PRESS RELEASE

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UN Expert Group to Meet in Azerbaijan on Issues in Linking Implementation of
Beijing Action Plan, Millennium Goals, 7 – 10 February

The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women will organize an
expert group meeting on “Achievements, gaps and challenges in linking the
implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium
Declaration and Millennium Development Goals”, hosted by the Government of
Azerbaijan, in Baku, from 7 to 10 February 2005.

The meeting is being convened in preparation for the session of the
Commission on the Status of Women in New York from 28 February to 11 March
2005, which will consider the 10-year review and appraisal of the
implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the
outcome document of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly
“Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first
century”.

The Platform for Action was adopted by consensus in 1995 at the Fourth World
Conference on Women and embodies the commitment of the international
community to the advancement and empowerment of women and to gender
equality. It sets out measures for national, regional and international
action in 12 critical areas of concern: women and poverty; education and
training; health, including reproductive rights; violence; armed conflict;
economy; power and decision-making; institutional mechanisms; human rights;
media; environment; and the girl child. The outcome document of 2000
identified further action required to achieve the full implementation of the
Platform for Action and emphasized the crucial links between the advancement
of women, gender equality and progress for society as a whole.

The Millennium Declaration, adopted by United Nations Member States in
September 2000, represents a global political commitment towards the
promotion of sustainable human development, peace and security, human
rights, democracy and good governance. The Declaration includes equality
among the fundamental values essential to international relations, and
governments resolved 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. States also resolved to combat all
forms of violence against women and implement the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The objectives in
the Millennium Declaration were derived from the outcomes of the major
summits and conferences of the 1990s, including the Fourth World Conference
on Women. Some of the objectives were subsequently formulated as eight
Millennium Development Goals, to be achieved by 2015.

The findings and recommendations of the expert group meeting in Baku will
provide inputs for the discussion on the contribution of the Commission on
the Status of Women, transmitted through the Economic and Social Council, to
the review of the Millennium Declaration at the high-level plenary of the
General Assembly in September 2005. The 12 independent experts and
additional observers will consider national, regional and global experiences
and approaches and formulate conclusions and recommendations on enhancing
the linkages in the implementation of the Platform for Action, the
Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals.