The fifty third session of the Commission on the Status of Women gets under way at the United Nations headquarters in New York this month.

Experts and non-government organisations (NGOs) working in the field of women's emancipation will descend on the Big Apple for 11 days between March 2 and 11 to listen, speak and share their experiences with their compatriots, officials, administrators and leaders. Several NGOs from the Pacific will represent the region. 

The past one year has seen an appalling increase in reported crimes against women throughout the Pacific region and one can only expect the situation to get worse as the world economic crisis takes its toll on the livelihoods of people across the board.

We have had reports of women lynched based on allegations of sorcery in Papua New Guinea's Highlands. In one case, a woman was put to death because the menfolk in the village came to believe that she was responsible for passing on the HIV infection to her husband.

In yet another case, women infected with HIV were dumped and abandoned in a remote isolated area without any recourse to health care and medical aid and had to be rescued after days.

From the Solomon Islands we have had reports of young girls and women being exploited for commercial sex with itinerant workers like loggers and men who work on ships moored some distance away from the coastlines. There have been similar reports from several other islands nations throughout the region.

What is equally disconcerting is that NGOs from Fiji reported cases when young girls were either sold or married off at a juvenile age by people in whose care they were in for monetary consideration-something that shows how dire the economic situation is for some people living in poverty.

The exploitation of women, though, is not new and has been part of many cultures throughout the world. The lot of women has always been subservient to their physically stronger male counterparts since times immemorial. Throughout the centuries, women have both been prized and used as pawns in wars and disputes. They have been bought and sold like commodities.

But then this is the 21st century. All our governments are supposed to be signatories to the Bill of Rights that guarantee equal rights to women. We are supposed to be living in egalitarian societies, supposed to be guaranteed by the people (overwhelmingly men, at least in the Pacific Islands) who we vote to wield political power.

The increasing media reports about crimes against women coming from all corners of the Pacific are therefore counter-intuitive, to say the least. But they are for real. And the political system seems incapable of handling the situation adequately.

Quite obviously, age old traditions that have subjugated women to a powerless, domestic existence, have now been institutionalised, so to speak. No politician would admit this because it is not in the statute books.

But at the same time, no politician would also act on an incident strongly enough when it comes to light simply because it is too deeply ingrained in the traditions of older cultures to bother.

This poor status of women is reflected in the Pacific power structures quite clearly. The region has one of the worst ratios of men to women in political power. Papua New Guinea, for instance, has never had more than one woman Member of Parliament at any time in its independent history.

Its elected leaders have continually paid lip service to the problems of women despite nation-wide demonstrations and walkouts from Parliament on several occasions.

The treatment of women as commodities continues unabated and is seemingly accepted even by educated women, some of whom are even working as professionals in private sector companies, according to a woman author from the country.

Though it has had some tradition of powerful women as queens in the past, the Pacific region has had minimal success of having a woman as head of government in recent times in the same way as other deeply traditional societies like Sri Lanka, India, Israel and Turkey, besides a few others have had.

This month's conference in New York is the 53rd time it is being held. What difference has it made to the life of women in the Pacific over the years? Can the NGOs that represent them say with any certainty that it has improved across the board?

The short answer is yes and no. Awareness has encouraged a far greater number of girl children to attend school than ever before. There are more women in the professions than before, there is little doubt about that.

But why are they left out of the power structures that matter? Why are they in such woefully sparse numbers in let alone national Parliaments, but even local governments? Why are male chauvinistic attitudes still rampant even though more covertly so?

If at all there was one sector the NGOs need to make a difference and concentrate much more than any other, it is the political empowerment of women-something, which has been so badly lacking throughout the region.

Just as important as working at the grassroot level, helping women earn livelihoods and trying to improve their lot economically, these NGOs dedicated to women's affairs need to take the debate of women's political empowerment and participation in the national political process to the highest level in their respective countries.

Until that happens, men's traditional attitudes towards women will persist no matter how far the world progresses in other spheres. Women will continue being denied their rights and continue to be treated as commodities.

As the NGOs prepare to embark on yet another hardy annual to discuss women's problems, comes this extremely heartening development from Tonga: Towards the end of last month, the Tongan Women's National Congress made a formal submission for 30 percent of the seats in Parliament and 30 percent of cabinet positions to be reserved for women.

The Women's Congress said in a statement that 700 women had signed the submission. In a kingdom where seats have been reserved and set aside for nobles for over a hundred years, why not a few reserved seats for women of the 21st century?