HAVANA, Mar 8 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) - The UN Commission on Women Status established that Cuba has achieved a "new and rich balance " in progress towards women equality and development.

Data submitted by the Cuban representation at the United Nations recently indicated that women in the island make up 46.7 per cent of employees in the civil state sector, 67 of university graduates and 65.7 of technicians and professionals.

More than 70 percent of workers are in health and education, 51 percent are researchers and 56 percent of judges are females, while in Parliament 43.32 percent representatives are women.

During the first week of the 54th session of the UN, the Cuban delegation explained the work done in the island regarding the "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women".

The convention was proposed in the First UN Conference on Women held in Mexico in 1975 and Cuba was the first country worldwide to sign and the second to ratify it.

In a round table for the 30th anniversary of the Convention, the Secretary General of the Federation of Cuban Women, Yolanda Ferrer said that women equality in Cuba is a principle and a goal since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959.

The work of the commission on Women Status began last March 1 at the UN in New York and it will conclude on Fri March 12 with the adoption of various resolutions and documents.

She stressed that Cuba strictly fulfills international obligations on gender and that Cuban women have obtained unquestionable achievements in the process of building socialism based on a project of justice and equality.

Meanwhile, Ana Milagros Martinez, a member of the Cuban delegation to the UN meeting said that Cuba has achieved the goal set by the world organisation regarding the so-called empowerment of women.

This is one of the so called eight Millennium Development Goals adopted by UN in 2000 to be completed in 2015.

She cited developments in Cuba regarding women's participation in educational processes, enrollment in the different levels of education and work performance in the technical and professional categories, as well as managerial positions.

In another speech to the plenary of the UN commission, Ferrer said those advances were achieved despite the economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States, regarded as the greatest form of violence against Cuban women.

She stressed that the political will of the country's government has made it possible for women to be direct beneficiaries of programmes and plans that have enabled their active integration into the nation's economic, political, social and cultural life. -- NNN-PRENSA LATINA