Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Opens Eighty-Sixth Session in Geneva
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this morning opened its eighty-sixth 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 Albania, Bhutan, France, Guatemala, Jamaica, Malawi, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Uruguay.
Andrea Ori, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, said this year marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a fundamental document which was influenced and shaped by the work of the visionary women who contributed to its drafting. Both as part of the Drafting Committee and of the Commission on Human Rights, women delegates introduced particular rights and tailored the language of the text to ensure that women’s human rights were adequately integrated into the Universal Declaration.
Mr. Ori said that the participation and equal representation of women in decision-making was paramount to ensure the protection and promotion of human rights for all. In this context, he commended the Committee on its important work on its draft general recommendation 40 on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems. He additionally acknowledged the Committee’s preparatory work for a general recommendation on gender stereotypes. The elimination of gender stereotypes was an essential condition for women’s full enjoyment of all human rights and their equal participation in decision-making.
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. She said she was pleased to inform that since the last session, Belize, Botswana, Cape Verde, Chad, Congo, Greece, Monaco, Nepal, New Zealand and Vietnam 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.
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.
Leticia Bonifaz Alfonzo, Committee Expert and Chairperson of the Pre-Sessional Working Group, and Committee Expert Brenda Akia on behalf of Natasha Stott Despoja, Committee Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations, also briefed the Committee on their work.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women’s eighty-sixth session is being held from 9 to 27 October. 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 with the representatives of national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations of Bhutan, the Philippines, Jamaica and Guatemala at 3:30 p.m. today, Monday, 9 October.
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 this year marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a fundamental document which was influenced and shaped by the work of the visionary women who contributed to its drafting. Both as part of the Drafting Committee and of the Commission on Human Rights, women delegates introduced particular rights and tailored the language of the text to ensure that women’s human rights were adequately integrated into the Universal Declaration.
The participation and equal representation of women in decision-making was paramount to ensure the protection and promotion of human rights for all. It was not only a question of justice or democracy, but also a crucial factor to address the multiple global challenges we were facing, including climate change, protracted conflicts and economic crises. In this context, he commended the Committee on its important work on its draft general recommendation 40 on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems. He additionally acknowledged the Committee’s preparatory work for a general recommendation on gender stereotypes. The elimination of gender stereotypes was an essential condition for women’s full enjoyment of all human rights and their equal participation in decision-making.
He informed that the Office of the High Commissioner and the Inter-Parliamentary Union jointly published the second revised edition of the Committee’s “Handbook for Parliamentarians” on the Convention in four languages. The revised Handbook was launched on 22 June at a hybrid event at the Inter-Parliamentary Union headquarters. It aimed to serve as a practical tool for parliamentarians so that they could better understand relevant obligations and standards under the Convention and domesticate them through national law-making. It drew on the guidance of the Committee and other relevant mechanisms and showcased national good practices in implementing the Convention.
On 25 September, the Human Rights Council held its annual discussion on the integration of a gender perspective throughout the work of the Council and that of its mechanisms, which focused on gender parity as a key element of gender equality and how it contributed to the integration of a gender perspective in the work of international human rights bodies. The panel discussion was opened by the Deputy High Commissioner, Nada Al-Nashif, and took stock of the progress achieved and remaining challenges to achieve parity in the Council, its mechanisms and other international human rights bodies and ensure a more balanced participation of women and men in decision-making processes.
On 27 September, the Council convened its annual half-day panel discussion on the rights of indigenous peoples under the theme “The impact of certain development projects on the rights of indigenous peoples, in particular the impact on indigenous women”. The panel was opened by the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ilze Brands Kehris. It focused on land rights, access to natural resources, cultural preservation and socio-economic opportunities. Recalling the Committee’s general recommendation 39 on the rights of indigenous women and girls, the concept note for the panel highlighted that indigenous women’s lack of legal title to indigenous territories left them susceptible to the adverse impact of development projects without their free, prior and informed consent. It also recalled that opposition to non-consensual development projects subjected many indigenous women human rights defenders to threats, violence, killings, harassment, arbitrary detention and the criminalisation of their work.
The Council would also adopt several resolutions with a focus on women’s rights and gender equality, including on care and support for the first time, on the prevention of maternal mortality and morbidity, and the right to education of every girl in the context of climate change.
