HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL HOLDS ANNUAL DISCUSSION ON THE INTEGRATION OF A GENDER PERSPECTIVE IN ITS WORK
The Human Rights Council this morning held its annual discussion on the integration of a gender perspective in its work.
Mona Rishmawi, Officer-in-Charge of the Research and Right to Development Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, speaking on behalf of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that integration of women's rights and gender was one of the key priorities of the High Commissioner and her Office. The Council had proven courage and dedication in devoting this annual panel discussion to self-assessment and scrutiny, and the Office was currently undertaking a full gender evaluation of its work to further strengthen and optimise policy and planning in this area.
Leilani Farha, Executive Director of the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation, said that it was unlikely that gender integration would be effective if it was undertaken merely as an institutional exercise. In the Universal Periodic Review it was the extent to which the review focused on human rights issues that informed women’s lives, as actually experienced by women, that would determine how effective the outcome was for women. Ensuring the effective participation of women in the process in providing information directly to delegates in Geneva was thus essential and the development of mechanisms that would permit better and deeper interactions between non-governmental organizations was recommended.
Cecilia Rachel Quisumbing, Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, said that she wished to point to the importance of recognizing the role of national human rights institutions in gender mainstreaming. The fact that the Human Rights Council urged all countries to establish a national human rights institution was proof of their importance. If the Council wanted to strengthen the Universal Periodic Review and gender representation, one had to empower national human rights institutions, which could also show that gender matters were cross-cutting. Ms. Quisumbing wished that national human rights institutions could achieve the respect they deserved as a niche body.
Jeremy Sarkin, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, said that there had been significant progress towards broader and more consistent attention to, and analysis of, women's human rights. If effective, the Universal Periodic Review process should have a dramatic effect on the quality of the lives of billions of women and girls around the world. Gender could be a standing item presented by the Universal Periodic Review Rapporteurs to the Working Group, and could also be a specific item in the outcome document, and a mechanism to track and assist implementation was needed.
Maria Virginia Bras Gomes, Member of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, speaking on behalf of Barbara Evelyn Bailey, Member of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, said that the Human Rights Council must ensure that all its mechanisms and subsidiary bodies developed and adopted an operational definition of gender and established specific indicators by which wide-ranging issues of gender could be addressed in the implementation of obligations, development of reports and the follow-up to concluding observations and recommendations. The Universal Periodic Review was an excellent vehicle through which this could be accomplished.
Fatimata Binta Victoire Dah, Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, said that the Human Rights Council had started to integrate a routine exercise to include women’s rights in its programme of work, its mechanisms and procedures. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination considered itself as a partner of the Human Rights Council and at its last session had decided to help those that were drafting the documents of the Universal Periodic Review, and had also integrated the conclusions of the Universal Periodic Review in its own process.
Maria Virginia Bras Gomes, Member of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, said that the Universal Periodic Review was a tool which could strengthen gender equality. Despite the progress that had been achieved, flagrant imbalances persisted and they impacted on development and on other processes. The assessment of the impact of economic and social policies on the enjoyment of human rights was however not possible without the establishment of indicators and benchmarks that were disaggregated on the basis of prohibited grounds of discrimination and understood and recognized by all stakeholders.
In the interactive dialogue, speakers noted that the situation of women was still a pressing concern which required action. There was a need for political will and appropriate action to ensure a better integration of the gender perspective across the board in order to build on the gaps and problems that had been identified in the Universal Periodic Review to date. The Human Rights Council had an important role to play in mainstreaming the human rights of women in the United Nations, and full implementation required that both men and women had equal opportunities to participate in decision-making at all levels. The Council also needed to make its contribution to the reform of the gender architecture in its own area of specialization. The Universal Periodic Review had allowed for some progress to be made, which should be maintained. With commitment and perseverance it was possible to change women's lives and to meet the Millennium Development Goal on the empowerment of women.
Speaking in the discussion were Chile, Brazil, Sweden for the European Union, Norway, Russian Federation, France, Ireland, Slovenia, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Cuba, United Kingdom, Finland, Canada for Canada and New Zealand, Morocco, and Turkey.
Conseil Consultative des Droits de l'Homme du Maroc, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and Human Rights Watch also took the floor.
Speaking during the second round of questions were Nicaragua, Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Algeria, China, Japan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Morocco, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, the United States and Switzerland.
Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting Women and Girls, International Federation of Human Rights Leagues and the International Federation of University Women also took the floor.
