Sixty-second session Agenda item 63 Advancement of women Report of the Third Committee Rapporteur: Ms. Tebatso Future Baleseng (Botswana) I. Introduction 1. An account of the general discussion under this item and the previous recommendation made by the Third Committee to the General Assembly under the item appear in the report of the Third Committee to the General Assembly contained in document A/62/433 (Part I). 2. For the documents before the Committee under this item, see document A/62/433 (Part I). II. Consideration of proposals A. Draft resolutions A/C.3/62/L.14 and Rev.1 3. At the 21st meeting, on 23 October, the representative of the Philippines, also on behalf of Indonesia, introduced a draft resolution entitled “Violence against women migrant workers” (A/C.3/62/L.14). Subsequently, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Paraguay, Senegal and Uganda joined in sponsoring the draft resolution, which read: “The General Assembly, “Recalling all of its previous resolutions on violence against women migrant workers and those adopted by the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, “Reaffirming the provisions concerning women migrant workers contained in the outcome documents of the World Conference on Human Rights, the International Conference on Population and Development, the Fourth World Conference on Women and the World Summit for Social Development and their five-year reviews, “Noting with appreciation the various activities initiated by entities of the United Nations system, such as the Regional Programme on Empowering Women Migrant Workers in Asia of the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the high-level panel discussion held by the Commission on the Status of Women at its fiftieth session on the gender dimensions of migration, as well as other activities through which the plight of women migrant workers continues to be assessed and alleviated, “Recalling the discussions during the Assembly’s High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, held on 14 and 15 September 2006, which recognized, inter alia, the need for special protection for migrant women, “Recognizing the increasing participation of women in international migration, driven in large part by socio-economic reasons, and that this feminization of migration requires greater gender sensitivity in all policies and efforts related to the subject of international migration, “Stressing the shared responsibility of all stakeholders, including countries of origin and destination, relevant regional and international organizations, the private sector and civil society, in promoting an environment that prevents and addresses violence against women migrant workers, “Acknowledging the contribution that women migrant workers make to development through the economic benefits that accrue to both the country of origin and the country of destination, “Recognizing the disproportionate discrimination against women and children at all stages of the migration process, “Expressing deep concern at the continuing reports of grave abuses and violence committed against women migrant workers, including, inter alia, sexual and gender-based violence, trafficking, domestic and family violence, racist and xenophobic acts, abusive labour practices and exploitative conditions of work, “Realizing that the disadvantage that women migrant workers face is rooted in the intersection of gender, age, class and ethnic discrimination and stereotypes, “Noting with concern that many migrant women who are employed in the informal economy and in less skilled work are especially vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, and underlining in this regard the obligation of States to ensure respect for the human rights of those migrants, “Emphasizing the need for objective, comprehensive and broad-based information, possibly including a sex-disaggregated database for research and analysis, and a wide exchange of experience and lessons learned by individual Member States and civil society in the formulation of policies and concrete strategies to address the problem of violence against women migrant workers, “Realizing the vulnerability of women migrant workers throughout the migration process, from the moment of decision to migrate, to recruitment, transit, on-site work and integration into the new society, as well as during their return, “Recognizing the importance of joint and collaborative approaches and strategies at the bilateral, regional, interregional and international levels in protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of women migrant workers, “Recognizing also the importance of exploring the link between migration and trafficking in order to further efforts towards protecting women migrant workers from violence, discrimination, exploitation and abuse, “Encouraged by some measures adopted by some countries of destination to alleviate the plight of women migrant workers residing in their areas of jurisdiction, such as the establishment of protection mechanisms for migrant workers, facilitating their access to mechanisms for reporting complaints or providing assistance during legal proceedings, “Underlining the important role of relevant United Nations treaty bodies in monitoring the implementation of human rights conventions and the relevant special procedures, within their respective mandates, in addressing the problem of violence against women migrant workers and in protecting and promoting their rights and welfare, “1. Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General; “2. Takes note of the reports of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, with regard to violence against women migrant workers, and encourages all special rapporteurs whose mandates relate to the subject of violence against women migrant workers to address the issue of violence against women migrant workers and their human rights, in particular the problems of gender-based violence and of discrimination, as well as trafficking in women; “3. Notes the findings contained in the World Survey on the Role of Women in Development, 2004: Women and International Migration, including its recommendations for concrete actions aimed at helping to empower migrant women, including women migrant workers, and reducing their vulnerability to abuse; “4. Requests all Governments to continue to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteurs mentioned in paragraph 2 above in the performance of their tasks and mandated duties, including by making available to them requested information on violence against women migrant workers and by reacting promptly to their urgent appeals, and encourages Governments to give serious consideration to inviting them to visit their countries; “5. Calls upon all Governments to ensure that legislation and policies on international migration and on labour and employment are rights-based and gender-sensitive, and do not reinforce discrimination and bias against women; “6. Urges concerned Governments to enhance bilateral, regional, interregional and international cooperation to address violence against women migrant workers, in accordance with internationally agreed human rights standards, as well as to strengthen efforts to reduce their vulnerability and to provide sustainable development alternatives to migration for survival; “7. Also urges concerned Governments, in particular those of the countries of origin and destination, in cooperation with non-governmental organizations, the private sector and other members of civil society, to strengthen the focus on and funding support for the prevention of violence against women migrant workers, in particular by promoting the access of women to meaningful and gender-sensitive information and education on, inter alia, the costs and benefits of migration, rights and benefits to which they are entitled in the countries of origin and employment, overall conditions in countries of employment and procedures for legal migration, as well as to ensure that laws and policies governing recruiters, employers and intermediaries promote adherence to and respect for the human rights of migrant workers, particularly women; “8. Calls upon concerned Governments, in particular those of the countries of origin and destination, to put in place penal and criminal sanctions to punish perpetrators of violence against women migrant workers, and redress and justice mechanisms that victims can access effectively, as well as to ensure that migrant women victims of violence do not suffer from re-victimization in the hands of the authorities; “9. Urges all States to adopt effective measures to put an end to the arbitrary arrest and detention of women migrant workers and to take action to prevent and punish any form of illegal deprivation of the liberty of women migrant workers by individuals or groups; “10. Encourages concerned Governments, in particular those of the countries of origin and destination, to formulate and implement training programmes for their law enforcers, immigration officers, prosecutors and service providers with a view to sensitizing those public sector workers to the issue of violence against women migrant workers and instilling in them the necessary skills and attitude to ensure the delivery of proper, professional and gender-sensitive interventions; “11. Also encourages concerned Governments to adopt or strengthen measures to protect the human rights of women migrant workers, regardless of their immigration status, including, inter alia, in policies that regulate the recruitment and deployment of women migrant workers and to consider expanding dialogue among States on devising innovative methods to promote legal channels of migration, inter alia, in order to deter illegal migration; “12. Calls upon Governments, in cooperation with non-governmental organizations, the private sector and other stakeholders, to provide victims of violence with the full range of immediate assistance and protection, such as counselling, legal and consular assistance, temporary shelter and other measures that will allow victims to be present during the judicial process, as well as to establish reintegration and rehabilitation schemes for returning women migrant workers; “13. Invites Governments, the United Nations system and nongovernmental organizations to cooperate towards a better understanding of the issues concerning women and international migration, and to improve the collection, dissemination and analysis of data and information in order to assist in the formulation of gender-sensitive and rights-based migration and labour policies, as well as to aid in policy assessment; “14. Encourages concerned Governments, in particular those of the countries of origin, transit and destination, to avail themselves of the expertise of the United Nations, including the Statistics Division, the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, to develop appropriate national data-collection and analysis methodologies that will generate comparable data and tracking and reporting systems on violence against women migrant workers; “15. Encourages Member States to consider signing and ratifying or acceding to relevant International Labour Organization conventions and to consider signing and ratifying or acceding to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, as well as all human rights treaties that contribute to the protection of the rights of women migrant workers; “16. Encourages the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to further the momentum of its work in finalizing a general recommendation on women migrant workers; “17. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session on the problem of violence against women migrant workers and on the implementation of the present resolution, taking into account updated information from the organizations of the United Nations system, in particular the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, and the International Organization for Migration, as well as the reports of the Special Rapporteurs mentioned in paragraph 2 above, and other relevant sources, including non-governmental organizations.” 4. At its 48th meeting, on 19 November, the Committee had before it a revised draft resolution (A/C.3/62/L.14/Rev.1), submitted by Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Senegal, Uganda, Uruguay and the United States of America. Subsequently, Bangladesh, Benin, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ghana, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka joined in sponsoring the draft resolution. 5. At the same meeting, the Committee adopted draft resolution A/C.3/62/L.14/Rev.1 without a vote (see para. 43, draft resolution I). B. Draft resolutions A/C.3/62/L.15 and Rev.1 6. At the 21st meeting, on 23 October, the representative of France, on behalf of Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uruguay, introduced a draft resolution entitled “Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women” (A/C.3/62/L.15). Subsequently, Albania, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, Haiti, Lesotho, Liberia, Lithuania, Paraguay, San Marino and Turkey joined in sponsoring the draft resolution, which read: “The General Assembly, “Recalling its resolution 61/143 of 19 December 2006, entitled ‘Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women’, “Deeply concerned about the pervasiveness of violence against women and girls in all its forms and manifestations worldwide, and reiterating the need to intensify efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls throughout the world, “Stressing that States have the obligation to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls and must exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish the perpetrators of violence against women and girls and to provide protection to the victims, and that failure to do so violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, “Expressing its appreciation for the high number of activities undertaken by the United Nations bodies, entities, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies to eliminate all forms of violence against women, “1. Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General entitled ‘Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women’ pursuant to resolution 61/143; “2. Welcomes the decision of the Secretary-General to spearhead a multi-year system-wide campaign to eliminate violence against women and girls through 2015, focusing on global advocacy, United Nations leadership and strengthened efforts and partnerships at the national and regional levels; “3. Calls upon all United Nations bodies, entities, funds, programmes and the specialized agencies, and invites the Bretton Woods institutions to intensify their efforts at all levels to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls and to better coordinate their work, inter alia, through the Task Force on Violence against Women of the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality; “4. Urges the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality to intensify its efforts to enhance the effectiveness of the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women in order for it to operate as a system-wide funding mechanism for preventing and redressing all forms of violence against women and girls; “5. Stresses that within the United Nations system adequate resources should be assigned to those bodies, specialized agencies, funds and programmes responsible for the promotion of gender equality and women’s rights and to efforts throughout the United Nations system to eliminate violence against women and girls, supports the commitment of the Task Force on Violence against Women to undertake a resource flow analysis to assess the available resources for this work and elaborate recommendations for their most effective and efficient use, and urges the United Nations system to respond swiftly to those recommendations once issued; “6. Requests the Secretary-General to intensify his efforts to develop and propose a set of possible indicators on violence against women, building on the work of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, in order to assist States in assessing the scope, prevalence and incidence of violence against women, with a view to allowing its consideration by the Statistical Commission at the earliest possible time; “7. Also requests the Secretary-General, in his report to the sixty-third session of the General Assembly, containing, as requested in resolution 61/143, information provided by States on their follow-up activities to implement resolution 61/143, to include also information provided by the United Nations bodies, funds and programmes and specialized agencies on recent follow-up activities to implement resolution 61/143 and the present resolution, and urges United Nations bodies, entities, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies to contribute promptly to the report; “8. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its sixty-third session under the item entitled ‘Advancement of women’.” 7. At its 34th meeting, on 1 November, the Committee had before it a revised draft resolution (A/C.3/62/L.15/Rev.1), submitted by Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of). Subsequently, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Azerbaijan, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cambodia, the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, Lebanon, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Madagascar, Mali, Namibia, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, Zambia and Zimbabwe joined in sponsoring the draft resolution. 8. At the same meeting, the representative of the Netherlands orally corrected operative paragraph 8 of the draft resolution. 9. Also at its 34th meeting, the Committee adopted draft resolution A/C.3/62/L.15/Rev.1, as orally corrected, without a vote (see para. 43, draft resolution II). 10. After the adoption of the draft resolution, the representatives of the United States of America and Colombia made statements (see A/C.3/62/SR.34). C. Draft resolutions A/C.3/62/L.16 and Rev.1 and Rev.2 and amendments contained in document A/C.3/62/L.85 11. At the 32nd meeting, on 31 October, the representative of the United States of America, on behalf of Afghanistan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, the Netherlands, Palau, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Samoa, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Timor-Leste, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America and Vanuatu, introduced a draft resolution entitled “Eliminating the use of rape and other forms of sexual violence as instruments to achieve political or military objectives” (A/C.3/62/L.16). Subsequently, Denmark and Lithuania joined in sponsoring the draft resolution, which read: “The General Assembly, “Reaffirming the obligation of all States to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, and guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter and the obligations imposed by human rights instruments, “Reaffirming also the obligations of States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, as well as the goals, objectives and commitments of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and those contained in the outcome document of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled ‘Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century’ with respect to sexual violence and to women in armed conflict, “Recalling its previous resolutions on violence against women and violence against children and all other relevant resolutions, including Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 on women and peace and security, 1612 (2005) of 26 July 2005 on children affected by armed conflict and 1674 (2006) of 28 April 2006 on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, Commission on Human Rights resolution 2005/41 of 19 April 2005 on the elimination of violence against women, and Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights resolution 2001/20 of 16 August 2001 on systematic rape, sexual slavery and slavery-like practices, “Recalling also the inclusion of rape and other forms of gender-related crimes and crimes of sexual violence in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, “Recalling further the recognition by the ad hoc international criminal tribunals that rape can constitute a war crime or a crime against humanity, “Welcoming the initiative ‘Stop Rape Now: United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict’, “Recognizing that violence against women is an offence against the dignity and integrity of the victim, which often inflicts serious physical and psychological harm, and that all forms of violence against women seriously violate and impair or nullify the enjoyment by women of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and constitute a major impediment to the ability of women to make use of their capabilities, “Recognizing also that violence against women is rooted in historically unequal power relations between men and women and that discrimination on the basis of sex is contrary to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and other human rights instruments, “Recognizing further that violence against women impedes the social and economic development of communities and States, as well as the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, “Expressing concern that civilians, particularly women and children, account for the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict, including as refugees and internally displaced persons, and that they are increasingly targeted as such by combatants and other armed elements, and recognizing the consequent impact this has on durable peace and reconciliation, “Recognizing that rape and other forms of sexual violence to achieve military objectives are grave breaches of international humanitarian law, “Recognizing also that States bear primary responsibility for respecting and ensuring the human rights of all individuals, including their own citizens, within their territory and as provided by relevant international law, “Stressing that States have the obligation to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls and to provide protection to the victims, that they must exercise due diligence in preventing and investigating violence against women and girls and must punish the perpetrators and that failure to do so violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the victims, “Strongly condemning all acts of violence against women and girls, whether these acts are perpetrated by the State or by non-State actors, calling for the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence where perpetrated or condoned by the State and stressing the need to treat all forms of violence against women and girls as a criminal offence, punishable by law, “Stressing that States must never use or condone rape or other forms of sexual violence as instruments to achieve their political or military objectives, “Recognizing that rape or any other form of sexual violence used or condoned by a State is unlawful in all circumstances, whether or not it is committed within the territory of the State or is committed in the course of an international or non-international armed conflict, regardless of the sex or age of the victim, “Noting that when rape and other forms of sexual violence are used as instruments to achieve political or military objectives they are typically committed against women and girls who are associated with communities, ethnic groups or other groups regarded as antagonistic to or insufficiently supportive of the government or other entity whose forces commit the crime, and that they are frequently committed under circumstances, including in