26 July 1985

52nd plenary meeting

Women and development in Africa

The Economic and Social Council,

Recalling resolution 28 of the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,

Bearing in mind resolution 512 (XIX) of 26 May 1984 of the Conference of Ministers of the Economic Commission for Africa on the mobilization of human and financial resources for women's programmes of the Commission beyond the end of the United Nations Decade for Women,

Bearing in mind that women subjected to the policies of apartheid and women in illegally occupied Namibia are still victims of all forms of injustice, violent oppression and atrocities perpetrated by the racist regime of South Africa, and that the status of women in the front-line States has been seriously affected by the aggression and destabilizing policies of South Africa,

1. Requests Governments and international organizations to sustain their assistance for national machineries concerned with the integration of women in development to enable them to formulate and execute national programmes for women's development, taking into account, in particular, the Arusha Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of African Women beyond the United Nations Decade for Women;

2. Urgently requests States which have not yet done so to sign the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and States which have signed it to ratify it and do everything possible to ensure its application;

3. Requests the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa to spare no effort to procure regular budget posts and appropriations for the African Training and Research Centre for Women and the Multinational Programming and Operational Centres, through the redeployment of vacant posts and in the context of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 1986-1987, in order to ensure the continuity of the United Nations regional and subregional women's programmes.