New York -- It would be hard to book a hotel room these days, at least for the next week or so, if you happen to arrive in this city.

More than 30,000 women from 188 countries, including Kyrgyzstan, are in New York to participate in the Special Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations to be convened from 5-9 June to assess the progress achieved in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action for women signed in 1995.

The Kyrgyz delegation includes Rosa Aknazarova, a member of the Kyrgyz Parliament, Sagyn Ismailova, Chairman of the State Commission for Family, Women and Youth, and Zamira Toktokhodgaeva, Head of the Kyrgyz Mission to the UN.

Five years ago at UN Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China, 189 governments, including Kyrgyz Republic, committed themselves to advance the goals of equality, development and peace for all women around the world by adopting the Beijing Platform for Action.

The Beijing Platform for Action calls upon Governments to take action in the following 12 critical areas of concern: Women and poverty; women and education; women and health; violence against women; women and armed conflict; women and the economy; women in power and decision-making; institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women; human rights of women; women and media; women and environment and the girl-child.

In July last year the International Conference on Women's Rights, held in Kyrgyzstan, identified the following three critical areas of concern that have not been adequately addressed by the Central Asian Governments: violence against women, women and the economy; women in power and decision-making.

The Central Asian Conference found that violence against women has worsened in Central Asia due to the socio-economic crisis brought about by the drastic transition from a socialist regime. In Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, NGO crisis centers have reported an increase in the number of domestic violence cases they handled. In Kyrgyzstan, 60% of the cases of violence against women were domestic violence cases. Despite the prevalence of the problem, governments have failed to acknowledge it. It remains, the conference organizers said, "a hidden" concern.

Closure of state-run factories and businesses due to transition from a centrally planned economy to the market economy has caused massive unemployment and loss of employment benefits and privileges. Majority of those affected are women. People have to generate employment for themselves but they lack knowledge, skills and capital to do so. Women are engaged in buying and selling clothes and food and other small businesses. However, these are rudimentary enterprises which are not sustainable in the long term, they said.

While national laws provide for equal political participation for women, they are still under-represented in all levels of decision-making. In Kyrgyzstan, of the 150 members of the Parliament, only four are women; of the 17 ministers, only one is a woman.

The Central Asian Conference made relevant recommendations to the Governments concerning the above issues. Let us hope that our women in the UNGASS will be successful in lobbying for the interests of Kyrgyz women, and Sagyn Ismailova will make sure that the Kyrgyz Government implements its commitments on the Beijing Platform for Action.

*Cholpon Akmatova is a member of the Global Women's Media Team (GWMT) for the UN General Assembly Session to Review the Beijing Platform for Action. The team is composed of NGO women and women journalists from Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. The GWMT is coordinated by Isis International-Manila and generously supported by UNIFEM-East and Southeast Asia, UNIFEM-South Asia, Canadian International Development Agency-Southeast Asia Gender Equity Programme, UNDP-Latin America and the Caribbean, UNDP-Mongolia, British High Commission in Vanuatu, Foundation for Sustainable Society, Inc; National Centre for Cooperation in Development (NCOS-Pilipinas), World Council of Churches, and WomenAction.