HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL ADVISORY COMMITTEE CONTINUES DISCUSSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN

The Human Rights Council Advisory Committee this afternoon continued its general discussion on the human rights of women and a request from the Human Rights Council for the Committee to implement a gender perspective in its work.

During the general discussion, Experts said that gender mainstreaming meant that they had to integrate a women’s perspective into their work and studies. But it was also not inconsistent for the Advisory Committee to work on gender mainstreaming projects. The President of the Council proposed that all members should think about ideas on how the Advisory Committee could best comply with the Human Rights Council resolution. Another Expert recommended that they should do more than just gender mainstreaming in their work and that they should conduct research and do reports on the issue and propose a gender action plan.

Speaking in the general discussion which started in the morning meeting were Advisory Committee Experts Mona Zulficar, Halima Embarek Warzazi, Chung Chinsung and Emmanuel Decaux. Also speaking were representatives of Argentina and Japan Fellowship of Reconciliation.

At the end of the meeting, the Advisory Committee changed the composition of its two drafting groups, replacing Latif Huseynov by Vladimir Kartaskhkin in the drafting group on human rights education and training. In the drafting group on the right to food, Baba Kura Kaigama was replaced by Mona Zulficar. The two drafting groups on human rights education and training and the right to food then started their discussions.

The Advisory Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 7 August to start discussing requests to the Advisory Committee stemming from Human Rights Council resolutions on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order.

General Discussion on Request to Advisory Committee from Human Rights Council Concerning the Human Rights of Women

ETSURO TOTSUKA, of Japan Fellowship of Reconciliation, said women’s rights were important to the United Nations. From the beginning, women were clearly included in the first human rights declarations and conventions of the United Nations. Japan was facing difficulties in implementing women’s human rights. Gender sensitivity was still lacking in Japan and the United Nations should help raise awareness of the human rights of women in Japan.

MONA ZULFICAR, Advisory Committee Expert, wanted to confirm the suggestions made during this morning’s session. Gender mainstreaming meant that they had to integrate a women’s perspective into their work and studies. But it was also not inconsistent for the Advisory Committee to work on gender mainstreaming projects. They could look into a gender action plan for United Nations agencies.

HALIMA WARZAZI, Advisory Committee Expert, said that it would be interesting to ask governments how many posts were occupied by women.

CHUNG CHINSUNG, Advisory Committee Expert, said that it seemed to her that most of the members did not think that they had to prepare a report on this issue. What did the other members think? How should they use the opportunity they were entrusted with by the Human Rights Council resolution?

MIGUEL ALFONSO MARTINEZ, President of the Advisory Committee, asked all members to think about ideas on how the Advisory Committee could best comply with the Human Rights Council resolution.

EMMANUEL DECAUX, Advisory Committee Expert, said that gender mainstreaming could be integrated in the Committee’s work. It would also be interesting to see what the ways to achieve parity were, as it was found for example in Norway. The Committee had to bear in mind what the methods to achieve parity were at the United Nations as well.

MONA ZULFICAR, Advisory Committee Expert, strongly recommended that they should do more than just gender mainstreaming in their work and that they should also conduct research and do reports on the issue and propose a gender action plan.

SEBASTIAN ROSALES (Argentina) stressed Argentina’s support of gender mainstreaming in the United Nations. Argentina agreed with the idea expressed by Committee Experts to include best practice models in the study.



For use of the information media; not an official record

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