The next meeting of the Council will be today at 3 p.m. this afternoon when it is scheduled to hear the presentation of the report of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Council will also hold an interactive dialogue with James Anaya, Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, which will be followed by a general debate.
Introduction of Panel
MONA RISHMAWI, Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Research and Right to Development Division, speaking on behalf of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said integration of women's rights and gender was one of the key priorities of the High Commissioner and her Office as a whole. The work revolved around three main axes: substantive support given to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; substantive assistance to the Special Rapporteur on violence against women; and the work to set legal standards which overcame inequalities and discrimination, monitoring violations of women's human rights and building capacity within the Office and beyond. The Human Rights Council had proven courage and dedication in devoting this annual panel discussion to self-assessment and scrutiny, and the Office was currently undertaking a full gender evaluation of its work to further strengthen and optimise policy and planning in this area. The purpose of this morning's discussion was not to address the human rights of women and gender-relate violations, sadly a reality world-wide - rather, the focus was on improving the Council's working methods, process and approach with regards to the Universal Periodic Review.
Human Rights Council resolution 5/1 recognised the importance of gender integration, and specifically mandated as a principle that the Universal Periodic Review must fully integrate a gender perspective into all aspects of the review. A preliminary analysis of the earliest outcomes of the reviews indicated both positive and challenging trends. It was clear that women's human rights issues had been the subject of both review and final recommendations, even if there was still a limited reflection of the human rights of women and the gender perspective in State reports and the Compilation Reports. This suggested that there were challenges to integrating a gender perspective. Issues on women's rights raised during the dialogue were mainly limited to general references to gender equality, education and domestic violence. Other key issues that underpinned the full enjoyment of women's rights were rarely or never addressed during the dialogue. A practical approach would be to address and prioritise the full range of women's rights issues. The obligations of Member States to repeal discriminatory laws and to ensure equal protection before the law stemmed from several fundamental human rights treaties. With Beijing plus 15 on the doorstep, Member States should spare no efforts in the endeavour to eliminate laws that discriminated against women. Promoting and strengthening legal frameworks that clearly prescribed gender equality and equal rights for women was a key task for the Council and all who had a stake in its work.
Statements by Panellists
LEILANI FARHA, Executive Director of the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation, said that it was unlikely that gender integration would be effective if it was undertaken merely as an institutional exercise, or as a goal unto itself. For gender integration to be meaningful to women, it must be a qualitative process, one squarely aimed at ensuring the realization of all women’s rights. And it must incorporate an understanding of the particular interdependence of rights for women at the domestic level. In the Universal Periodic Review, then, it was the extent to which the review focused on human rights issues that informed women’s lives, as actually experienced by women, that would determine how effective the outcome was for women. This meant that the process must be primarily one of listening to and learning from women who were working on these issues within the State under review. Ensuring the effective participation of women in the process, not only within the State in the lead-up to the review, but also in providing information directly to delegates in Geneva, was thus essential.
Using the Canadian experience in the Universal Periodic Review process, Ms. Farha said of the seven women-specific recommendations contained in the report of the Working Group, six were focused on violence against women in a mostly de-contextualized way. Although there were a number of recommendations aimed at improving the rights of Aboriginal women, those that focused on violence were similarly de-contextualized from the intersections with Aboriginal women’s living conditions. As a result, although many States raised many important issues related to women’s human rights as a whole, the Universal Periodic Review outcome document failed to provide women with useful entry points to engage with Governments and encourage action to address their most pressing rights issues. In concluding, Ms. Farha recommended that mechanisms that would permit better and deeper interactions between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and delegates, rather than simply an exchange of documents, could be developed under the Universal Periodic Review. And second, States had an obligation to ensure that adequate resources were available that NGOs could participate in the Universal Periodic Review process in a meaningful way, and that women’s lives experiences were articulated and included in the review dialogue and outcome documents.
CECILIA RACHEL QUISUMBING, Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, said that she was speaking as a member of an independent human rights institution and pointed to the importance of recognizing the role of national human rights institutions in gender mainstreaming. The fact that the Human Rights Council urged all countries to establish a national human rights institution was proof of their importance. National human rights institutions were local and were not the Government, they were vigilant and were interested in human rights just as civil society was. Many national human rights institutions around the world tried to work with the Government in an advisory capacity. If the Council wanted to strengthen the Universal Periodic Review and gender representation, one had to empower the national human rights institutions. National human rights institutions were recognized as being non-political and, as experts in human rights, they could show that gender matters were cross-cutting. Gender was the only cross-cutting issue in the Millennium Development Goals.
