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A/RES/44/77 



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General Assembly

Distr: General
8 December 1989
Original: English

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Forty-fourth session
Agenda item 104 a

Resolution adopted by the General Assembly

44/77. Implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women

The General Assembly,

Recalling all its relevant resolutions, in particular resolutions 40/108 of 13 December 1985, 42/62 of 30 November 1987 and 43/101 of 8 December 1988, in which, inter alia, it endorsed and reaffirmed the importance of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Womenfor 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 will hold 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. Reaffirms the importance of resolutions 1, 2 and 4 adopted by the Commission on the Status of Women at its special session in 1987, in particular its recommendation that the implementation of the Forward-looking Strategies and the status of women in general should be incorporated as one of the priorities in the introduction to the medium-term plan of the Organization for the period 1992-1997;

3. Reaffirms the urgent need for the Forward-looking Strategies to be translated immediately into concrete action by Governments, within the framework of overall national priorities, as well as by the organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, the specialized agencies and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations;

4. Calls 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;

5. Reaffirms the central role of the Commission in matters related to the advancement of women, and calls upon it to promote 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;

6. Notes the preparations for the session of the Commission in 1990 to review and appraise progress in the implementation of the Forward-looking Strategies;

7. Requests the Commission during its session in 1990 to consider the role of women in and their contribution to development so as to ensure adequate attention to issues concerning women in the process of preparing for the special session of the General Assembly devoted to international economic co-operation, in particular to the revitalization of economic growth and development of the developing countries and the international development strategy for the fourth United Nations development decade;

8. Also requests the Commission to consider at its session in 1990 the question of holding in 1995 a world conference on women, at the lowest possible cost, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its forty-fifth session;

9. Requests the relevant United Nations bodies to continue to provide action-oriented input when reporting to the Commission on the priority themes;

10. 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;

11. 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;

12. 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;

13. 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;

14. Takes note with interest of the conclusions and recommendations of the International Seminar on Women and Rural Development: Programmes and Projects, held at Vienna from 22 to 26 May 1989;

15. 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;

16. 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;

17. Requests Governments, when presenting candidatures for vacancies in the Secretariat, in particular at the decision-making level, to give priority to women's candidatures when the required qualifications exist, and requests the Secretary-General in reviewing these candidatures to give special consideration to candidates from underrepresented and unrepresented countries;

18. Once again calls upon the Secretary-General and the executive heads of the specialized agencies and other United Nations bodies to establish five-year targets at each level for the percentage of women in Professional and decision-making positions, taking into account the principle of equitable geographical distribution, in order that a definite upward trend in the implementation of General Assembly resolution 41/206 D of 11 December 1986 may be registered with regard to the number of Professional and decision-making positions held by women by 1990, and to set additional targets every five years;

19. 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;

20. 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;

21. 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-fifth 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;

22. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its forty-fifth session on measures taken to implement the present resolution;

23. Decides to consider these questions further at its forty-fifth session under the item entitled "Forward-looking Strategies for the advancement of women to the year 2000".

78th plenary meeting
8 December 1989