26 May 1987

14th plenary meeting

Improving the ability of the Commission on the Status of Women to carry out its mandate

The Economic and Social Council,

Recalling the mandate of the Commission on the Status of Women, which is to promote the rights, status and the advancement of women, a matter of the highest priority for the United Nations,

Recalling also the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, endorsed by the General Assembly in resolution 40/108 of 13 December 1985, in which it was stated that the functions of the Commission should include the monitoring of the implementation of the Forward-looking Strategies to the year 2000,

Recalling further General Assembly resolution 41/213 of 19 December 1986, by which the Assembly approved the recommendations of the Group of High-level Intergovernmental Experts to Review the Efficiency of the Administrative and Financial Functioning of the United Nations,

Reaffirming the need to minimize financial implications and maximize substantive results, as well as the importance of giving higher priority to the concerns of women in United Nations programmes,

Bearing in mind the need for the Commission to monitor and review and appraise the Forward-looking Strategies in order to ensure that they are implemented expeditiously,

Aware that, as currently scheduled, the Commission will meet only seven times between 1988 and 2000,

Convinced that the current schedule of meetings is inadequate if the Commission is to carry out its mandate and to monitor and review and appraise the implementation by the United Nations of the recommendations contained in the Forward-looking Strategies,

1. Decides that, commencing with its thirty-second session, the Commission on the Status of Women shall meet annually until the year 2000, with a long-term programme of work that will allow sufficient preparation for each session;

2. Recommends that in order to enhance the effectiveness of the work of the Commission, the officers elected to the bureau of the Commission serve for a term of office of two years.