UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- UN Deputy-Secretary General Louise Frechette Monday opened an annual session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women with a call for all countries to stand by their promises to empower women and girls.

    Studies have repeatedly shown that by giving women equal education and work opportunities and access to a society's decision-making processes, a country can boost its economic productivity, reduce infant and maternal mortality rates and improve the general population's nutrition and health, Frechette told representatives from the 191 UN member states.

    More than a decade after the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in 1995 in Beijing, the Commission will focus on two themes that it believes are crucial to women's progress around the world -- their participation in development and their role in decision-making in all areas of society, from politics to business to media.

    Over 2,000 government officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were expected to attend the two-week long session at the UN headquarters in New York.

    "Ten years after the Beijing declaration, we still have far to go on actual representation of women at the highest levels of national and international leadership," Frechette said. "That includes the United Nations itself, the Charter of which proclaims the equal rights of men and women."

    The UN Charter was signed in San Francisco in 1946 and the Commission was created the same year to promote the advancement of women around the world. Enditem