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Fourth World Conference on Women Informal Consulations

2 August 1995

Briefing Note #3

by Lynn Wagner and Langston James Goree VI

Delegates met on 2 August, 1995, for the third day of the week-long informal consultations on the draft Platform for Action for the Fourth World Conference on Women. The consultations were called by ECOSOC to resolve some of the outstanding issues in the draft text. All text that remains bracketed after the 4 August session must be resolved during the 4 to 15 September conference in Beijing. Delegates at the informal consultation in New York, at UN headquarters, are using two working groups to examine the bracketed text by issue areas, or clusters of bracketed text that address the same subject.

Working Group I, chaired by Patricia Licuanan (Philippines), spent the morning revisiting several unresolved texts from Tuesday's discussion regarding debt, sustainable development, transnational corporations and economic policies. One issue that required significant discussion was how to refer to countries with economies in transition. Delegates moved on to the bracketed text in the resources cluster during the afternoon. After a slow start on text related to new and additional resources, the group made some progress in removing brackets. An informal-informal evening session was expected, during which delegates would return to some of the macroeconomic and resource issues on which agreement appeared close during initial discussions.

Working Group II, chaired by Irene Freudenschuss (Austria), continued its examination of bracketed text related to human rights. A number of brackets were removed from text related to mandates of human rights machinery, economic rights and the right to development, sexual harassment and stereotypes. The right of inheritance and the concepts of equity/equitable generated a great deal of debate but no resolution. An evening session was planned to continue discussion of the bracketed text in the human rights cluster.

The Chinese delegation agreed to brief the delegates on Thursday, 3 August on the matter of visas.

The opinions expressed in this briefing note are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IISD and other funders. Excerpts from this briefing note may be used in other publications with appropriate citation. ©