UN commission proposes action to prohibit violence against women; China offers to host fourth women's conference.

Action to prohibit violence against women, ensure equal opportunities for disabled women and give priority to international protection of refugee and displaced women and children was recommended by the Commission on the Status of Women at its thirty-fifth session (27 February-8 March, Vienna).

The 43-member body also launched preparations for the Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace.

Fifteen resolutions, which also focused on women in vulnerable situations--including migrants, prostitutes and battered women--and the integration of women in development, were approved by the Commission. Most texts will go to the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly for final adoption later this year.

The Commission asked that discussions start on the possibility of preparing an international instrument that explicitly addresses the issue of violence against women. The first step should be to develop a framework for that instrument, in consultation with the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). An expert meeting on this issue should be convened in 1991 or 1992, with the participation of CEDAW and the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control, the Commission specified.

"Violence against women is an issue of equal rights that derives from a power imbalance between women and men in society", the Commission stated. It urged Governments to adopt, strengthen and enforce legislation prohibiting such violence and to take administrative, social and educational measures to protect women from all forms of physical or mental violence.

Governments were also urged to ensure "the full and explicit integration of women's concerns" in development policies. International financial and technical assistance to specific development programmes should continue, the Commission stressed.

Migrant women should be provided with information and assistance regarding immigration, labour, financial and other relevant laws and regulations, as well as on conditions of work and of life in the State of employment. States were invited to sign and ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, adopted by the Assembly in 1990.

International measures should be taken to ensure greater protection for refugee women and children from physical violence, sexual abuse, abduction and circumstances that could force them into illegal activities.

The Commission recommended that all refugee women and, wherever possible, children should have non-discriminatory access to individual identification and registration documents, irrespective of whether they are accompanied by a male family member.

A representative of the human rights group Amnesty International told the Commission that women refugees and asylum seekers had often been the victims of sexual abuse by police, soldiers or other government agents. Rape was seen as a form of persecution that drove many women abroad, and sexual favours were frequently the price for relief goods or asylum documentation. Amnesty International stated that it had documented, in a report entitled "Women on the Front Line", gross violations against women in more than 40 countries around the world.

Other recommendations dealt with the world conference on women in 1995, women and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevention, national machineries for the advancement of women, and women in South Africa and occupied Palestinian territories.

1995 world conference

The fourth world conference on women in 1995 will consider a draft programme of action prepared by the Commission, focusing on a number of issues identified as fundamental obstacles to the advancement of women throughout the world. (Three previous global meetings were held in Mexico City, 1975; Copenhagen, 1980; and Nairobi, 1985). The conference will also conduct a second review and appraisal of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies.

The programme will include special measures to increase the proportion of women involved in economic, social and political decision-making; strengthening worldwide efforts to end illiteracy among women by the year 2000; and establishing specific programmes to improve the condition of women living in poverty.

It will also call for specific projects related to health; prevention of violence in the family, the workplace and society; new and advanced technologies and scientific research to benefit women; and special programmes for refugee, displaced and migrant women and girls and those living in conflict areas.

Four possible slogans to promote the conference were also decided on: "Remove the Obstacles Now"; "Women: Half the World--Half the Power"; "Women: Mobilizing for Power--Acting for Change"; and "Social Justice for Women".

The Commission also noted China's offer to host the 1995 world conference, postponing a decision on the venue until 1992.

Governments' AIDS-control programmes should benefit women, targeting them through developing preventive policies and awareness campaigns, with input from women themselves. Those infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) should have access to the necessary health care, including treatment at affordable cost and social services.

National machinery for the advancement of women should be set up by Governments as soon as possible, at the latest by 1995. They should have access to the highest levels of Government and be provided with the political, financial, technical and human resources necessary to function effectively. The UN and the international community should make it a priority to help countries in this task.

South Africa, Palestinians

By a draft resolution on women and children in South Africa, all parties engaged in negotiations for a post-apartheid society would be urged to ensure that the principle of equality between women and men was incorporated in all laws and institutions.

The unconditional release by 30 April of all political prisoners and detainees, among them women and children, was also demanded.

A text on Palestinian women reaffirmed that basic improvement of their living conditions, advancement, full equality and self-reliance could be achieved only by an end to Israeli occupation and the attainment of the Palestinians' right to return, to self-determination and to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Countries casting a negative vote or abstaining on these drafts expressed sympathy for the plight of women and children under apartheid and in the occupied territories, but objected to some political elements of the texts.

The 12-member European Community felt that those political issues went beyond the Commission's mandate. Japan said that those issues should be addressed in an appropriate forum. Canada and the United States considered that the text on women and children in South Africa ignored recent progress regarding apartheid in South Africa.

The United States called the Palestinian text "one-sided and unbalanced", stating it did not help alleviate the condition of women and children.

Other issues

The Commission encouraged States to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women at all levels, recommending an increase in the number of women in senior policy level and decisionmaking posts at the UN.

The United States proposed a draft by which a Commission working group would consider communications concerning discrimination against women. It was deferred. The working group, if created, would hold closed meetings before each Commission session to draw attention to situations appearing to reveal a consistent pattern of reliably attested discrimination against women.