Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Opens Eighty-Seventh Session in Geneva

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this morning opened its eighty-seventh session, hearing a statement from Andrea Ori, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and adopting its agenda for the session, during which it will review the reports of the Central African Republic, Djibouti, Greece, Italy, Niger, Oman, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. 

Opening the session, Mr. Ori said the world continued to witness a backlash on women’s rights across the globe. He repeated the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ appeal during the high-level event marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “to rekindle the spirit, impulse and vitality that led to the Universal Declaration” and “strive [together] for solutions to the most pressing challenges of our time”.

Mr. Ori said that at the high-level event, a pledging tree was created.  With 56 pledges, women’s rights and gender equality received the largest share of the 157 pledges made by States.  Mr. Ori said the Committee could help with translating these pledges into concrete action though its constructive dialogues with States parties, and through the guidance it would provide in its general recommendation 40, currently under preparation, on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems.

Saying he was aware that the Committee had a heavy programme ahead for the next three weeks, including notably constructive dialogues with eight States parties and the adoption of an inquiry report, Mr. Ori wished the Committee a successful and productive session.

Ana Peláez Narváez, Chairperson of the Committee, said that, since the last session, the number of States parties that had ratified the Convention had remained at 189.  Similarly, the number of States parties that had accepted the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1 of the Convention concerning the meeting time of the Committee remained at 81.  A total of 126 States parties to the Convention were currently required to accept the amendment for it to enter into force.  The number of States parties that had ratified the Optional Protocol remained at 115.   Since the last session, Argentina, Czechia, Iraq, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Lesotho and Luxembourg had submitted their periodic reports to the Committee. 

The Committee adopted the agenda and programme of work of the session, and the Chair and Committee Experts then discussed the activities they had undertaken since the last session. 

Marion Bethel, Committee Rapporteur, introduced the report of the pre-sessional working group for the eighty-seventh session, and Natasha Stott Despoja, Committee Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations, briefed the Committee on the status of the follow-up reports received in response to the Committee’s concluding observations. 

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women’s eighty-seventh session is being held from 29 January to 16 February.  All documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage.  Meeting summary releases can be found here.  The webcast of the Committee’s public meetings can be accessed via the UN Web TV webpage. 

The Committee will next meet at 3 p.m. this afternoon with representatives of national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations who will brief about the situation of women in Niger, Tajikistan, Italy and Turkmenistan, whose reports will be reviewed this week. 

Statements 

ANDREA ORI, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, said it was an honour to open the Committee’s eighty-seventh session.  The world had just commemorated the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  At the same time, they continued to witness a backlash on women’s rights across the globe.  Mr. Ori repeated the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ appeal during the high-level event marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration “to rekindle the spirit, impulse and vitality that led to the Universal Declaration” and “strive [together] for solutions to the most pressing challenges of our time”. 

Women’s rights were a strong element of last year’s Human Rights 75 initiative, with the monthly thematic spotlight of February focusing on “care and support systems”, which for too long had relied on women’s and girls’ unpaid or low-paid work to provide care to sustain families, communities and societies; and the monthly spotlight of June highlighting the need to bolster “women’s participation in public and political life”. 

The Human Rights 75 high-level event was convened by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on 11 and 12 December.  Among other measures, a pledging tree was created, a live embodiment of all the pledges received from Member States announcing tangible commitments to advance human rights protection at the national, regional or global levels. With 56 pledges, women’s rights and gender equality received the largest share of the 157 pledges made by States. These pledges ranged from general measures to eliminate all forms of gender-based violence and discrimination against women, to increasing women’s participation in the labour market and leadership roles, introducing quotas for women in parliament, strengthening feminist foreign policies, increasing donor funding on gender quality, and addressing inequalities and discrimination in the context of broader gender identity perspectives. 

The Committee could help with translating these pledges into concrete action though its constructive dialogues with States parties, but also through the guidance it would provide in its general recommendation 40, currently under preparation, on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems.  To reach parity between women and men by 2030, it was also crucial for women’s rights to figure prominently in the work leading to the Summit for the Future and the resulting Pact for the Future.

The Office of the High Commissioner continued to support the strengthening of the treaty bodies. Integral parts of the progress made last year were the publication of the Office’s Working Paper in May 2023, the conclusions of the thirty-fifth annual meeting of Chairpersons of the human rights treaty bodies in June, and the informal briefing on the treaty body strengthening process convened by the High Commissioner in November, attended by 118 States in Geneva and New York as well as by a considerable number of treaty body experts.  The views expressed by States during the informal briefing indicated broad support for a predictable calendar of State party reviews, the harmonisation of working methods and the increased use of digital tools, to be implemented based on the Working Paper. 