Ms. Quisumbing said that she had had the pleasure to look at the Universal Periodic Review from three different seats: as a member of the Philippine delegation in New York during the preparations leading to the creation of the Universal Periodic Review; as a member of the presidential body that prepared the Philippine’s Universal Periodic Review report; and as a Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines. Today she was speaking with no flag, but just with human rights as her bias. Turning to the way the Universal Periodic Review worked, she suggested that the troika should send questions in advance to the countries; if they addressed gender issues as early as possible, it ensured that gender issues were high among the issues. The questions asked during the interactive dialogue were as important. These could be about violence against women, the status of women in countries with an armed conflict, and so on. In the recommendations, States could make much more use of the many recommendations of treaty bodies and Special Procedures. The Secretariat should also study how it could use its power when it was putting together all the documents that were at its disposal. She wished that national human rights institutions could gain the respect they deserved as a niche body and not only be mentioned in one line of a ten-page document.
JEREMY SARKIN, Chairperson-Rapporteur, United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, said there had been significant progress towards broader and more consistent attention to, and analysis of, women's human rights and methods to reduce and eradicate discrimination against women in the United Nations system and in countries around the world over the last few decades. However, whether that attention was always turned into effective change to the reality of the lives of women and girls on the ground was unknown. If effective, the Universal Periodic Review process should have a dramatic effect on the quality of the lives of billions of women and girls around the world today and in the future. It should be recognised that discrimination could be direct or indirect, and occurred in both the public and private sectors. Discrimination against women on the basis of gender was a factor that often intersected with other forms of discrimination, with women often discriminated against on a number of bases, with very dire consequences for their enjoyment of human rights. Thus, integration must mean ensuring that all forms of discrimination were recognised and strategies devised to ensure that equal rights were enjoyed by all women.
A common misperception was that gender mainstreaming was simply about the number of women participating in a process. In reality, it was a commitment to identifying the differential impacts of structure, process, laws, practice and other issues on the lives of women and girls when compared to the impact on men and boys, and finding practical solutions to the problems identified. It was also not only about empowering women, although this was a necessary step to bridge longstanding caps caused by gender inequality, it was about the broader goal of building equal opportunities for women to participate at every level of society. To achieve this, resources were a key issue. As far as the Universal Periodic Review process was concerned, gender could be a standing item presented by the Universal Periodic Review Rapporteurs to the Working Group, and could also be a specific item in the outcome document, which could have proposals for follow-up. A mechanism to track and assist implementation was needed, which ought to ensure that a State tackled the problems that had been identified, but the State should be given the necessary support to capacitate it to deal with the identified problems.
MARIA VIRGINIA BRAS GOMES, reading out a statement on behalf of BARBARA EVELYN BAILEY, Member of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, said that the promotion of gender equality was an indispensable pre-requisite for the full promotion and achievement of universal human rights. The involvement of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in this dialogue signaled the critical role that this treaty body could play in the integration of a gender perspective in the work of the Council. It was the only treaty that explicitly guaranteed equality between women and men and freedom from discrimination. The Human Rights Council must ensure that all its mechanisms and subsidiary bodies developed and adopted an operational definition of gender that could inform processes, procedures and outcomes of their work, as distinct from simply focusing on the inclusion of women. Additionally, the Council needed to establish specific indicators by which wide-ranging issues of gender could be addressed in the implementation of obligations, development of reports and the follow-up to concluding observations and recommendations. The Universal Periodic Review was an excellent vehicle through which this could be accomplished. Further, the integration of a gender perspective in any process could not be treated as an ‘add on’, but it must rather be determined beforehand how, and at what points, gender could be inserted into all stages of the process.
As for the national consultations to produce the national report, Ms. Bailey’s statement said that the States under review, informed by the guidelines of the Gender Technical Working Group, should be encouraged to adopt a collaborative and broad consultative approach in the preparation. A State would therefore be well advised to take a coordinated and harmonized approach to reporting requirements to various bodies including the Universal Periodic Review, which could be achieved by establishing a national body comprising state agencies, National Women’s Machinery and other stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations. Regarding the interactive dialogue, members of the Troika should in fact be concerned with issues of gender, and must be guided by the work of the Gender Integration Technical Working Group in determining the questions that guided the interactive dialogue. As for the implementation of concluding comments and recommendations, the lead agency of the national report working group should assume responsibility to determine and develop indicators to measure the extent and rate of implementation of recommendations with a focus on the inclusion of gender indicators.
