UN EXPERT GROUP MEETING TO EXAMINE ISSUES OF GENDER-BASED PERSECUTION
Press Release
DEV/2174
WOM/1002
UN EXPERT GROUP MEETING TO EXAMINE ISSUES OF GENDER-BASED PERSECUTION
19971107 A United Nations expert group meeting, to explore the theme of gender- based persecution, will be held in Toronto, Canada, from 9 to 12 November. The meeting is being hosted by the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, Toronto.The expert group meeting will consider the following topics: the application of international humanitarian law and international human rights standards to gender-based persecution occurring in international conflicts and civil war; the incorporation of the gender-based persecution into the work of existing international criminal tribunals and the extent to which the question of gender is addressed in the proposed international criminal court; and gender- based persecution as a basis for the determination of refugee status and as an issue to be considered in the protection of refugee and displaced women.
The expert group's recommendations will be directed at governments, the United Nations system, intergovernmental and regional bodies, and civil society. They will aim at refining and expanding actions, to be taken at the international and national levels, outlined in the section on women and armed conflict contained in the Beijing Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.
The results of the meeting will be made available to the forty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March next year, when it is expected to discuss the section on women and armed conflict of the Beijing Platform of Action. It is also anticipated that the recommendations emanating from the meeting will be of value to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and other treaty bodies, in their efforts to elaborate the obligations of States parties.
Experts at the meeting will include Christine Chinkin (United Kingdom), Alda Facio (Costa Rica), Hina Jilani (Pakistan), Asma Abdel Halim (United States), Gill Hinshelwood (United Kingdom), Navanethem Pillay (United Republic of Tanzania), Patricia Viseur-Sellers (Netherlands), Elizabeth Rehn (Finland), Mary Balikungeri (Rwanda), and Audrey Macklin (Canada). Participants will also include practitioners and non-governmental organizations concerned with human rights, humanitarian and refugee issues. In addition, observers from United Nations entities, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, academia and interested governments will attend.
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