342. On article 7, in response to the request for information on the feminist movement and women's organisations in Yugoslavia, the representative noted that the Conference for Questions on the Sooial Status of Women within the 'Socialist Alliance of the Working People of Yugoslavia had been abolished at ~the beginning of 1991. The federal council had been requested to set up a commission on women as a government agency to deal with women's problems through national legislation. She said that feminist groups, political parties and nationalist and religious organisations had been very active during the election campaign and had partici-pated in national and !a, international meetings. She said that it had proved impossible to obtain accurate information on the number of women members of the new political "'parties because of the recent administrative and organisational difficulties. Analyses of the election results had shown that the presence of a considerable number of women in party leadership6 had not led to their inclusion in the lists of candidates of those parties , nor had their presence prevented women ,in the elections from aohieving poor results. She reported that the representation of women in the republican parliaments was 13 per cent in ~~~~~Slovenia, 4.6 per cent in Croatia, 4 per cent in Montenegro, 3.3 per cent in ~~~~~~~Macedonia, 2.9 per cent in Bosna and Hercegovina and only 1.6 per cent in -::_-Serbia. The representative drew attention to the fact that, before the ~~~~~,elections, the majority of party proqremrnes had contained no specific :==:programmes related to the status of women and only after-reactions by the ~~~~~ferniniat organieations had women'6 issues been included. She said that the reduced participation of women in political decision-making levels could have ~~~ ~~--been caused in part by the democratisation of the political system, in that it provided a greater and freer choice of candidate6 but she considered that, ,,,-ultimately, the multi-party system would be beneficial to the advancement of Wol?~ll. : '. 343. On article 8, the representative said that Yugoslavia had been active in women's issues at both the national and international levels. However, ~'insufficient fund6 invested in the programme6 to implement the national ,strategies had limited their effectiveness. In response to a question on the -ertent to~which-women were-given opportunities to represent Yugoslavia L:;internationally, she Said that there were 116 female diplomats in-the Pederal .Secretariat for Foreign Affairs (compared with 660 men), of whom 3 held z~z;high-ranking posts. .Women were diplomats at permanent missions to United -^LNations bodies and members and head6 of delegation6 to various conference6 ~%hatdealt-with~disarmamentand economic as -well as~social issues.' Although %Yugoslavia was underrepresented in the United Nations, Yugoslav women held two __post;s_ at-t*e~+directpr level. 2:; c 'I,. 1 :~ 344. Regarding the information requested on education under article 10, the :-representative said that 95 per cent of the girls of elementary-school age ~--=were in that level of education at the federal level, although there was some 5'--rvariation between regions. At the secondary level, girls represented less ;than.SO per aent of the total number of enrolled pupils. She Said that the main reasons for’the high drop-out rate of girls from the higher levels of _eduoation were traditional beliefs, the resurgenae of traditionalism in some region6 aa the influence of religion. In rural and mountainous regions, she Said that economic problem6 and poor prospects of future employment also ~contributed to the fact that girls discontinued their education. Efforts had -been made by teachers, eocial workers, vocational guidance services and various socio-political organieations to discourage the trend. She said that -7o-