SECRETARY-GENERAL'S SPECIAL ADVISER ON GENDER ISSUES ADDRESSES HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE

3 April 1997

Press Release
HR/CT/488

SECRETARY-GENERAL'S SPECIAL ADVISER ON GENDER ISSUES ADDRESSES HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE

19970403 Notes Progress, but Says Much Work Remains to Make Women's Rights Integral to United Nations Human Rights Activities

The Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender issues and Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women, Angela King, this morning told the Human Rights Committee that, while progress had been made, much remained to be done before the human rights of women were truly an integral part of human rights activities in the United Nations and elsewhere.

The Division for the Advancement of Women had a mandate to contribute substantially to the further achievement of that integration and was committed to doing so, said Ms. King. Noting the effective cooperation between the Centre for Human Rights and the Division, she said that their joint work plan for 1997 would give priority to the provision by the Division of information relevant to the elaboration of concluding observations by treaty bodies. In addition, it would ensure that the concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women were available in a timely fashion to other committees.

Ms. King said that priority would also be given to preparation of a background paper on the relevance of gender to enjoyment on the rights established in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which are monitored by the Human Rights Committee. That paper would provide input to the Committee's preparation of a general comment on the Covenant's article that dealt with the enjoyment of gender equality.

Statements were also made this morning by the experts from Australia, Mauritius, Lebanon, Ecuador and Chile. Committee Chairperson Christine Chanet, the expert from France, also spoke.

The Human Rights Committee will meet at 10 a.m. Friday, 4 April, to take up the third periodic report of Portugal on the application of the Covenant in the territory of Macao.

* The 1572nd and 1573rd meetings of the Human Rights Committee were closed.

Statement by Special Adviser

ANGELA KING, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women, said it was almost four years since the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, where the international community had declared the human rights of women and the girl- child as an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of human rights and had identified the eradication of all forms of discrimination on the grounds of sex as a priority.

As the Committee was aware, she said, succeeding world conferences had reiterated and refined the commitments to gender equality made at Vienna. Each Conference had also demanded that the equal status of women and the human rights of women should be integrated into the mainstream of United Nations system-wide activity, and, in particular, constitute an integral part of United Nations human rights activities.

She said that considerable effort had been devoted, since the Vienna Conference, to the pursuit of those demands. At the political level, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Human Rights had all passed resolutions supporting and encouraging the integration of the human rights of women into the general human rights work of the United Nations. At the level of implementation, those who would carry out the "extra-conventional" procedures had met to discuss how they could incorporate the human rights of women into their work. The meeting of the chairpersons of human rights treaty bodies had recommended, on at least three occasions, gender integration into the work of all human rights committees.

It had been encouraging to observe the responsiveness of human rights mechanisms to the gender mainstreaming mandate, she observed, noting that, increasingly, issues relating to women's enjoyment of internationally guaranteed human rights were addressed by the extra-conventional mechanisms. She acknowledged that treaty bodies, particularly the Human Rights Committee, now commonly posed questions relating to women's rights in their review of States parties reports, drawing upon guidelines that helped to define a gender sensitive approach and more and more reflecting a growing appreciation of the differential enjoyment by women and men of human rights. Notable examples of that trend, she said, were the concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee on the reports of Guatemala, Zambia and Peru.

She said that while progress made to date had been pleasing, still more remained to be done before the human rights of women were truly an integral part of human rights activities in the United Nations and elsewhere. In that regard, she said that the Division had a mandate to contribute substantially to the further achievement of that integration and was committed to doing so.

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Ms. King said that since 1995 joint work plans had been carried out by the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Centre for Human Rights, and cooperation between them was effective and most recently facilitated by the links between them of Internet Websites. The joint work for 1997 would give priority to the provision by the Division of information relevant to the elaboration of concluding observations by treaty bodies and ensuring that the concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women were available in a timely fashion to other committees. Priority would also be given to the preparation of a background paper on the relevance of gender in the enjoyment of the rights established in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as an input into the Human Rights Committee's preparation of a general comment on the Covenant's article that dealt with the enjoyment of gender equality.

Ms. King said a Roundtable, organized jointly by the Division, the High Commissioner/Centre for Human Rights and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) in late 1996 in New York, aimed at determining ways in which the recommendations of recent world conferences concerning women's health and reproductive and sexual health rights might be incorporated into the human rights monitoring and reporting processes. The Roundtable was the first occasion that representatives of all the human rights treaty bodies had met together outside the annual chairperson's meeting to concentrate on the interpretation of guaranteed rights. United Nations entities and non- governmental organizations joined with the treaty body members on their discussions on the theme of the Roundtable.

Among its comprehensive recommendations, she said the Roundtable suggested that treaty bodies should consider integrating issues of women's health and, in particular, the right to reproductive and sexual health, into their consideration of reports, concluding observations and general comments. It also suggested that the conclusions of world conferences could be drawn on by treaty bodies as a useful source of indicators and questions for human rights monitoring and that treaty bodies should consider developing their working methods to encourage greater cooperation with United Nations entities and non-governmental organizations.

Ms. King said the Roundtable also recommended that the meeting of chairpersons should allocate at least one of its five days for the consideration of a thematic issue of common concern to all treaty bodies and invite United Nations entities and non-governmental organizations to participate. The Division for the Advancement of Women stood ready to contribute substantively to the discussions on gender and related issues. She assured the Committee of the Division's contribution to its work. She further assured the Committee of the seriousness with which the Division approached its mandate to contribute, as a catalyst, to the goal of integrating the equal status of women and the human rights of women into the United Nations human rights activities.

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Comments from Committee Members

ELIZABETH EVATT, expert from Australia, said she looked forward to further cooperation with the Division on gender equality issues, and assured Ms. King of her cooperation.

RAJSOOMER LALLAH, expert from Mauritius, expressed appreciation for the Division's support and cooperation. He highlighted difficulties the Committee had encountered in its efforts to ensure compliance with Covenant provisions relating to gender equality. He said laws introduced by States parties to ensure gender equality had not often been successful. They were not enough. He would be grateful if the Division could signal to the Committee the efforts made by States parties to bring about change not only in the law, but in customary and traditional practices.

LAURE MOGHAZEL, expert from Lebanon, said that cooperation between the Committee and the Division for the Advancement of Women should be sustained and reciprocal. The two should exchange information. She noted that their common objectives could be achieved if cooperation was intensified.

JULIO PRADO VALLEJO, expert from Ecuador, asked what programmes the United Nations could undertake to encourage countries to shed cultural practices that affected the situation of women, which he saw as worsening every day.

CECILIA MEDINA QUIROGA, expert from Chile, said that the Committee and the Division for the Advancement of Women should work together towards the goal of ensuring the full integration of women.

CHRISTINE CHANET, expert from France and Chairperson of the Committee, said that there were articles in the Covenant that were very specific with regard to the principles of equality. In its final conclusions, the Committee not only formulated its conclusions, but also provided guidelines for State parties. The Committee had received considerable information from non- governmental organizations, but very often State parties used excuses about traditional and cultural practices for not implementing Covenant provisions on gender equality. The Committee did not accept or recognize those arguments. Information obtained by the Division on what State parties were doing to eliminate those practices could be helpful to the Committee.

Ms. KING said that it was perfectly true that laws were not enough. The Division would present to next year's session of the Commission on the Status of Women a report recommending full implementation of the Beijing Programme and Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women. It would also present reports on four issues: women in conflict; human rights of women; violence against women; and the girl child.

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