Fifth UN World Conference on Women
Rome, Italy, 17-18 January 2003
Declaration
Socialist International Women, made up of 129 member organisations and holding consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), underlines the importance of holding a fifth UN World Conference on Women and an NGO Forum in 2005 and calls on governments of UN member states to agree with such a proposal.
Socialist International Women will encourage its own governments to support this proposal.
It is most important to go beyond evaluations and appraisals: the UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in 2001 and the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development held in 2002 show that such large gatherings are a valuable public acknowledgement of the issues discussed. Women demand and need the international community to focus on the further development of real gender equality. Socialist International Women believes that this can only be done effectively in a conference rather than a further Special Session of the UN General Assembly. The aim of the conference should be to evaluate and where necessary to accelerate the full implementation of the Platform for Action adopted in Beijing in 1995.
