Fifth Meeting of Commonwealth Ministers Responsible for Women's Affairs

25-28 November 1996, Trinidad and Tobago

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

CONCLUSIONS
Implementation of the Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development

1. Ministers welcomed the Secretary-General's Progress Report on Implementation of the Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development (POA) and commended it highly for providing useful information on progress achieved to date. It identified successful approaches and activities, pointed out shortcomings and indicated constraints in implementation. It provided a valuable background which would enable governments to exchange experiences on useful strategies for implementation of the POA and formulate their own Plans of Action.

2. Ministers reiterated their commitment to the implementation of the Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development and agreed that political commitment was essential for effective implementation. They recognised that it provided a comprehensive framework and strategic objectives for gender integration, which could be incorporated into their National Action Plans on Gender and Development. They commended governments for the range of measures through which they had addressed priority areas in the Plan of Action, even though it had only been operative for one year.

3. They recognised that inter-governmental organisations made a critical contribution through the provision of advice and technical assistance and that NGOs played a crucial role in the implementation and monitoring of the Plan of Action.

4. Ministers observed that implementation was linked to the political, social and economic circumstances of each country and felt that the uniqueness of each national situation should be reflected in reporting processes. In this context they drew attention to the particular resource constraints facing many states.

5. The Commonwealth Secretariat was commended for the extent to which it had succeeded in mainstreaming gender into its structures, programmes and processes.

6. The meeting welcomed the proposed establishment of a separate section on Gender Equality in the programme structure for the Commonwealth Secretariat's Three-Year Strategic Plan for 1997/8-1999/2000. Ministers regarded this as a reflection of the cross-cutting nature of gender issues in the Secretariat's agenda. They were confident that the Gender Equality Section would play a catalytic role in promoting gender integration into all Commonwealth Secretariat activities. In this context Ministers expressed the hope that this new structure would be backed by appropriate budgetary resources.

7. They considered that the questionnaire on implementation of the Plan of Action had been useful for highlighting progress as well as for identifying where further action was required. Recognising that effective gender mainstreaming could only be achieved if National Women's Machineries (NWMs) were strengthened, they agreed that these machineries should have strong political mandates, clear goals, trained personnel and adequate financial and other resources. They also agreed that it was critical to establish effective linkages between NWMs, other line ministries, agencies and relevant organisations if the rate of implementation of the Plan of Action was to be accelerated.

8. The Meeting emphasised the importance of training for successful implementation of gender integration. Ministers observed that although Gender Focal Points had been established in many countries, they had not had the expected impact. They identified lack of training and insufficient time to devote to gender integration among the causes for their ineffectiveness. They also considered it vital to provide gender sensitisation and training in gender planning and analysis for policy-makers and public sector workers including local government bodies across all sectors and at all levels. It was equally important to provide such training for NGOs and community groups.

9. Ministers expressed concern that implementation of the POA was being hindered by lack of financial resources, training and expertise.

10. They emphasised that the provision of technical assistance by the Commonwealth Secretariat was a crucial factor in enabling governments to fulfil the agreed objectives in the POA.

11. The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) reported that distance education, because of its flexibility and openness, has the potential to reach the previously unreached with quality education. Since it began its operations in 1989, COL has demonstrated the advantageous ways in which distance education, utilising both tested and emerging communication technologies, can be applied to expand and enhance learning opportunities for all, particularly for developing countries and marginalised groups, including women and girls. COL stated that it is committed to removing barriers to women's access to education through delivery of gender-balanced programmes and projects, as well as through initiatives that are specifically targeted to benefit women and girls. COL shared information on projects undertaken since 1993 such as:

- co-production of a learning module on the theoretical foundations of gender and development;

- publication of a handbook to help producers of educational materials identify gender bias and improve their capacity to address it; and

- compilation of an educational resource on women and sustainable development.

12. Ministers supported and encouraged the CHOGM Committee on Co-operation through Sport to continue their efforts to advance gender equality through sport and welcomed further co-operation and reporting on this issue.

