United Nations Documents

DINF Web Posted on: December 19, 1997

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A/RES/45/129

68th plenary meeting

14 December 1990

Implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking

Strategies for the Advancement of Women

The General Assembly,

Recalling all its relevant resolutions, in particular resolution 44/77 of 8 December 1989, in which, inter alia, it endorsed and reaffirmed the importance of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women for the period up to the year 2000 and set out measures for their immediate implementation and for the overall achievement of the interrelated goals and objectives of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace,

Taking into consideration the resolutions adopted by the Economic and Social Council on issues relating to women since its resolution 1987/18 of 26 May 1987,

Reaffirming its resolution 40/30 of 29 November 1985, in which it emphasized that the elderly must be considered an important and necessary element in the development process at all levels within a given society and that, consequently, elderly women should be considered contributors to as well as beneficiaries of development,

Reaffirming also its determination to encourage the full participation of women in economic, social, cultural, civil and political affairs and to promote development, co-operation and international peace,

Conscious of the important and constructive contribution to the improvement of the status of women made by the Commission on the Status of Women, the specialized agencies, the regional commissions and other organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations concerned,

Emphasizing once again the priority of the implementation, monitoring, review and appraisal of the Forward-looking Strategies,

Recognizing the advancement of women as one of the priorities of the Organization for the biennium 1990-1991,

Recalling that the Commission held in 1990 a session of extended duration to review and appraise progress in the implementation of the Forward-looking Strategies,

1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;
2. Also takes note of the recommendations and conclusions arising from the first review and appraisal of the implementation of the Forward-looking Strategies, contained in the annex to Economic and Social Council resolution 1990/15 of 24 May 1990;
3. Urges Governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations to implement the recommendations;
4. Reaffirms paragraph 2 of section I of the recommendations and conclusions, in which it is stated that the pace of implementation of the Forward-looking Strategies must be improved in the crucial last decade of the twentieth century since the cost to societies of failing to implement the Strategies would be high in terms of slowed economic and social development, misuse of human resources and reduced progress for society as a whole and, for that reason, immediate steps should be taken to remove the most serious obstacles to the implementation of the Strategies;
5. Calls again upon Member States to give priority to policies and programmes relating to the subtheme "Employment, health and education", in particular to literacy, for the empowerment of women, especially those in the rural areas, to meet their own needs through self-reliance and the mobilization of indigenous resources, as well as to issues relating to the role of women in economic and political decision-making, population, the environment and information;
6. Reaffirms the central role of the Commission on the Status of Women in matters related to the advancement of women, and calls upon it to continue promoting the implementation of the Forward-looking Strategies to the year 2000, based on the goals of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace and the subtheme "Employment, Health and Education", and urges all organizations of the United Nations system to co-operate effectively with the Commission in this task;
7. Requests the Commission, when considering the priority theme relating to development during its thirty-fifth and subsequent sessions, to ensure its early contribution to the work of the international meeting on population to be held in 1994 and to address the role of technologies in the development of developing countries;
8. Endorses Economic and Social Council resolution 1990/12 of 24 May 1990, in which the Council recommended that a world conference on women should be held in 1995 and requested that the Commission act as the preparatory body for the world conference;
9. Takes note of the invitation extended by the Government of Austria to host the world conference on women in 1995 at Vienna;
10. Requests the Commission, as the preparatory body for the world conference, to decide on the venue of the conference, not later than 1992, bearing in mind that preference should be given to those regions that have not yet hosted a world conference on women;
11. Also requests the Commission, in deciding on the preparation of documentation for the conference, to pay attention to Economic and Social Council resolution 1990/9 of 24 May 1990 concerning the second report on the implementation of the Forward-looking Strategies;
12. Further requests the Commission to focus the agenda of the world conference in 1995 on the Forward-looking Strategies as well as on the recommendations and conclusions arising from the first review and appraisal of the implementation of the Strategies;
13. Requests the Commission to ask the Secretary-General to appoint not later than 1992 the Secretary-General of the conference;
14. Requests the relevant United Nations bodies to continue to provide action-oriented input when reporting to the Commission on the priority theme;
15. Emphasizes, in the framework of the Forward-looking Strategies, the importance of the total integration of women in the development process, bearing in mind the specific and urgent needs of the developing countries, and calls upon Member States to establish specific targets at each level in order to increase the participation of women in professional, management and decision-making positions in their countries;
16. Also emphasizes the need to give urgent attention to redressing socio-economic inequities at the national and international levels as a necessary step towards the full realization of the goals and objectives of the Forward-looking Strategies;
17. Urges that particular attention be given by the United Nations and Governments to the situation of disabled women and that Governments take steps to ensure the equalization of opportunities for these women in the economic, social and political fields;
18. Also urges the Commission, the relevant organizations of the United Nations and Governments to give particular attention to refugee women and children and migrant women, taking into account their contribution in the social, economic and political fields and the urgent need to avoid all kinds of discrimination against them;
19. Endorses the convening in 1991 of a high-level interregional consultation on women in public life, to be financed within existing resources and from voluntary and other contributions;
20. Requests the Secretary-General, in formulating the system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women for the period 1996-2001 and in integrating the Forward-looking Strategies into activities mandated by the General Assembly, to pay particular attention to the strengthening of national machineries for the advancement of women and to specific sectoral themes that cut across the three objectives, equality, development and peace, and include, in particular, literacy, education, health, population, the environment and the full participation of women in decision-making;
21. Also requests the Secretary-General to continue updating the World Survey on the Role of Women in Development, bearing in mind its importance, placing particular emphasis on the adverse impact of the difficult economic situation affecting the majority of developing countries, in particular on the condition of women, and giving special attention to worsening conditions for the incorporation of women into the labour force as well as to the impact of reduced expenditures for social services on women's opportunities for education, health and child care, and to submit a preliminary version of the updated World Survey on the Role of Women in Development to the Economic and Social Council, through the Commission, in 1993 and a final version in 1994;
22. Requests Governments, when presenting candidatures for vacancies in the Secretariat, in particular at the decision-making level, to give priority to women's candidatures, and requests the Secretary-General in reviewing these candidatures to give special consideration to female candidates from underrepresented and unrepresented developing countries;
23. Requests the Secretary-General to invite Governments, organizations of the United Nations system, including the regional commissions and the specialized agencies, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to report periodically to the Economic and Social Council, through the Commission, on activities undertaken at all levels to implement the Forward-looking Strategies;
24. Also requests the Secretary-General to continue to provide for the existing weekly radio programmes on women in the regular budget of the United Nations, making adequate provisions for broadcasts in different languages, and to develop the focal point for issues relating to women in the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat, which, in concert with the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the Secretariat, should provide a more effective public information programme relating to the advancement of women;
25. Further requests the Secretary-General to include in his report on the implementation of the Forward-looking Strategies, to be submitted to the General Assembly at its forty-sixth session, an assessment of recent developments that are relevant to the priority themes to be considered at the subsequent session of the Commission and to transmit to the Commission a summary of relevant views expressed by delegations during the debate in the Assembly;
26. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its forty-sixth session on measures taken to implement the present resolution;
27. Decides to consider these questions further at its forty-sixth session under the item entitled "Forward-looking strategies for the advancement of women to the year 2000".