This year's commemoration of International Women's Day, 8th March 1999, is of very special significance. The World stands on the threshold of a new millennium and the next message will be the very first of the new century. The United Nations has already begun preparations for a Special Assembly on Women to be held in June 2000. There, the Caribbean will join the rest of the world in assessing the progress made in achieving greater gender equality for women in the period following the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995.
International Women’s Day
March 8, 1998 marks the eighty-fourth year that the world will be commemorating International Women's Day. As we, in the Caribbean, take pride in the progress we have made in furthering the objective of regional integration and prepare to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas this July, we must also take stock of progress in moving our Region towards the imperative of gender equality and social justice.