Gender Management Systems

13. Ministers reaffirmed the conclusion reached at their Extraordinary Meeting in Beijing in 1995, that the establishment of Gender Management Systems (GMS) is an innovative Commonwealth strategy for accelerating progress towards achieving gender integration in member countries.

14. Ministers commended the Secretariat for its development of the GMS approach. They noted that although the principle of gender mainstreaming is accepted by many international agencies and organisations, the Commonwealth Secretariat must be commended for taking the initiative to develop the conceptual framework, methodology, mechanisms and tools to facilitate the implementation of this approach. They expressed the view that the GMS Handbook and Resource Kit would provide the needed support to governments in setting up Gender Management Systems.

15. Ministers agreed that a Gender Management System must involve all key stakeholders or partners proactively, including: National Women's Machineries; politicians and core government ministries of strategic importance for the achievement of gender equality; local government; community-based organisations and non-governmental development organisations, including women's NGOs; research and educational institutions; trade unions; the media; inter-governmental organisations; the private sector; and civil society.

16. Ministers agreed that it was critical to have a strong and effective lead agency which would initiate and co-ordinate the process of setting up and implementing a Gender Management System. They identified the National Women's Machinery as the most appropriate agency for assuming this role. They emphasised that in order to effectively lead the gender mainstreaming thrust, the National Women's Machinery should be strategically placed at the highest level of decision-making within government, should have adequate resources, and should establish formal linkages with other ministries and relevant agencies, local government, community and women's organisations and NGOs, inter-governmental organisations and other key stakeholders.

17. Ministers agreed that key elements in the establishment of Gender Management Systems are: developing or updating National Gender and Development Action Plans which represent the policy framework, establishing appropriate structures and mechanisms, and implementing information, monitoring and evaluation systems. They recognised that political commitment is a sine qua non of this process.

18. Ministers considered that in many countries it may be necessary to develop an enabling environment for the setting up of a Gender Management System, through the provision of gender training and sensitisation programmes.

Gender Integration into Politics and Conflict Resolution
19. Ministers pointed out that since women represent over 50 per cent of the population in their countries, this should be reflected in the composition of national parliaments, local government bodies and other decision-making fora.

20. Ministers supported the principle of positive and/or affirmative action which was endorsed by Commonwealth Heads of Government in Auckland in 1995, as part of the Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development, to increase women's participation in decision-making.

21. Ministers endorsed the call to governments by the Beijing Platform for Action to: "review the differential impact of electoral systems on political representation of women in elected bodies and consider, where appropriate, the adjustment or reforms to such systems".

22. Ministers recognised a need for collecting data on the relationship between different electoral systems and the level of representation of women, with a view to assisting member countries in making informed choices about strategies for increasing women's participation in politics.

23. Ministers endorsed the view that awareness campaigns should be directed at women to highlight their capability to participate in decision-making and in political positions. They agreed that to encourage women to participate in politics, information should be made available on sources of funding for candidates, selection of appropriate constituencies, assembling a campaign management team, budgeting, publicity strategies and making strategic use of the media.

24. Ministers agreed that the low representation of women in political decision-making structures is in part a reflection of the lack of financial and structural support given to women wishing to enter the political arena. Support can include the following: funding and networking; training in preparation for becoming a candidate, e.g., in political education; campaign strategies; personal profiling; development of advocacy materials; public speaking; documentation and research; understanding the electoral system; policy analysis; and fundraising.

25. Ministers agreed that increasing the participation of women in Parliaments and Cabinets alone will not ensure greater participation of women in peace-making and conflict resolution decisions. Concerted steps need to be taken to ensure that the effects of war on women are understood, that they are involved in the decisions on war and peace, and that peacemaking efforts are fully engendered.