detention and jails, calculated to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate members of such groups, including, but not limited to, the victims and their families, “Deeply concerned that it has been increasingly acknowledged and documented that government forces in some countries and/or forces operating under the effective control or with the expressed or tacit approval of governments have raped women and girls on numerous occasions with impunity, including in the course of attempting to achieve political or military objectives, “Deeply concerned also that in cases where rape is used as an instrument to achieve government objectives the perpetrators rarely face any form of punishment, and that on the rare occasion when punishment is imposed it is rarely proportionate to the gravity of the crime, “Determined to bring an end to the practice of using rape and other forms of sexual violence as an instrument to achieve political or military objectives, “1. Urges States to: “(a) Take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, in particular rape and other forms of sexual violence; “(b) End impunity by ensuring that women have equal protection under the law and equal access to justice and by investigating, prosecuting and punishing those responsible for rape and other forms of sexual violence, including when the perpetrators are members of the government’s own armed forces or other forces operating under the effective control or with the expressed or tacit approval of the government; “(c) Provide victims with access to appropriate health care, including sexual and reproductive health care, psychological care and trauma counselling, as well as to rehabilitation, social integration and all other necessary remedies; “(d) Develop and implement at all levels, as required, a comprehensive and integrated strategy of prevention and prosecution of rape, in particular when the perpetrators are members of government or government-supported forces or operating under the effective control or with the expressed or tacit approval of the government, and to ensure that such a strategy includes the training of, inter alia, all relevant government and military personnel, in particular military commanders, law enforcement officials, judicial system personnel, health workers, teachers and social workers, as well as community leaders and the news media, in all appropriate aspects of the prevention and prosecution of rape and other forms of sexual violence and of protection and support for victims of such violence; “(e) Consider ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and implementing the obligations contained therein, and take measures to implement fully the commitments of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and of the outcome document of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly; “(f) Increase significantly their voluntary financial support for activities related to the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women, the empowerment of women and gender equality carried out by the specialized agencies and the United Nations funds and programmes, including the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women; “2. Calls upon States and the United Nations system to: “(a) Monitor the progress in all parts of the world of efforts to address rape, including through the regular collection, analysis and dissemination of data, to facilitate such efforts and, in particular, to work towards overcoming the difficulties and challenges of collecting information on the practice; “(b) Integrate fully the needs of the victims of sexual violence into United Nations humanitarian assistance programmes; “3. Urges States, in cooperation with the private sector, nongovernmental organizations and other civil society actors, as appropriate to: “(a) Conduct public education and awareness campaigns at the national and grass-roots levels in order to raise awareness about the causes and consequences of rape and other forms of sexual violence, in particular when they are used as instruments to achieve political or military objectives; “(b) Establish reception centres and shelters for victims, take other appropriate measures to promote and protect women’s rights and provide protection, safe shelter, medical assistance, including sexual and reproductive health care, all necessary medications, including antiretroviral drugs and antibiotics, counselling for victims and their families, comprehensive information and education, legal aid, and rehabilitation and reintegration of victims and their offspring into society, in cooperation with State efforts towards protecting and supporting victims, maintaining due confidentiality and privacy of the victims and their families; “(c) Support programmes to eliminate rape and other forms of sexual violence, particularly the use of such violence as an instrument to achieve political or military objectives; “(d) Address the long-term consequences faced by victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence, including legal discrimination and social stigmatization, and the effects on children born as a consequence; “4. Invites non-governmental organizations and other civil society actors to: “(a) Advocate at the local, national, regional and international levels against rape and other forms of sexual violence as instruments to achieve political or military objectives, including through building and strengthening networks among those who may be in a position to provide information on its occurrence, and to call attention to its adverse consequences; “(b) Increase coordination and cooperation in addressing this problem and continue to present their observations and conclusions to governments; “5. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the sixty-third session of the General Assembly with respect to each country in which rape or other forms of sexual violence are being used as instruments to achieve political or military objectives on the nature and extent of the problem and the steps being taken to implement the present resolution, drawing upon the contributions of, as appropriate, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, the special representatives of the Secretary-General in situations of conflict and post-conflict and all other relevant United Nations agencies, funds, programmes and organizations, including relevant special procedures and mechanisms.” 12. At its 39th meeting, on 8 November, the Committee had before it a revised draft resolution (A/C.3/62/L.16/Rev.1) entitled “Eliminating rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, including as instruments to achieve political or military objectives”, submitted by Afghanistan, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Nauru, Norway, the Netherlands, Panama, Palau, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Samoa, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America and Vanuatu, which read: “The General Assembly, “Reaffirming the obligation of all States to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, and guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter, “Reaffirming also that discrimination on the basis of sex is contrary to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other international human rights instruments and that its elimination is an integral part of efforts towards the elimination of all forms of violence against women, “Reaffirming further the obligations of States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, “Reaffirming the goals, objectives and commitments of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and those contained in the outcome document of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled ‘Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century’ with respect to sexual violence and to women in armed conflict, “Recalling its previous resolutions on violence against women and violence against children, including its resolution 61/143 of 19 December 2006, on intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women, and its other relevant resolutions, as well as Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000, on women and peace and security, 1612 (2005) of 26 July 2005, on children affected by armed conflict, and 1674 (2006) of 28 April 2006, on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, Commission on Human Rights resolution 2005/41 of 19 April 2005, on the elimination of violence against women, and Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights resolution 2001/20 of 16 August 2001, on systematic rape, sexual slavery and slavery-like practices, “Recalling also the inclusion of rape and other forms of gender-related crimes and crimes of sexual violence in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, “Recalling further the recognition by the ad hoc international criminal tribunals that rape can, under certain circumstances, constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, or genocide, “Welcoming the United Nations inter-agency initiative ‘Stop Rape Now: United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict’, “Recognizing that violence against women is an offence against the dignity and integrity of the victim, which often inflicts serious physical and psychological harm, and that all forms of violence against women seriously violate and impair or nullify the enjoyment by women of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and constitute a major impediment to the ability of women to make use of their capabilities, “Recognizing also that violence against women is rooted in historically unequal power relations between men and women, “Recognizing further that violence against women impedes the social and economic development of communities and States, as well as the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, “Expressing concern that civilians, particularly women and children, account for the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict, including as refugees and internally displaced persons, and increasingly are targeted by combatants and armed elements, and recognizing the consequent impact this has on durable peace and reconciliation, “Recognizing that States bear primary responsibility to respect and ensure the human rights of all individuals, including their own citizens, within their territory and as provided by relevant international law, “Stressing that States have the obligation to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls, and must exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish the perpetrators of violence against women and girls, and to provide protection to the victims, and that failure to do so violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the victims, “Strongly condemning all acts of violence against women and girls, whether these acts are perpetrated by the State, by private persons, or by nonState actors, calling for the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence in the family, within the general community, and where perpetrated or condoned by the State, and stressing the need to treat all forms of violence against women and girls as a criminal offence, punishable by law, “Stressing that rape or other forms of sexual violence must not be used or condoned in any circumstance by any individual, State or non-State actor, “Recognizing that rape or any other form of sexual violence is unlawful in all circumstances, whether or not it is committed within the territory of the State, whether or not in the course of an international or non-international armed conflict, including in detention and in jails, and regardless of the sex or age of the victim, “Deeply concerned at rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, which are typically committed against women and girls, and which when used to achieve political or military objectives often target victims associated with communities, ethnic groups or other groups regarded as antagonistic to or insufficiently supportive of the group or entity whose forces commit the crime, and are frequently calculated to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate members of such groups, including, but not limited to, the victims and their families, “Deeply concerned also at reports of rape by government or government-supported forces and other armed groups, including in the course of attempting to achieve political or military objectives, “Affirming the need for States to ensure that perpetrators of rape or other forms of sexual violence committed on their territory do not operate with impunity and that the perpetrators of such acts are brought to justice as provided for by national law and obligations under international law, and also affirming the need to penalize persons in authority found guilty of sexually assaulting victims, “Determined to bring an end to rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, including when used as instruments to achieve political or military objectives, “1. Urges States to: “(a) Take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, in particular rape and other forms of sexual violence; “(b) End impunity by ensuring that all rape victims, particularly women and girls, have equal protection under the law and equal access to justice, and by investigating, prosecuting and punishing those responsible for rape and other forms of sexual violence, including when the perpetrators or accused perpetrators are members of government or government-supported forces or other armed groups; “(c) Provide victims with access to appropriate health care, including sexual and reproductive health care, psychological care, and trauma counselling, as well as to rehabilitation, social reintegration and, as appropriate, effective and sufficient compensation, as provided for under national law; “(d) Develop and implement at all levels, as required, a comprehensive and integrated strategy of prevention and prosecution of rape, including in cases where the perpetrators or accused perpetrators are members of government or government-supported forces or other armed groups, and that such a strategy should include the training of, inter alia, all relevant government and military personnel, in particular military commanders, law enforcement officials, judicial system personnel, health workers, teachers and social workers, as well as community leaders and the news media, in all appropriate aspects of the prevention and prosecution of rape and other forms of sexual violence and of protection and support for victims of such violence; “(e) Promote human rights education, including on all aspects of rape and other forms of sexual violence, ensuring factual accounts of such violence in educational curricula, in an effort to encourage better understanding among all peoples; “(f) Increase significantly their voluntary financial support for activities related to preventing and eliminating all forms of violence against women, the empowerment of women and gender equality carried out by the specialized agencies and the United Nations funds and programmes, including the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women; “2. Calls upon States and the United Nations system to: “(a) Monitor the progress in all parts of the world of efforts to address rape, including through the regular collection, analysis and dissemination of data, to facilitate such efforts and, in particular, to work towards overcoming the difficulties and challenges of collecting information on the practice; “(b) Integrate to the maximum extent possible the needs of all victims of sexual violence into United Nations humanitarian assistance programmes; “(c) Assign, within existing resources, adequate resources within the United Nations system to those bodies, specialized agencies, funds and programmes responsible for the promotion of gender equality and women’s rights and to efforts throughout the United Nations system to eliminate violence against women and girls; “3. Urges States, in cooperation with the private sector, nongovernmental organizations and other civil society actors, as appropriate, to: “(a) Conduct public education and awareness campaigns at the national and grass-roots levels in order to raise awareness about the causes and consequences of rape and other forms of sexual violence; “(b) Establish reception centres and shelters for victims, take other appropriate measures to promote and protect women’s rights, and provide protection, safe shelter, medical assistance, including sexual and reproductive health care, all necessary medications, including antiretroviral drugs and antibiotics, counselling for victims and their families, comprehensive information and education, legal aid, rehabilitation, and reintegration of victims and their offspring into society, in cooperation with State efforts towards protecting and supporting victims, in particular appropriate compensation that is effective and sufficient, maintaining due confidentiality and privacy of the victims and their families; “(c) Support programmes to eliminate rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations; “(d) Address the long-term consequences faced by victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence, including legal discrimination and social stigmatization, as well as the effects on children born as a consequence; “4. Invites non-governmental organizations and other civil society actors to: “(a) Advocate at the local, national, regional and international levels against rape and other forms of sexual violence, including as instruments to achieve political or military objectives, inter alia, through building and strengthening networks among those who may be in a position to provide information on its occurrence, and to call attention to its adverse consequences; “(b) Increase coordination and cooperation in addressing this problem and continue to present their observations and conclusions to governments; “5. Requests the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of the present resolution to the sixty-third session of the General Assembly, including with respect to each situation in which rape or other forms of sexual violence are being perpetrated by government forces, government-supported forces or other armed groups, drawing upon the contributions of, as appropriate, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, the special representatives of the Secretary-General in situations of conflict and post-conflict and all other relevant United Nations agencies, funds, programmes and organizations, including relevant special procedures and mechanisms.” 13. At its 46th meeting, on 15 November, the Committee had before it a second revised draft resolution, entitled “Eliminating rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, including as instruments to achieve political objectives” (A/C.3/62/L.16/Rev.2), sponsored by Afghanistan, Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Nauru, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Palau, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Samoa, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, Turkey, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United Republic of Tanzania, the United States of America and Vanuatu. Subsequently, Andorra, Benin, Canada, Cape Verde, the Central African Republic, Chad, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius and Rwanda joined in sponsoring the draft resolution. 14. The representative of the United States of America made a statement (see A/C.3/62/SR.46) and orally revised draft resolution A/C.3/62/L.16/Rev.2 as follows: (a) The title of the resolution was changed to read: “Eliminating rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, including in conflict and related situations”; (b) The thirteenth preambular paragraph, which read: “Recognizing that States bear primary responsibility to respect and ensure the human rights of all individuals, including their own citizens, within their territory and as provided by relevant international law”, was replaced by: “Recognizing that States bear primary responsibility to respect and ensure the human rights of their citizens, as well as all individuals within their territory as provided by relevant international law”; (c) In the fifteenth preambular paragraph, after the words “perpetrated by” the words “persons acting on behalf of” were deleted; (d) In the seventeenth preambular paragraph, after the words “including in detention and in jails”, the words “whether or not committed by State or non-State actors in the course of achieving political or military objectives” were inserted; (e) In the eighteenth preambular paragraph, after the words “girls, and which” the words “when used to achieve political objectives” were deleted; (f) The nineteenth preambular paragraph, which read: “Deeply concerned also at reports of rape, including in the course of attempting to achieve political objectives”, was deleted; (g) After the twentieth preambular paragraph, a new preambular paragraph was inserted, reading: “Also affirming the need to provide all necessary assistance to victims, including children born as a result of rape”; (h) The twenty-second preambular paragraph, which read: “Determined to bring an end to rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, including when used as instruments to achieve political objectives”, was replaced by: “Determined to eliminate rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, including in conflict and related situations”; (i) In operative paragraph 1 (b), after the words “sexual violence”, the words “including government officials, with full respect for international law, including international humanitarian law” were replaced by the words “whether or not committed by State or non-State actors in the course of achieving political or military objectives, wherever they occur, whether or not in the course of an international or non-international armed conflict, including in detention and in jails, and regardless of the sex or age of the victim”; (j) In operative paragraph 1 (d), after the words “prosecution of rape”, the words “and monitor the implementation of such a strategy” were inserted; (k) Operative paragraph 1 (g), which read: “Monitor the progress of their efforts to address rape, including through the regular collection, analysis and dissemination of data, and work towards overcoming the difficulties and challenges of collecting information on the practice” was deleted; (l) In operative paragraph 2, the words “States and” were inserted after the words “Calls upon”; (m) In operative paragraph 2 (a), the words “Support efforts” were replaced by the words “Support all efforts” and the words “challenges of collecting information” were replaced by the words “challenges of capacity-building and collecting information”; (n) In operative paragraph 2 (c), after the word “Assign” the words “within existing resources” were deleted; at the end of the paragraph, after the words “women and girls”, the words “and design programmes to provide assistance to victims, including children born as a result” were inserted; (o) At the end of operative paragraph 3 (c), the words “and design programmes to provide assistance to all victims of rape” were inserted; (p) In operative paragraph 3 (d), the words “as a consequence” were replaced by the words “as a result of rape”; (q) In operative paragraph 4 (a), after the words “sexual violence”, the words “including as instruments to achieve political objectives” were deleted; (r) Operative paragraph 5, which read: “5. Requests the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of the present resolution to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session, including with respect to all situations in which rape or other forms of sexual violence are being used as instruments to achieve political objectives”, was replaced by: “5. Requests the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of the present resolution to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session, on rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, including when they target victims associated with communities, ethnic groups or other groups regarded as antagonistic to or insufficiently supportive of the group or entity whose forces commit the crime, and are calculated to humiliate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate members of such groups, including, but not limited to, the victims and their families”. 