Following article was translated from a report posted originally in Japanese by Mayumi Makita <tontaka@jca.apc.org> to fem-net on 11th May 1999.

Japanese Women Preparing for "Women 2000" in New York

Second meeting of "NGO Report Preparation Group" was held on May 8th. The group was set up as a coalition of a number of women's group in Japan to prepare Japan's Alternative Report as an input to the Women 2000 Conference.

"Women 2000" - a special sesion of the UN General Assembly will be held June next year in New York to review implementation of Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA). It appears that NGO Forum of a large scale as the one held during Beijing Conference will not be held during this Conference. Thus it was agreed that an NGO Alternative Report bringing together the opinions of various NGOs from around the world should be prepared in time for the March 2000, 44th session of the UN Commission on Status of Women.

In Japan, "NGO Report Preparation Group" was formed in April 1999 to contribute to this process. It will aim to collect wide range of women's view nation-wide as a basis of praparing its national report. The Group decided to compile sub-reports along the 12 critical areas of the Platform for Action adopted at Beijing Conference. Accordingly, report coordinators were assigned along the 12 critical areas.

Click onto this page for coordinators for 12 Critical Areas and others.

• Comments are solicited to feed into the counter report including alternative policy proposal and comments to the "official govenmental report responding to the 'questionnaire on implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action'" prepared by the Prime Minister's Office.
• Japan Govenment's report is expected appear in the Website hosted by the Prime Minister's Office around mid-May in Japanese and in English. Printed version is expected to be published by end-May. Check out <http://www.sorifu.go.jp/danjyo/> or <http://www.sorifu.go.jp/>

Important Dates

18th July

Final Drafting of National NGO Report

25th July

Complete NGO Report ready (Japanese and English)

mid August

Presentation of the prepared NGO report to East-Asia Sub-regional Meeting (dates to be confirmed)

31 August - 4th Sept

Participation in preparation of "Regional NGO Report for Asia" during Asia Regional Meeting in Thailand

26th - 29th October

Presentation of Asian Regional Report to the Inter-governmental Regional Preparatory Committee organized by UN ESCAP

March 2000

Commission on Status of Women NGO Committe to compile Global Report based on inputs from the 5 regions.

Donation Request

"NGO Report Preparation Group" is soliciting donations (in multiples of 5,000 yen) in support of the planned activities.

Contact:

Secretariat, Beijing Accountability Caucus

Phone/Fax: +81-03-3407-7922