COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN APPROVES REPORT OF ITS WORKING GROUP II, CONTAINING GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
Press Release
WOM/898
COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN APPROVES REPORT OF ITS WORKING GROUP II, CONTAINING GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
19960202 The Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women this morning approved the recommendations of its Working Group II, which deals with the implementation of article 21 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Article 21 provides that the Committee may make suggestions and general recommendations based on the examination of reports received from States parties.The 23-member Committee, which is charged with monitoring the Convention, approved recommendations on the implementation of article 7, which provides that women shall share on equal terms with men in the political and public life of the country. The Committee suggested to State parties that, in reviewing their laws and in reporting under the Convention, they should take into account the fact that public and private spheres of human activity had always been considered distinct and should be regulated accordingly. Women had been assigned to the private sphere and in all societies that sphere had been considered inferior. They had been excluded from the decision-making process, and that exclusion had silenced their voices and rendered their contribution invisible.
States parties should establish or strengthen national machineries for the advancement of women to be integrated into the development and implementation of government policy, according to the report. Such mechanisms should be allocated the same level of resources accorded to similar organs that advised governments in the areas of economy, defence and foreign relations.
Examination of States parties' periodic reports had demonstrated that reservations had been entered to particular articles, enabling States to justify the retention of provisions that precluded women from exercising real power and functions, the working group said.
It added that there might be room, until women's equality in appointed positions had been assured, for the application of special temporary measures prescribed in article 4, which aim to accelerate women's equality and provide maternity protection measures.
Women Anti-Discrimination Committee - 2 - Press Release WOM/898 309th Meeting (AM) 2 February 1996
The working group recommended that women participate in non-governmental organizations concerned with the public and political life of the country as an effective way of improving their presence in, and promoting their views on, local, national and international politics.
It called the attention of the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), to be held in June this year, to the issue of discrimination against women in settlements development. It expressed concern at the lack of attention in the draft final document before the Conference to respect for the human rights of women to housing. States parties were called upon to introduce in the draft support for women's right to greater participation in political life, and to allow their voices to have an impact on housing.
The working group also submitted to the attention of governments that a new policy on housing and shelter could be realized by ensuring women's right to own, inherit and control land and housing, through improving their access to credit and providing equal ownership rights. The new policy ought to request an increase in educational opportunities in non-traditional sciences and housing-related fields for women. It should also provide for the systematic collection and dissemination of gender desegregated data on women, men and housing.
The Committee expressed its hope that the Habitat II outcome would bring necessary attention to the fact that an adequate housing policy was closely related to health security.
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