15. Also at its 46th meeting, the Committee had before it amendments (A/C.3/62/L.85) to draft resolution A/C.3/62/L.16/Rev.2, submitted by Angola on behalf of the States Members of the United Nations that are members of the Group of African States, by which: (a) The title of the draft resolution would read: “Eliminating rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, including in conflicts and related situations”; (b) The fifteenth preambular paragraph would read: “Strongly condemning all acts of violence against women and girls, whether perpetrated by the State, by private persons, or by non-State actors, calling for the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence in the family, within the general community, and where perpetrated or condoned by the State, and stressing the need to treat all forms of violence against women and girls as a criminal offence, punishable by law”; (c) The seventeenth preambular paragraph would read: “Recognizing that rape or any other form of sexual violence is unlawful in all circumstances and in all places, regardless of the sex or age of the victim, including in detention and in jails, whether or not it is committed within the territory of the State, whether or not in the course of an international or non-international armed conflict, or in areas under foreign occupation”; (d) The nineteenth preambular paragraph would be deleted; (e) The twenty-first preambular paragraph would read: “Determined to eliminate rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, including in conflicts and related situations”; (f) Operative paragraph 1 (b) would read: “(b) End impunity by ensuring that all rape victims, particularly women and girls, have equal protection under the law and equal access to justice, and by investigating, prosecuting and punishing any person responsible for rape and other forms of sexual violence, including whether or not committed by States or non-States actors to achieve political or military objectives, whether or not committed within the territory of States, whether or not in the course of an international armed conflict, including in detention or in jails and regardless of the sex or age of the victims”; (g) Operative paragraph 2 (a) would read: “(a) Support efforts to address rape, including through the regular collection, analysis and dissemination of data, to facilitate such efforts and, in particular, to work towards overcoming the difficulties and challenges of capacity-building and collecting information on the practice”; (h) Operative paragraph 2 (c) would read: “(c) Assign adequate resources within the United Nations system to those bodies, specialized agencies, funds and programmes responsible for the promotion of gender equality and women’s rights and to efforts throughout the United Nations system to eliminate violence against women and girls, and design programmes to provide assistance to victims of rape, including children born as a result of rape”; (i) Operative paragraph 3 (c) would read: “(c) Support programmes to eliminate rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations and design programmes to provide assistance to victims of rape”; (j) In operative paragraph 4 (a), the words “as instruments to achieve political or military objectives” would be deleted after the words “sexual violence”; (k) Operative paragraph 5 would read: “5. Requests the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of the present resolution to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session on the elimination of rape and sexual violence in all their forms including in conflicts and related situations”. 16. At the same meeting, the representative of Angola made a statement (see A/C.3/62/SR.46) in which he withdrew the amendments contained in document A/C.3/62/L.85. 17. Also at its 46th meeting, the Committee adopted draft resolution A/C.3/62/L.16/Rev.2, as orally revised, without a vote (see para. 43, draft resolution III). 18. After the adoption of the draft resolution, statements were made by the representatives of Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), South Africa, the United States of America, the Syrian Arab Republic and Angola (see A/C.3/62/SR.46). 19. At the 47th meeting, on 16 November, statements were made by the representatives of Liechtenstein, Portugal (on behalf of the States Members of the United Nations that are members of the European Union and associated countries), Sierra Leone and Canada (also on behalf of New Zealand) (see A/C.3/62/SR.47). D. Draft resolutions A/C.3/62/L.17 and Rev.1 20. At the 21st meeting, on 23 October, the representative of Estonia, on behalf of Croatia, Estonia, Guatemala, Iceland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, the Republic of Korea, the Sudan, Switzerland and Turkey, introduced a draft resolution entitled “United Nations Development Fund for Women” (A/C.3/60/L.17). Subsequently, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Liberia, Mali, Paraguay, Uganda and Timor-Leste joined in sponsoring the draft resolution, which read: “The General Assembly, “Recalling its resolution 39/125 of 14 December 1984, in which it established the United Nations Development Fund for Women as a separate and identifiable entity in autonomous association with the United Nations Development Programme, as well as its resolution 60/137 of 16 December 2005, “Reaffirming the Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women which recognizes the special role of the Fund in the promotion of the economic and political empowerment of women, and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled ‘Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century’, “Emphasizing that implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action is essential to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, “Reaffirming the commitments to gender equality and the empowerment of women made at the Millennium Summit, the 2005 World Summit and other major United Nations summits, conferences and special sessions, “Reaffirming also the primary and essential role of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, as well as the central role of the Commission on the Status of Women, in promoting the advancement of women and gender equality, “Reaffirming further all relevant resolutions of the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the Commission on the Status of Women, as well as Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 on women and peace and security, “Recognizing the importance of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and noting that the number of States parties to the Convention is among the highest for human rights conventions, “Welcoming the contributions that the Fund has made in supporting initiatives of Member States, United Nations organizations and nongovernmental organizations to formulate and implement activities that promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, “Recalling its resolution 59/250 of 22 December 2004 on the triennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system, and stressing the need for all organizations of the United Nations development system to implement their global, regional and country-level activities in accordance with their mandates, “Recalling also Economic and Social Council agreed conclusions 1997/2 of 18 July 1997 and subsequent Council resolutions on mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system, “Noting the importance of the work of the Consultative Committee on the United Nations Development Fund for Women in policy and programme directions, as stipulated in the annex to resolution 39/125, “Recognizing the ongoing intergovernmental consultation process on the recommendations of the High-level Panel on United Nations System-wide Coherence in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment, including those on gender equality and women’s empowerment, “1. Welcomes decision 2007/35, adopted by the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme and of the United Nations Population Fund at its second regular session of 2007 on 14 September 2007, in which the Executive Board endorsed the strategic priorities and results set out in the UNIFEM strategic plan, 2008-2011; “2. Also welcomes the note by the Secretary-General on the activities of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, containing the results-focused report of progress in implementing its multi-year funding framework 2004-2007; “3. Commends the focus by the Fund on strategic programmes in its four key thematic areas of work, namely, enhancing women’s economic security and rights, ending violence against women and reducing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among women, achieving gender equality in democratic governance, and supporting innovative programming in the context of the Beijing Platform for Action and commitments made at the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly and at the forty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women; “4. Calls upon Member States, intergovernmental bodies and the United Nations system to address the fragmentation and lack of adequate coordination, inadequate status, and under-resourcing of the existing gender entities which hamper the gender-equality work of the United Nations system both at Headquarters and at global, regional and national levels; “5. Notes with appreciation the coordination efforts between the United Nations Development Fund for Women and other funds, programmes and organizations of the United Nations system, as well as the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat, the Division for the Advancement of Women and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, and calls upon those entities to strengthen their collaborative efforts; “6. Calls upon all organizations of the United Nations system, within their mandates, to mainstream a gender perspective and to pursue gender equality and the empowerment of women in their country programmes, planning instruments and sector-wide programmes and to articulate specific country-level goals and targets in this field in accordance with national development strategies, and to ensure systematic monitoring, evaluation and reporting while also facilitating the participation of women in these processes; “7. Encourages the Fund to continue to contribute to the harmonization and coordination processes of United Nations reform through, inter alia, strengthened partnerships with other funds, programmes and organizations of the United Nations system and through the promotion of development, including technical cooperation, women’s human rights and a gender-equality perspective in the policies, guidelines and tools developed by the United Nations Development Group; “8. Encourages the participation of the Fund in relevant high-level inter-agency coordination mechanisms and calls upon the United Nations system to ensure the participation of relevant gender entities in system-wide cooperation in order to achieve better coordination with other United Nations bodies; “9. Encourages the Fund to support strengthened and coordinated action on gender equality at the country level, including by designating Fund representatives, where the Fund already has presence, with the authority to work with the concerned Governments to identify, formulate and execute programmes and projects, within the mandate of the Fund and in line with national priorities, and to enhance cooperation with, and active support for, resident coordinators for operational activities of the United Nations, on the understanding that this will not result in increased administrative expenditure for the Fund; “10. Reiterates its call to the United Nations development system to avail itself of the technical experience of the Fund and other gender specialist resources of the United Nations system to support enhanced programming and policies on gender equality and the empowerment of women at all levels; “11. Encourages Member States and United Nations organizations to further explore with the Fund possible innovative representational arrangements, including through the use of seconded staff, project offices and other means; “12. Notes the activities undertaken by the Fund in follow-up to resolution 60/137, to address the impact of armed conflict on women, to enhance the role of women in peacebuilding, and to support the participation of women in peace processes, and urges the Fund to support a coordinated approach of the United Nations system, including cooperation, as appropriate, with relevant United Nations entities as well as Member States, regional organizations and other United Nations partners, to strengthen gender justice in transitional justice processes and in post-conflict recovery and reconstruction, to support the participation of women in post-conflict governance institutions, and to strengthen the capacity of the United Nations to prevent the use of sexual violence as a weapon in conflict, and provide adequate response to survivors of this violence; “13. Emphasizes the importance of the Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women, established by General Assembly resolution 50/166 of 22 December 1995, as an inter-agency mechanism to respond to the deep concern regarding the persistence of violence and crimes against women in all parts of the world expressed by the Assembly, which has urged the relevant United Nations bodies, entities, funds and programmes and specialized agencies to enhance the coordination of and intensify the support to States in their efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women, and, while emphasizing the importance of enhancing the effectiveness of the Trust Fund, urges all Governments, non-governmental organizations and the public and private sectors to consider contributing or increasing contributions to the Trust Fund; “14. Encourages the Fund to continue to support the gender-equality and women’s empowerment goals and targets of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS adopted by the General Assembly at its twenty-sixth special session, and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS adopted at the High-level Meeting on AIDS of the sixtieth session of the Assembly, by working closely with women who are affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS to develop their capacity to influence programmes and policies, building on its partnerships within the United Nations system, in particular with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS); “15. Welcomes the strengthened partnership with the United Nations Development Programme to facilitate the participation of the Fund in the work of the Joint Programme in order to avail its co-sponsors of the expertise of the Fund with respect to the gender dimensions of HIV/AIDS; “16. Encourages the Fund to respond to country requests for the development or strengthening of accountability mechanisms for gender equality, including by coordinating United Nations country team support to build the capacity of Governments to undertake gender-responsive budget analysis and to use sex-disaggregated data as a basis for gender-responsive public policy formulation; “17. Also encourages the Fund to continue to assist Governments in implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, in order to advance gender equality at all levels, including by reinforcing the cooperation between Governments and civil society, especially women’s organizations, and by supporting efforts to follow up, as appropriate, the concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; “18. Calls upon the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, in his role as Chair of the United Nations Development Group, to further clarify the lines of responsibility, especially between the Programme and the Fund, to ensure that the resident coordinator system and the United Nations country teams provide coherent support to countries on gender equality, and between the Fund and other United Nations Development Group member organizations, to ensure greater effectiveness in United Nations operational activities related to gender equality; “19. Recognizes with appreciation the increases in core contributions and, particularly, non-core contributions to the Fund made by Member States, private organizations and foundations, whose increased contributions demonstrate their commitment to the issues on which the Fund is working; “20. Urges, accordingly, Member States, non-governmental organizations and members of private organizations and foundations that have contributed to the Fund to continue to contribute and to consider increasing their financial contributions, and urges others that have not yet done so to consider contributing to the Fund to enable it to reach the targets for core resources, which are essential for ensuring the predictability and effective planning of its activities.” 21. At the 47th meeting, on 16 November, the representative of Estonia, on behalf of Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, the Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkey, Uganda, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Republic of Tanzania, introduced a revised draft resolution (A/C.3/62/L.17/Rev.1). Subsequently, Albania, Bangladesh, Benin, Botswana, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, France, Gabon, the Gambia, Honduras, Ireland, Israel, Kenya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Mauritius, Moldova, Montenegro, South Africa, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Uruguay joined in sponsoring the draft resolution. 22. In introducing the draft resolution, the representative of Estonia orally revised the twelfth preambular paragraph by deleting the words “in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment” after the word “Coherence”. 23. Subsequently, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Australia, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Chad, the Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ghana, Guinea, Iraq, Lebanon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Saint Lucia, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Swaziland, Tunisia and Zambia joined in sponsoring the revised draft resolution, as orally revised. 24. Also at its 47th meeting, the Committee adopted draft resolution A/C.3/62/L.17/Rev.1, as orally revised (see para. 43, draft resolution IV). 25. After the adoption of the draft resolution, statements were made by the representatives of the United States of America and France (see A/C.3/62/SR.47). E. Draft resolutions A/C.3/62/L.19 and Rev.1 26. At the 29th meeting, on 29 October, the representative of Mongolia, on behalf of China, Ghana, Guatemala, Mexico, Mongolia, Panama and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, introduced a draft resolution entitled “Improvement of the situation of women in rural areas” (A/C.3/62/L.19). Subsequently, Argentina, Benin, Cameroon, the Congo, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Paraguay, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Uganda joined in sponsoring the draft resolution, which read: “The General Assembly, “Recalling its resolutions 56/129 of 19 December 2001, 58/146 of 22 December 2003 and 60/138 of 16 December 2005, “Recalling also the importance attached to the problems of rural women in the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women, the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled ‘Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace’, including the ten-year review and appraisal of the implementation of the outcomes, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, “Recalling further the United Nations Millennium Declaration, in which Member States resolved, inter alia, to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable, and the 2005 World Summit Outcome, in which they also resolved to promote gender equality and eliminate pervasive gender discrimination by taking all the necessary resolute action, “Welcoming the declaration adopted by the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-ninth session in the context of the ten-year review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, “Welcoming also the Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing for Development, as well as the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (‘Johannesburg Plan of Implementation’), in which Governments were called upon to mainstream the gender perspective into development at all levels and in all sectors, “Welcoming further the ministerial declaration of the high-level segment of the substantive session of 2003 of the Economic and Social Council, adopted on 2 July 2003, which stressed the need for rural development to become an integral part of national and international development policies and of activities and programmes of the United Nations system and called for enhanced role for rural women at all levels of rural development, including decision-making, “Recalling the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, adopted at the World Summit on the Information Society at its second phase, held in Tunis from 16 to 18 November 2005, which reaffirmed the commitment to building information and communications technology capacity and confidence in the use of such technology for all, including women, indigenous peoples and people living in remote and rural communities, “Recognizing the critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty, “Noting that some effects of globalization may deepen the socio-economic marginalization of rural women, “Noting also that the globalization process has had some benefits by providing opportunities for wage employment for rural women in new sectors, “Mindful of the fact that the available data and existing tools of measurement and analysis are insufficient for a full understanding of the gender implications of the processes of globalization and rural change and their impact on rural women, “Recognizing the urgent need to take appropriate measures aimed at further improving the situation of women in rural areas, “1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General; “2. Invites Member States, in collaboration with the organizations of the United Nations and civil society, as appropriate, to continue their efforts to implement the outcome of and to ensure an integrated and coordinated follow-up to United Nations conferences and summits, including their reviews, and to attach greater importance to the improvement of the situation of rural women, including indigenous women, in their national, regional and global development strategies by, inter alia: “(a) Creating an enabling environment for improving the situation of rural women and ensuring systematic attention to their needs, priorities and contributions, including through enhanced cooperation and a gender perspective, and their full participation in the development, implementation and monitoring of macroeconomic policies and programmes and poverty reduction strategies, including poverty reduction strategy papers based on the Millennium Development Goals; “(b) Pursuing the political and socio-economic empowerment of rural women and supporting