PRESS CONFERENCE BY WOMEN’S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON

PRESS CONFERENCE BY WOMEN’S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON

In a statement issued today, the Women’s Anti-Discrimination Committee urged Iraq’s new Interim Government to ensure gender equality in the country, particularly in its laws, reconstruction efforts and upcoming electoral process, the Chairperson of that body told correspondents at Headquarters today.

Highlighting the outcomes of the Committee’s current session, which began on 6 July and ends tomorrow, Ayse Feride Acar of Turkey said the statement urged the Iraqi Government to ensure that women participated in the country’s elections, both as voters and women candidates.  Iraq, as a State party to the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), should honour its international commitments.

Turning to other events of session, Ms. Acar said the Committee had considered initial and periodic reports from seven States parties to the Convention -- Angola, Malta, Latvia, Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Spain -- as well as a follow-up report from Argentina.

The reports had revealed violations of women’s human rights in times of socio-economic crisis, and the Committee had asked Argentina and the Dominican Republic to make gender equality an explicit part of their development plans.  “Poverty alleviation programmes are there, but unless they include specific measures and perspectives targeting women, neither sustainable development nor effective alleviation will take place”, she said.

She noted that Argentina had been asked to submit a follow-up to its 2002 report to provide additional information on how the economic crisis there had affected women, and what the country had done to mitigate that.  After reviewing the report, the Committee had emphasized that specific resources must go to women’s programmes to cope with the negative effects of the crisis, including the decline in women’s employment, and their lack of access to education.

She said that the Committee had also found evidence of continued gender stereotyping and negative discrimination due to traditional and cultural practices, which were among the most difficult to change.  Such practices, which occurred both in industrial countries such as Spain and poorer countries like Equatorial Guinea, were a major hindrance to women’s rights.

In addition, the women’s rights body had decided to ask the

General Assembly to extend the Committee’s annual meeting time from two three-week sessions to three three-week sessions, and to provide the necessary resources, she said.  The Committee had already received 20 reports this year, had a backlog of 40, and could only take up eight per session.  It also had an Optional Protocol, which allowed individuals to make direct complaints to the Committee.

The Committee would initially ask for an additional week in July 2005, as well as in January and July 2006, she said.  Noting that other human rights bodies in the United Nations system with comparable ratifications (CEDAW has 177) and workloads held three three-week sessions, “The Women’s Committee should not be discriminated against in this manner”, she added.Asked by a correspondent whether Iraqi women were educated enough to take on political decision-making positions, Ms. Acar said that many were. In fact, Iraq was outstanding in the region for its well-educated women, who had been active in defending their rights, both during and after Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Questioned by another about women’s problems in a developed country like Spain, she said the country had problems with violence against women, as did other industrialized nations, along with rights for migrant and refugee women, and equal pay for men and women.

Responding to another question about citizenship and women’s rights in the Dominican Republic, she said women non-citizens in that country had difficulties attaining their rights under the Convention, which covered both citizens and non-citizens.  Asked, in a following question, why the Committee did not expose the Dominican Republic on those grounds, Ms. Acar said that its mandate was only to question individual States, not to make political statements.  

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