BRIEFING for Tuesday, 9 March

43rd SESSION OF THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN (CSW) - INFORMAL CONSULTATIONS (Tuesday, 9 March 1999) The CSW's 43rd Session continued with its scheduled informal consultations on the draft agreed conclusions from last week's panel discussions, with much of the day taken up with the draft text on women and health. Sections discussed included: access to health care services and information; sexual and reproductive health; HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases; mental health and substance abuse; occupational and environmental health; and research, training and policy development. A considerable number of amendments to the draft text were suggested. There were regular contributions from the floor on behalf of a number of countries, including Germany (speaking for the EU), Guyana (for the G-77/China) and New Zealand (on behalf of JUSCANNZ).

THE OPEN-ENDED AD HOC WORKING GROUP The Open-ended Ad Hoc Working Group (WG) of the CSW met informally in morning, afternoon and evening sessions to continue discussion on agenda item 6, namely the elaboration of a draft optional protocol to CEDAW. With the objective being the finalization of the optional protocol's text by Wednesday, 10 March, eleventh hour negotiations continued to work towards clearing parts of the document still in brackets. Important sections under discussion included Articles 2 and 10.