Committee on Elimination of

Discrimination against Women

887^th Meeting (AM)

WOMEN’S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE OPENS SESSION, SPURRED TO RAISE VISIBILITY,

STRENGTHEN IMPACT OF WOMEN’S CONVENTION IN THIRTIETH YEAR OF OPERATION

This year, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women should seize the opportunity of the thirtieth anniversary of the women’s rights Convention and the tenth anniversary of its Optional Protocol to raise their visibility and strengthen their impact for the sake of women worldwide, with the ultimate aim of getting more States to ratify both instruments and withdraw any reservations to them, Naela Gabr, Committee Chairperson and an expert from Egypt, said this morning as the Committee opened its forty-fourth session.

Introducing her report on the Committee’s activities since its forty-third session, Ms. Gabr said Qatar had recently acceded to the treaty -– known formally as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women -- bringing the total number of States parties to 186.  Turkmenistan had acceded to its Optional Protocol, which authorizes the Committee to perform such oversight functions as receiving and considering individual petitions and conducting inquiries into grave or systematic violations of rights governed by the Convention, bringing total ratifications to 87. 

In other updates, some Committee members had met recently with United States Government representatives to discuss that country’s ratification of the Convention, she noted.  Further, Argentina had recently joined the 54 States to have accepted the amendment to paragraph 1 of article 20 of the Convention on its meeting time, but more States must accept that amendment for it to enter into force.

Despite that progress, all stakeholders must make more efforts to implement the Convention and concluding observations in order to see results on the ground, she said, calling on the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to expand human and financial resources and technical assistance to States parties for that purpose.  

Ms. Gabr said she and other Committee experts had participated three weeks ago in the ninth Inter-Committee Meeting of Human Rights Treaty Bodies and the twenty-first meeting of chairpersons of those bodies.  She had represented the Committee at the fifty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March, where she had focused on the outcomes of the Committee’s last three sessions, and at the Durban Review Conference in April.  Further, she met with media in Egypt to discuss the new law on quotas for women in Parliament and its compliance with the Egyptian Constitution and article 4 of the Convention, on temporary special measures to accelerate achievement of women’s de facto equality.  She had also attended a meeting on the Convention with the League of Arab States. 

Jessica Neuwirth, Director of OHCHR’s New York Office, pointed to several resolutions on women’s rights and empowerment adopted recently by the Human Rights Council.  Those included texts on States’ obligations to protect women and girls from violence and prosecute offenders; to eliminate human trafficking, including through anti-trafficking legislation and national action plans to address the root causes of prostitution, forced marriages, forced labour, sexual and other forms of slavery; the right to education; and preventing maternal mortality.  The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at its May session had adopted its general comment number 20 on non-discrimination.  It described States parties’ obligations to guarantee the principle of non-discrimination and sought to identify prohibited grounds of discrimination, including on the basis of sexual orientation.

Ms. Neuwirth said that during a recent lecture on promoting women’s rights in the next decade, at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay had called for implementing women’s rights, finding practical and effective ways to relieve women’s suffering and redressing the injustice that hampered, belittled and suppressed their contribution.  To mark the anniversaries of the Convention and Optional Protocol, the United Nations system was supporting national and regional anniversary events, which would culminate on 3 December with a global event.

Pramila Patten, Committee expert from Mauritius, introduced the report of the pre-session working group, noting that the group had prepared lists of issues and questions concerning the periodic reports of the eight States parties having been scheduled for consideration at the current session, namely:  Argentina, Denmark, Japan, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Spain, Switzerland, Timor-Leste and Tuvalu.  However, review of Argentina’s sixth periodic report had been postponed at that country’s request.  Consideration of Azerbaijan’s fourth periodic report would be taken up instead. 

She said the lists focused on such Convention-related themes as constitutional and legislative framework and national machinery for women’s advancement; women’s participation in decision-making; education and training; gender stereotypes; poverty and employment; violence against women, including domestic violence, trafficking in women and prostitution; health, including  sexual reproductive health; the situation of vulnerable groups of women, such as older women, rural women, women belonging to ethnic minorities and refugees and migrants; equality before the law; and marriage, family relations and the economic consequences of divorce.

The working group had also agreed to prepare intersessionally one outstanding list on Azerbaijan’s periodic report, whose consideration had been postponed from the last session, Ms. Patten said.  The lists for Guinea-Bissau and Liberia had been adopted intersessionally at an earlier stage.  The working group had also benefited from written and oral information provided by non-governmental organizations on three States parties under consideration.

Jane Connors, OHCHR Senior Human Rights Officer, introduced the Committee’s agenda item on implementation of article 21 of the Convention and on ways and means of expediting the Committee’s work.  On article 21, which provided that the Committee make suggestions and general recommendations based on reports examined and information received from States parties -– she said that work continued on the general recommendation on article 2 on policy measures and that Cornelis Flinterman, Committee expert from the Netherlands, would brief on progress in that regard.  The Committee’s report on ways and means of enhancing its work (document CEDAW/C/2009/II/4) provided information on States parties to be considered at future sessions and approaches of other treaty bodies to follow-up to concluding observations, she added. 

On article 22 -– which allowed specialized agencies to be represented during the Committee’s consideration of implementing those provisions that fell within the scope of their activities and allowed the Committee to invite such agencies to submit reports on implementing the Convention in those areas –- the Committee had before it the Secretary-General’s note (document CEDAW/C.2009/II/3) on the specialized agencies’ reports and the report of the International Labour Organization (ILO) as an addendum, she said.  The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and World Health Organization (WHO) were reconsidering the content of their reports to make them more useful for the Committee. 

Also this morning, the Committee adopted its provisional agenda and organization of work for the current session.  It observed a moment of silence for Fumiko Saiga, Committee expert from Japan, who passed away on 24 April.

Violeta Neubauer, Committee expert from Slovenia, also spoke.

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m., on Wednesday, 22 July, to consider Spain’s sixth periodic report and Denmark’s seventh periodic report.

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For information media • not an official record