United Nations A/S-23/PV.10 General Assembly Official Records Twenty-third special session 10th meeting Friday, 9 June 2000, at 3 p.m. New York President: Mr. Gurirab ............................................. (Namibia) In the absence of the President, Mrs. Ismail The Acting President: I first give the floor to (Nigeria), Vice-President, took the Chair. Her Excellency The Honourable Indira Thacoor- Sidaya, Minister of Women, Family Welfare and Child The meeting was called to order at 3.10 p.m. Development of Mauritius. Mrs. Thacoor-Sidaya (Mauritius): On behalf of Scale of assessments for the apportionment of the the Government and the people of the Republic of expenses of the United Nations (A/S-23/6/Add.3) Mauritius, I wish to thank the United Nations for this The President: I should like to draw the attention special session of the General Assembly, which of the General Assembly to document A/S-23/6/Add.3. symbolizes the march that we women started in Beijing In the letter contained in that document, the Secretary- in 1995. Five years later, our march continues as we are General informs the President of the General Assembly gathered here to measure our progress, to learn from that since the issuance of his communications our mistakes as well as our successes and to chalk out contained in documents A/S-23/6 and Addenda 1 our common future. and 2, Bosnia and Herzegovina has made the necessary My country signed the Convention on the payments to reduce its arrears below the amount Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against specified in Article 19 of the Charter. Women, and in 1995 at Beijing undertook strong May I take it that the General Assembly duly commitments to which it has remained faithful. Thus takes note of the information contained in that gender equality has been integrated into our national document? legislation through the introduction of a Protection of Human Rights Act; amendments to the Civil Code to It was so decided. ensure strict equality between spouses in the administration of property and parental rights; Agenda items 8 and 9 (continued) amendments to the Criminal Code to make penalties Review and appraisal of progress made in the against sexual abuse and family abandonment more implementation of the twelve critical areas of severe and to establish sexual harassment as an concern in the Beijing Platform for Action offence; amendment of the Citizenship Act to give to the foreign spouse of a Mauritian woman the right to Further actions and initiatives for overcoming citizenship; and the introduction of a Protection from obstacles to the implementation of the Beijing Domestic Violence Act. Platform for Action Institutional mechanisms have been strengthened for more effective service delivery and support to This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the interpretation of speeches delivered in the other languages. Corrections should be submitted to the original languages only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service, room C-178. Corrections will be issued after the end of the session in a consolidated corrigendum. 00-47343 (E) ````````` A/S-23/PV.10 women. Mauritius has a full-fledged ministry for campaigns in high-risk areas. Child-watch network women headed by a cabinet minister. A National groups have been set up with the help of social workers Women’s Council functions as a coordinating body for and community-based associations for surveillance and women’s associations. A Gender Bureau has been early intervention. established to ensure the implementation of a gender Women’s access to information and technology management system based on the Commonwealth has been improved, with new centres for women and Secretariat’s guidelines. A consultative mechanism, families set up in under-served regions and the opening known as the National Advisory Committee on the of an information technology centre exclusively for Status of Women, comprised of non-governmental women. organizations, ministries, the United Nations Development Programme, the private sector and other As far as political participation is concerned, stakeholders, provides critical inputs on gender policy. despite some improvements since 1995, women’s participation is still relatively low, with women A national women entrepreneur council has been comprising 7 per cent of the Parliament, 8.5 per cent at established by an act of Parliament to promote women the municipal level and 2.8 per cent at the village level. entrepreneurship. Economic empowerment has been Women make up less than 20 per cent of the senior one of our main thrusts for action, as we believe that managerial level in the public sector. without the means of livelihood no woman can enjoy her rights fully. In 1998, within its poverty alleviation Leadership training programmes are being programme, the Government of Mauritius introduced a conducted to encourage self-assertiveness and microcredit scheme based on the Grameen model of confidence-building among women. The National Bangladesh to provide loans to women without Gender Action Plan has also proposed that 30 per cent collateral for income-generating activities. Marketing of seats be reserved for women. Preparing the National being a serious impediment for women, a market centre Gender Action Plan has been a gratifying experience. provides a free marketing outlet, while a common The Plan outlines our vision for the attainment of facility centre offers training for skills development. gender equality by the year 2005. It was formulated after wide consultations with all stakeholders, In order to support working mothers, an early including women at the grass-roots level, and addresses childhood development policy is being implemented health, human rights, human resources development for the training of childcare givers and the and gender equality. As an immediate consequence, an establishment of childcare facilities in deprived areas. engendering of the budget initiative has started, Violence against women and children is an coupled with training and research programmes. unacceptable form of human exploitation. In 1997, the Advancing the cause of gender equality is not Government of Mauritius introduced the Protection without its difficulties. In addition to inadequate from Domestic Violence Act, which has enabled resources, the problems of shortage of specialized thousands of silent women to break their silence and to skills in gender planning and analysis, the lack of benefit from legal protection. Structures for the research and data on gender and the low priority provision of 24-hour service, free legal assistance and accorded to gender equality objectives hinder our psychological counselling have been set up. One study actions significantly. has been conducted on the factors leading to domestic violence and another one on the criminological aspects This special session of the General Assembly is a of violence at home. unique opportunity to reverse negative attitudes and to think of a new world order based on partnerships and Mauritius offers equality of opportunity and participation within the country and beyond the access to education, health, social services and national frontiers. We women have to develop a new employment, and there is no disparity in the enrolment sense of leadership and responsibility and to create a rates of girls and boys. However, problems such as true culture of peace. We should not forget that we hold sexual exploitation have retained our attention, as they the keys to our own future. Therefore, we should not mostly affect the girl child. A study of the commercial lose this special opportunity to shape a better vision for sexual exploitation of children was conducted in 1997, the future of women and for humanity. followed by information, education and communication 2 A/S-23/PV.10 The Acting President: I now give the floor to In the legal sphere, the constitution of the Fifth Mrs. Nana Aicha Foumakoye, Minister for Social Republic guarantees equality before the law for all, Development, Advancement of Women and Child irrespective of sex or of social, racial, ethnic or Protection of Niger. religious origin. Yet the women of Niger continue to face persistent social impediments arising mainly from Mrs. Foumakoye (Niger) (spoke in French): I tradition and from an erroneous interpretation of would like, through you Madam Vice-President, to certain precepts of Islam, my country’s principal extend to all the members of the Bureau my warm religion. congratulations on the excellent way the work of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly A striking indication of the political courage on the follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on shown by the leaders of the Fifth Republic is the Women is being carried out. I would also like to extend adoption of a number of texts intended to improve the my congratulations to you for your personal status of women. Some of these aim to bring national commitment to the defence of the cause of women. legislation into conformity with international conventions and treaties that my country has ratified, I would also like to extend the cordial greetings such as the Convention on the Elimination of All of His Excellency Mr. Tandja Mamadou, President of Forms of Discrimination against Women, to cite but the Republic of Niger, to all the participants in these one example. deliberations, and to convey to them our wishes for success in the pursuit of the objectives that have Although it is difficult for the women of Niger to brought us together here today. enjoy certain rights, because the circumstances that would make this possible do not exist, those women Like other members of the international consider that they have reached a major milestone with community, Niger has resolutely committed itself to Niger’s accession to the Convention.