their full and equal participation in decision-making at all levels, including through affirmative action, where appropriate, and support for women’s organizations, labour unions and other associations and civil society groups promoting rural women’s rights; “(c) Promoting consultation with and the participation of rural women, including indigenous women, through their organizations and networks, in the design, development and implementation of gender equality and rural development interventions; “(d) Integrating a gender perspective into the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development policies and programmes, including budget policies, paying increased attention to the needs of rural women in order to ensure that they benefit from policies and programmes adopted in all spheres and that the disproportionate number of rural women living in poverty is reduced; “(e) Ensuring that the perspectives of rural women are taken into account and that they participate in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and activities related to emergencies, natural disasters, humanitarian assistance, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction; “(f) Investing in and strengthening efforts to meet the basic needs of rural women through improved availability, access to and use of critical rural infrastructure, such as energy and transport, capacity-building and human resources development measures and the provision of a safe and reliable water supply and sanitation, nutritional programmes, affordable housing programmes, education and literacy programmes and health and social support measures, including in the area of sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS treatment, care and support; “(g) Designing and implementing policies that promote and protect the enjoyment by rural women and girls of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and creating an environment that does not tolerate violations of their rights, including domestic violence, sexual violence and other forms of gender-based violence; “(h) Developing specific assistance programmes and advisory services to promote economic skills of rural women in banking, modern trading and financial procedures and providing microcredit and other financial and business services to a greater number of women in rural areas, in particular female-headed households, for their economic empowerment; “(i) Integrating increased employment opportunities for rural women into all international and national development strategies and poverty eradication strategies, including by expanding non-agricultural employment opportunities, improving working conditions and increasing access to productive resources; “(j) Considering adopting, where appropriate, national legislation to protect the knowledge, innovations and practices of women in indigenous and local communities relating to traditional medicines, biodiversity and indigenous technologies; “(k) Taking steps towards ensuring that women’s unpaid work and contributions to on-farm and off-farm production, including income generated in the informal sector, are visible and supporting remunerative non-agricultural employment of rural women, improving working conditions and increasing access to productive resources; “(l) Addressing the lack of timely, reliable and sex-disaggregated data, including through intensifying efforts to include women’s unpaid work in official statistics, and developing a systematic and comparative research base on rural women that will inform policy and programme decisions; “(m) Designing and revising laws to ensure that, where private ownership of land and property exists, rural women are accorded full and equal rights to own land and other property, including through the right to inheritance, and undertaking administrative reforms and other necessary measures to give women the same right as men to credit, capital, appropriate technologies and access to markets and information; “(n) Promoting programmes to enable rural women and men to reconcile their work and family responsibilities and to encourage men to share household and childcare responsibilities equally with women; “(o) Mobilizing resources, including at the national level and through official development assistance, for increasing women’s access to existing savings and credit schemes, as well as targeted programmes that provide women with capital, knowledge and tools that enhance their economic capacities; “(p) Supporting a gender-sensitive education system that considers rural women’s specific needs in order to eliminate gender stereotypes and discriminatory tendencies affecting them; “3. Invites the Commission on the Status of Women to continue to pay due consideration to the situation of rural women in the consideration of its priority themes; “4. Invites the relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, in particular those dealing with issues of development, to address and support the empowerment of rural women and their specific needs in their programmes and strategies, including in the context of globalization; “5. Stresses the need to identify the best practices for ensuring that rural women have access to and full participation in the area of information and communication technologies, to address the priorities and needs of rural women and girls as active users of information and to ensure their participation in developing and implementing global, regional and national information and communications technology strategies; “6. Invites Member States, the United Nations and relevant organizations of its system to ensure that the needs of rural women are mainstreamed into the integrated process of follow-up to the major summits and conferences in the economic and social fields, in particular the Millennium Summit, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the International Conference on Financing for Development, the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus, which is to be held in Doha in the second half of 2008, the 2005 review and appraisal of the progress achieved in implementing all the commitments made in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly and the 2005 World Summit; “7. Invites Member States to take into consideration the concluding comments and recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women concerning their reports to the Committee when formulating policies and designing programmes focused on the improvement of the situation of rural women, including those to be developed and implemented in cooperation with relevant international organizations; “8. Declares that 15 October of each year shall be officially proclaimed and observed as the International Day of Rural Women; “9. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session on the implementation of the present resolution.” 27. At its 39th meeting, on 8 November, the Committee had before it a revised draft resolution (A/C.3/62/L.19/Rev.1), submitted by Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, China, the Congo, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Uganda and Uruguay. Subsequently, Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Barbados, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Liberia, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mali, Namibia, the Philippines, the Sudan, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe joined in sponsoring the draft resolution. 28. At the same meeting, the representative of Mongolia orally revised the text as follows: (a) At the end of the thirteenth preambular paragraph, the words “where they exist” were deleted after the word “strategies”; (b) At the end of operative paragraph 2 (d), after the word “discrimination”, the words “and violence” were deleted. 29. At the same meeting, the representative of the United States of America made a statement (see A/C.3/62/SR.39). 30. Also at its 39th meeting, the Committee adopted draft resolution A/C.3/62/L.19/Rev.1, as orally revised (see para. 43, draft resolution V). 31. After the adoption of the draft resolution, the representative of Colombia made a statement (see A/C.3/62/SR.39). F. Draft resolutions A/C.3/62/L.20 and Rev.1 32. At the 21st meeting, on 23 October, the representative of Denmark, on behalf of Armenia, Botswana, Croatia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Paraguay and Romania, introduced a draft resolution entitled “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women” (A/C.3/62/L.20), which read: “The General Assembly, “Recalling its resolution 60/230 of 23 December 2005 and its previous resolutions on the elimination of discrimination against women, “Bearing in mind that one of the purposes of the United Nations, as stated in Articles 1 and 55 of the Charter, is to promote universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction of any kind, including distinction as to sex, “Reiterating the need to intensify efforts to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women throughout the world, “Affirming that women and men should participate equally in social, economic and political development, should contribute equally to such development and should share equally in improved conditions of life, “Recalling the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights on 25 June 1993, in which the Conference reaffirmed that the human rights of women and the girl child were an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights, “Acknowledging the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to the promotion and protection of the human rights of women, which includes the integration of the human rights of women into the mainstream of United Nations activities system-wide, “Reaffirming the commitments made in the political declaration and the outcome document of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled ‘Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century’, in particular paragraphs 68 (c) and (d) concerning the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Optional Protocol thereto, “Recalling that, in the 2005 World Summit Outcome, Heads of State and Government resolved to implement the Convention, reaffirming that gender equality and the promotion and protection of the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all are essential to advance development and peace and security, “Recognizing that the equal enjoyment by women of all human rights and fundamental freedoms will promote the realization of the rights of the child, bearing in mind the special needs of girls, and acknowledging the mutual reinforcement of the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto, “Noting that the 792nd meeting of the Committee, held on 23 July 2007, marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the work of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and welcoming the statement of the Committee to commemorate the occasion, “Bearing in mind the recommendation of the Committee that national reports should contain information on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, in accordance with paragraph 323 of the Platform, “Having considered the reports of the Committee on its thirty-fourth, thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh, thirty-eight and thirty-ninth sessions, “Expressing concern at the great number of reports that are overdue (one hundred and eighty-seven), in particular initial reports, which constitutes an obstacle to the full implementation of the Convention, “1. Welcomes the report of the Secretary-General on the status of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; “2. Also welcomes the growing number of States parties to the Convention, which now stands at one hundred and eighty-five, while expressing disappointment that universal ratification of the Convention was not achieved by 2000, and urges all States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Convention to do so; “3. Further welcomes the growing number of States parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which now stands at eighty-eight, and urges other States parties to the Convention to consider signing and ratifying or acceding to the Optional Protocol; “4. Urges States parties to comply fully with their obligations under the Convention and the Optional Protocol thereto and to take into consideration the concluding comments as well as the general recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; “5. Encourages all relevant entities of the United Nations system, within their mandates, as well as Governments and intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, in particular women’s organizations, as appropriate, to strengthen assistance to States parties, upon their request, in implementing the Convention; “6. Notes that some States parties have modified their reservations, expresses satisfaction that some reservations have been withdrawn, and urges States parties to limit the extent of any reservations that they lodge to the Convention, to formulate any such reservations as precisely and as narrowly as possible, to ensure that no reservations are incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention, to review their reservations regularly with a view to withdrawing them and to withdraw reservations that are contrary to the object and purpose of the Convention; “7. Welcomes the adoption by the Committee of revised reporting guidelines, and urges States parties to adhere to the revised guidelines, in particular with regard to the content and length of reports; “8. Recalls the great number of overdue reports, in particular initial reports, and urges States parties to the Convention to make every possible effort to submit their reports on the implementation of the Convention in a timely manner, in accordance with article 18 thereof; “9. Also recalls its resolution 50/202 of 22 December 1995, in which it took note with approval of the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention, which has yet to enter into force; “10. Strongly urges States parties to the Convention to take appropriate measures so that acceptance of the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention by a two-thirds majority of States parties can be reached as soon as possible and the amendment can enter into force; “11. Expresses its appreciation for the efforts made by the Committee to improve the efficiency of its working methods, in particular pertaining to its meetings in parallel chambers following its fifth informal meeting held in Berlin from 2 to 4 May 2006; “12. Notes decision 39/I of the Committee, in which it requested the General Assembly to authorize an extension of its meeting time; “13. Also notes that a backlog of twenty-seven reports of States parties to be considered by the Committee persists; “14. Decides to authorize the Committee to hold three annual sessions of three weeks each, with a one-week pre-sessional working group for each session, effective from January 2008 as a temporary measure, and to authorize three annual sessions of the Working Group on Communications under the Optional Protocol to the Convention; “15. Also decides to authorize the Committee to meet on an exceptional and temporary basis in 2008 and 2009 for up to seven days in parallel working groups during its third (July/August) annual session in 2008 and its third (July/August) annual session in 2009, taking due account of equitable geographical distribution, for the purpose of considering reports of States parties submitted under article 18 of the Convention; “16. Urges the Committee to evaluate progress, and decides to assess the situation with regard to the Committee’s meeting time after two years, also taking into account the wider context of treaty body reform; “17. Encourages the Secretariat to extend further technical assistance to States parties, upon their request, to strengthen their capacity in the preparation of reports, in particular initial reports, and invites Governments to contribute to those efforts; “18. Invites States parties to make use of the technical assistance provided by the Secretariat to facilitate the preparation of reports, in particular initial reports; “19. Encourages the continued participation of members of the Committee in inter-committee meetings and meetings of persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies, including those on methods of work relating to the State reporting system; “20. Encourages the Committee, within its mandate, to continue to contribute to the efforts to strengthen cooperation and coordination between the treaty bodies; “21. Requests the Secretary-General, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 54/4 of 6 October 1999, to provide the resources, including staff and facilities, necessary for the effective functioning of the Committee within its full mandate, taking into account in particular the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention; “22. Urges Governments, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to disseminate the Convention and the Optional Protocol thereto; “23. Encourages States parties to disseminate the concluding comments adopted in relation to the consideration of their reports, as well as the general recommendations of the Committee; “24. Encourages all relevant entities of the United Nations system to continue to build women’s knowledge and understanding of and capacity to utilize human rights instruments, in particular the Convention and the Optional Protocol thereto; “25. Urges the specialized agencies, at the invitation of the Committee, to submit reports on the implementation of the Convention in areas falling within the scope of their activities; “26. Welcomes the contribution of non-governmental organizations to the work of the Committee; “27. Invites the Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to address the General Assembly at its sixty-third and sixty-fourth sessions under the item on the advancement of women; “28. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session a report on the status of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the implementation of the present resolution.” 33. At the 53rd meeting, on 27 November, the representative of Denmark, on behalf of Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Mali, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Uganda, Ukraine and the United Republic of Tanzania, introduced a revised draft resolution (A/C.3/62/L.20/Rev.1). Subsequently, Albania, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Mauritius, Montenegro, Morocco, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uruguay and Zambia joined in sponsoring the draft resolution. 34. At the same meeting, the Committee had before it a statement of the programme budget implications of draft resolution A/C.3/62/L.20/Rev.1, submitted by the Secretary-General in accordance with rule 153 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly (A/C.3/62/L.87). 35. Also at the 53rd meeting, the representative of the United States of America made a statement and requested separate recorded votes on operative paragraphs 14 and 15 of the draft resolution. 36. At the same meeting, the representative of Australia made a statement (see A/C.3/62/SR.53). 37. Also at the same meeting, the Committee voted on draft resolution A/C.3/62/L.20/Rev.1 as follows: (a) Operative paragraph 14 was retained by a recorded vote of 158 to 1, with 9 abstentions. The voting was as follows: In favour: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia (Federated States of), Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: United States of America. Abstaining: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Mali, Singapore. Before the vote, a statement was made by the representative of Egypt; after the vote, a statement was made by the representative of Liechtenstein (see A/C.3/62/SR.53). (b) Operative paragraph 15 was retained by a recorded vote of 143 to 3, with 22 abstentions. The voting was as follows: In favour: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia (Federated States of), Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: Egypt, Syrian Arab Republic, United States of America. Abstaining: Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Gambia, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Nicaragua, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), Yemen. After the vote, statements were made by the representatives of Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Syrian Arab Republic, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) and Cuba (see A/C.3/62/SR.53). (c) Draft resolution A/C.3/62/L.20/Rev.1, as a whole, was adopted by a recorded vote of 173 to 1 (see para. 43, draft resolution VI). The voting was as follows: In favour: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia (Federated States of), Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Against: United States of America. Abstaining: None. 38. Before the vote, a statement was made by the representative of the United States of America; after the vote, a statement was made by the representative of Singapore (see A/C.3/62/SR.53). G. Draft resolution A/C.3/62/L.89 39. At its 53rd meeting, on 27 November, the Committee had before it a draft resolution entitled “Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly” (A/C.3/62/L.89), submitted by the Chairman on the basis of informal consultations. 40. At the same meeting, the Committee adopted draft resolution A/C.3/62/L.89 without a vote (see para. 43, draft resolution VII). 