Integration of Gender Concerns into Macro-economic Policies
26. Ministers expressed support for the integration of a gender perspective into macro-economic policies and regarded this as one of the major thrusts through which the Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development would achieve its goal of gender equality and equity of outcomes. They saw a need for gender concerns to be incorporated directly into the macro-economic policy framework instead of relying on the assumption that gender-based inequalities would be addressed incidentally as macro-economic policies were formulated.

27. Ministers recognised that the integration of gender concerns into macro-economic policies had both an equality and efficiency dimension. They observed that gender inequality is not only costly to women and children, but also to men and the society as a whole because it exacts costs through lower output, lower development of people's capabilities and adverse effects on people's health and quality of life.

28. Ministers recognised that the globalisation of capital markets and liberalisation of international trade had created an environment which had significant implications for the process of engendering macro-economic policies.

29. Ministers recognised that although, on initial analysis, the national budget appeared to be gender-neutral, in reality it was gender-blind. The process by which the national budget was developed usually ignored the different socially determined roles, responsibilities and capabilities of women and men.

30. Ministers agreed that they had a key catalytic role to play in developing a gender- sensitive vision of the economy. This involved the full integration of unpaid and caring-related activities undertaken by women into the macro-economic policy-formulation process.

31. Ministers agreed that the national macro-budgetary process was an appropriate entry point for engendering macro-economic policies. They regarded collaboration between ministries responsible for women's affairs, ministries of finance, planning and other sectoral ministries, women's organisations and NGOs, as critical to the process of integrating gender concerns into the national budgetary process.

32. Ministers emphasised the need to generate gender-disaggregated data and evolve appropriate indicators to create the necessary statistical base for the use of gender-aware budgetary tools. In this respect, they acknowledged the particular utility of time-use surveys.

33. Ministers agreed that the implementation of IMF/World Bank supported economic reform programmes in many of their countries placed a high premium on National Women's Machineries having tools and processes with which to present their case to ministerial colleagues and international agencies on the gender impact of such reform programmes and measures to address these, including safety nets.

34. Ministers agreed that in contexts where a high priority was being attached to fiscal consolidation, there was nevertheless considerable scope to achieve the twin objectives of increased gender equality and efficiency through expenditure switching based on engendered priorities.

35. Ministers commended the Secretariat for developing the draft Policy Options for Integrating Gender Issues into National Budgetary Policies and Procedures in the Context of Economic Reform. They thought that this was an innovative approach which marked a significant step forward in the attempt to engender macro-economic policies.

36. They welcomed the offers from several members to pilot the approach in their countries as the first stage in carrying forward this process.

Women's Human Rights
37. Ministers noted that many member governments had introduced positive measures to eliminate violence against women. However, they recognised that these measures did not always reflect an integrated and holistic response to the problem.

38. Ministers recognised that several countries had introduced law reform, but noted with concern that there are factors which continue to impede women's access to justice through the legal system. It was also noted that there was a need for comprehensive, consistent and gender-sensitive law reform and other public policy supported by effective implementing procedures.

39. Ministers identified the inadequate allocation of resources to create an integrated approach to eliminate violence against women as a major difficulty affecting the effectiveness of current strategies.

40. Ministers recognised the economic and social costs of violence against women and its adverse effects on the lives of women and their families. They emphasised the need for increased understanding of the dynamics between gender inequality, gender discrimination and violence against women. They agreed that the elimination of violence against women was an indispensable part of the process of eliminating gender discrimination.

41. Ministers noted with grave concern the growing incidence of the commercial sexual exploitation of children, especially girls, and the consequent infringement of their human rights. They recognised that commercial sexual exploitation of the girl-child resulted from a range of issues and involved Commonwealth citizens both as victims and clients of sexual services. In the same context Ministers were concerned with the existence of child labour in their societies. They identified that there were underlying socio-economic factors including poverty, consumerism, breakdown in social relations in the family and cultural attitudes in an environment of consistent gender discrimination. Ministers recognised the critical importance of Commonwealth co-operation in setting international strategies and networking as well as the development of national action plans to address these problems.