FATIMATA-BINTA VICTOIRE DAH, Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, said that since the adoption of resolutions 5/1 and 6/30, the Human Rights Council had started to integrate a routine exercise to include women’s rights in its programme of work, its mechanisms and procedures, but also into all the United Nations system. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was not part of the Council but an independent treaty body. They were proud to be the first and the oldest of all the existing treaty bodies. They had celebrated, this year, the fortieth anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. This treaty body had introduced many innovations and had, at a very early point, detected what they called “double” or “multiple discriminations”. Victims of these included, among others: migrants; indigenous people; and Roma people, children and women. For this latter the Committee had set forth the gender dimension of racial discrimination. This concept had been set out in the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and in the Final Document of the Durban Review Conference, which had taken place in Geneva earlier this year. The Committee worked hard to detect potential double and multiple discriminations against women during its consideration of State reports.
Ms. Dah said that the Committee considered itself as a partner of the Human Rights Council. At their last session they had decided to help those that were drafting the documents of the Universal Periodic Review and to bring to the attention of the Council the conclusions which the Committee considered as important on a country under review. The Committee had also integrated the conclusions of the Universal Periodic Review in it own process. They were also questioning States on their acceptance or refusal to implement recommendations stemming from the Universal Periodic Review. The Committee would continue to do so, but she thought that they should not go further for the time being. As regards the procedure of the Council for the preparation, conduct and follow-up of the Universal Periodic Review, she said that this was internal to the Council and that it had to choose its methods as it thought best. She concluded by reiterating the readiness of the Committee to improve its collaboration with the Council in relation to the Universal Periodic Review.
MARIA VIRGINIA BRAS GOMES, Member of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, said the Universal Periodic Review was a tool which could strengthen gender equality. In spite of the progress that had been achieved, flagrant imbalances persisted which impacted on development and on other processes. Gender was a generally-recognised source of inequality, and women, who were exposed to several different types of discrimination, found it harder to exercise their rights. Women who were in particularly difficult situations required greater assistance in order to enjoy their rights. In the context of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, two cross-cutting principles needed to be read in conjunction with all the substantive rights guaranteed in part III of the Covenant - the principle of non-discrimination, and the principle of the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights. Two recurrent dimensions of the struggle of any discriminated community were the lack of representation of members of such communities in decision-making bodies, and the multiple discrimination faced by women.
Both these dimensions were therefore integrated in many of the Committee's concluding observations, through recommendations with particular emphasis on education for girl children; opening up new academic and professional options for young women; combating vertical and professional segregation in women's careers and increasing their representation in executive decision-making positions; reducing the gender wage gap; ensuring access to land, livelihoods and adequate housing; strengthening measures of sexual and reproductive health for women; combating violence and trafficking in human beings; developing specific initiatives to combat the feminisation of poverty across the board and in relation to traditionally-discriminated groups; and increasing social security and social assistance coverage for women, including through maternity benefits, and invalidity and old-age pensions. Some of these recommendations could also be subject to monitoring and evaluation in the Universal Periodic Review process. The changing gender balance was an important economic, social and cultural challenge faced by States. The assessment of the impact of economic and social policies on the enjoyment of human rights was not possible without the establishment of indicators and benchmarks that were disaggregated on the basis of prohibited grounds of discrimination, comparable over time, and understood and recognised by all the stakeholders.
Discussion
In the interactive dialogue, speakers noted, among other things, the need for political will and appropriate action to ensure a better integration of the gender perspective across the board, in order to build on the gaps and problems that had been identified in the Universal Periodic Review to date. There should be a unification of work of the various United Nations agencies and bodies. The gender perspective should be present at all stages and phases of the Universal Periodic Review mechanism. The Human Rights Council had an important role to play in mainstreaming the human rights of women in the United Nations, and they should be mainstreamed in the Council's own work as well. Full implementation of human rights required that both men and women had equal opportunities to participate in decision-making at all levels. The right of women to own and inherit land was a crucial prerequisite, as it impacted on many other rights, such as representation. It was important to ensure that women were provided with more opportunities all across society, and not just in areas considered "typical" for women. The Council had to make its contribution to the reform of the gender architecture in its own area of specialisation.