41. After the adoption of the draft resolution, statements were made by the representatives of the United States of America and Egypt (see A/C.3/62/SR.53). H. Draft decision proposed by the Chairman 42. At its 53rd meeting, on 27 November, on the proposal of the Chairman, the Committee decided to recommend to the General Assembly that it take note of following documents (see para. 44): (a) Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; (b) Report of the Secretary-General on the future operations of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (A/62/173). III. Recommendations of the Third Committee 43. The Third Committee recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of the following draft resolutions: Draft resolution I Violence against women migrant workers The General Assembly, Recalling all of its previous resolutions on violence against women migrant workers and those adopted by the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, Reaffirming the provisions concerning women migrant workers contained in the outcome documents of the World Conference on Human Rights, the International Conference on Population and Development, the Fourth World Conference on Women and the World Summit for Social Development and their five-year reviews, Noting with appreciation the various activities initiated by entities of the United Nations system, such as the Regional Programme on Empowering Women Migrant Workers in Asia of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the high-level panel discussion held by the Commission on the Status of Women at its fiftieth session on the gender dimensions of migration, and the discussions held by the Commission at its fifty-first session, during which it took note, inter alia, of the particular situation of girl migrants, and noting the contribution of the International Labour Organization through the development of a Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration, as well as other activities through which the plight of women migrant workers continues to be assessed and alleviated, Recalling the discussions during the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, held on 14 and 15 September 2006, which recognized, inter alia, the need for special protection for migrant women, Recognizing the increasing participation of women in international migration, driven in large part by socio-economic factors, and that this feminization of migration requires greater gender sensitivity in all policies and efforts related to the subject of international migration, Stressing the shared responsibility of all stakeholders, in particular countries of origin, transit and destination, relevant regional and international organizations, the private sector and civil society, in promoting an environment that prevents and addresses violence against women migrant workers, Acknowledging the contribution that women migrant workers make to development through the economic benefits that accrue to both the country of origin and the country of destination, Recognizing the particular vulnerability of women and their children at all stages of the migration process, extending from the moment of deciding to migrate, and including transit, engagement in formal and informal employment, and integration into the host society, as well as during their return to their countries of origin, Expressing deep concern at the continuing reports of grave abuses and violence committed against migrant women and girls, including, inter alia, gender-based violence, in particular sexual violence, trafficking, domestic and family violence, racist and xenophobic acts, abusive labour practices and exploitative conditions of work, Recognizing that the intersection of, inter alia, gender, age, class and ethnic discrimination and stereotypes can compound the discrimination faced by women migrant workers, Reaffirming the commitment to protect and promote the human rights of all women, including, without discrimination, indigenous women who migrate for work, and, in this regard, noting the attention paid in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to the elimination of all forms of violence and discrimination against indigenous women, as appropriate, Noting with concern that many migrant women who are employed in the informal economy and in less skilled work are especially vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, and underlining in this regard the obligation of States to protect the human rights of migrants so as to prevent abuse and exploitation, Emphasizing the need for objective, comprehensive and broad-based information, including sex- and age-disaggregated data and statistics, and gender-sensitive indicators for research and analysis, and a wide exchange of experience and lessons learned by individual Member States and civil society in the formulation of policies and concrete strategies to address the problem of violence against women migrant workers, Realizing that the movement of a significant number of women migrant workers may be facilitated and made possible by means of fraudulent or irregular documentation and sham marriages with the object of migration, that this may be facilitated through, among other things, the Internet, and that those women migrant workers are more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, Recognizing the importance of joint and collaborative approaches and strategies at the bilateral, regional, interregional and international levels in protecting and promoting the human rights and welfare of women migrant workers, Recognizing also the importance of exploring the link between migration and trafficking in order to further efforts towards protecting women migrant workers from violence, discrimination, exploitation and abuse, Encouraged by some measures adopted by some countries of destination to alleviate the plight of women migrant workers residing in their areas of jurisdiction, such as the establishment of protection mechanisms for migrant workers, facilitating their access to mechanisms for reporting complaints, or providing assistance during legal proceedings, Underlining the important role of relevant United Nations treaty bodies in monitoring the implementation of human rights conventions and the relevant special procedures, within their respective mandates, in addressing the problem of violence against women migrant workers and in protecting and promoting their human rights and welfare, 1. Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General; 2. Encourages Member States to consider signing and ratifying or acceding to relevant International Labour Organization conventions and to consider signing and ratifying or acceding to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, as well as all human rights treaties that contribute to the protection of the rights of women migrant workers; 3. Takes note of the reports of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the human rights of migrants and the Special Rapporteur of the Council on violence against women, its causes and consequences, with regard to violence against women migrant workers, and encourages all special rapporteurs whose mandates relate to the subject of violence against women migrant workers to address the issue of violence against women migrant workers and their human rights, in particular the problems of gender-based violence and discrimination, as well as trafficking in women; 4. Notes the findings contained in the World Survey on the Role of Women in Development, 2004: Women and International Migration, including its recommendations for concrete actions aimed at helping to empower migrant women, including women migrant workers, and reducing their vulnerability to abuse; 5. Requests all Governments to continue to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteurs mentioned in paragraph 3 above in the performance of their tasks and mandated duties, including by making available to them requested information on violence against women migrant workers and by reacting promptly to their urgent appeals, and encourages Governments to give serious consideration to inviting them to visit their countries; 6. Calls upon all Governments to incorporate a human rights and gender perspective in legislation and policies on international migration and on labour and employment, including, inter alia, for the prevention and protection of migrant women from violence and discrimination, exploitation and abuse, and to take effective measures to ensure that these do not reinforce discrimination and bias against women; 7. Calls upon Governments to adopt or strengthen measures to protect the human rights of women migrant workers, regardless of their immigration status, including, inter alia, in policies that regulate the recruitment and deployment of women migrant workers, and to consider expanding dialogue among States on devising innovative methods to promote legal channels of migration, inter alia, in order to deter illegal migration; 8. Urges Governments to enhance bilateral, regional, interregional and international cooperation to address violence against women migrant workers, fully respecting international law, including international human rights law, as well as to strengthen efforts in reducing the vulnerability of women migrant workers, including through fostering sustainable development alternatives to migration in countries of origin; 9. Also urges Governments to adopt or strengthen measures to promote and protect the human rights of migrant girls, including unaccompanied girls, regardless of their immigration status, to prevent their labour and economic exploitation, discrimination, sexual harassment, violence and sexual abuse in the workplace, including domestic work; 10. Urges Governments, in cooperation with international organizations, civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and the private sector, to strengthen the focus on and funding support for the prevention of violence against women migrant workers, in particular by promoting the access of women to meaningful and gender-sensitive information and education on, inter alia, the costs and benefits of migration, rights and benefits to which they are entitled in the countries of origin and employment, overall conditions in countries of employment and procedures for legal migration, as well as to ensure that laws and policies governing recruiters, employers and intermediaries promote adherence to and respect for the human rights of migrant workers, particularly women; 11. Calls upon Governments, in cooperation with international organizations, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, and other stakeholders, to provide women migrant workers who are victims of violence with the full range of immediate assistance and protection, such as access to counselling, legal and consular assistance and temporary shelter, as well as mechanisms to allow the views and concerns of victims to be presented and considered at appropriate stages of proceedings, including other measures that will allow victims to be present during the judicial process, to the extent possible, as well as to establish reintegration and rehabilitation schemes for returning women migrant workers; 12. Calls upon Governments, in particular those of the countries of origin and destination, to put in place penal and criminal sanctions to punish perpetrators and intermediaries of violence against women migrant workers, and redress and justice mechanisms that victims can access effectively, as well as to ensure that migrant women victims of violence do not suffer from re-victimization, including by authorities; 13. Urges all States to adopt effective measures to put an end to the arbitrary arrest and detention of women migrant workers and to take action to prevent and punish any form of illegal deprivation of the liberty of women migrant workers by individuals or groups; 14. Encourages Governments to formulate and implement training programmes for their law enforcers, immigration officers and border officials, prosecutors and service providers with a view to sensitizing those public sector workers to the issue of violence against women migrant workers and imparting to them the necessary skills and attitude to ensure the delivery of proper, professional and gender-sensitive interventions; 15. Invites Governments, the United Nations system and other concerned intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to cooperate towards a better understanding of the issues concerning women and international migration, and to improve the collection, dissemination and analysis of sex- and agedisaggregated data and information in order to assist in the formulation of migration and labour policies that are, inter alia, gender-sensitive and that protect human rights, as well as to aid in policy assessment; 16. Encourages concerned Governments, in particular those of the countries of origin, transit and destination, to avail themselves of the expertise of the United Nations, including the Statistics Division of the Secretariat, the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, to develop appropriate national data-collection and analysis methodologies that will generate comparable data and tracking and reporting systems on violence against women migrant workers; 17. Encourages the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to continue its work on a general recommendation on the situation of women migrant workers; 18. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session on the problem of violence against women migrant workers and on the implementation of the present resolution, taking into account updated information from the organizations of the United Nations system, in particular the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, as well as the reports of the Special Rapporteurs mentioned in paragraph 3 above, and other relevant sources, such as the International Organization for Migration, including non-governmental organizations. Draft resolution II Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women The General Assembly, Recalling its resolution 61/143 of 19 December 2006, Reaffirming the obligation of all States to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, and reaffirming also that discrimination on the basis of sex is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other international human rights instruments, and that its elimination is an integral part of efforts towards the elimination of all forms of violence against women, Reaffirming also the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”, and the declaration adopted at the forty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, Reaffirming further the international commitments in the field of social development and to gender equality and the advancement of women made at the World Conference on Human Rights, the International Conference on Population and Development, the World Summit for Social Development and the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, as well as those made in the United Nations Millennium Declaration and at the 2005 World Summit, and noting the attention paid to the elimination of all forms of violence against indigenous women in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 61/295, Recognizing that women’s poverty and lack of empowerment, as well as their marginalization resulting from their exclusion from social policies and from the benefits of sustainable development, can place them at increased risk of violence, and that violence against women impedes the social and economic development of communities and States, as well as the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, Deeply concerned about the pervasiveness of all forms of violence against women and girls in all its different forms and manifestations worldwide, and reiterating the need to intensify efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls throughout the world, Stressing that States have the obligation to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, including women and girls, and must exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish the perpetrators of violence against women and girls, to eliminate impunity and to provide protection to the victims, and that failure to do so violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, Expressing its appreciation for the high number of activities undertaken by the United Nations bodies, entities, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies to eliminate all forms of violence against women, 1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women, pursuant to resolution 61/143; 2. Welcomes the decision of the Secretary-General to spearhead a multi-year system-wide campaign to eliminate violence against women and girls through 2015, focusing on global advocacy, United Nations leadership and strengthened efforts and partnerships at the national and regional levels; 3. Calls upon the international community, including the United Nations system and, as appropriate, regional and subregional organizations, to support national efforts to promote the empowerment of women and gender equality in order to enhance national efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls, including, upon request, in the development and implementation of national action plans on the elimination of violence against women and girls, through, inter alia, and taking into account national priorities, official development assistance and other appropriate assistance, such as facilitating the sharing of guidelines, methodologies and best practices; 4. Calls upon all United Nations bodies, entities, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies and invites the Bretton Woods institutions to intensify their efforts at all levels to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls and to better coordinate their work, inter alia, through the Task Force on Violence against Women of the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality; 5. Calls upon the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality to intensify its consideration of ways and means to enhance the effectiveness of the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women as a system-wide funding mechanism for preventing and redressing all forms of violence against women and girls; 6. Stresses that within the United Nations system adequate resources should be assigned to those bodies, specialized agencies, funds and programmes responsible for the promotion of gender equality and women’s rights and to efforts throughout the United Nations system to eliminate violence against women and girls, supports the commitment of the Task Force on Violence against Women to undertake a resource flow analysis to assess the available resources for this work and elaborate recommendations for their most effective and efficient use, and calls upon the United Nations system to respond swiftly to those recommendations once issued; 7. Requests the Secretary-General to intensify his efforts to develop and propose a set of possible indicators on violence against women, building on the work undertaken by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, in order to assist States in assessing the scope, prevalence and incidence of violence against women, with a view to allowing its consideration by the Commission on the Status of Women at its fifty-second session and by the Statistical Commission at the earliest; 8. Also requests the Secretary-General to present an oral report to the Commission on the Status of Women at its fifty-second session and thereafter to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session with information provided by the United Nations bodies, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies on recent follow-up activities to implement resolution 61/143 and the present resolution, including on the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women, and urges United Nations bodies, entities, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies to contribute promptly to the report. Draft resolution III Eliminating rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, including in conflict and related situations The General Assembly, Reaffirming the obligation of all States to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, and guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter, Reaffirming also that discrimination on the basis of sex is contrary to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other international human rights instruments and that its elimination is an integral part of efforts towards the elimination of all forms of violence against women, Reaffirming further the obligations of States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols thereto and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Reaffirming the goals, objectives and commitments of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and those contained in the outcome document of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century” with respect to sexual violence and to women in armed conflict, Recalling all previous General Assembly resolutions on violence against women and violence against children, including resolution 61/143 of 19 December 2006, on intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women, and its other relevant resolutions, as well as Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000, on women and peace and security, 1612 (2005) of 26 July 2005, on children affected by armed conflict, and 1674 (2006) of 28 April 2006, on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, the Economic and Social Council resolutions on women and on the girl child, Commission on Human Rights resolution 2005/41 of 19 April 2005, on the elimination of violence against women, and Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights resolution 2001/20 of 16 August 2001, on systematic rape, sexual slavery and slavery-like practices, Recalling also the inclusion of rape and other forms of gender-related crimes and crimes of sexual violence in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Recalling further the recognition by the ad hoc international criminal tribunals that rape can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, or a constitutive act with respect to genocide, Welcoming the United Nations inter-agency initiative “Stop Rape Now: United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict”, Recognizing that violence against women is an offence against the dignity and integrity of the victim, which often inflicts serious physical and psychological harm, and that all forms of violence against women seriously violate and impair or nullify the enjoyment by women of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and constitute a major impediment to the ability of women to make use of their capabilities, Recognizing also that violence against women is rooted in historically unequal power relations between men and women, Recognizing further that violence against women impedes the social and economic development of communities and States, as well as the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, Expressing concern that civilians, particularly women and children, account for the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict, including as refugees and internally displaced persons, and increasingly are targeted by combatants and armed elements, and recognizing the consequent impact this has on durable peace and reconciliation, Recognizing that States bear primary responsibility to respect and ensure the human rights of their citizens, as well as all individuals within their territory as provided by relevant international law, Stressing that States have the obligation to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls, and must exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish the perpetrators of violence against women and girls, and to provide protection to the victims, and that failure to do so violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the victims, Strongly condemning all acts of violence against women and girls, whether these acts are perpetrated by the State, by private persons, or by non-State actors, calling for the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence in the family, within the general community, and where perpetrated or condoned by the State, and stressing the need to treat all forms of violence against women and girls as a criminal offence, punishable by law, Stressing that rape or other forms of sexual violence must not be used or condoned in any circumstance by any individual, State or non-State actor, Recognizing that rape or any other form of sexual violence is unlawful in all circumstances and in all places, regardless of the sex or age of the victim, including in detention and in jails, whether or not committed by State or non-State actors in the course of achieving political or military objectives, whether or not in the course of an international or non-international armed conflict, or in areas under foreign occupation, Deeply concerned at rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, which are typically committed against women and girls, and which often target victims associated with communities, ethnic groups or other groups regarded as antagonistic to or insufficiently supportive of the group or entity whose forces commit the crime, and are frequently calculated to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate members of such groups, including, but not limited to, the victims and their families, Affirming the need for States to ensure that perpetrators of rape or other forms of sexual violence committed on their territory do not operate with impunity and that the perpetrators of such acts are brought to justice as provided for by national law and obligations under international law, and also affirming the need to penalize persons in authority found guilty of sexually assaulting victims, Also affirming the need to provide all necessary assistance to victims, including children born as a result of