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ARS
Participates in Consultation with the UN Commission on the Status
of Women
2005
marks thirty years since the UN held its first World Conference on
Women. It also marks 60 years since the signing of the UN Charter,
10 years since the Fourth World Conference on Women approved the
Beijing Charter and Platform for Action, and 5 years since the UN
Security Council approved resolution 1325, giving women explicit
rights during peace building and reconstruction. These historic
events are being celebrated and the implementation of their
progress and were reviewed at the 49th Session of the UN
Commission on the Status of Women, with official meetings, events
and NGO workshops during February and March.
This
year the Armenian Relief Society Inc was represented by Penny
Giragossian, Harriet Kazarian, Janet Markarian, Hamesd Beugekian
and Valentine Berberian.
The
consultation included major presentations from the Chair of the
CSW, Kyung-Wha Kang (Korea). Kang and the Bureau of the CSW worked
diligently with the NGO community in New York to share information
and to seek feedback about procedures that could make the strong
NGO base of the CSW successful during the two-week deliberations.
February
28th was the first day of the CSW governmental meetings, chaired
by Ms Kang. It opened with high level speeches from the Secretary
General, from the governments of the four Women's Conferences,
from key UN officials including the Undersecretary General of the
Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the Assistant Secretary
General for Gender Affairs, the Director for the Advancement of
Women, the Executive Director of UNIFEM, the Director of INSTRAW,
the chair of CEDAW (Committee for the Elimination of all forms of
Discrimination Against Women -- implementing the Convention by the
same name), and the chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights.
All called for reaffirmation of the Beijing Platform for Action,
accelerated implementation of its agenda, collaboration with the
Millennium Declaration and its corollary Millennium Development
Goals. Kofi Annan called on specific action for girls education
and reproductive health care and services for women.
For
further information and speeches please see the UN website at www.un.org,
or visit the website of the Division for the Advancement for Women
at www.womenwatch.org.
The
Armenian Relief Society Inc participated in two NGO side events:
1-Violence
Against Children In The republic of Armenia briefing and the
Importance of Positive Parenting Practices. This event was
co-hosted by the ARS inc. and the U.S. Fund for Unicef;
2-Participation
of Emma Mirzoyants a young woman from Armenia to the Young Women
Speakout organized by the Unicef WGG.
Websites
of interest are:
www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/
www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/
www.milleniumcampaign.org
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