US embassy cable - 05SANTODOMINGO1060

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 001060 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAR, WHA/PPC, IO/UNP, DRL/MLA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KWMN, EAID, DR 
SUBJECT: CSW AND WOMEN'S ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT: DOMINICAN 
COMMENT, DOMINICAN DELEGATION 
 
REF: STATE 030251 
 
1. Embassy delivered reftel demarche and draft resolution to 
the Dominican Republic's MFA February 24.  MFA director for 
women's and children's issues Luisa "Chiqui" Vicioso offered 
the following written comments on the U.S. draft CSW 
resolution on women's economic advancement (informal 
translation of Spanish text): 
 
(Begin text) 
 
The emphasis of the draft (resolution) seems excellent to me, 
since it underscores an aspect of the life of women, their 
participation in the market, which is fundamental and has not 
been emphasized enough. 
 
Only two observations:  I note that nothing is mentioned 
about women's health, where there have been big advances 
worldwide; and that nothing is mentioned about political 
participation of women and the need to strengthen systems of 
(political) party quotas worldwide, as was done in the United 
States in the sixties to ensure that minorities could have 
access to education in the universities. 
 
For the rest, I do not believe there will be any problem in 
our endorsing the document, which we will propose at 
appropriate levels. 
 
(End text.) 
 
2. We understand that Dominican First Lady Dra. Margarita 
Cedeno de Fernandez will head the Dominican delegation of 45 
persons to the "Beijing Plus Ten" meeting of CSW.  The 
delegation will include officials of the Secretariat of State 
for Women, Secretariat of State for Foreign Relations, and 
other government entities, municipal officials, diplomats of 
the UN mission in New York, eight members of the Dominican 
Congress, and NGO, academic, and political party 
representatives. 
 
HERTELL