42. Ministers recognised the need for full and effective implementation of international human rights instruments, in particular those relating to the realisation of women's human rights, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the UN Declaration on Elimination of Violence Against Women. They emphasised the need to enact domestic legislation based on these international human rights instruments, and develop integrated national plans of action accordingly.

43. Ministers recognised the critical role to be played by all the agencies of the criminal justice system, especially the judiciary and law enforcement officers. They welcomed the proposal made by Law Ministers at their meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1996 for the introduction of a range of practical measures including a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system, designed to eliminate violence against women. Ministers also considered that priority be given to gender-sensitive training for the judiciary and law enforcement officers, health workers, law and medical students and community leaders. Legal literacy programmes to raise awareness were also advocated.

44. Ministers recognised the importance of working with civil society in combatting all forms of violence against women and children and in particular the commercial sexual exploitation of the girl-child.

45. Ministers recognised that violence against women and the commercial sexual exploitation of girls are sometimes exacerbated by certain customary practices that reflected gender discriminatory attitudes.

46. Ministers noted with concern the impact of pornography in the perpetuation of acts of violence against women and children and the commercial sexual exploitation of women and children, especially girls, and the importance of developing legal and other measures to combat the possession and dissemination of pornography.

47. Ministers also noted the negative portrayal of women and girls in the media and the impact of the media in promoting a culture of violence against women.

48. Ministers recognised the critical need to uphold and reinforce standards set out in international humanitarian law and international human rights instruments to prevent all acts of violence against women and children in situations of armed and other conflicts. Ministers recognised the need to revisit the concept of the family and they noted the importance of using community strategies as well as institutional ones in addressing problems related to the human rights of women and children. Ministers noted the special need to consider ratification of or accession to international instruments containing provisions relative to the protection of women and children in armed conflicts. They also recognised the importance of preventing child combatants from being conscripted into the armed forces.

49. Ministers recognised the need for parents to pay equal attention to both boys and girls in the upbringing of children to ensure that children will grow up seeing themselves as equal partners in the society. They also considered it necessary to review curricula and textbooks to include the concept of peace, conflict management and gender concerns.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Ministers Responsible for Women's Affairs had their Fifth Meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, 25-28 November 1996. This was the first meeting of Ministers Responsible for Women's Affairs since the Beijing Conference and the adoption of the Platform for Action. The Meeting was chaired by The Hon Dr Daphne Phillips, Minister of Community Development, Culture and Women's Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago. Forty-five Commonwealth countries attended the Meeting. They had a useful and wide ranging exchange of views on the following subjects: Implementation of the Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development; Gender Management Systems; Gender Integration into Politics and Conflict Resolution; Integration of Gender Concerns into Macro-Economic Policies; and Women's Human Rights. They agreed to present the following recommendations, which their governments are encouraged to implement according to their national circumstances and in keeping with the 1995 Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development. They also agreed to request the Secretary-General specially to present these recommendations to Commonwealth Heads of Government when they next met in Edinburgh, in 1997.

Implementation of the Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development
1. Governments, in consultation with major stakeholders, should develop National Gender and Development Action Plans stating the goals, objectives, policy framework and methodology for integrating gender issues into all policies and programmes by the year 2000.

2. Ministers Responsible for Women's Affairs should participate effectively in mainstream policy and decision-making processes and collaborate closely with other line ministries as they implement gender integration into all policies and programmes.

3. Ministers of Education should be requested to initiate more dynamic strategies for ensuring that girls and women are given equal access to educational opportunities at all levels. They should also introduce measures to increase the participation of girls and women in training programmes leading to non-traditional occupations such as science, technology and commerce. They should also be urged to commit adequate resources to programmes such as are offered by the Commonwealth of Learning to enable these objectives to be met.

4. Governments are urged to implement the recommendations for gender integration made at Commonwealth Ministerial Meetings in the areas of Education, Finance, Health, Law, Science and Youth.

