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The following are abstracts from the report of the
Fortieth Session of the United Nations Commission on the
Status of Women, held in March 1996.

The abstracts relate to women and communication, with
particular reference to followup from the UN Conference
on Women that took place in Beijing last year.

During the 40th session, the UN Commission held
"dialogues" with a number of NGOs with expertise in the
areas of poverty, women and media, Child and dependent
care. The World Association of Community Radio
Broadcasters, represented by Maria Victoria Polanco,
member of the Board of Directors representing the women's
network, made a submission to the UN Commission. A brief
summary of that submission is available by email from
AMARC at amarc@web.apc.org.

______________________________________________________

COMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN CONCLUDES FORTIETH SESSION
IN NEW YORK


Abstracts from a press release and other documents dated
March 22nd, 1996.

  The Commission on the Status of Women today, adopting a
series of resolutions and "agreed conclusions" as it
ended its fortieth session,
called for both governments and the private sector to
bring a gender perspective to all polices and programmes
dealing with poverty, child care and the media. The
Commission, which began its current session on 11 March,
said women's concerns must be mainstreamed to deal with
the impact of economic and social changes on families,
eradicate poverty and counter
sexism and violence in an increasingly global media.

<  ---  >

  Meeting for the first time since the landmark 1995
Beijing Women's Conference, the Commission adopted and
held a dialogue with three panels of experts as part of
an innovative approach to its work. Experts, delegates
and representatives of non-governmental organizations
spoke on poverty, women and the media and child and
dependent care, including the sharing of
responsibilities between men and women -- all identified
as areas of critical concern at Beijing. The resolutions
and "agreed conclusions" came out of the dialogues and
contain a number of proposals to help implement the
Platform. They will be submitted to the Economic and
Social Council for consideration at its next substantive
session.

<  ---  >

Women and Media

  In its "agreed conclusions" on women and the media, the
Commission reconfirmed the importance of free expression
and noted that it had debated women's full enjoyment of
such expression, equal access to the media, balanced and
diverse portrayals of women, and media information aimed
at eliminating violence against women. It said that human
rights instruments must be applied in a way which took
into account the systematic and systemic nature of
discrimination against women.

 The  Commission  urged non-coercive  self-regulation
and  voluntary guidelines  to  eliminate  gender-biased
programming  and  encourage nonstereotypical gender
images. It said governments should raise awareness of the
media's role in promoting non-stereotyped images of women
and men and in eliminating violent images.   Media
professionals should be encouraged to exchange
information on voluntary guidelines for a gender-balanced
portrayal of women and men.  It also encouraged women's
equal
participation in management, programming, education and
training, including through affirmative action and equal
opportunity policies, so as to achieve gender balance in
the media.

 Non-governmental organizations  played an important
role in  media education, research, consumer advocacy and
monitoring, said the Commission. It encouraged media
networks to commit to gender equality and urged
governments to review existing media policies to
integrate a gender perspective.  It also called for the
strengthening of women's role in global communications
networks and a reduction of barriers to their involvement
in global information technologies.


< --- >


A draft set of agreed conclusions submitted by the Vice-
Chairperson on women and the media (document
E/CN.6/1996/L.16) would have the Commission note that
gender stereotyping in advertising and the media is one
of the factors of inequality that influences attitudes
towards equality between women and men. The Commission
would reconfirm the importance it attached to free
expression and note that it had debated women's full
enjoyment of such expression, equal access to the media,
balanced and diverse portrayals of women in the media,
and media information aimed at eliminating violence
against women. The Commission would state that human
rights instruments must be applied in such a way as to
take into consideration the systematic and systemic
nature of discrimination against women that gender
analysis has clearly indicated.

 Urging the use of non-coercive self-regulation and
voluntary guidelines
to  eliminate  gender-biased  programming  and  the
presentation  of
nonstereotypical gender images, the Commission would
state that governments
should take initiatives to raise the awareness of the
role of the media in
promoting non-stereotyped images of women and  men, as
well as  in
eliminating media presentations which generate violence.

 The Commission would encourage the media to take part in
discussions on the exchange of information and sharing of
best practices on voluntary guidelines on a gender-
balanced portrayal of women and men. It would also
encourage  women's  equal participation  in  management,
programming, education, and training, including through
positive action and equal opportunity policies, with the
goal of achieving gender balance in all areas and at all
levels of media work.

 The Commission would also stress the importance of media
education for women and of the role of civil society in
influencing media content and stereotyped portrayals.
The Commission would state that international exchanges
on  media  education could benefit  legislators, national
broadcasting authorities and media professionals.

 The Commission would call for an enabling environment
for women's media and would recognize the role of non-
governmental organizations in media education, research,
consumer advocacy and monitoring. It would encourage
media networks to commit to gender equality, and would
call on governments to review existing media policies
with a view to integrating a gender perspective.  The
Commission would call for the strengthening of the role
of women in global communications networks and a
reduction of barriers to women's involvement in global
information technologies.

< --- >

 The draft on agreed conclusions on women and the media
were then taken up.

 The representative of Canada introduced revisions to the
draft which made reference to disseminating information
on activities aimed to advance the status of women
through the Internet.

 The agreed conclusions on women and the media were then
adopted without a vote.


________________________________________________________
Bruce Girard
AMARC - Pulsar
Email: bgirard@pulsar.org.ec
http://www.web.apc.org/amarc/pulsar.html
Tel: +(593-2) 525-521    Fax/Tel: +(593-2) 542-818
Avenida America 3584, Casilla 17-01-1171, Quito, Ecuador