UN special session on women 2000 opens in New York

The United Nations special session on "women 2000, equality, development and peace for the 21st century" opened here Monday with participation of a Moroccan delegation led by secretary of State in charge of the disabled, Nezha Chekrouni.

The five-day session convenes to assess the progress made in gender equality since the adoption of Beijing program at the 1995 women conference.

Opening the conference, UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, said that the challenges to equality between women and men can be taken up only through education of women and their participation in world economy.

He pointed to two other problems from which women suffer namely AIDS and sexual exploitation, insisting that education of girls is the only means to combat these scourges.

Five years after the Beijing meeting, the UN special session must make people aware that the planet's future depends on women, Annan concluded.

Earlier, Chairman of the UN general assembly and the special session, Theo-Ben Gurirab, said that "Beijing "5" is an opportunity to assess States' fulfilment of commitments taken at the 4th Beijing conference and to identify shortcomings and new challenges.