UNITED NATIONS, June 7- She will turn 18 this weekend, but a debut or coming out party is far from the mind of Tania Rodriguez.

Rodriguez is attending the UN General Assembly Special Session on Women 2000 as a delegate of Panama. As such, she is attending a slew of meetings and conference and is advocating her views as a supporter of women's rights.

"Women's rights are human rights," proclaimed Rodriguez, who as a member of the Latin American and the Caribbean Youth Network on Sexual and Reproductive Rights, is no stranger to international gatherings.

The student of social work was also in New York in March for the preparatory meeting for the UN special session, which aims to assess the goals and obstacles to attain gender equality, development and peace five years after the Fourth World International Conference on Women. Rodriguez's involvement in the campaign for women's rights is vast. She started with her advocacy work with the Panama's NGO "Fundacion Nueva Identidad" when she was 15. She had appeared in a theater play for young people that promoted the prevention of HIV/AIDS among adolescents.

Rodriguez said she tries to attend as many sessions as possible even if she struggles with her English. "I attend meetings where everything is in English, but I don't give up. I try to understand what's going on," she said with a smile.

She said that the simple act of representing her country in this conference, also known as the Beijing Plus Five Review, is already "a pleasure and an honor."

Rodriguez said that her best experience in the conference, attended by delegates from governments and NGOs from 188 member states, is meeting people all over the world and networking with them in the campaign for women's rights.

"I don't refuse a friendship because the person doesn't speak Spanish. I became a very friend of Tania Taitt, a young delegate from Suriname, that's also on the Latin American and the Caribbean Network. She doesn't speak Spanish and I don't speak English, but we understand each other very well."

When Rodriguez returns to Panama next week, she will have to take five examinations from her university that she missed during her two-week stay in New York.

But the plucky young woman is unperturbed. "I'm conscious on what I'm involved, I know it's not easy. But with my heart I believe on what I do, and that's why I do such an effort," she said.

* Maria Eugenia Miranda is a member of the Global Women's Media Team (GWMT) for the UN General Assembly Session to Review the Beijing Platform for Action. The team is composed of NGO women and women journalists from Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. The GWMT is coordinated by Isis International-Manila and generously supported by UNIFEM-East and Southeast Asia, UNIFEM-South Asia, Canadian International Development Agency-Southeast Asia Gender Equity Programme, UNDP-Latin America and the Caribbean, UNDP-Mongolia, British High Commission in Vanuatu, Foundation for Sustainable Society, Inc; National Centre for Cooperation in Development (NCOS-Pilipinas), World Council of Churches, and WomenAction.