5. The Commonwealth Secretariat should continue the process of engendering its programmes to provide gender inclusive technical assistance to governments during the next Three-Year Strategic Plan 1997/98-1999/2000. Adequate resources should be provided to the Gender and Youth Affairs Division to enable the separate section on Gender Equality in the Secretariat programme structure to play a strategic and co-ordinating role in this process.

6. The Commonwealth Secretariat should provide advice, training and technical assistance to support governments in their implementation of the Plan of Action and should continue to promote the exchange of experiences on good practices for implementing the Plan of Action. States, which face severe resource constraints, should be a special target group.

7. Ministers endorsed and urged the implementation of the Brighton Declaration on Women and Sports presented by the CHOGM Committee on Co-operation through Sport, and called on Commonwealth Heads of Government to endorse it at their 1997 meeting in Edinburgh.

Gender Management Systems
8. National Women's Machineries should be strengthened and consideration be given to locating them at the highest possible level within government to demonstrate the government's political commitment to achieving gender equality and equity of outcomes, which informs the vision of the Commonwealth Plan of Action. The National Women's Machineries should be provided with adequate human and financial resources and technical support to enable them to function effectively as lead agencies in a Gender Management System.

9. Governments should put in place institutional structures and mechanisms to integrate gender into all policy-making, planning and implementation processes as set out in the National Gender and Development Action Plan and regularly monitor and evaluate the implementation and impact of the National Plan.

10. Gender training should be a key strategy in the process of building and strengthening gender awareness and the capacity for gender analysis and planning, to ensure that gender mainstreaming takes place. System-wide gender sensitisation and training should be an ongoing process, made available to Gender Focal Points, staff in the National Women's Machinery, other officials in the wider government structure and key stakeholders. Gender training should also be institutionalised in national/regional research and training institutes and training programmes.

11. Monitoring and evaluation of gender awareness in government policies, plans and programmes should be carried out in all sectors, through the use of specially designed tools and instruments, such as gender policy appraisals, gender-aware budgets and gender impact assessments.

12. The Commonwealth Secretariat should provide a range of training and resource materials for governments in the area of gender mainstreaming, such as the GMS Handbook and Resource Kit, including guidelines for engendering governments' sectoral policies and programmes, and their financial and administrative procedures.

13. Since Commonwealth Heads of Government endorsed the Plan of Action in Auckland in 1995, CFTC technical assistance should be provided directly to National Women's Machineries, to facilitate the establishment of Gender Management Systems, as far as resources permit. The Commonwealth Secretariat should also assist governments to access resources from other agencies. Such technical assistance should include the development of National Gender and Development Action Plans, the provision of gender management training at the local, national and regional levels, and the assessment of gender training needs.

14. Ministers recommended the piloting of the Gender Management Systems Module in a number of countries prior to its finalisation. They urged member countries who wished to establish Gender Management Systems to participate in the GMS pilots.

15. The Commonwealth Secretariat should seek to strengthen its collaboration and relationships with all development partners, including UNIFEM, UNICEF, ILO, UNDP, the European Community and bilateral donors, to ensure the co-ordination of resources and efficient use of available funds for regional and/or national machineries.

Gender Integration into Politics and Conflict Resolution
16. Ministers agreed to work towards the acceleration of gender integration in politics at national, provincial and local levels and in peace and conflict resolution with a view to achieving gender balance. The following nine inter-related strategies for action are proposed:

a. In the context of promoting the fundamental political values of the Commonwealth, Ministers recommended that member countries should be encouraged to achieve a target of no less than 30 per cent of women in decision-making in the political, public and private sectors by the year 2005. They undertook to employ whatever methods are most appropriate in their national circumstances, including positive and/or affirmative action. Those countries which are already close to achieving this target are encouraged to take the next step of striving to achieve gender balance in political decision-making by 2005.

b. The Commonwealth Secretariat and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association will seek to provide information that may be useful to member governments in achieving the target. The Commonwealth Secretariat should also regularly publicise progress towards the achievement of the target by member governments.

