Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Opens Ninetieth Session
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this morning opened its ninetieth session, hearing a statement from Andrea Ori, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section of the Human Rights Treaties Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and hearing the solemn declarations of eight newly elected Committee Members. The Committee also adopted its agenda for the session, during which it will review the reports of Belize, Belarus, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo (exceptional report), Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Opening the session, Mr. Ori congratulated the eight new members of the Committee who officially assumed their duties today and congratulated the four Committee Members who were re-elected for the term 2025–2028. This year marked the commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which was unanimously adopted by 189 States in September 1995 at the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women held in Beijing. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action laid out a vision for ensuring women’s human rights and achieving gender equality around the world.
However, Mr. Ori said, despite considerable progress on gender equality in the past 30 years, the world was still far from achieving this vision. Approximately one in three women globally experienced physical and/or sexual violence during their lifetime. Sexual violence against women and girls was used as a tactic of war in numerous conflicts. Gender parity in decision-making remained a distant goal, with only 26 per cent of parliamentarians in the world being women. At the upcoming fifty-ninth session of the Human Rights Council, the President of the Council would convene the annual high-level panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming under the theme “Thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action”, supported by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Women and other agencies. 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. 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. Since the last session, Cook Islands, Fiji, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Romania, Solomon Islands, Togo and Tuvalu had submitted their periodic reports to the Committee.
The following eight new Committee Members made their solemn declaration: Hamida Al-Shukairi (Oman), Violet Eudine Barriteau (Barbados), Nada Moustafa Fathi Draz (Egypt), Mu Hong (China), Madina Jarbussynova (Kazakhstan), Jelena Pia-Comella (Andorra), Erika Schläppi (Switzerland), and Patsilí Toledo Vasquez (Chile).
In a private meeting following the opening, the Committee will elect a new Chair and Bureau for 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.
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.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women’s ninetieth session is being held from 3 to 21 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 in public at 3 p.m. this afternoon with representatives of national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations and the Working Group on business and human rights.
Opening Statement by the Representative of the Secretary-General
ANDREA ORI, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section of the Human Rights Treaties Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, congratulated the eight new members of the Committee who officially assumed their duties today: Hamida Al-Shukairi (Oman), Violet Eudine Barriteau (Barbados), Nada Moustafa Fathi Draz (Egypt), Mu Hong (China), Madina Jarbussynova (Kazakhstan), Jelena Pia-Comella (Andorra), Erika Schläppi (Switzerland), and Patsilí Toledo Vasquez (Chile). He also congratulated the four Committee Members who were re-elected for the term 2025–2028: Corinne Dettmeijer-Vermeulen (Netherlands), Nahla Haidar El Addal (Lebanon), Bandana Rana (Nepal), and Natasha Stott Despoja (Australia).
Mr. Ori said this year marked the commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which was unanimously adopted by 189 States in September 1995 at the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women held in Beijing. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action laid out a vision for ensuring women’s human rights and achieving gender equality around the world. However, despite considerable progress on gender equality in the past 30 years, the world was still far from achieving this vision.
Approximately one in three women globally experienced physical and/or sexual violence during their lifetime. Sexual violence against women and girls was used as a tactic of war in numerous conflicts. Gender parity in decision-making remained a distant goal, with only 26 per cent of parliamentarians in the world being women. In economic life, women occupied only 28.2 per cent of management positions. About 800 women and girls still died every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.
Moreover, the world was witnessing a backlash against women’s human rights and gender equality, especially against women’s sexual and reproductive health rights, with an increase in attacks against abortion providers, shrinking civic space for women human rights defenders, and reduced funding. In that context, Mr. Ori welcomed the Committee’s timely work on a new general recommendation on gender stereotypes, which would be kicked off with the half-day of general discussion on gender stereotypes on 17 February from 3 to 6 pm. The thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action presented a key opportunity to renew the commitments made by Member States to ensure women’s rights and achieve gender equality.
At the upcoming fifty-ninth session of the Human Rights Council, the President of the Council would convene the annual high-level panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming under the theme “Thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action”, supported by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Women and other agencies. The panel, to be held on 24 February, would be opened by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, and possibly the Secretary-General, António Guterres, and would discuss progress and challenges in protecting women’s rights and gender equality. Committee expert Nahal Haidar would be one of the panellists. Together with United Nations Women, the Office was also planning a side event during the session which would focus on the pushback against women’s rights and gender equality in the context of humanitarian action.
Mr. Ori said last year had been particularly challenging, due to the liquidity crisis which had hampered and continued to hamper the Committee’s work. The Office was doing its utmost to ensure that the Committee and other treaty bodies could implement their mandates, however, all indications pointed to a continuation of the difficult liquidity situation for the foreseeable future. The treaty body strengthening process had reached a key moment, with the adoption of the biennial resolution on the treaty body system by the General Assembly in December 2024. On Human Rights Day last year, the Geneva Human Rights Platform, in cooperation with the Office and the Directorate of International Law of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, organised an informal meeting of the Chairs and the Committees’ focal points on working methods, which explored the latest developments concerning the treaty body system and sought to identify possible ways to improve the harmonisation of procedures. Mr. Ori said the Office of the High Commissioner would continue to work alongside the Chairs and all the treaty body experts to strengthen the system. He concluded by wishing the Committee a successful and productive session
Statements by Committee Experts
ANA PELÁEZ NARVÁEZ, Committee Chairperson, called on the eight newly elected members to make their solemn declarations to the Committee. She also congratulated those who had been re-elected.
The Committee then adopted its agenda and programme of work for the session.
Ms. Peláez Narváez said that since the last session, the number of States parties that had ratified the Convention had remained at 189. 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. She was pleased to inform that since the last session, Cook Islands, Fiji, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Romania, Solomon Islands, Togo and Tuvalu 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 Chair and Committee Experts then discussed the activities they had undertaken since the last session.
Ms. Peláez Narváez said as the pre-sessional Working Group for the ninetieth session was cancelled due to the ongoing liquidity situation of the United Nations, there was no report of the pre-sessional Working Group to be presented. The Committee had subsequently decided to consider the pending reports from the following States parties at this ninetieth session: Belize, Belarus, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo (exceptional report), Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
BRENDA AKIA, Alternate Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations, speaking on behalf of NATASHA STOTT DESPOJA, Committee Rapporteur, 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-ninth session, follow-up letters outlining the outcome of assessments of follow-up reports were sent to Bolivia, Türkiye, South Africa, Morocco and Azerbaijan. Reminder letters were sent to Mongolia, Namibia, Portugal and the United Arab Emirates. For the present session, the Committee had received follow-up reports from Belgium, Gambia, Sweden and Switzerland, all received on time; and from Portugal, received with more than five months’ delay.
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