countries having a low
representation of women, strengthen the focal point on improvement of the status
of women and further develop comprehensive policy measures to prevent sexual
harassment.
In draft resolution II (Women and children in the process of the
elimination of apartheid and the establishment of a democratic South Africa),
the Council would request additional steps to provide assistance to South
African women and call on the Secretary-General to mandate the United Nations
Observer Mission to South Africa to continue to monitor and report on the
incidents of political and domestic violence directed against women and children
in South Africa.
In draft resolution III (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women), the Council would support the request of the
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, made at its
twelfth session, for additional meeting time so as to allow the Committee to
meet once a year for three weeks for its fourteenth and fifteenth sessions in
1995 and 1996, respectively, and recommend that the request of the Committee,
made at its thirteenth session, for additional meeting time based on two
sessions of three weeks each, be considered within the existing level of
budgetary resources. The Council would also request the General Assembly to
review the working situation of the Committee and its capacity to fulfil its
mandate effectively, on the basis of a report by the Secretary-General, and to
consider the possibility of amending article 20 of the Convention to allow
sufficient meeting time for the Committee. The Council would decide that the
Commission would examine at its thirty-ninth session the possibility of
introducing the right to petition to the Convention through the preparation of
an optional protocol to the Convention. It would also request States parties to
take a number of steps to address reservations made to the Convention, and would
urge the Secretary-General to continue publicizing the work of the Committee.
In the draft decision (Report of the Commission on the Status of Women on
its thirty-eighth session and provisional agenda and documentation for the
thirty-ninth session of the Commission), the Council would approve the
provisional agenda and documentation for the thirty-ninth session of the
Commission.
In its resolution 38/10 on preparations for the Fourth World Conference on
Women, the Commission recommends to the Economic and Social Council that the
thirty-ninth session of the Commission be extended by one week, that provision
should be made for a two-week meeting of a parallel working group and that the
dates for the thirty-ninth session should be 15 March to 4 April 1995. The
resolution also makes decisions about the process of preparing the Platform for
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