In other news, a UN spokesman announced today in New York that the Governments of Namibia and Senegal have become the first two countries to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. In a related development, the United Nations Statistics Division yesterday released a new report documenting the progress of women worldwide through the lens of statistical data and analysis. The report's author, Francesca Perucci, said the study included not only standard statistics, but also new figures related to topics that have emerged from recent global conferences, such as the new approach to the issue of fertility as not only a simple demographic variable but an issue that affects a woman's access to education and other opportunities. According to the report, women worldwide are having fewer children and entering marriage later in life. The gender gap in primary and secondary education is closing, but two thirds of the world's illiterate population are still women.
Women also continue to be under-represented in governments and political parties.
All the news from Africa, all the time. In updating their database on leadership in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the French have begun to revise their forecasts to some degree. You can get this headline news ticker on your site. Get it Here . Netscape 4.5 or Explorer 4.5 or later needed to view the headlines.