SPECIAL ADVISER ON GENDER ISSUES CALLS FOR INNOVATIVE METHODS TO ENCOURAGE RATIFICATION OF WOMEN'S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION CONVENTION

22 June 1998

Press Release
WOM/1054

SPECIAL ADVISER ON GENDER ISSUES CALLS FOR INNOVATIVE METHODS TO ENCOURAGE RATIFICATION OF WOMEN'S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION CONVENTION

19980622 In Opening Address to Nineteenth Session of Committee On Elimination of Discrimination Against Women; Programme of Work Adopted

More innovative methods were needed to encourage ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, Angela King, told the treaty's monitoring body this morning.

Opening the nineteenth session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Ms. King told the 23-member expert body that there was evidence of increased commitment to and recognition of women's human rights within the United Nations system. However, she warned of the need to guard against complacency, and to bridge the gap between States parties ratification and implementation of the Convention.

The Committee's Chairperson, Salma Khan of Bangladesh, reported on her activities as Chairperson since the Committee's last session. At a preparatory session for the General Assembly's special session on social development, she had recommended that developing countries should proceed slowly in economic liberalization, as it tended to reduce demand for unskilled labour. She had also participated in an international non-governmental organization (NGO) conference to raise awareness about the assault on women's human rights by fundamentalism in the Catholic, Muslim and Jewish religious sects.

The Committee adopted its programme of work for the three-week session, which will last until 10 July. The Deputy Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women, Kristen Timothy, introduced the work of the Committee's Working Group II, which makes recommendations on reports and information received from States parties. The Chief of the Women's Rights Unit of the Division for the Advancement of Women, Jane Connors, introduced the work of Working Group I, which covers ways and means of expediting the Committee's work.

Also this morning, the Committee welcomed Antonia Guvava, expert from Zimbabwe, and Chikako Taya, from Japan, to the Committee, to complete terms which had been affected by two resignations.

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 23 June, to begin its

consideration of Slovakia's initial report.

Committee Work Programme

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women met this morning to begin its nineteenth session. It was scheduled to adopt its agenda and organization of work and hear the report of the Committee's Chairperson on activities undertaken between the eighteenth and nineteenth sessions. It was also scheduled to hear a statement by the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Angela King.

During the session, the 23-member expert committee -- the monitoring body of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women -- will discuss measures taken by eight States parties to that Treaty to ensure the full development and advancement of women in the political, social, economic and cultural fields. It will consider the initial reports of Slovakia and South Africa; the combined second and third periodic reports of Nigeria, Panama and the United Republic of Tanzania; and the combined third and fourth reports of New Zealand, Peru and the Republic of Korea. (For background on the session, see Press Release WOM/1053 of 19 June.)

Statement

ANGELA KING, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, recalled efforts by the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women regarding the forty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women, held in March 1998. The Commission reviewed areas of the Platform of Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) which related to human rights. It had urged governments to ratify and accede to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The Division had approached regional intergovernmental bodies to encourage its members to persuade governments to ratify the Convention.

The Commission had also addressed reservations placed on the Convention by member States, she said. The Commission had asked governments to limit and narrow their reservations, and to regularly review them with a view to their withdrawal. The open-ended working group of the Commission established to draft the optional protocol to the Convention had met throughout the Commission's session. That working group would convene at the Commission's 1999 session, and she was confident it would complete its task at that time.

The year 2000 marked five years since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, she recalled. The Commission had recommended that a high-level special session of the General Assembly be held from 5 to 9 June 2000 to review and assess progress achieved in the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and the Beijing Platform for Action. Preparatory work would be carried out at the Commission's forty-third and forty-fourth sessions in 1999 and 2000. The Commission had invited the Committee to assist in that effort.

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Next year would be the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Programme of Action adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994), she recalled. The Conference was a benchmark in the international community's recognition of the importance of empowering women and the right to reproductive health. The year 1999 also marked the twentieth anniversary of General Assembly resolution 34/180, by which it had adopted the Convention and opened it for signature, ratification and accession.

Since the Committee's last session, which was held in January, the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice had met, she said. The Committee's Chairperson, Salma Khan, had addressed the human rights body, as had Ms. King. That body had had before it a report on women's human rights, prepared jointly by the Division and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. For the first time, the Commission on Human Rights had held a special debate on gender issues and human rights. In her address to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Ms. King had stressed the importance of advancing the interests of women in light of the gender implications of crime, as well as with regard to national and international efforts to combat crime.

Within the United Nations system, there was evidence of increasing commitment to gender mainstreaming and recognition of women's human rights, she said. Despite progress, however, there was need to guard against complacency. Since the Committee's last session, there had been no additional ratifications or accessions to the Convention. Greater and more innovative methods were needed to encourage ratification, and to bridge the gap between ratification and implementation.

During the session, the Committee might wish to reflect on strategies to address the issue of overdue reports, she said. A large number of reports of States parties had been outstanding for five years or more. Together with the staff at the Division for the Advancement of Women, Ms. King was constantly looking for ways to strengthen support for the Committee. In particular, efforts focused on increasing the visibility of the Committee and its work, and ensuring that it was aware of efforts to advance women's status taking place in other parts of the United Nations system. She said she would be happy to discuss any proposals to assist the experts in their work during sessions and intersessionally.