rape, Determined to eliminate rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, including in conflict and related situations, 1. Urges States to: (a) Take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, in particular rape and other forms of sexual violence; (b) End impunity by ensuring that all rape victims, particularly women and girls, have equal protection under the law and equal access to justice and by investigating, prosecuting and punishing any person responsible for rape and other forms of sexual violence, whether or not committed by State or non-State actors in the course of achieving political or military objectives, wherever they occur, whether or not in the course of an international or non-international armed conflict, including in detention and in jails, and regardless of the sex or age of the victim; (c) Provide victims with access to appropriate health care, including sexual and reproductive health care, psychological care, and trauma counselling, as well as to rehabilitation, social reintegration and, as appropriate, effective and sufficient compensation, in accordance with relevant international and national law; (d) Develop and implement at all levels, as required, a comprehensive and integrated strategy of prevention and prosecution of rape, and monitor the implementation of such a strategy, which should include the training of, inter alia, all relevant government and military personnel, in particular military commanders, law enforcement officials, judicial system personnel, health workers, teachers and social workers, as well as community leaders and the news media, in all appropriate aspects of the prevention and prosecution of rape and other forms of sexual violence and of protection and support for victims of such violence; (e) Promote human rights education, including on all aspects of rape and other forms of sexual violence, ensuring factual accounts of such violence, in an effort to encourage better understanding among all peoples, with a view to the prevention and elimination of rape and other forms of sexual violence; (f) Increase significantly their voluntary financial support for activities related to preventing and eliminating all forms of violence against women, the empowerment of women and gender equality carried out by the specialized agencies and the United Nations funds and programmes, including the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women; (g) Consider ratifying or acceding to all human rights treaties, including, as a matter of priority, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women_Ref185655393 \h \* MERGEFORMAT 1 and the Optional Protocol thereto; 2. Calls upon States and the United Nations system to: (a) Support all efforts to address rape, including through the regular collection, analysis and dissemination of data, to facilitate such efforts and, in particular, to work towards overcoming the difficulties and challenges of capacity-building and collecting information on the practice; (b) Integrate to the maximum extent possible the needs of all victims of sexual violence into United Nations humanitarian assistance programmes; (c) Assign adequate resources within the United Nations system to those bodies, specialized agencies, funds and programmes responsible for the promotion of gender equality and women’s rights and to efforts throughout the United Nations system to eliminate violence against women and girls and design programmes to provide assistance to victims, including children born as a result; 3. Urges States, in cooperation with the private sector, non-governmental organizations and other civil society actors, as appropriate, to: (a) Conduct public education and awareness campaigns at the national and grass-roots levels in order to raise awareness about the causes and consequences of rape and other forms of sexual violence; (b) Establish reception centres and shelters for victims, take other appropriate measures to promote and protect women’s rights, and provide protection, safe shelter, medical assistance, including sexual and reproductive health care, all necessary medications, including antiretroviral drugs and antibiotics, counselling for victims and their families, comprehensive information and education, legal aid, rehabilitation, and reintegration of victims and their offspring into society, in cooperation with State efforts towards protecting and supporting victims, in particular appropriate compensation that is effective and sufficient, maintaining due confidentiality and privacy of the victims and their families; (c) Support programmes to eliminate rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, and design programmes to provide assistance to all victims of rape; (d) Address the long-term consequences faced by victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence, including legal discrimination and social stigmatization, as well as the effects on children born as a result of rape; 4. Invites non-governmental organizations and other civil society actors to: (a) Advocate at the local, national, regional and international levels against rape and other forms of sexual violence, inter alia, through building and strengthening networks among those who may be in a position to provide information on its occurrence, and to call attention to its adverse consequences; (b) Increase coordination and cooperation in addressing this problem and continue to present their observations and conclusions to Governments; 5. Requests the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of the present resolution to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session, on rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, including when they target victims associated with communities, ethnic groups or other groups regarded as antagonistic to or insufficiently supportive of the group or entity whose forces commit the crime, and are calculated to humiliate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate members of such groups, including, but not limited to, the victims and their families. Draft resolution IV United Nations Development Fund for Women The General Assembly, Recalling its resolution 39/125 of 14 December 1984, in which it established the United Nations Development Fund for Women as a separate and identifiable entity in autonomous association with the United Nations Development Programme, as well as its resolution 60/137 of 16 December 2005, Reaffirming the Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women which recognizes the special role of the Fund in the promotion of the economic and political empowerment of women, and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”, Emphasizing that implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action is essential to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, Reaffirming the commitments to gender equality and the empowerment of women made at the Millennium Summit, the 2005 World Summit and other major United Nations summits, conferences and special sessions, Reaffirming also the primary and essential role of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, as well as the central role of the Commission on the Status of Women and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in promoting the advancement of women and gender equality, Reaffirming further all relevant resolutions of the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the Commission on the Status of Women, as well as Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 on women and peace and security, Recognizing the importance of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and noting that the number of States parties to the Convention is among the highest for human rights conventions, Welcoming the contributions that the Fund has made in supporting initiatives of Member States, United Nations organizations and non-governmental organizations to formulate and implement activities that promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, Recalling its resolution 59/250 of 22 December 2004 on the triennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system, and stressing the need for all organizations of the United Nations development system to implement their global, regional and country-level activities in accordance with their mandates, Recalling also Economic and Social Council agreed conclusions 1997/2 of 18 July 1997 and subsequent Council resolutions on mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system, Noting the importance of the work of the Consultative Committee on the United Nations Development Fund for Women in policy and programme directions, as stipulated in the annex to resolution 39/125, Noting also the ongoing intergovernmental consultation process on the recommendations of the High-level Panel on United Nations System-wide Coherence, where issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment are addressed, 1. Takes note with appreciation of decision 2007/35, adopted by the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme and of the United Nations Population Fund at its second regular session of 2007 on 14 September 2007, which took note of the strategic plan, 2008-2011, of the United Nations Development Fund for Women and endorsed its strategic priorities and results and authorized its implementation; 2. Welcomes the note by the Secretary-General on the activities of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, containing the results-focused report of progress in implementing its multi-year funding framework 2004-2007; 3. Commends the focus by the Fund, in accordance with its mandate as set out in resolution 39/125, on strategic programmes in its three key thematic areas of work, in line with its strategic plan, 2008-2011, namely, enhancing women’s economic security and rights, ending violence against women and reducing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among women and achieving gender equality in democratic governance, as well as eradicating feminized poverty, and supporting innovative programming in the context of the Beijing Platform for Action_Ref185655823 \h \* MERGEFORMAT 1 and commitments made at the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly_Ref185655844 \h \* MERGEFORMAT 2 and at the forty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women; 4. Calls upon Member States, intergovernmental bodies and the United Nations system to intensify their efforts to enhance the coordination and ensure adequate status and resourcing of the gender entities of the United Nations to improve the support of the United Nations system for gender equality and the empowerment of women at the global, regional and national levels; 5. Notes with appreciation the coordination efforts between the United Nations Development Fund for Women and other funds, programmes and organizations of the United Nations system, as well as the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, the Division for the Advancement of Women of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, and calls upon those entities to strengthen their collaborative efforts; 6. Urges all organizations of the United Nations system, within their mandates, to mainstream a gender perspective and to pursue gender equality and the empowerment of women in all their programmes, planning instruments and sector-wide programmes and to articulate specific global, regional and country-level benchmarks, goals and targets in this field in accordance with national development strategies, and to ensure monitoring and evaluation of and reporting on the activities of the United Nations system in this regard, while also encouraging the participation of women in these processes, where appropriate; 7. Encourages the Fund to continue to contribute to the harmonization and coordination processes of United Nations reform through, inter alia, strengthened partnerships with other funds, programmes and organizations of the United Nations system and through the promotion of development, including technical cooperation, women’s human rights and a gender-equality perspective in the policies, guidelines and tools developed by the United Nations Development Group; 8. Encourages the participation of the Fund in relevant high-level interagency coordination mechanisms and calls upon the United Nations system to ensure participatory cooperation of units that deal with gender issues within organizations, agencies, funds and programmes across the system in order to achieve better coordination among United Nations bodies, taking into account their respective mandates, in strengthening gender mainstreaming and the empowerment of women; 9. Recognizes the efforts of the Fund and other United Nations funds and programmes to strengthen the gender-equality and women’s empowerment perspective in formulation, implementation and evaluation processes related to national development plans and programmes aimed at eradicating poverty, including poverty reduction strategies, the Millennium Development Goals and the United Nations development assistance frameworks where they exist, and urges the Fund to support these processes; 10. Encourages the Fund to support strengthened and coordinated action on gender equality at the country level, including by designating Fund representatives, where the Fund already has a presence, with the authority to work with the concerned Governments to identify, formulate and execute programmes and projects, within the mandate of the Fund and in line with national priorities, and to enhance cooperation with, and active support for, resident coordinators for operational activities of the United Nations, on the understanding that this will not result in increased administrative expenditure for the Fund; 11. Recognizes the technical expertise of the Fund and other gender specialist resources of the United Nations system and calls upon the United Nations development system to utilize this technical expertise, on the basis of their mandates, to support enhanced programming and policies on gender equality and the empowerment of women at all levels, while undertaking efforts to implement gender mainstreaming internally; 12. Encourages Member States and United Nations organizations to further explore with the Fund possible innovative representational arrangements, including through the use of seconded staff, project offices and other means; 13. Notes the activities undertaken by the Fund, in follow-up to resolution 60/137, to address the impact of armed conflict on women, including sexual and all other forms of violence against women and girls, and to strengthen gender justice and to support the promotion of gender equality and full and effective participation of women in peace processes, peacebuilding, post-conflict recovery and reconstruction, and urges the Fund to increase its efforts and enhance its support to a coordinated approach of the United Nations system, including cooperation, as appropriate, with Member States, relevant United Nations entities, regional organizations and other United Nations partners in these fields; 14. Emphasizes the importance of the Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women, established by General Assembly resolution 50/166 of 22 December 1995, as an inter-agency mechanism to respond to the deep concern regarding the persistence of violence and crimes against women in all parts of the world expressed by the Assembly, which has urged the relevant United Nations bodies, entities, funds and programmes and specialized agencies to enhance the coordination of and intensify support to States in their efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women, and encourages all Governments, nongovernmental organizations and the public and private sectors to consider contributing or increasing contributions to the Trust Fund; 15. Calls upon the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality to intensify its consideration of ways and means to enhance the effectiveness of the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women as a system-wide funding mechanism for preventing and redressing all forms of violence against women and girls; 16. Encourages the Fund to continue to support the gender-equality and women’s empowerment goals and targets of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS adopted by the General Assembly at its twenty-sixth special session, and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS adopted at the High-level Meeting on AIDS of the sixtieth session of the Assembly, by working closely with women who are affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS to develop their capacity to influence programmes and policies, building on its partnerships within the United Nations system, in particular with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS); 17. Welcomes the strengthened partnership with the United Nations Development Programme to facilitate the participation of the Fund in the Joint Programme in order to avail its co-sponsors of the expertise of the Fund with respect to the gender dimensions of HIV/AIDS; 18. Encourages the Fund to respond to country requests for the development or strengthening of accountability mechanisms for gender equality, including by supporting United Nations country team coordination, through providing its specific expertise and capacities in these fields, in building the capacity of Governments to undertake gender-responsive budget analysis and to use sex-disaggregated data as a basis for gender-responsive public policy formulation; 19. Welcomes the role of the Fund in promoting the strategic importance of the empowerment of women in all of the regions in which it operates, and notes with appreciation the enhanced programme activities of the Fund in the African region; 20. Encourages the Fund to continue to assist Governments in implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,_Ref185656076 \h \* MERGEFORMAT 3 in order to advance gender equality at all levels, including by reinforcing cooperation between Governments and civil society, especially women’s organizations, and by supporting efforts to follow up, as appropriate, the concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; 21. Also encourages the Fund, within its mandate, to continue to assist Governments in implementing the rights of indigenous women, in accordance with international human rights obligations and taking into account, as appropriate, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; 22. Calls for further clarification of the lines of responsibility, especially between the United Nations Development Programme and the Fund, to ensure that the resident coordinator system and the United Nations country teams provide coherent support to countries on gender equality, and between the Fund and other member organizations of the United Nations Development Group, to ensure greater effectiveness in United Nations operational activities related to gender equality; 23. Recognizes with appreciation the increases in core and non-core contributions to the Fund made by Member States, private organizations and foundations, whose increased contributions demonstrate their commitment to the issues on which the Fund is working; 24. Invites, accordingly, Member States, non-governmental organizations and members of private organizations and foundations that have contributed to the Fund to continue to contribute and to consider increasing their financial contributions, and urges others that have not yet done so to consider contributing to the Fund to enable it to reach the targets for core resources in its strategic plan, which are essential for ensuring the predictability and effective planning of its activities. Draft resolution V Improvement of the situation of women in rural areas The General Assembly, Recalling its resolutions 56/129 of 19 December 2001, 58/146 of 22 December 2003 and 60/138 of 16 December 2005, Recalling also the importance attached to the problems of rural women in the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women, the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace”, including the ten-year review and appraisal of the implementation of the outcomes, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Recalling further the United Nations Millennium Declaration, in which Member States resolved, inter alia, to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable, and the 2005 World Summit Outcome, in which they also resolved to promote gender equality and eliminate pervasive gender discrimination by taking all the necessary resolute action, Welcoming the declaration adopted by the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-ninth session in the context of the ten-year review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, Noting the attention paid to the improvement of the situation of indigenous women in rural areas in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Recognizing the work of relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, especially the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in promoting education for all, giving particular attention to girls and women in rural areas, Welcoming the Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing for Development, as well as the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (“Johannesburg Plan of Implementation”), in which Governments were called upon to mainstream the gender perspective into development at all levels and in all sectors, Welcoming further the ministerial declaration of the high-level segment of the substantive session of 2003 of the Economic and Social Council, adopted on 2 July 2003, which stressed the need for rural development to become an integral part of national and international development policies and of activities and programmes of the United Nations system and called for an enhanced role for rural women at all levels of rural development, including decision-making, Recalling that the World Summit on the Information Society held in Geneva in 2003 and Tunis in 2005 as well as the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, adopted by the World Summit on the Information Society in 2005, reaffirmed the commitment to building capacity in information and communications technology for all and confidence in the use of information and communications technologies by all, including, inter alia, women, indigenous peoples and remote and rural communities, Recognizing the critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty, Reiterating that eradicating poverty is the greatest global challenge facing the world today, and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, in particular for developing countries, while recognizing that rural areas of developing countries continue to be home to the vast majority of the world’s poor people, Recognizing the contributions of older rural women to the family and community, especially in cases where they are left behind by migrating adults or as a result of other socio-economic factors to assume childcare, household and agricultural responsibility, Reiterating the call for fair globalization and the need to translate growth into eradication of poverty, including for rural women, and in this regard applauding the resolve to make the goals of full and productive employment and decent work for all, including for rural women, a central objective of relevant national and international policies as well as national development strategies, including poverty eradication strategies, Recognizing the urgent need to take appropriate measures aimed at further improving the situation of women in rural areas, 1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General; 2. Urges Member States, in collaboration with the organizations of the United Nations and civil society, as