The situation of women was still a pressing concern, and required action; it was not a simple theme-based issue, and affected half of humanity, all of whom were born free and equal in their rights, without distinction. Emerging best practices at the consultation and implementation stages of the Universal Periodic Review should be elaborated and shared. The Universal Periodic Review had allowed for some progress to be made - this should be maintained. The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women should be universally ratified. A special mechanism should be created to address legalised inequality against women. The need to integrate action at both national and international levels was still pressing. Gender mainstreaming was a long-term process which required constant attention and commitment, which should also be paid to victims of trafficking and sexual violence, as well as other areas where girls and women were most vulnerable, in which context, the creation of Guidelines to protect the rights of women and girls in armed conflict was an important necessity. It was possible to change women's lives and to meet the Millennium Development Goal on the empowerment of women, with commitment and perseverance.
Speaking in the discussion were Chile, Brazil, Sweden for the European Union, Norway, Russian Federation, France, Ireland, Slovenia, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Cuba, United Kingdom, Finland, Canada for Canada and New Zealand, Morocco, and Turkey. Also speaking were Conseil Consultative des Droits de l'Homme du Maroc, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and Human Rights Watch.
Response by Panellists
LEILANI FARHA, Executive Director of the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation, said that the experience of the Universal Periodic Review at the national level was a flawed experience, and remained flawed even in resource-rich countries, particularly regarding women’s rights. The task in this regard was large. Regarding the questions asked regarding the synergies among treaty monitoring bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, Ms. Farha was of the view that the synergies were large, but that there was a need to deal with this in a cautious way as all would be disappointed if the treaty monitoring bodies were watered down through the Universal Periodic Review. Ms. Farha further said that there was an implementation gap as in many countries there were no implementation mechanisms for human rights, and that the Universal Periodic Review process could play a leading role to develop such mechanisms. Finally, Ms. Farha said that it was unreasonable to think that the Universal Periodic Review could cover all women’s rights issues that were at play at every State under review. Rather, there was a need to be strategic so as to ensure that the most pressing women’s human rights issues came to the floor, which could be achieved by looking at each state independently, and by listening to non-governmental organizations and remarks made by other actors.
CECILIA RACHEL QUISUMBING, Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, said that the Universal Periodic Review had been beneficial in terms of bringing attention to gender issues and women’s rights. Also, there had been many common gaps and challenges amongst countries, such as the role and participation of women in policy making and their inheritance rights. If the Council made a common effort to study the commonalities of these gaps and challenges, it could look at how certain countries could learn from other countries which shared the same challenges and how these had made improvements. One should also look at how countries were capacitating their local governments, as much of the work had to happen at this level.
JEREMY SARKIN, Chairperson-Rapporteur, United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, said on the information coming in to the Universal Periodic Review process, a number of delegates had raised the point of consistency, and this was a key issue. Some States provided very good information, but some provided very little or almost nothing all. Some type of blueprint or framework or set of questions to ensure consistency was therefore important. Depth and breadth should also be ensured, and guidelines should be provided to ensure that information came forward, particularly from States where it was not currently available. A reality of consultation should also be ensured. Insufficient resources were given to including gender and mainstreaming gender in the United Nations system, and this should be changed. A multitude of role-players should be included to ensure that the issue was better targeted.
Discussion
In the second round of questions, States asked several questions and made comments, including on the effects of the current financial crisis on women and reiterated that issues affecting women should be addressed by the Council and other human rights mechanisms. Discrimination and violence against women were continuing challenges that were faced in all parts of the world. The Council could play an important role in putting relevant questions during the Universal Periodic Review. It was also noteworthy that many of the delegations that had appeared before the Universal Periodic Review, had included women and had even been headed by women. The issue of the integration of a gender perspective into the Universal Periodic Review should be included in all parts of the review process, starting from the national consultations to the implementation of the recommendations. How could the various existing mechanisms available, as well as the newly planned United Nations Composite Gender Equality Entity, be fully employed with regards to the issue of gender mainstreaming. Concern was also expressed over sexual violence against women and girls in regions at war.
What synergies were the panellists seeing between the Universal Periodic Review and the treaty bodies? Would these two parties benefit from an increased collaboration? Speakers also stressed that gender equality was the cornerstone of women’s rights. One speaker said that some States to which recommendations on women and girls had been made had not implemented them, nor had they taken the necessary measures to reduce the discrimination between men and women. Could a compendium guide on best practices on the elimination of discrimination against women be issued? Human Rights Council Resolution 6/30 was a fundamental tool in integrating the gender dimension in the work of the Human Rights Council. How was the cooperation between all relevant stakeholders in the United Nations system currently taking place, with regard to women, and how could this collaboration be improved.
