COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN OPENS FIRST SESSION IN GENEVA

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this morning opened its first session in Geneva, hearing a statement by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. It then heard the report of the Chairperson on activities undertaken between the thirty-ninth and fortieth sessions of the Committee, the report of the pre-session Working Group on consideration of reports submitted by States parties, and an introductory statement on the implementation of article 21 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and on ways and means of expediting the work of the Committee. The Committee also adopted its agenda and programme of work for the session.

Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said High Commissioner Louise Arbour believed that the presence of the Committee in Geneva would greatly contribute to strengthening the treaty body system and the current endeavours towards a harmonized, well-coordinated and integrated approach. The Committee would also push the entire human rights agenda forward by prioritising women’s rights and gender mainstreaming, in particular through its future relations with the Human Rights Council. Over the last 25 years of its existence, the Convention and the Committee’s guidance to States parties had been deeply influential in shaping law, policy, and programmes to eliminate discrimination against women and achieving their full equality with men. The Committee continued to be active in efforts to enhance the human rights treaty body system. The Committee’s sustained efforts to enhance its working methods were therefore highly appreciated.

Dubravka Simonovic, Chairperson of the Committee, said this fortieth session was a historic one - after 25 years of work, the servicing of the Committee had been transferred to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and most of its future sessions would take place in Geneva. This consolidation of the servicing of the treaty bodies was surely an important step in the continuing harmonisation of the human rights treaty bodies system. As the Committee began its fortieth session in its new home, it had much work ahead of it, and Ms. Simonovic said she was confident that it would take full advantage of the new opportunities to forge strong links with the human rights machinery and other partners in Geneva.

Heisoo Shin, Chairperson of the pre-session Working Group, introducing the report of the Working Group, said the Working Group met from 16 to 20 July 2007, and was composed of eight Committee Members. It examined 16 reports by States parties for the forty and forty-first sessions, and produced a list of issues and questions for the fortieth session.

Jane Connors, of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said concerning the Committee’s ability to make suggestions and general recommendations based on the examination of reports and information received from States parties, the Office had been working on this, and would brief the Committee during the session. Other Committees provided States parties the means of commenting on suggestions and recommendations, and the Committee could consider this also. The Committee had before it a report on ways and means of enhancing the work of the Committee.

The next meeting of the Committee will be at 3 p.m. this afternoon when it will hold an informal public meeting with non-governmental organizations. On Tuesday 15 January, at 10 a.m., it will take up the second, third and fourth periodic reports of Bolivia (CEDAW/C/BOL/2-4).

Statement by Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights

KYUNG-WHA KANG, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the High Commissioner was committed to ensuring that the Convention and the Committee enjoyed the highest status, visibility and authority and she believed that the presence of the Committee in Geneva would greatly contribute to strengthening the treaty body system and the current endeavours towards a harmonized, well-coordinated and integrated approach. The Committee would push the entire human rights agenda forward by prioritising women’s rights and gender mainstreaming, in particular through its future relations with the Human Rights Council. The Office would seek to ensure that the Committee’s work was integral to any new structure within the United Nations that might be entrusted with the promotion of gender equality. Over the last 25 years of its existence, the Convention and the Committee’s guidance to States parties had been deeply influential in shaping law, policy, and programmes to eliminate discrimination against women and achieving their full equality with men. The Office was confident that the Committee’s imaginative and creative approach to substance and procedure would ensure that it was at the forefront of efforts to ensure that the human rights treaty body system was recognised as innovative, accessible and visible.

Since the Committee’s last session, the Human Rights Council had held its sixth session, and completed its task of institution-building. A welcome decision reached by the Council was to feed the outputs of the treaty bodies - concluding observations and views on individual complaints and inquiries - into the Universal Periodic Review process. The Committee could therefore find it useful to reflect on the implications of the Universal Periodic Review for its work, as well as how it might best use the inputs into and output of the process. During its sixth session, the Council had adopted a resolution on integrating the human rights of women throughout the United Nations system, which recognised the important work of the Committee and the Commission on the Status of Women in promoting equality between women and men, and in fighting discrimination against women. By the resolution, the Council also decided to incorporate into its programme of work sufficient and adequate time to discuss the human rights of women, including measures that could be adopted by States and other stakeholders to address human rights violations experienced by women.

