institutional structures, policies and programming and in integrated Conference follow-up; "5. Stresses that particular attention should be paid to the need to intensify cooperation and coordination efforts to ensure that the equal status and human rights of all women and the girl child are integrated in United Nations system-wide activities, as well as to the means of achieving this, as noted in Commission on the Status of Women resolution 40/3 and Commission on Human Rights resolution 1996/48 in particular, and in view of the critical areas of concern to be discussed by the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-second session, the need to ensure that the reports of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences are brought to the attention of the Commission on the Status of Women; "6. Reiterates the importance of inter-secretariat linkages such as the joint work plan of the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Centre for Human Rights and the need for this plan to be considered fully by the Commission on Human Rights; "7. Stresses the need for steps to be taken to integrate a gender perspective into human rights activities and programmes, bearing in mind the guidelines contained in the report of the expert group meeting on the development of guidelines for the integration of a gender perspective into human rights activities and programmes, including reporting under international human rights instruments and mechanisms and in the preparations for the five-year review of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; "8. Requests the Secretariat, in the context of its review of the system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women in 1998, to give specific attention to mainstreaming; "9. Recalls that the Committee for Programme and Coordination agreed to ensure, in its examination of the medium-term plan for the period 1998-2001, that the mainstreaming of a gender perspective was reflected in the individual programmes of the medium-term plan; "10. Emphasizes that the implementation of the Platform for Action requires the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system, and in this regard notes with appreciation the conclusion of the Inter-Agency Committee that mainstreaming is a responsibility of the United Nations system as a whole and of all staff in all policy and programme areas and in decision-making; "11. Encourages the Economic and Social Council: "(a) To assess the achievements made and obstacles encountered in mainstreaming a gender perspective at the intergovernmental level, including the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the regional commissions and the functional commissions, in the United Nations system, including the Secretariat, and in all operational activities, including at the field level; "(b) To suggest practical tools and methodologies for monitoring regularly progress in mainstreaming, especially at senior levels, through, -55-