VENEZUELA’S RECORD ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS TO FACE SCRUTINY BY UNITED NATIONS COMMITTEE

GENEVA (14 October 2014) – Venezuela’s record on women’s rights will be examined by the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on Tuesday 21 October 2014 in meetings that will be webcast live.

Venezuela is one of the 188 States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and is required to submit regular reports to the Committee of 23 independent experts on how it is implementing the Convention.

Among the issues likely to be discussed by the Committee and the government delegation from Venezuela are: measures to tackle stereotypical images of women, including media portrayal of women and girls as sex objects; trafficking of women and girls, particularly in border areas; measures to decrease maternal mortality rate; high adolescent pregnancy rate; women’s equal participation in political, public, social, economic and cultural life; violence against women; policies to improve access by indigenous women and women of African descent to justice, education, employment, health care, land and natural resources.

Location: Room XVI, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 10.00 – 17:00 (03.30 – 06.30 in Caracas), 21 October
Live webcasts of the public sessions at http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/.



Venezuela’s report and a full list of issues that are likely to come up can be found here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=816&Lang=en

A news conference is scheduled for 7 November at 13:30 at Palais des Nations to discuss CEDAW’s concluding observations on Venezuela and the other countries being reviewed – Poland, China, China (Hong Kong), China (Macau); Ghana; Belgium; Brunei Darussalam; Guinea; and Solomon Islands. The concluding observations will be published on 7 November here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=816&Lang=en


For more information and media requests, please contact Liz Throssell (+41 (0) 22 917 9466 / ethrossell@ohchr.org

To learn more about the Committee on the Elimination of the Discrimination against Women, visit: http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cedaw/pages/cedawindex.aspx


For use of the information media; not an official record

CEDAW14/020E