The Committee continued to be active in efforts to enhance the human rights treaty body system, Ms. Kang said. Challenges persisted in making the system more visible and accessible, and the Office would continue its work to enhance awareness and understanding of the treaty body system, as well as to facilitate the implementation of treaty body recommendations at the national level. The sixty-second session of the General Assembly was very busy, with numerous issues relating to the work of the Committee being discussed. A resolution 62/218 had been adopted, with the key outcome for the Committee being the Assembly’s approval of extension of the Committee’s meeting time in 2008/9 to five sessions, and three sessions annually from 2010. Looking ahead to the future, the Committee would certainly continue to face a heavy workload, particularly as the Universal Periodic Review process was likely to encourage submission of reports to human rights treaty bodies. The Committee’s sustained efforts to enhance its working methods were therefore highly appreciated.

Report of the Chairperson of the Committee

DUBRAVKA SIMONOVIC, Chairperson of the Committee, on the activities undertaken between the thirty-ninth and fortieth session of the Committee, said this fortieth session was a historic one - after 25 years of work, the servicing of the Committee had been transferred to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and most of its future sessions would take place in Geneva. This consolidation of the servicing of the treaty bodies was surely an important step in the continuing harmonisation of the human rights treaty bodies system. Ms. Simonovic had represented the Committee at the sixty-second session of the General Assembly, and had focused her intervention on the Committee’s request for an extension of its meeting time. The General Assembly had positively responded to this request, and had given the Committee the flexibility to undertake its own planning for the 2008/9 biennium. The Assembly had also authorised the Working Group on Communications under the Optional Protocol to meet three times a year, allowing it to adhere to a more systematic schedule in its work.

The Committee’s informal meeting held from 23 to 26 October 2007 had been attended by 15 Committee members. The agreements reached at that meeting were reflected in one of the documents before the Committee at the session, and these would be reviewed with a view to taking action thereon during the session. This would include in particular discussion and action on treaty-specific guidelines on reporting, and the Committee should also reflect further on its interaction with national human rights institutions, and continue its efforts on a harmonised approach with respect to such institutions. Other items discussed included the follow-up to concluding comments, a general recommendation on article 2 of the Convention, and relations with the Human Rights Council, especially concerning its discussion on mainstreaming the gender perspective into its work.

As the Committee began its fortieth session in its new home, it had much work ahead of it, and Ms. Simonovic said she was confident that it would take full advantage of the new opportunities to forge strong links with the human rights machinery and other partners in Geneva. The efforts of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to ensure a smooth transfer of the servicing of the Committee were very much appreciated, and the Committee looked forward to the expert support that the Office would be providing to it in all aspects of its work. The Committee likewise looked forward to safeguarding and reinforcing strong institutional linkages between the Committee and the Division for the Advancement of Women, as well as any future United Nations gender equality architecture.

Report of the Pre-Session Working Group for the Fortieth Session

HEISOO SHIN, Chairperson of the pre-session Working Group, said the Working Group met from 16 to 20 July 2007, and was composed of eight Committee Members. It examined 16 reports by States parties for the forty and forty-first sessions, and produced a list of issues and questions for the fortieth session. Only two things were peculiar to the Working Group: it had discussed that instead of using the term “women in vulnerable situations”, it would use “situations of vulnerable groups of women”. Some Experts wished to have the documents before the pre-session started. Representatives from one NGO from Yemen had participated and NGOs were encouraged to participate in the work of the pre-session Working Group. The list of issues and questions for eight States parties to be examined in the fortieth session were arranged under the headings of subjects.

Introduction of the implementation of article 21 of the Convention on the Committee’s ability to make suggestions and general recommendations based on the examination of reports and information received from States parties, and on ways and means of expediting the work of the Committee

JANE CONNORS, of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said concerning the Committee’s ability to make suggestions and general recommendations based on the examination of reports and information received from States parties, the Office had been working on this, and would brief the Committee during the session. Other Committees provided States parties with the means of commenting on suggestions and recommendations, and the Committee could consider this also. The Committee could invite specialised agencies to submit reports on the implementation of the Convention. The Committee had before it a report on ways and means of enhancing the work of the Committee, including comments by the Secretariat. This report discussed developments in respect of the Human Rights Council, issues raised at the General Assembly, information on the sixth informal meeting of the Committee, implications of the transfer of servicing of the Committee, and reports to be considered at future sessions. The annexes identified States which had not ratified or acceded to the Convention, as well as other elements. The documentation had been provided to Committee Members.

For use of the information media; not an official record

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