WOMEN’S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE MEETS IN SWEDEN TO DISCUSS WORKING METHODS

WOMEN’S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE MEETS IN SWEDEN

TO DISCUSS WORKING METHODS

NEW YORK, 19 April (Division for Advancement of Women) -- The Government of Sweden will host an informal meeting of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women from 22 to 24 April at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund, Sweden.  Göran Melander, founder and current President of the Institute, is currently a member of the Committee.  The meeting, which has been prepared in collaboration with the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, will focus on the working methods of the Committee, strategies to encourage reporting by States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and ways to streamline the concluding comments of the Committee on the reports of States parties.  The Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women, Carolyn Hannan, will make a statement at the opening of the meeting.

The 23 experts of the Committee, who serve in their personal capacities, monitor the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 1979 and came into force in 1981.  The Convention, which as of 1 April had been ratified or acceded to by 168 countries, requires States parties to eliminate discrimination against women in the enjoyment of all civil, political, economic and cultural rights.  In pursuing the Convention’s goals, States parties are encouraged to introduce affirmative action measures designed to promote equality between women and men.  The Optional Protocol to the Convention entitles the Committee to consider petitions from individual women or groups of women who have exhausted national remedies.  It also entitles the Committee to conduct inquiries into grave or systematic violations of the Convention.  As of 1 April, there were 34 States parties to the Optional Protocol.

For more information on the Committee and women’s rights contact:  Women’s Rights Unit, Division for Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Room DC2-1228, United Nations, New York, NY 10017 -- Fax: (212) 963-3463, E-mail: del-vasto@un.org

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