Meeting of States Parties to Convention on Discrimination against Women Elects 12 Members of Committee Monitoring Treaty’s Implementation

The Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women elected 12 members to its monitoring body today, replacing those whose four-year terms are set to expire at the end of 2014.

In a single round of voting by secret ballot, in which 188 States parties participated, the following experts were elected to serve on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women from 1 January 2015 until 31 December 2017: Ayse Feride Acar (Turkey); Gladys Acosta Vargas (Peru); Magalys Arocha Dominguez (Cuba); Naela Mohamed Gabr (Egypt); Ruth Halperin-Kaddari (Israel); Yoko Hayashi (Japan); Lilian Hofmeister (Austria); Ismat Jahan (Bangladesh); Kheira Mahdjoub-Ouiguini (Algeria); Lia Nadaraia (Georgia); Pramila Patten (Mauritius); and Patricia Schulz (Switzerland).

The experts were elected from a list of 18 candidates, whose biographical information is contained in document CEDAW/SP/2014/2.

Comprising 23 independent experts serving in their personal capacity, the Committee monitors implementation of the Convention by States parties.  Each expert serves a four-year term, and elections are held every two years, ensuring a balance between continuity and change in the Committee’s composition.

Earlier, Gaynel Curry, Acting Chief of the Global Issues Section within the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,discussed,as a representative of the Secretary‑General, developments in the Committee since the last Meeting of States Parties on 26 June 2012.  She said the State of Palestine had acceded to the Convention, bringing the total number of adherents to 188.  Greece, Republic of Moldova and Serbia had accepted the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1 of the Convention, on the Committee’s meeting time, bringing that total to 69.  A total of 126 States parties are required for the amendment to take effect.

The Committee had examined 42 reports of States Parties; 41 initial and periodic reports were pending consideration, she said.  It had also adopted decisions on final communications submitted under article 2 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention.  The number of inquiry submissions alleging grave or systematic violations of the Convention under article 8 of the Optional Protocol continued to grow, adding to the Committee’s workload.  Additionally, the Committee continued to adopt general recommendations, provide clarifications and promote understanding of the Convention’s substantive content.  Recommendation number 29, on the instrument’s article 16 — relating to the economic consequences of marriage, family relations and their dissolution — had been adopted at the Committee’s fifty-fourth session, in July 2013, and number 30 — on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations — at the fifty-sixth session, in October 2013.

At present, the Committee was working on several recommendations concerning women asylum seekers; refugee and stateless women; rural women; access to justice; girls’ and women’s right to education; climate change and natural disasters; as well as a general recommendation and comment on harmful practices, under joint consideration with the Monitoring Committee of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  Additionally, the Committee continued to adopt statements on thematic issues such as treaty body strengthening; strengthened cooperation with UN-Women; the role of women in the political transition processes of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia; sexual and reproductive health and rights beyond the 2014 review of the International Conference on Population and Development; and women’s rights in the post-2015 development agenda.

Turning to the Committee’s efforts to streamline and harmonize its working methods in order to improve the management of time and resources, she said it had incorporated into its rules of procedure the Addis Ababa guidelines on independence and impartiality of members of the human rights treaty bodies, adopted by the Chairs of those entities at their twenty-fourth meeting in 2013.  It had also decided to permit public webcasting of its dialogues with States parties and other public meetings, in addition to having shortened and merged several of the standard paragraphs of its concluding observations.

At the outset, the Meeting elected, by acclamation, Juan Manuel González de Linares Palou (Spain) as its Chair, upon his nomination from the Western European and other States.  Jeanne d’Arc Byaje (Rwanda) from the African States and Dragana Anđelić (Bosnia and Herzegovina) from the Eastern European States were elected Vice-Chairs.

Voting Results

188 States Parties voted.