SALMA KHAN, Chairperson for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, reporting on her activities as Chairperson between the eighteenth and nineteenth sessions, said that the Ninth Meeting of the Chairpersons of the Human Rights Treaty Bodies held at Geneva in February, underlined the view that universal ratification of the six core human rights treaties constituted an essential dimension of a global order committed to the full respect of human rights. The Chairpersons called on the United Nations system to attach even greater priority to encouraging and facilitating the

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ratification of the six treaties. Referring to the success of the plan of action for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Chairpersons felt that an overall plan of action should be drawn up to enhance the resources available to the treaty bodies.

She said that at the forty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the focus had been on the human rights of women, the girl child, women and armed conflict, and violence against women. The session also reviewed the mainstreaming of women in the United Nations system and emerging issues, trends, opportunities and new approaches that affected the equality of women. At the fifty-fourth session of the Commission on Human Rights held in Geneva in March, the Committee had called upon all governments to accept the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and to implement the mechanism to actualize the rights of those who constituted two thirds of the world's poor.

She said that at the Organizational Session of the Preparatory Committee of the special session of the General Assembly on the Implementation of the World Summit for Social Development, the major focus of her statement was on the plight of people living in south Asia and the African sub-Sahara, where the goals of the Summit had remained largely unmet. In those regions, the vast majority of the world's poor lived, and more than 50 per cent of them were women. The special session should therefore devote more attention to reaching the ultra-poor, through special governmental policies and programmes that would meet their basic survival needs and create more gender sensitivity. More attention should also be paid to the fast growth of the female labour force's participation in developing countries. Governments in developing counties should proceed slowly in adopting economic liberalization, as it tended to reduce the demand for unskilled labour.

She said that at the annual session of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Board held in Geneva in June, ways to enhance the capacity of countries to absorb and make the most effective use of resources allocated to population programmes were addressed. At that meeting, she had emphasized the need for a greater focus on reproductive health, particularly its widespread violation among adolescent women. The purpose of the NGO Women and Fundamentalisms Conference in Barcelona in April, which she also attended, was to raise public awareness of the serious assault on women's human rights inherent in the religious fundamentalism of the Catholic, Muslim and Jewish religious sects. The meeting denounced violence and discrimination against women by fundamentalists and demanded that governments take primary responsibility to ensure the human rights of women. It also called upon United Nations authorities, human rights commissions and treaty bodies to denounce fundamentalist abuse of human rights and to abstain from supporting, both economically and politically, those governments which used fundamentalist doctrines to repress women.

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She said that since the appointment of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, the Committee had stressed the need for cooperation with her. However, despite a clear understanding from both sides regarding the need, a mutual exchange of views had not materialized. In light of the urgency to establish a link, the Committee could consider appointing a focal point for liaison with the Special Rapporteur.

Between the eighteenth and nineteenth session, the Committee had strengthened its relationships with United Nations specialized agencies, particularly with the UNFPA. In conjunction with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Committee continued to facilitate its goal of advocating the universal ratification of the Convention, while developing an optional protocol to it. Cooperation with various NGOs had considered and a number of NGO shadow reports on specific countries had been considered.

Experts Comments on Activity Reports

Some members of the Committee commented on the two presentations. A number of members asked that the Chairperson's report be circulated, and stressed the need for time to discuss the issues raised therein.

One expert said that major events were occurring within the United Nations system, including the deliberations currently taking place on the proposed international criminal court. The Committee should be taking a more active role in such activities and should make its presence felt, perhaps through a statement in the deliberations on the Court. Also, key activities for the year 2000 should be integrated into a plan, so the Committee's response would be anticipatory rather than reactive.

Another member said she hoped that discussion of the human rights of women would become a tradition in the Commission on Human Rights. She noted with concern the absence of Committee members in important gatherings, such as a recently convened meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on women in the economic and social fields.

Statements on Programme of Work

KRISTEN TIMOTHY, Deputy Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women, introduced agenda item 6, which was the subject of the Committee's Working Group II, and concerned implementation of article 21 of the Convention -- which provides that the Committee might make suggestions and general recommendations based on the examination of reports and information received from States parties. Members of specialized bodies and agencies were also invited to submit information to the Committee under article 22 of the Convention.

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At its eighteenth session, the Committee had agreed to continue to work on a draft general recommendation on women's health, article 12 of the Convention, she recalled. A draft had been prepared, discussed and revised by Working Group II, and it was currently before the Committee. The Committee also had before it a note by the Secretary-General on reports of specialized agencies on implementation of the Convention. Another document presented a revised working paper on reservations to the Convention.

JANE CONNORS, Chief of the Women's Rights Unit of the Division for the Advancement of Women, outlined reports on agenda item 7, related to Working Group I, on ways and means of expediting the Committee's work. A report on improving the Committee's working methods, prepared as a pre-session document, covered a number of subjects, including the relationship of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women with the Committee, and issues arising from the ninth meeting of persons chairing human rights treaties bodies, held from 25 to 27 February 1998. Annex I of the report listed States parties whose reports were overdue for five years or more, and Annex II listed States whose reports were to be considered, taking into account geographical balance. Also before the Committee was a working paper containing draft rules of procedures.

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