Non-governmental organizations also pointed the attention of the Council to the issue of harmful traditional practices and asked that this issue be part of the reports States submitted to the Universal Periodic Review and also supported the creation of a Special Rapporteur on legislation which discriminated against women.
Speaking during the second round of questions were Nicaragua, Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Algeria, China, Japan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Morocco, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, the United States and Switzerland. Also speaking were representatives of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting Women and Girls, International Federation of Human Rights Leagues and the International Federation of University Women.
Response by Panellists
LEILANI FARHA, Executive Director of the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation, said that the Vienna Declaration stipulated that women’s rights were human rights, and that they were inalienable, and this principle must not be forgotten. When States rejected recommendations, a protocol should be established to show how the rejection kept with human rights principles. Ms. Farha further said that a ‘one size fits all approach’ would not be fruitful during Universal Periodic Reviews, and that the Universal Periodic Review needed to be responsive to women’s actual needs.
CECILIA RACHEL QUISUMBING, Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, repeated her recommendation to bring everyone to work together and to combine the recommendations of the different bodies into one single document. This would be an excellent resource. One of the important mandates of the Council was capacity building, and the Council could help to identify which countries would need such capacity building. One needed to look for synergies without redundancy. She also noted the amount of work the Secretariat had and proposed, in order to relieve it a bit, the creation of a Wiki-oriented web-platform on the Secretariat’s website, which would be updated by the treaty bodies, Special Procedures and other United Nations bodies and organizations, specifically on the gender issue.
JEREMY SARKIN, Chairperson-Rapporteur, United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, said he wished to thank all for their comments on how to integrate gender into the Universal Periodic Review, but there was a gap on how these were integrated on the ground, so the issue was how to achieve effective action on the ground, with compliance with the recommendations emerging from the Universal Periodic Review process, and to ensure that laws were changed and modified to ensure they had a gender-neutral or gender-positive effect. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was collecting information, and it should have a greater input in this and other issues, such as ensuring system-wide coherence in terms of gender, not just within the United Nations, but within the Universal Periodic Review system specifically. There should be gender-sensitive training both at the Universal Periodic Review level and the national system, ensuring that there was no gap between the country going through the Universal Periodic Review process, and it drafting the new report, to ensure that meaningful results happened on the ground.
FATIMATA-BINTA VICTOIRE DAH, Chairperson, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, said that in taking stock, they had slipped from the concept of victims of discrimination in terms of women to something different, which meant that women could now claim their rights. These concepts were however not exclusive, but both aspects must be taken on board at the same time. Further, when taking stock, there was a need to ensure coherence; everyone had their own practices and without coherence it was difficult to work. As for the Universal Periodic Review, this process had triggered much concern at the beginning, but today they had nothing against this and were happy about it; it was not only understood what the Universal Periodic Review really meant, but they also tried to say to the Council what they thought was important, which was a great step forward. The Council would tell what it had gained from their conclusions, and they for their part continued exploring means to make the best of the fact that the Council used some of their conclusions. In general terms, the Council had to integrate a gender perspective into its work, but women in armed conflict, women and development and women and power were also areas of great interest.
MARIA VIRGINIA BRAS GOMES, Member of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, said, in relation to complementarities between the Council and treaty bodies and on how to enhance them and make them better, the Universal Periodic Review was a rather recent body and it was important to maintain the various points of difference between both systems. However there were existing synergies at all levels, from the preparatory process to the implementation of recommendations. Clearly, they could not take all gender-related issues into one single review and they had to prioritize them. They could make better use of the information compiled in the various reports. Treaty bodies had a clear role of pushing the implementation of the Universal Periodic Review recommendation during their interactive discussions with States parties. The progress of realization of the recommendations could thus be analyzed, without the need to wait for the next Universal Periodic Review round or for the next State party review. States that did not accept gender equality recommendations should also be asked to justify such a decision.
ANDREJ LOGAR, Vice-President of the Human Rights Council, in closing remarks, said many comments had been made to integrate the gender-perspective in the Universal Periodic Review, and the dialogue had reflected many challenges in making the process truly reflect this perspective. All panellists had offered practical and concrete recommendations to improve this process for all stakeholders.
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HRC09116E