c. Ministers would initiate practical measures to promote positive images of women in decision-making, including engendering curricula and text books at all levels of educational institutions, launching campaigns around the targets set and compiling a directory of women in politics and other decision-making structures.

d. The Commonwealth Secretariat should also take every opportunity to advocate the achievement of the 30 per cent target or higher.

e. Ministers would take positive steps to encourage women to stand as candidates in elections by working closely with electoral authorities in developing gender sensitive voter education materials, and initiating training and mentorship programmes for women candidates from all parties. The Commonwealth Secretariat should assist in developing such materials and in enhancing the exchange of such information between Commonwealth countries.

f. Ministers identified a need for training programmes to be organised for women parliamentarians. They emphasised that it was critical that adequate financial provision was made to ensure that such programmes were effectively implemented.

g. Ministers called on the Commonwealth Secretariat to work closely with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) in developing linkages between women parliamentarians across the Commonwealth.

h. Ministers should urge governments to increase the participation of women in ministries concerned with war and peace and refugee situations, and ensure that women envoys were included in peace initiatives. They should also lobby governments to ensure that gender considerations are taken into account in the design of procedures for victims of conflict.

i. The Commonwealth Secretariat, in collaboration with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, should organise training programmes on the role of women in politics, peace, and conflict prevention and resolution using case studies of best practice.

Integration of Gender Concerns into Macro-economic Policies

17. Governments should strengthen measures to integrate gender into macro-economic policies, particularly the budgetary process, and to ensure that women are recognised as a specific target group, especially with regard to poverty alleviation and other programmes focused on economic empowerment.

18. Ministers Responsible for Women's Affairs should engage in policy dialogue with relevant ministries on the integration of gender concerns into the national budgetary process and should encourage their governments to use the tools developed by the Secretariat to introduce a gender perspective into budgetary policy. They also noted the need to recognise similarities and differences among countries in order to develop the most effective tools.

19. They endorsed the use of the following gender-aware budgeting tools, as appropriate, to develop a gender-aware budget:

- gender-disaggregated beneficiary assessment;

- gender-disaggregated public expenditure incidence analysis;

- gender-aware policy evaluations of public expenditure;

- gender-aware budget statements (a modification of the women's budget statement);

- gender-disaggregated analysis of financial budget and time survey interactions; and

- gender-aware medium-term economic policy development.

20. Ministers encouraged all countries to develop gender-disaggregated statistical databases to enable them to realise the full potential of gender-aware budgetary tools. In this connection, they called for the training of officials, in all social development departments including economic and statistical departments and Women's Bureaux, in the collection and production of gender-disaggregated data. They also sought assistance in the development of indicators and methods of reporting which reflect gender perspectives.

21. Ministers called for analytical work, drawing on existing experiences, on ways and means of correlating information on time use + especially on unpaid and care-giving work + to public investment and expenditure.

22. Ministers proposed that a gender-aware budgetary process should be developed through a multi-pronged strategy to incorporate target groups including spending ministries, the public, women's groups, policy analysts, gender analysts, economists and development co-operation agencies. Potential strategies identified included:

(a) promoting dialogue between officials from the Ministry Responsible for Women's Affairs and the Ministry of Finance as well as local and international policy analysts to discuss tools for integrating gender into national budgetary policy; and

(b) organising public debate on engendering budgets through activities such as a 'Budget Hearing' including women parliamentarians, women's NGOs, and other groups which are not given the opportunity to express their views on the budget.

23. Ministers encouraged economists and gender analysts to collaborate in developing gender-sensitive macro-economic concepts, using macro-economic models, with the aim of producing practical policy options for engendering macro-economic policy.

24. Ministers agreed to work closely with Ministers of Finance to integrate gender concerns into the fiscal reforms being implemented in many countries.

