This is a mid-review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action by all stakeholders since the NGO Forum held in 1995 in Huairou and the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing from 4 -15 September 1995.

The results of the review process will be deliberated upon at a Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly to be held in New York in June 5 - 9, 2000. The theme of the Review Process is Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace.

This theme has been running since the 3rd World Conference on Women due to the fact that the issues are still relevant for the advancement of women globally.

For more comprehensive information, see: WomenWatch

What happened before Beijing +5?
The Review Process will also take into account the implementations of commitments made by governments in the past 3 decades including the following global forums:
 
 

Period	Main Activity	Main Outcome
1975	1st World Conference on Women (Mexico - Govt. only)	Women's Year & Decade Declaration Women Machineries
1979	General Assembly	CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women)
1980-83	2nd World Conference on Women (Copenhagen) with NGO Observers	Mid-Decade Review
1984 - 85	3rd World Conference on (End of Women's Decade: 1976 - 1985) and the Nairobi NGO Forum	The Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies
1992 -93	UN Conferences on the following at whichNGOs were in attendance:
	United Nations Conference on Environment & Development (Rio de Janeiro)	Agenda 21
	International Conference on Population & Development (Cairo) ...... 1993	ICPD Plan of Action
	International Conference on Human Rights (Vienna)	Declaration on Violence Against Women & Establishment of a Rapporteur for Violence Against Women.
	Social Summit (Copenhagen)
1994 - 95	5th Africa Regional Preparatory Conference on Women (Dakar)	African Platform for Action
	4th World Conference on Women (Beijing)	Beijing Platform for Action Beijing Declaration

 

The Review Process in the African Context

Who coordinates?
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,  is responsible for the coordination of the Beijing +5 Review Process in Africa.  The coordinating unit for the review process at ECA is the African Centre for Women. [for more details, click here]

What will it involve?
The Review Process involves Government departments, civil society, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), United Nations agencies, Bilateral agencies and other stakeholders completing questionnaires on the progress of the implementation of the African and Beijing Platforms for Action. Some of these questionnaires came from the following interested review parties:

• The Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) at the United Nations Headquarters, New York [click here for details]
• The African Centre for Women, at ECA, Addis Ababa
• Governments
• Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) - National & Regional [click here for details]

What will be the outcome?
The various reports emanating from these questionnaires are processed in three categories:

• The National reports - these are in the form of (i)  Government reports  which are also submitted to the ECA and the DAW and (ii) NGO Shadow Reports (alternative reports)

• Regional Reports - these will result from the 6th African Regional Conference on Women (6ARCW) which will be held at ECA, 22 - 27 November 1999, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. There will be two reports, one will be the official UN  ECA 6ARCW Report, and the other an African NGO Shadow Report. 

• International Reports - the Official ECA Report and the NGO Shadow Report will form part of the Global UN Report and Global Shadow Report, which will be the end results of the Special UN General Assembly  Session, 5 - 9 June 2000.