However, budgetary constraints coupled with the prolonged liquidity crisis that the United Nations was currently facing would have an adverse impact on the proper functioning of the treaty body system and risk further increasing the backlog of the treaty bodies, with, as of 30 November 2023, 364 State party reports and 1,971 registered individual communications awaiting examination, 255 unregistered communications pending pre-screening analysis, and 957 open urgent actions.  The urgency for States to provide the essential resources needed to overcome these challenges was underscored by High Commissioner at the informal briefing in November, when he stressed that the Office had reached a point where it had to align its deliverables with existing capacity.

Looking ahead to 2024, the shared strategic goal of the Office and the Committee was to mobilise support from States for the strengthening and further harmonisation of the work of the treaty bodies. Decisions taken by States this year on the main pillars of the treaty body strengthening process, in particular on the issues requiring additional financial and human resources, would determine the future trajectory of the treaty body system.  This process would culminate in the adoption of the biannual resolution of the General Assembly in December 2024, hopefully with a robust budget.

Effective from 22 January 2024, the United Nations Office at Geneva had ceased servicing all hybrid or virtual meetings on any platform, system, or tool.  This affected all meetings taking place at Geneva, including those of the treaty bodies, the Human Rights Council and the Universal Periodic Review.  An exception existed for mandated hybrid meetings, such as the official dialogues with State party delegations, which could continue to be held virtually with full services.  No other treaty body meetings would henceforth be serviced in hybrid mode.

The Office deeply regretted how disruptive the sudden announcement had been for the Committee’s work, and thanked the Committee for its understanding.  This decision was influenced by constraints on the financial resources of the United Nations due to the liquidity crisis, which was affecting several areas of work of the Office of the High Commissioner and the United Nations system.  Mr. Ori called on Committee Experts to push Member States to pay their dues to the United Nations.

Saying he was aware that the Committee had a heavy programme ahead for the next three weeks, including notably constructive dialogues with eight States parties and the adoption of an inquiry report, Mr. Ori wished the Committee a successful and productive session.

In response to Mr. Ori’s comments, Committee Experts expressed regret for the liquidity crisis, saying that it was affecting the Committee’s ability to protect the rights of women around the world, which were threatened by multiple conflicts and crises.  One Committee Expert called for increased transparency in the finances of the United Nations system, and another Expert said that United Nations’ communications needed to be strengthened to make public calls to States to pay their dues and to communicate the achievements and findings of the Committee more broadly to Member States.

The Committee then adopted its agenda and programme of work for the session.   

ANA PELÁEZ NARVÁEZ, Committee Chairperson, said that since the last session, the number of States parties that had ratified the Convention had remained at 189.  Similarly, the number of States parties that had accepted the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1 of the Convention concerning the meeting time of the Committee remained at 81.  A total of 126 States parties to the Convention were currently required to accept the amendment for it to enter into force.  The number of States parties that had ratified the Optional Protocol remained at 115.   

She said she was pleased to inform that since the last session, Argentina, Czechia, Iraq, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Lesotho and Luxembourg had submitted their periodic reports to the Committee.  Since making the simplified reporting procedure the default procedure for States parties' reporting to the Committee, 13 States parties had indicated that they wished to opt out and maintain the traditional reporting procedure. 

Ms. Peláez Narváez and Committee Experts then discussed the activities they had undertaken since the last session. 

MARION BETHEL, Committee Rapporteur, introduced the report of the pre-sessional working group for the eighty-seventh session,which met from 30 May to 2 June 2024 in Geneva.  The working group prepared lists of issues and questions in relation to the reports of Cuba, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, in addition to lists of issues and questions prior to the submission of the reports of Papua New Guinea, San Marino, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu under the simplified reporting procedure.  The pre-sessional working group further had before it the general recommendations adopted by the Committee; draft lists of issues and questions and lists of issues prior to reporting prepared by the secretariat; and other pertinent information, including concluding observations of the Committee and other treaty bodies, as relevant. 

ANA PELÁEZ NARVÁEZ, Committee Chairperson, said that, in light of the backlog of State party reports pending consideration by the Committee accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Committee had decided to postpone the consideration of the States parties referred to in the report of the pre-sessional working group to future sessions.  The Committee instead decided to, during the present eighty-seventh session, take on report reviews that had been postponed from previous sessions, for the Central African Republic, Djibouti, Greece, Italy, Niger, Oman, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.  In addition, it would make final its provisional concluding observations in relation to the combined seventh to tenth periodic reports of Nicaragua, adopted ad referendum at its eighty-sixth session. 

NATASHA STOTT DESPOJA, Committee Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations, briefed the Committee on the status of the follow-up reports received in response to the Committee’s concluding observations.  She said that at the end of the eighty-sixth session, follow-up letters outlining the outcome of assessments of follow-up reports were sent to Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan. No concluding observations were adopted at the seventy-ninth session in July 2021.  Accordingly, no follow-up reports were scheduled for consideration at the eighty-sixth session and no reminder letters were sent out at the end of that session.  For the present session, the Committee had received follow-up reports from Ecuador, Egypt and Maldives, all received on time.  A follow-up report was also received from Sweden at the end of November 2022, but as it exceeded the word limit, a revised version had been requested, which had not yet been received.

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