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Press Advisory


MINISTERS TO DISCUSS ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN AT OAS MEETING

  April 20, 2004

Government ministers and senior officials responsible for women’s affairs will meet at the Organization of American States to discuss the vital role of free trade and economic empowerment of women in promoting gender equality and equity and in fighting poverty in the Americas.

The three-day meeting opens Wednesday, April 21, at 2:30 p.m., and is being organized by the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM). It is the second ministerial meeting convened under an OAS General Assembly mandate to encourage implementation of the Inter-American Program for the Promotion of Women’s Human Rights and Gender Equity and Equality and to advance Summits of the Americas preparation and follow-up.

The ministers will also consider celebrations to mark the tenth anniversary of the Belém do Pará Convention outlawing violence against women, as well as proposals for incorporating a gender perspective into the Fourth Summit of the Americas, to be held in Argentina next year.

Those addressing the opening session are Paulo Paiva, Inter-American Development Bank Vice President; Karen Mason, Director of the World Bank’s Gender and Development Section, representing Bank President James D. Wolfensohn; Luigi Einaudi, OAS Assistant Secretary General; and Florence Ievers, CIM Vice President and Associate Director of Status of Women Canada.


WHAT: Second meeting of ministers and senior officials responsible for women’s affairs

WHEN: Wednesday-Friday, April 21 to 23, 2004

TIMES: Wednesday 2:30 p.m.; Thursday and Friday 9:00 a.m.

WHERE: Hall of the Americas
OAS Main Building
17th Street & Constitution Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006

The opening session will be webcast live via the Internet (www.oas.org)

Reference: AVI-033/04