Women and gender issues

Singapore’s delegation to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women asserted today that gender equality was central to the country’s burgeoning socio-economic growth and responded to the Committee’s concerns over trafficking in persons, reservations to the women’s Convention, reinforced stereotypes and other issues, as it presented its latest periodic report.

Ratification by Djibouti of the international women’s Convention in 1999 had sparked a transformation in Djibouti that had “changed the landscape of the country”, the head of the delegation and Minister of the Promotion of Women and Family Planning of Djibouti said today, as the State party appeared before the monitoring Committee for its first-ever periodic review of implementation.

The delegation of Nepal today assured experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women that gender violence, discrimination and protection of minorities were being considered in the constitutional process under way and that strong measures were being taken to combat human trafficking and harmful social practices, as that country’s combined fourth and fifth periodic report came under review.

The progress of a general law against gender discrimination, the adequacy of programmes meant to address the low participation of women in elected positions and the vulnerability of divorced migrant women were discussed today by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, as it took up the Republic of Korea’s seventh periodic report.

Defending Ethiopia’s track record in combating harmful traditional practices, improving “degrading” humanitarian conditions in refugee camps and enforcing a law that restricted the provision of humanitarian services to local charities, officials presenting their country’s combined sixth and seventh periodic reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women said today that the Government was doing its best to live up to its domestic and international obligations.

Strongly criticized today for harbouring negative stereotypes of women and discriminatory attitudes toward immigrants and minorities, Italian officials countered by describing their country’s recent enactment of robust and progressive programmes on both fronts, as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women took up Italy’s sixth periodic report.

Despite heavy financial constraints, a largely illiterate population and long-standing customary practices that subordinated women to men, Zambia had achieved a number of legislative milestones this year — the anti-gender-based violence act and the education act among them — and the Government was determined to continue improving women’s standing in a diverse society, officials told the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today.

Costa Rica’s adoption of a gender-equality policy and the election of its first female President in 2010 were landmark events that would allow women more economic autonomy, political participation and social protection, all of which were essential to overcoming entrenched discriminatory barriers, the country’s delegation said today while presenting its combined fifth and sixth periodic reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

With the changing political landscape in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond as a backdrop, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women had a vital role to play in redressing entrenched ills, including harmful traditional practices, sexual violence, persistent discrimination and a lack of access to education and employment, top United Nations human rights official Ivan Simonović said today as he opened the treaty body’s forty-ninth session.

Noting that quality education and women’s full access to and participation in science and technology were imperative for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment, the Commission on the Status of Women today urged Governments and relevant United Nations agencies to take appropriate actions to bolster women’s access to education and to specifically strengthen capacities to ensure that science education policies and curricula were relevant to their needs.