PRESS BRIEFING ON WORK OF COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON WORK OF COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN

At a Headquarter’s press briefing this morning, Aida Gonzalez Martinez of Mexico, Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, announced the closure of the Committee’s current session and urged correspondents to spread the word about its important work as the only United Nations treaty body that dealt exclusively with women's rights.

She stressed the fact that women around the globe must become more aware of the Committee's work monitoring international compliance to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. "They will be better protected", she said, "because they will know that there is a body paying specific attention to their situation and safeguarding their human rights".

Ms. Gonzalez Martinez was joined at the briefing by Yakin Erturk, Director for the Division of the Advancement of Women in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, who echoed her call for promoting the Committee's increased visibility. As one of the major legal bodies protecting women's rights, the Committee had been the target of negative propaganda by those who opposed the issue of the advancement of women and gender equality. In the face of such negative publicity, it was felt that perhaps the scope of the work of the Committee had not been adequately reflected in the media.

"The work of the Committee's 23 experts is truly commendable", she said, "and I would like to appeal to advocates of gender equality to take this point into consideration".

The main task of the Committee during its current session, which began on 12 June, was to review the reports of seven States parties to the Convention, Ms. Gonzalez Martinez said. Those included the initial reports of Cameroon and the republic of Moldova, the initial and second periodic reports of Lithuania and the combined second and third periodic report of Iraq. It also examined the combined third and fourth and the fifth periodic reports of Austria, the fourth periodic report of Cuba and the combined fourth and fifth periodic report of Romania. The Committee had also reviewed and revised its rules of procedure. She hoped that amendments to those rules would be adopted this afternoon at the closure of the session.

She went on to say that the current session had given Committee members an excellent opportunity to review and debate the methods for the implementation of the Convention's Optional Protocol. Since it was opened for signature in December 1999, five States parties had ratified the Protocol and the Committee was anxious to refine procedures for its implementation as well as increase its visibility. That was important because the Protocol gave women the opportunity to present complaints against States parties for violations of the rights protected by the Convention.

Turning to the work of the Committee during its current session, Ms. Erturk said that along with reviewing the periodic reports of States parties to the Convention, the Committee had also been preparing for the obligations that would

Women’s Committee Briefing - 2 - 30 June 2000

derive from the Protocol's imminent entry into force. On the review of the periodic reports, she said that while situations differed from country to country, the Committee had identified several issues that were quite universal. One of the most common issues among all the countries was the persistence of stereotypical attitudes towards women and men.

Stereotypical attitudes, she continued, tended to overemphasize women's responsibilities for household work to the detriment of their role in public life. In each country, the manifestation of those attitudes occurred differently. For example, in Austria, that issue was manifested by the fact that 50 per cent of women did not progress beyond mandatory schooling and that they were overrepresented as part-time workers. In Cameroon, it was the persistence of negative traditional and cultural practices such as polygamy, female genital mutilation and the high drop-out rate among school-age girls.

The impact of machismo attitudes and behaviour was identified as the major contributor to the persistence of negative stereotypes in Cuba, she continued. Other examples of that phenomenon included: the incidents of forced marriage and so-called "honour killings" in Iraq; the stereotypical representation of women in the media in Lithuania; the double load of home and outside work as well as legal restrictions of property rights in the Constitution in Moldova; and the persistence of stereotypes in textbooks and school curricula in Romania.

She went on to say that various forms of violence against women had been identified as obstacles to the implementation of the Convention in each country under review. While the Committee noted that there had been progress in that area, the phenomenon of trafficking in women appeared to be growing in Austria, Lithuania, Moldova and Romania. Although the Committee noted Austria's pioneering legislation to address that issue, it urged all those countries, nevertheless, to confront the problem through bilateral and multilateral cooperation. The countries were also urged to develop new laws and policies that prioritized the human rights of women and girls who were victims of trafficking either for purposes of sexual exploitation or labour.

Two of the countries under review -- Iraq and Cuba -- cited externally imposed embargoes and sanctions as obstacles to the implementation of the Convention, she continued. Where Cuba was concerned, the Committee noted that that country had sought to implement the Conventions as far as possible within the restrictions the embargo had created. However, the Committee felt that the embargo did exacerbate the discrimination women continued to experience. For example, women were clustered into professions that were seriously affected by the embargo.

Where Iraq was concerned, even taking into account the effect of the sanctions, the Committee felt that implementation of the Convention was insufficient, Ms. Erturk said. In particular, priority steps had not been taken to ensure that women benefited equally from the "oil-for-food" programme.

A correspondent asked Ms. Gonzalez Martinez to elaborate on the Committee's response to the assertion that embargoes had affected implementation of the Convention in Iraq and Cuba. What were some of the examples of the detrimental effects of embargoes in those countries?

First of all, she said, the Committee was aware that the two situations were not at all similar. The economic sanctions against Iraq had been borne of a

decision taken by the Security Council, which was very different from the United States embargo against Cuba.

She said that during the Committee's review of Iraq's periodic report, that country's representative had highlighted the problems in implementation of the Convention brought on by the lack of resources due to the economic sanctions. And while the Committee had taken into account that lack of resources to provide medicine, food and health care had negative effects on the most vulnerable segments of Iraqi society, Iraq had been unable to give examples of any other actions it had undertaken.

There were definite ways, she said, to promote the human rights of women, and to combat violence against women despite the sanctions. The Committee was very concerned about the situation of women and children in Iraq under the sanctions regime, but it was not the body to express any decision on the substance of that problem.

In the case of Cuba, she said it had been mentioned that the economic embargo had impeded the Government’s ability to buy medicines and other healthcare products as well as other household goods. The Committee expressed, however, that there some other areas in which the Cuban Government could do more work.

Turning to Lithuania, Moldova and Romania, Ms. Erturk said that the Committee had identified the shift from planned economy systems to market economies as bringing significant challenges to the implementation of the Convention. It did note, however, that in each of those countries, the political will existed to implement the Convention, and while much needed to be done, important steps had already been taken to adhere to the Convention's requirements.

Where Cameroon was concerned, she said, the impact of structural adjustment policies coupled with privatization had affected the country's capacity for full implementation of the Convention. Again, the Committee felt that commitment to implementation was there, as there were laws under review, and programmes and policies for women's advancement were being introduced.

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