Women deserved better treatment than that and needed real control over their bodies and sexuality.

We need to build a culture of expectation in the development field development which occurs without a human rights focus is not true development.

Poland was a victim of particularly brutal Nazi aggression we are all the more grateful that our relationship with Poland has developed into a truly European friendship.

More and better aid was needed, delivered through real partnerships between donor and developing countries, along with fairer trade and a focus on the special needs of Africa, in order to empower the poor.

The primary challenge facing Benin was to engender a genuine culture of respect for human rights and, in particular, the rights of women. She was confident that the gaps in the current regime would be bridged in the near future.

We also have questions about the existence of a real and effective partnership between rich countries and the most underprivileged, as well as about whether there exists an unequivocal political will on the part of the international community to respect commitments it has made.

Ms. Azouri (Lebanon) said, in relation to the number of women in political life, that for roughly 20 years, owing to war and internal conflict, Lebanon had had no real political life and the composition of the 1972 National Assembly had been virtually frozen even the unions had been paralysed.

Yet another area of regional and global concern was the spread of avian influenza, especially the real possibility that the virus might mutate at some point into a form capable of human to human transmission, leading to a possible pandemic.