appropriate, to continue their efforts to implement the outcome of and to ensure an integrated and coordinated follow-up to United Nations conferences and summits, including their reviews, and to attach greater importance to the improvement of the situation of rural women, including indigenous women, in their national, regional and global development strategies by, inter alia: (a) Creating an enabling environment for improving the situation of rural women and ensuring systematic attention to their needs, priorities and contributions, including through enhanced cooperation and a gender perspective, and their full participation in the development, implementation and follow-up of macroeconomic policies, including development policies and programmes and poverty eradication strategies, including poverty reduction strategy papers where they exist, based on internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals; (b) Pursuing the political and socio-economic empowerment of rural women and supporting their full and equal participation in decision-making at all levels, including through affirmative action, where appropriate, and support for women’s organizations, labour unions or other associations and civil society groups promoting rural women’s rights; (c) Promoting consultation with and the participation of rural women, including indigenous women, and women with disabilities, through their organizations and networks, in the design, development and implementation of gender equality and rural development programmes and strategies; (d) Ensuring that the perspectives of rural women are taken into account and that they participate in the design, implementation, follow-up and evaluation of policies and activities related to emergencies, including natural disasters, humanitarian assistance, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction, and taking appropriate measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against rural women in this regard; (e) Integrating a gender perspective into the design, implementation, follow-up and evaluation of development policies and programmes, including budget policies, paying increased attention to the needs of rural women so as to ensure that they benefit from policies and programmes adopted in all spheres and that the disproportionate number of rural women living in poverty is reduced; (f) Investing in and strengthening efforts to meet the basic needs of rural women through improved availability, access to and use of critical rural infrastructure, such as energy and transport, capacity-building and human resources development measures and the provision of a safe and reliable water supply and sanitation, nutritional programmes, affordable housing programmes, education and literacy programmes and health and social support measures, including in the areas of sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS treatment, care and support; (g) Addressing the specific health needs of rural women and taking concrete measures to enhance and provide access to the highest attainable standards of health for women in rural areas, including in such areas of sexual and reproductive health as pre- and post-natal health care, emergency obstetric care, family planning information and increasing knowledge, awareness and support for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS; (h) Designing and implementing national policies that promote and protect the enjoyment by rural women and girls of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and creating an environment that does not tolerate violations of their rights, including domestic violence, sexual violence and all other forms of gender-based violence; (i) Ensuring that the rights of older women in rural areas are taken into account with regard to their equal access to basic social services, appropriate social protection/social security measures, equal access to and control of economic resources, and empowerment of older women through access to financial and infrastructure services, with special focus on support to older women including indigenous women, who often have access to few resources and are more vulnerable; (j) Developing specific assistance programmes and advisory services to promote economic skills of rural women in banking, modern trading and financial procedures and providing microcredit and other financial and business services to a greater number of women in rural areas, in particular female-headed households, for their economic empowerment; (k) Mobilizing resources, including at the national level and through official development assistance, for increasing women’s access to existing savings and credit schemes, as well as targeted programmes that provide women with capital, knowledge and tools that enhance their economic capacities; (l) Integrating increased employment opportunities for rural women into all international and national development strategies and poverty eradication strategies, including by, inter alia, expanding non-agricultural employment opportunities, improving working conditions and increasing access to productive resources; (m) Taking steps towards ensuring that women’s unpaid work and contributions to on-farm and off-farm production, including income generated in the informal sector, are recognized and supporting remunerative non-agricultural employment of rural women, improving working conditions and increasing access to productive resources; (n) Promoting programmes to enable rural women and men to reconcile their work and family responsibilities and to encourage men to share equally with women household and childcare responsibilities; (o) Considering the adoption, where appropriate, of national legislation to protect the knowledge, innovations and practices of women in indigenous and local communities relating to traditional medicines, biodiversity and indigenous technologies; (p) Addressing the lack of timely, reliable and sex-disaggregated data, including through intensifying efforts to include women’s unpaid work in official statistics, and developing a systematic and comparative research base on rural women that will inform policy and programme decisions; (q) Designing and revising laws to ensure that, where private ownership of land and property exists, rural women are accorded full and equal rights to own land and other property, including through the right to inheritance, and undertaking administrative reforms and other necessary measures to give women the same right as men to credit, capital, appropriate technologies and access to markets and information; (r) Supporting a gender-sensitive education system that considers rural women’s specific needs in order to eliminate gender stereotypes and discriminatory tendencies affecting them; 3. Invites the Commission on the Status of Women to continue to pay due attention to the situation of rural women in the consideration of its priority themes; 4. Requests the relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, in particular those dealing with issues of development, to address and support the empowerment of rural women and their specific needs in their programmes and strategies; 5. Stresses the need to identify the best practices for ensuring that rural women have access to and full participation in the area of information and communications technology, to address the priorities and needs of rural women and girls as active users of information and to ensure their participation in developing and implementing global, regional and national information and communications technology strategies; 6. Encourages Member States, the United Nations and relevant organizations of its system to ensure that the needs of rural women are mainstreamed into the integrated process of follow-up to the major summits and conferences in the economic and social fields, in particular the Millennium Summit, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the International Conference on Financing for Development, the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus, which is to be held in Doha in the second half of 2008, the 2005 review and appraisal of the progress achieved in implementing all the commitments made in the Beijing Declaration2 and Platform for Action3 and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly4 and the 2005 World Summit; 7. Calls upon Member States to take into consideration the concluding comments and recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women concerning their reports to the Committee when formulating policies and designing programmes focused on the improvement of the situation of rural women, including those to be developed and implemented in cooperation with relevant international organizations; 8. Decides to declare that 15 October of each year shall be officially proclaimed and observed as the International Day of Rural Women; 9. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session on the implementation of the present resolution. Draft resolution VI Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women The General Assembly, Recalling its resolution 60/230 of 23 December 2005 and its previous resolutions on the elimination of discrimination against women, Bearing in mind that one of the purposes of the United Nations, as stated in Articles 1 and 55 of the Charter, is to promote universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction of any kind, including distinction as to sex, Reiterating the need to intensify efforts to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women throughout the world, Affirming that women and men should participate equally in social, economic and political development, should contribute equally to such development and should share equally in improved conditions of life, Recalling the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights on 25 June 1993, in which the Conference reaffirmed that the human rights of women and the girl child were an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights, Acknowledging the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to the promotion and protection of the human rights of women, which includes the integration of the human rights of women into the mainstream of United Nations activities system-wide, Reaffirming the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”, in particular those paragraphs concerning the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Optional Protocol thereto, Welcoming the declaration of the Commission on the Status of Women on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, in which the Commission recognized that the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the fulfilment of the obligations under the Convention are mutually reinforcing in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women, Recalling that, in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, Heads of State and Government resolved to implement the Convention, and recalling also that the 2005 World Summit Outcome reaffirmed that gender equality and the promotion and protection of the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all are essential to advance development and peace and security, Recognizing that the equal enjoyment by women of all human rights and fundamental freedoms will promote the realization of the rights of the child, bearing in mind the special needs of girls, and acknowledging the mutual reinforcement of the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto, Noting that on 23 July 2007, at its 792nd meeting, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of its work, Bearing in mind the recommendation of the Committee that national reports should contain information on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, in accordance with paragraph 323 of the Platform, Having considered the reports of the Committee on its thirty-fourth, thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh, thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth sessions, Expressing concern at the great number of reports that are overdue (two hundred and fifteen), in particular initial reports, which constitutes an obstacle to the full implementation of the Convention, 1. Welcomes the report of the Secretary-General on the status of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; 2. Also welcomes the growing number of States parties to the Convention,5 which now stands at one hundred and eighty-five, while expressing disappointment that universal ratification of the Convention was not achieved by 2000, and urges all States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Convention to do so; 3. Further welcomes the growing number of States parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention,6 which now stands at eighty-nine, and urges other States parties to the Convention to consider signing and ratifying or acceding to the Optional Protocol; 4. Urges States parties to comply fully with their obligations under the Convention and the Optional Protocol thereto and to take into consideration the concluding comments as well as the general recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; 5. Encourages all relevant entities of the United Nations system, within their mandates, as well as Governments and intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, in particular women’s organizations, as appropriate, to strengthen assistance to States parties, upon their request, in implementing the Convention; 6. Notes that some States parties have modified their reservations, expresses satisfaction that some reservations have been withdrawn, and urges States parties to limit the extent of any reservations that they lodge to the Convention, to formulate any such reservations as precisely and as narrowly as possible, to ensure that no reservations are incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention, to review their reservations regularly with a view to withdrawing them and to withdraw reservations that are contrary to the object and purpose of the Convention; 7. Welcomes the adoption by the Committee of revised reporting guidelines, and urges States parties to adhere to the revised guidelines, in particular with regard to the content and length of reports; 8. Recalls the great number of overdue reports, in particular initial reports, and urges States parties to the Convention to make every possible effort to submit their reports on the implementation of the Convention in a timely manner, in accordance with article 18 thereof; 9. Also recalls its resolution 50/202 of 22 December 1995, in which it took note with approval of the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention, which has yet to enter into force; 10. Strongly urges States parties to the Convention to take appropriate measures so that acceptance of the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention by a two-thirds majority of States parties can be reached as soon as possible and the amendment can enter into force; 11. Expresses its appreciation for the efforts made by the Committee to improve the efficiency of its working methods, inter alia, pertaining to its meetings in parallel chambers following its fifth informal meeting, held in Berlin from 2 to 4 May 2006, and invites the Committee to consider further improvements to its working methods, especially with the aim of achieving timely and effective consideration of reports submitted by States parties; 12. Notes decision 39/I of the Committee, in which it requested the General Assembly to authorize an extension of its meeting time; 13. Also notes that a backlog of reports of thirty-four States parties to be considered by the Committee persists; 14. Decides to authorize the Committee to hold three annual sessions of three weeks each, with a one-week pre-sessional working group for each session, for an interim period effective from January 2010, pending the entry into force of the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention, and to authorize three annual sessions of the Working Group on Communications under the Optional Protocol to the Convention; 15. Also decides to authorize the Committee to meet on an exceptional and temporary basis in the biennium 2008-2009 in a total of five sessions, of which three would occur in parallel chambers, taking due account of equitable geographical distribution, for the purpose of considering reports of States parties submitted under article 18 of the Convention; and further decides that two of the five sessions will be held at United Nations Headquarters in New York; 16. Urges the Committee to evaluate progress, and decides to assess the situation with regard to the location of the Committee’s sessions after two years, also taking into account the wider context of treaty body reform; 17. Encourages the Secretariat to extend further technical assistance to States parties, upon their request, to strengthen their capacity in the preparation of reports, in particular initial reports, and invites Governments to contribute to those efforts; 18. Invites States parties to make use of the technical assistance provided by the Secretariat to facilitate the preparation of reports, in particular initial reports; 19. Encourages the continued participation of members of the Committee in inter-committee meetings and meetings of persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies, including those on methods of work relating to the State reporting system; 20. Encourages the Committee, within its mandate, to continue to contribute to the efforts to strengthen cooperation and coordination between the treaty bodies; 21. Requests the Secretary-General, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 54/4 of 6 October 1999, to provide the resources, including staff and facilities, necessary for the effective functioning of the Committee within its full mandate, taking into account in particular the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention; 22. Urges Governments, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to disseminate the Convention and the Optional Protocol thereto; 23. Encourages States parties to disseminate the concluding comments adopted in relation to the consideration of their reports, as well as the general recommendations of the Committee; 24. Encourages all relevant entities of the United Nations system to continue to build women’s knowledge and understanding of and capacity to utilize human rights instruments, in particular the Convention and the Optional Protocol thereto; 25. Urges the specialized agencies, at the invitation of the Committee, to submit reports on the implementation of the Convention in areas falling within the scope of their activities; 26. Welcomes the contribution of non-governmental organizations to the work of the Committee; 27. Invites the Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to address the General Assembly at its sixty-third and sixty-fourth sessions under the item on the advancement of women; 28. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session a report on the status of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the implementation of the present resolution. Draft resolution VII Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly The General Assembly, Recalling its previous resolutions on the question, including resolution 61/145 of 19 December 2006, Deeply convinced that the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”, are important contributions to the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women, and must be translated into effective action by all States, the United Nations system and other organizations concerned, Reaffirming the commitments to gender equality and the advancement of women made at the Millennium Summit, the 2005 World Summit and other major United Nations summits, conferences and special sessions, and reaffirming also that their full, effective and accelerated implementation are integral to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, Welcoming progress made towards achieving gender equality, but stressing that challenges and obstacles remain in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session, Recognizing that the responsibility for the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session rests primarily at the national level and that strengthened efforts are necessary in this respect, and reiterating that enhanced international cooperation is essential for full, effective and accelerated implementation, Reaffirming that gender mainstreaming is a globally accepted strategy for promoting the empowerment of women and achieving gender equality by transforming structures of inequality, and reaffirming also the commitment to actively promote the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and social spheres, as well as the commitment to strengthen the capabilities of the United Nations system in the area of gender equality, Bearing in mind the challenges and obstacles to changing discriminatory attitudes and gender stereotypes, and stressing that challenges and obstacles remain in the implementation of international standards and norms to address the inequality between men and women, Expressing serious concern that the urgent goal of 50/50 gender balance in the United Nations system, especially at senior and policymaking levels, with full respect for the principle of equitable geographical distribution, in conformity with Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, remains unmet, and that the representation of women in the United Nations system has remained almost static, with negligible improvement in some parts of the system, and in some cases has even decreased, as reflected in the report of the Secretary-General on the improvement of the status of women in the United Nations system, Reaffirming the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peacebuilding, Reaffirming also the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS adopted at the High-level Meeting on AIDS, held from 31 May to 2 June 2006, which, inter alia, acknowledged the feminization of the pandemic, Noting with appreciation the report of the Secretary-General on mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes of the United Nations system, 1. Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General on the measures taken and progress achieved in follow-up to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly; 2. Reaffirms the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women,1 the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly,2 and the declaration adopted on the occasion of the ten-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action at the forty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, and also reaffirms its commitment to their full, effective and accelerated implementation; 3. Recognizes that the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the fulfilment of the obligations of States parties under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women are mutually reinforcing in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women, and in this regard welcomes the contributions of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to promoting the implementation of the Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session, and invites States parties to the Convention to include information on measures taken to enhance implementation at the national level in their reports to the Committee under article 18 of the Convention; 4. Calls upon Governments, the United Nations system and other international and regional organizations, and all sectors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, as well as all women and men, to fully commit themselves and to intensify their contributions to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session; 5. Calls upon States parties to comply fully with their obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Optional Protocol thereto and to take into consideration the concluding comments as well as the general recommendations of the Committee, urges States parties to consider limiting the extent of any reservations that they lodge to the Convention, to formulate any reservations as precisely and narrowly as possible, and to regularly review such reservations with a view to withdrawing them so as to ensure that no reservation is incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention, also urges all Member States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Convention to consider doing so, and calls upon those Member States that have not yet done so to consider signing, ratifying or acceding to the Optional Protocol; 6. Encourages all actors, inter alia, Governments, the United Nations system, other international organizations and civil society, to continue to support the work of the Commission on the Status of Women in fulfilling its central role in the follow-up to and review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session, and, as applicable, to carry out its recommendations, and welcomes, in this regard, the revised programme and methods of work of the Commission adopted at its fiftieth session, which give particular attention to the sharing of experiences, lessons learned and good practices in overcoming challenges to full implementation at the national and international levels as well as to the evaluation of progress in the implementation of priority themes; 7. Calls upon Governments, and the relevant funds and programmes, organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, and invites the international financial institutions and all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, to intensify action to achieve the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session, through, inter alia: (a) Sustained political will and commitment at the national, regional and international levels to take further action, inter alia, through the mainstreaming of gender perspectives, including through the development and use of gender equality indicators, as applicable, in all policies and programmes and the promotion of full and equal participation and empowerment of women, and enhanced international cooperation; (b) Promotion and protection of, and respect for, the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms by women and girls, including through the full implementation by States of their obligations under all human rights instruments, especially the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; (c) Ensuring full representation and full and equal participation of women in political, social and economic decision-making as an essential condition for gender equality, and the empowerment of women and girls as a critical factor in the eradication of poverty; (d) Involving women actively in environmental decision-making at all levels; integrating gender concerns and perspectives in policies and programmes for sustainable development; and strengthening or establishing mechanisms at the national, regional and international levels to assess the impact of development and environmental policies on women; (e) Providing technical assistance to women, particularly in developing countries, to ensure the continuing promotion of human resource development and the development of environmentally sound technologies and of women’s entrepreneurship; (f) Respect for the rule of law, including legislation, and continued efforts to repeal laws and eradicate policies and practices that discriminate against women and girls, and to adopt laws and promote practices that protect their rights; (g) Strengthening the role of national institutional mechanisms for gender equality and the advancement of women, including through financial and other appropriate assistance, to increase their direct impact on women; (h) Undertaking socio-economic policies that promote sustainable development and ensure poverty eradication programmes, especially for women and girls, and strengthening the provision of and ensuring equal access to adequate, affordable and accessible public and social services, including education and training at all levels, as well as to all types of permanent and sustainable social protection/social security systems for women throughout their life cycle, and supporting national efforts in this regard; (i) Taking further steps to ensure that the educational system and the media, to the extent consistent with freedom of expression, support the use of nonstereotypic, balanced and diverse images of women presenting them as key actors of the process of development as well as promoting non-discriminatory roles of women and men in their private and public life; (j) Incorporating gender perspectives and human rights in health-sector policies, programmes and research activities, paying attention to women’s and girls’ specific needs and priorities, ensuring women’s right to the highest attainable standards of health and their access to affordable and adequate health-care services, including sexual, reproductive and maternal health care and lifesaving obstetric care, in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, and recognizing that the lack of economic empowerment and independence has increased women’s vulnerability to a range of negative consequences, involving the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other poverty-related diseases; (k) Eliminating gender inequalities, gender-based abuse and violence; increasing the capacity of women and adolescent girls to protect themselves from the risk of HIV infection, principally through the provision of health care and services, including, inter alia, sexual and reproductive health, and the provision of full access to comprehensive information and education; ensuring that women can exercise their right to have control over, and decide freely and responsibly on, matters related to their sexuality in order to increase their ability to protect themselves from HIV infection, including their sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence; and taking all necessary measures to create an enabling environment for the empowerment of women and to strengthen their economic independence, while, in this context, reiterating the importance of the role of men and boys in achieving gender equality; (l) Strengthening national health and social infrastructures to reinforce measures to promote women’s access to public health and taking action at the national level to address shortages of human resources for health, by, inter alia, developing, financing and implementing policies, within national development strategies, to improve training and management and effectively govern the recruitment, retention and deployment of health workers, including through international cooperation in this area; (m) Adequate mobilization of resources at the national and international levels, as well as new and additional resources for the developing countries, including the least developed countries and countries with economies in transition, from all available funding mechanisms, including multilateral, bilateral and private sources; (n) Increased partnerships among Governments, civil society and the private sector; (o) Encouraging joint responsibility of men and boys with women and girls in the promotion of gender equality, based on the conviction that this is essential to the achievement of the goals of gender equality, development and peace; (p) Removing structural and legal barriers, as well as eliminating stereotypic attitudes, to gender equality at work, promoting equal pay for equal work, and promoting the recognition of the value of women’s unremunerated work, as well as developing and promoting policies that facilitate the reconciliation of employment and family responsibilities; 8. Reaffirms that States have an obligation to exercise due diligence to prevent violence against women and girls, provide protection to the victims and investigate, prosecute and punish the perpetrators of violence against women and girls, and that failure to do so violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, and calls upon Governments to elaborate and implement laws and strategies to eliminate violence against women and girls; 9. Strongly encourages Governments to continue to support the role and contribution of civil society, in particular non-governmental organizations and women’s organizations, in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session; 10. Resolves to intensify the efforts of its Main Committees and subsidiary bodies to fully mainstream a gender perspective in their work, including through paying more attention to issues related to the status of women under their consideration and within their mandates, as well as in all United Nations summits, conferences and special sessions and in their follow-up processes; 11. Requests that reports of the Secretary-General submitted to the General Assembly and its subsidiary bodies systematically address gender perspectives through qualitative gender analysis and, where available, quantitative data, in particular through concrete conclusions and recommendations for further action on gender equality and the advancement of women, in order to facilitate gender-sensitive policy development; 12. Urges Governments and all entities of the United Nations system, including United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, and all relevant actors of civil society, to ensure the integration of gender perspectives in the implementation of and follow-up to all United Nations summits, conferences and special sessions and to give attention to gender perspectives in preparation for such events, including the Commemorative High-level Plenary Meeting Devoted to the Follow-up to the Outcome of the Special Session of the General Assembly on Children in 2007, the thirteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the third session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007, the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterey Consensus in Doha in 2008, and the Third High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra in 2008; 13. Reaffirms its call to include a gender perspective in the consideration of all issues in the agenda and activities of the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council; 14. Encourages the Economic and Social Council to continue its efforts to ensure that gender mainstreaming is an integral part of its work and that of its subsidiary bodies, through, inter alia, implementation of its agreed conclusions 1997/2 of 18 July 1997 and its resolution 2004/4 of 7 July 2004; 15. Welcomes the ministerial declaration of the high-level segment of the substantive session of 2007 of the Economic and Social Council, which, inter alia, reaffirmed that gender equality and the promotion and protection of the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all are essential to eradicating poverty and hunger and that all countries should promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and, as called for, inter alia, in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, identify and accelerate actions towards that end; 16. Requests all bodies that deal with programme and budgetary matters, including the Committee for Programme and Coordination, to ensure that programmes, plans and budgets visibly mainstream gender perspectives; 17. Reaffirms the primary and essential role of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, as well as the central role of the Commission on the Status of Women, in promoting the advancement of women and gender equality; 18. Requests the Economic and Social Council to continue to encourage its functional commissions to mainstream a gender perspective in their respective follow-up actions to major United Nations conferences and summits and to develop more effective means to ensure the implementation of outcomes on gender equality at the national level; 19. Underlines the catalytic role played by the Commission on the Status of Women, as well as the important role played by the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly, in promoting and monitoring gender mainstreaming within the United Nations system; 20. Requests that entities of the United Nations system systematically incorporate the outcomes of the Commission on the Status of Women into their work within their mandates; 21. Reaffirms the commitment made at the 2005 World Summit to the full and effective implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000, while noting the seventh anniversary of its adoption and the open debates in the Council on women and peace and security; 22. Urges Governments and the United Nations system to take further steps to ensure the integration of a gender perspective and the full and equal participation of women in all efforts to promote peace and security including in peace negotiations, peacekeeping, peacebuilding and post-conflict situations, as well as to increase their role in decision-making at all levels, including through the development of national action plans and strategies; 23. Calls upon all parts of the United Nations system to continue to play an active role in ensuring the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session, through, inter alia, the work of the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women and the Division for the Advancement of Women and the maintenance of gender specialists in all entities of the United Nations system, as well as by ensuring that all personnel, especially in the field, receive training and appropriate follow-up, including tools, guidance and support, for accelerated gender mainstreaming, and reaffirms the need to strengthen the capabilities of the United Nations system in the area of gender; 24. Requests the Secretary-General to review and redouble his efforts to make progress towards achieving the goal of 50/50 gender balance at all levels in the Secretariat and throughout the United Nations system, with full respect for the principle of equitable geographical distribution, in conformity with Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, considering, in particular, women from developing and least developed countries, from countries with economies in transition and from unrepresented or largely underrepresented Member States, and to ensure managerial and departmental accountability with respect to gender balance targets, and strongly encourages Member States to identify and regularly submit more women candidates for appointment to positions in the United Nations system, especially at more senior and policymaking levels; 25. Encourages the subsidiary bodies of the General Assembly to incorporate gender-equality perspectives systematically in their discussions and outcomes, including through effective use of the analysis, data and recommendations contained in reports of the Secretary-General, and to follow up on the outcomes; 26. Requests that reports of the Secretary-General submitted to the General Assembly facilitate gender-sensitive policy development by more systematically including qualitative gender analysis, data and recommendations for further action; 27. Calls upon the United Nations system to continue its efforts towards achieving the goal of gender balance, including with the active support of gender focal points, and requests the Secretary-General to provide an oral report to the Commission on the Status of Women at its fifty-second session, to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session, under the item entitled “Advancement of women”, and to include within his report on human resources management information on the status of women in the United Nations system, including on progress made and obstacles encountered in achieving gender balance, recommendations for accelerating progress, and up-to-date statistics, including the number and percentage of women and their functions and nationalities throughout the United Nations system, and information on the responsibility and accountability of the Office of Human Resources Management of the Secretariat and the secretariat of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination for promoting gender balance; 28. Requests the Secretary-General to continue to report annually to the General Assembly, under the item entitled “Advancement of women”, as well as to the Commission on the Status of Women and the Economic and Social Council, on the follow-up to and progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session, with an assessment of progress in gender mainstreaming, including information on key achievements, lessons learned and good practices, and recommendations on further measures to enhance implementation. 44. The Third Committee also recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of the following draft decision: Documents considered by the General Assembly in connection with the question of the advancement of women The General Assembly takes note of the following documents: (a) Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; (b) Report of the Secretary-General on the future operations of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women. Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-second Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/62/38). See resolution 48/104. A/CONF.157/24 (Part I), chap. III. Report of the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 5-13 September 1994 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.95.XIII.18), chap. I, resolution 1, annex. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annexes I and II. Report of the World Summit for Social Development, Copenhagen, 6-12 March 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.8), chap. I, resolution 1, annexes I and II. Resolution 61/295, annex. A/62/177. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2220, No. 39481. Resolution 55/25, annex II. Ibid., annex III. A/HRC/4/24 and Add.1-3. A/HRC/4/34 and Add.1-4. A/59/287 and Add.1; see also United Nations publication, Sales No. E.04.IV.4. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1249, No. 20378. See resolution 48/104. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annexes I and II. Resolution S-23/2, annex, and resolution S-23/3, annex. See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2005, Supplement No. 7 and corrigendum (E/2005/27 and Corr.1), chap. I, sect. A; see also Economic and Social Council decision 2005/232. See resolution 55/2. A/62/201. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1249, No. 20378. Ibid., vol. 1577, No. 27531. Ibid., vol. 75, Nos. 970-973. Ibid., vol. 1125, Nos. 17512 and 17513. Ibid., vol. 660, No. 9464. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annexes I and II. Resolution S-23/2, annex, and resolution S-23/3, annex. See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2005, Supplement No. 3 and corrigendum (E/2005/23 and Corr.1), chap. II, sect. A. See E/CN.4/2002/2-E/CN.4/Sub.2/2001/40, chap. II, sect. A. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2187, No. 38544. Ibid., vol. 2131, No. 20378. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annex II. Resolution S-23/2, annex, and resolution S-23/3, annex. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1249, No. 20378. See Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-second Session, Supplement No. 3 (A/52/3/Rev.1), chap. IV, para. 4. 2001/41 of 26 July 2001, 2002/23 of 24 July 2002, 2003/49 of 24 July 2003, 2004/4 of 7 July 2004, 2005/31 of 26 July 2005, 2006/36 of 27 July 2006 and 2007/33 of 27 July 2007. DP/2007/45. A/62/188. See E/CN.6/2005/2 and Corr.1. Resolution S-26/2, annex. Resolution 60/262, annex. Resolution 61/295, annex. Report of the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, Nairobi, 15-26 July 1985 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.85.IV.10), chap. I, sect. A. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annex I. Ibid., annex II. Resolution S-23/2, annex, and resolution S-23/3, annex. See resolution 60/140. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1249, No. 20378. See resolution 55/2. See resolution 60/1. See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2005, Supplement No. 7 and corrigendum (E/2005/27 and Corr.1), chap. I, sect. A; see also Economic and Social Council decision 2005/232. Resolution 61/295, annex. Report of the International Conference on Financing for Development, Monterrey, Mexico, 18-22 March 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.02.II.A.7), chap. I, resolution 1, annex. Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August-4 September 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.03.II.A.1 and corrigendum), chap. I, resolution 1, annex. Ibid., resolution 2, annex. See Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 3 (A/58/3/Rev.1), chap. III, para. 35. See A/60/687, chap. I, sect. B. A/62/202. A/CONF.157/24 (Part I), chap. III. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annex I. Ibid., annex II. Resolution S-23/2, annex; and resolution S-23/3, annex. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1249, No. 20378. Ibid., vol. 2131, No. 20378. See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2005, Supplement No. 7 and corrigendum (E/2005/27 and Corr.1), chap. I, sect. A; see also Economic and Social Council decision 2005/232. See resolution 55/2. See resolution 60/1. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, No. 27531. Ibid., vol. 2171, No. 27531; and ibid., vol. 2173, No. 27531. Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-first Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/61/38). Ibid., Sixty-second Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/62/38). A/62/290. Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/57/38), part two, annex. Ibid., Sixty-first Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/61/38). Ibid., Sixty-second Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/62/38), part three, chap. I. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annexes I and II. Resolution S-23/2, annex, and resolution S-23/3, annex. See resolution 55/2. See resolution 60/1. A/61/318. Resolution S-26/2, annex. Resolution 60/262, annex. E/2007/64. A/62/178. See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2005, Supplement No. 7 and corrigendum (E/2005/27 and Corr.1), chap. I, sect. A; see also Economic and Social Council decision 2005/232. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1249, No. 20378. Ibid., vol. 2131, No. 20378. See Economic and Social Council resolution 2006/9. Report of the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 5-13 September 1994 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.95.XIII.18), chap. I, resolution 1, annex. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1771, No. 30822. FCCC/CP/1997/7/Add.1, decision 1/CP.3, annex. See Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-second Session, Supplement No. 3 (A/52/3/Rev.1), chap. IV, para. 4. See A/62/3, chap. III, sect. C, para. 90. For the final text, see Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-second Session, Supplement No. 3 (A/62/3/Rev.1). Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-second Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/62/38). (A/62/173. __________________ __________________  sss1 \* MERGEFORMAT A/62/433 (Part II) sss1 \* MERGEFORMAT A/62/433 (Part II) FooterJN \* MERGEFORMAT 07-63353 \* MERGEFORMAT 74 \* MERGEFORMAT 73 FooterJN \* MERGEFORMAT 07-63353 United Nations A/62/433 (Part II) General Assembly Distr.: General 6 December 2007 Original: English jobn \* MERGEFORMAT 07-63353 (E) 171207 Barcode \* MERGEFORMAT *0763353*