UN to hold global conference on women in 2015

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and current president of the General Assembly Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser have proposed the idea of holding a global conference on women's issues in 2015.

The last women's summit was held in Beijing in 1995, Xinhua reported.

"Given that women make up half of humanity and given the importance and relevance of women's issues for global progress, it is high time that such a world conference is convened," said the announcement read out by Nihal Saad, spokesperson for the General Assembly president.

"It is all the more important because of the enormous changes the world is going through, with both positive and other implications for women," it said.

The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 was preceded by three world conferences -- in 1975 in Mexico City, in 1980 in Copenhagen and in 1985 in Nairobi.

The two officials said the conference could tackle emerging issues, in particular those relating to women and political participation, equal access to decent work and decision-making and involvement of rural women and girls.

It could also cover aid effectiveness, food security, trafficking, drugs, migration, environment, climate change and information technology, all of which make an impact on women, and on nations and societies as a whole, the announcement said.