GO Make Statements Heard at HLM; Drafting of Report Document Begins

September 9, Bangkok—Day three of the ESCAP High Level Ministerial Meeting (HLM) to Review Regional Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action was marked by shifting schedules, limiting time for parallel discussion and giving more time for panel presentations and discussion in plenary. Governments insisted that the schedule set by the ESCAP secretariat be adjusted to allow for governments to have more interactions with each other.

The adjustments allowed NGOs to deliver intervention statements on the floor on this day instead of on the final day of the HLM. Statements were delivered to the floor on issues of youth and health rights, media and ICT, disability, land rights and armed conflict. A general statement from the APNGO Forum Caucus was also delivered. Many of the statements addressed the lack of implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, gaps that governments failed to report in their own presentations. They also raised the issue of emerging forces of globalisation, fundamentalism, and militarism that have allowed gender inequality to proliferate further in the Asia and Pacific region. What was significant for the NGOs was that these statements would be included in the official document to be drafted by the governments as an outcome of the HLM.

The NGO statements will be collected by the Asia Pacific Women’s Watch and will be made available on the APNGO Forum website at <http://ap-ngo-forum.isiswomen.org>.

Panel presentations on gender mainstreaming, regional cooperation, rights-based approach (see separate report) and the role of men and boys were then held in plenary. In addition, parallel sessions on each of the topics were held in different meeting rooms.

Government delegations reconvened at 4 p.m. to begin the drafting process, assisted by the ESCAP secretariat. NGOs were not allowed to sit in the drafting room but were able to make contributions to the document by coordinating with friendly government delegations who were willing to carry suggested language into the deliberations. The outcome report will be submitted to the UN Commision on the Status of Women when it holds its 49th meeting in March 2005.

Aileen Familara of Isis International Manila, for APWW