Press Releases

Gender experts speak at Women's Commission Conference

The following is issued on behalf of the Women's Commission:

Experts on gender and women-related issues from the Mainland and overseas countries will be sharing their ideas and experience in promoting well-being of women with local participants at the upcoming Women's Commission Conference 2002. The conference will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Friday and Saturday (May 10 and 11). 

The Women's Commission at its meeting on May 7 reviewed the latest position on the organisation of the Women's Commission Conference which will be opened by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, on May 10. 

The Regional Programme Director for East and Southeast Asia of United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Dr Linda Miranda, will deliver a keynote speech on "The Challenge of Transformation - Women's Role For a Better Tomorrow".

In addition, Ms Hua Fuzhou, Vice-President of All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) will also deliver a speech on behalf of Ms Gu Xiulian, the senior Vice President of ACWF at the opening ceremony. Her address will highlight the advancements made in promoting the interests and well-being of women in the Mainland. 

At the plenary session on gender mainstreaming, the Director of Gender-Based Analysis, Status of Women Canada, Ms Helene Dwyer-Renaud, will make reference to experience in Canada and talk about "Gender-Based Analysis in Government Processes". She will elaborate on the building blocks, elements and players that facilitate successful gender integration within government. 

Renowned writer, Ms Xu Xi, will speak on "Between the Lines of Images of Gender" in the plenary session on public education. She will review images that represent various concepts of the female gender.

A Deputy Director-General of International Liaison Department, ACWF, Ms Zou Xiaoqiao, will speak on "Empowerment of Women in All Aspects of Life" at the plenary session on empowerment of women, in which she will set out actions undertaken by ACWF in the Mainland. At the same session, a former Chair of United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, Dr Patricia Licuanan, will deliver a speech on "Monitoring Women's Empowerment". 

There will also be break-out sessions covering topics in these three areas where 20 panelists from non-governmental organisations, professional groups, academia, media sector and the Government will speak. 

The Secretary for Justice, Ms Elsie Leung, will be delivering a luncheon speech on May 11 and the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Donald Tsang, will be the Guest of Honour for the closing reception on the same day.

A conference "Marketplace" will also be organised with more than 30 organisations participating to showcase their work serving women in the community.

Furthermore, over 70 community activities with women in focus are being held by more than 50 groups and organisations from different sectors of the community. These activities include health checks for women, talks, seminars and courses, exhibitions and arts programmes. 

Nearly 400 participants have already registered for the conference. Only very limited seats are still available. Anyone interested in women's issues are welcome to attend. The official languages of the conference are Chinese and English, with simultaneous interpretation services for all plenary sessions and a few break-out sessions. The enquiry telephone number is 2509 3430.

Members of the public are welcome to visit the conference website www.women.gov.hk for details of programmes, community activities, and other information on the conference. The opening ceremony will be broadcast live on Government's homepage www.info.gov.hk on May 10 from 6 pm to 7.30 pm.

Also at the meeting of May 7, the Women's Commission considered the preliminary framework of the gender mainstreaming strategy and agreed that an incremental approach should be adopted to roll out gender mainstreaming to various policy areas on a step-by-step basis.

In order to enlist support from concerned bureaux and departments, Members were of the view that an approach, emphasising the usefulness of gender mainstreaming in policy making and implementation, should be used. Moreover, the meeting agreed that building up partnership to assist different sections of the Administration in conducting gender mainstreaming was crucial to the success of this initiative. 

In addition, Members considered the proposed amendments to Statute Law (Miscellaneous Provision) Bill 2001 relating to marital rape. Members stressed that marital rape was also rape and as such it was a crime. 

They supported amending the law to make this clear. The Government was also urged to conduct a more comprehensive review on sexual offences speedily. 

End/Thursday, May 9, 2002
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