First Lady Mubarak proposes a new international forum for women
Egypt, Culture, 6/7/2000

Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, Head of Egypt's delegation to the 23rd UN General Assembly special session on women, met late Tuesday with the UNICEF Executive Director.

Mrs. Mubarak expounded efforts exerted by the Egyptian government and NGOs to protect children and provide them with necessary health, social and educational services.

She underlined the Egyptian government's interest in grooming a new generation equipped with modern science and technologies through public libraries and information networks.

The UNICEF Chief, on her part, commended Mrs. Mubarak's valuable contributions to childhood and motherhood care, augmenting cooperation with the UN agency and NGOs to bring to a higher level health and educational services offered to Egyptian children.

Mrs. Mubarak also conferred with Zahra Shogaei, Head of the Iranian delegation to the UN special session.

They probed Egypt and Iran's endeavors to improve women's conditions and overcome their problems.

Egypt Tuesday proposed to establish "an international forum for women" of similar to the environment forum

This proposed forum would act as an umbrella to existing institutions, programs and funds charged with the formulation of strategies.

It would also consolidate presently fragmented efforts and arrangement resources needed to meet priority areas of universal concern identified in Beijing. Mrs. Suzanne added.

The current UN gathering aims at moving forward, paving the way for the empowerment of women and reaffirming determination to accelerate the advancement of women.

Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak told the gathering held under the rubrics of "women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st century."

"As partners working together on both the national and international levels, we know we can make a difference to ensure gender equality, development and peace for the 21st Century, Mrs. Mubarak added.

"All parties at the global level should be willing to redress the balance of power in favor of the weaker members of the community of nations, while working towards the enhancement of social progress and the more equitable distribution of resources between the North and South," she addressed the gathering grouping 188 delegations.

"Moreover, we all agree that the advancement of women is essential for true democracy, balanced decision-making and effective management of social and economic resources," Mrs. Mubarak said.

In Egypt, the National Council for Women has adopted the notion of partnership between the government ,NGOs and local communities, she added.

Our experience shows that the most successful women programs are those which work directly with the grassroots and reach large numbers.

They have well-defined criteria for eligibility and monitoring as well as providing tangible incentives to the targeted beneficiaries, she added.

For 25 years now, women's issues have been on the global agenda. Indeed this has largely contributed to identifying problems and proposing solutions.

However, we must caution that our task is still far from accomplishment, we need to rally our forces to move forward, she added.

We trust that this special session will agree on action -oriented recommendations to be submitted to the millennium summit in September so that the gender file can find its rightful place in the UN agenda for the 21st Century, Mrs. Suzanne concluded.

Previous Stories:
  The World Bank hails new Egyptian Civil Affairs Law   (6/6/2000)
  First Lady Mubarak attends opening of UN Conference on women   (6/6/2000)
  Women's rights constantly improving   (6/5/2000)

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