OPPORTUNITY TO ENHANCE COORDINATION OF EFFORTS

For the first time Belarus was chosen a member of UN Statistics commission for the period 2008–2011 and for 2007–2009 — a member of UN International educational and research and development institute Executive council which seeks to improve women’s position in the world. A unanimous vote was passed at UN Economic and Social Council conference held in New-York.

Andrey Popov — The Belarusian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman — cited at a briefing that Belarus used to have an observer status and it was the first time the country became a member of UN Statistics Commission. Nowadays UN Statistics Commission numbers 24 country-members chosen for a 4-year period in accordance with a principal of equal regional representation. Regular sessions are held once a year in New-York.

The Commission main mission is to promote statistics in countries, to enhance compatibility level of national statistics data systems and to advance statistics methodology. The commission also coordinates UN secretariat’s and other agencies statistics, examines the process of data collecting, distribution and analysis UN International educational and research and development institute for research on women’s position which numbers 10 UN countries is in charge of Executive council. Belarusian membership is an acknowledgement of the desire to improve women’s rights and combat human trafficking.

The institute was founded in 1976 as a consequence of the first international conference on women’s rights held in Mexico. It analyses women’s rights, conducts educational seminars and courses on gender equality mostly for representatives of developing country. Governments, UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations make use of the reports made by the Institute.