Parliamentarians meet to improve women's lot

Parliamentarians from 24 African and Asian countries, who met in Morocco recently, called on governments to implement the convention on the elimination of discrimination against women, the UN Development Programme reported on Wednesday. During their wide-ranging discussions - over three days last week in the southern city of Marrakech - the participants urged countries to revise family codes and end discrimination; analyse national budgets to ensure equity for women; and support poverty reduction programmes that respond to women's needs. The participants, who gathered under the banner of the Africa/Asia Parliamentarian Forum on Human Security and Gender and were funded by Japan, also recommended an increase in women's access to decision making and made specific proposals on HIV/AIDS, socio-economic policies, and women's role in peace processes. West African countries Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea and Nigeria were represented at the forum organised by the UNDP Bureau for Development Policy http://www.undp.org/gender/programmes/and the Division for the Advancement of Women http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/index.html of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs; in collaboration with the Moroccan Parliament and the Ministry for Promotion of Women, Protection of the Family and Childhood and Integration of Handicapped. The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women is available on http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/.