25. In recognition of the priority given to the programme of Gender Equality by Commonwealth Heads of Government and Ministers Responsible for Women's Affairs, Ministers recommended that the Commonwealth Secretariat assist governments to develop and implement Policy Options for Integrating Gender Issues into National Budgetary Policies and Procedures within the Context of Economic Reform.

26. Ministers requested the Secretariat to provide technical assistance and facilitate support from other sources for the pilot studies in selected Commonwealth countries, prior to the finalisation of the Draft Policy Options and other relevant tools for engendering national budgetary processes.

27. Ministers also recommended that the Secretariat should facilitate the sharing of experience in integrating gender into economic policy-making among member countries. This process could involve officials from, inter alia, the Ministries of Women's Affairs and Finance and Planning.

Women's Human Rights
28. Ministers should provide leadership in ensuring more effective implementation of CEDAW and General Recommendation 19 relating to violence against women, drawing on the examples of good practices for implementing CEDAW in the manual developed by the Commonwealth Secretariat and making use of its revised manual on reporting under CEDAW, 'Assessing the Status of Women: A Guide to Reporting under CEDAW'.

29. Governments were urged to ratify and ensure the full and effective implementation of all international human rights instruments.

30. Ministers should develop an integrated approach towards the elimination of violence against women. This should be done in collaboration with other ministries, organisations and NGOs concerned with law reform and enforcement, service delivery, research, education and training. The resources of the Commonwealth Secretariat's Clearing House on Violence Against Women should be used in this process.

31. Governments were encouraged to ensure that statistical data on violence is collected and disaggregated according to gender so that the problem of violence against women is made more visible and thereby assist governments in devising strategies to combat violence against women.

32. Governments should adopt and promote effective implementation of the Declaration and Programme for Action of the World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, Sweden, August 1996. This includes: collecting data and information to be used as the basis for formulating effective strategies against sex tourism, the commercial sexual exploitation of children; enacting laws against the commercial sexual exploitation of children whether perpetrated by citizens within or outside their countries and ensuring that they are implemented effectively; and exchanging experiences and information with other Commonwealth governments on effective strategies and actions for addressing the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Governments also agreed to address the problem of child labour in their societies.

33. The Commonwealth Secretariat should compile information on good practices relating to law reform, law enforcement and other measures for eliminating commercial sexual exploitation of children, especially girls, and develop and disseminate resource materials on effective strategies to combat the problem.

34. Governments should support the implementation of gender-sensitive macroeconomic policies, poverty alleviation programmes and other socio-economic initiatives which will effectively address the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

35. The Commonwealth Secretariat should collaborate with the Commonwealth Magistrates' and Judges' Association to strengthen the capacity of the judiciary and other legal professionals to respond to violence against women and girls and to promote and protect the human rights of women and girls. These programmes should be guided by the obligations of governments under CEDAW and the CRC and the consensus reflected in the Victoria Falls Declaration of Principles on the Human Rights of Women and the Hong Kong Conclusions.

36. Governments should initiate special training programmes for the police as part of their normal training requirements for law enforcement personnel. The Commonwealth Secretariat should support these initiatives by continuing to make available their training materials, including the manual on Guidelines for Police Training on Violence Against Women and Child Sexual Abuse.

37. The Commonwealth Secretariat should develop and organise training and educational programmes on promoting the human rights of women and girls for Law and Medical faculties, Women's Studies departments, judicial training institutes and relevant policy-makers; and should support the institutionalisation of training programmes at national and regional levels.

38. In recognising the need for long-term measures to eliminate violence against women, governments should review educational materials and revise text books so as to combat social attitudes that may lead to violence against women.

39. Governments should uphold and reinforce standards set out in international humanitarian law and international human rights violence against women and children in situations of armed and other conflicts.

Issued by the Information and Public Affairs Division, Commonwealth Secretariat,
Marlborough House,
Pall Mall,
London SW1Y 5HX,
United Kingdom.
Tel: 0207-839 3411;
Fax: 0207-839 9081;
Telex: 27678

96/66 4 December 1996