The Office of the High Commissioner continued to support the strengthening of the treaty bodies. Mr. Ori expressed hope that the conclusions adopted by the Chairs of the treaty bodies at their 35th annual meeting held in New York in May and June 2023 would, based on the Office of the High Commissioner Working Paper on options for the development of an implementation plan for the predictable review calendar, the harmonization of working methods and the digital uplift, have the potential to significantly improve the Committee’s work and that of the treaty body system as a whole. The Chairs agreed to establish a coordination mechanism for the simplification and harmonisation of the Committees’ working methods and substantive coordination on common and intersectional issues. The Chairs also considered the options for the rolling out of the eight-year predictable review calendar, including intermittent follow-up reviews, and stated that they were in line with the conclusions reached at their 34th annual meeting in 2022. The Chairs confirmed that any of the options for the introduction of an eight-year predictable schedule of reviews and the further digitalisation of their work could be implemented by all human rights treaty bodies only if the necessary resources could be provided by Member States. The High Commissioner would convene an informal briefing with Member States on 1 November 2023 in Geneva to solicit the views and preferences of Member States on the options and guiding questions in the Office of the High Commissioner Working Paper. In a subsequent process, the High Commissioner intended to reach out to Member States in the spring of 2024 in New York. These steps might lead to an emerging consensus among Member States on the options contained in the Office of the High Commissioner Working Paper. The discussions both in Geneva and in New York would facilitate the development of the next biennial General Assembly resolution on the human rights treaty body system in December 2024, which should include a budget to implement the conclusions.
An imbalance persisted between existing resources and the needs of treaty bodies’ work. Their work was increasing in quantitative terms and in substantive scope. The staffing shortage significantly impacted on their work, but also had a detrimental effect on the work-life balance of each relevant Secretariat staff member, who regularly went beyond the call of duty. It was essential that the treaty bodies joined hands in making the limitations of the system visible, particularly to Member States who created it to effectively deliver in the interest of the people the Committee served.
Saying he was aware that the Committee had a heavy programme ahead for the next three weeks, including notably constructive dialogues with nine States parties, Mr. Ori wished the Committee a successful and productive session.
The Committee then adopted its agenda and programme of work for the session.
ANA PELÁEZ NARVÁEZ, Committee Chairperson, expressed deep concern and solidarity regarding the situation in Israel and Palestine, and hope that peace would be re-established soon. Because of the conflict, Committee Expert Daphna Hacker of Israel was not able to join the present session.
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, Belize, Botswana, Cape Verde, Chad, Congo, Greece, Monaco, Nepal, New Zealand and Vietnam 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.
LETICIA BONIFAZ ALFONZO, Committee Expert and Chairperson of Pre-Sessional Working Group, introduced the report of the pre-sessional working group for the eighty-sixth session, which met from 27 February to 3 March 2023 in Geneva.
The working group prepared lists of issues and questions in relation to the reports of Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, the Republic of Korea and Sri Lanka, in addition to lists of issues and questions prior to the submission of the reports of Argentina, Australia and Trinidad and Tobago under the simplified reporting procedure. The pre-sessional working group had the reports of these States parties, with the exception of Argentina, Australia, and Trinidad and Tobago, which would submit their periodic reports in response to the respective lists of issues prior to reporting. It 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. In preparing the lists, the pre-sessional working group paid particular attention to the States parties’ follow-up to the concluding observations of the Committee on their previous reports. The pre-sessional working group benefited from written and oral information submitted by entities of the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations, as well as by national human rights institutions.
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-sixth session, take on report reviews that had been postponed from previous sessions, for Albania, Bhutan, France, Guatemala, Jamaica, Malawi, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Uruguay.
BRENDA AKIA, on behalf of 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 Committee’s eighty-fifth session, follow-up letters outlining the outcomes of assessments of follow-up reports were sent to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark and Moldova. Only the follow-up report of Denmark was to be considered during the present eighty-sixth session. For the present session, the Committee had received follow-up reports from Kyrgyzstan, received early, and Pakistan, received with more than one year of delay.
Produced by the United Nations Information Service in Geneva for use of the media;
not an official record. English and French versions of our releases are different as they are the product of two separate coverage teams that work independently.
CEDAW23.026E