COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN OPENS SEVENTY-SIXTH SESSION

This is the Committee’s First-Ever Remote Session

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this morning opened its seventy-sixth session, its first-ever held remotely. It heard a statement by Ibrahim Salama, Chief, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, as well as a joint statement on behalf of non-governmental organizations by International Women’s Right Actions Watch Asia Pacific. The Committee also adopted its agenda and organization of work.

Mr. Salama, noting that this was the first-ever remote session of the Committee, said it demonstrated how treaty bodies could advance their crucial work through creative working methods despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic had had an impact on human rights and, in particular, women’s rights. Because of the health risks and travel restrictions related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Office, in coordination with the United Nations Office at Geneva, had announced that physical meetings requiring the travel of participants would be suspended until the end of this summer. As it could not be predicted how the situation would evolve, the treaty bodies had to be prepared for all possible scenarios, including the worst-case scenario that no more in-person meetings could be convened this year. The persistent late and underpayment of assessed contributions had reached the stage where the continuation of activities was being disrupted by the lack of resources. In this regard, he thanked the Committee for its genuine commitment to keep the treaty body system functioning. The pandemic should not paralyze the treaty body system when it was needed most.

Hilary Gbedemah, Committee Chairperson, said that the number of States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women remained at 189. The number of States which had accepted the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention concerning the Committee’s meeting time remained at 80. She noted that Chile had ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on 12 March 2020, bringing the total number of States parties to the Optional Protocol to 114.

International Women’s Right Actions Watch Asia Pacific, delivering a joint statement on behalf of 22 non-governmental organizations, said the COVID-19 pandemic had exposed the shortcomings and systemic failures of many governments; questioned the efficiency of national institutions, including gender machineries, and the effectiveness of their plans and programmes; uncovered enormous inequalities and decades of misplaced priorities; and exacerbated persisting gender discrimination. The Committee should notably call on all States parties to apply gender-based analysis to all economic stimulus and recovery policies and packages, and prioritise the needs and rights of marginalised and vulnerable groups.

The Committee adopted the provisional agenda and organization of work for the seventy-sixth session, and heard updates on the intersessional activities by its Chair and several Committee Experts.

The Committee’s session will take place remotely from 28 June to 9 July, during which the Committee will hold an informal briefing for States parties on its draft general recommendation on trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration. Dialogues with State parties have been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Documentation, including the agenda and the programme of work, can be found at the session webpage .

The webcast of the Committee’s public meetings can be accessed at http://webtv.un.org/. Meeting summaries in English and French are available on the Meetings Summaries page of the United Nations Office at Geneva website.

The Committee will reconvene in public on Tuesday, 30 June at 12.30 p.m. to hear from the Rapporteur for follow-up reports, and conclude the opening meeting. This will be webcast at the following link .

Opening Remarks

IBRAHIM SALAMA, Chief, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights , noting that this was the first-ever remote session of the Committee, said it demonstrated how treaty bodies could advance their crucial work through creative working methods despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic had had an impact on human rights and, in particular, women’s rights. Confinement and other restrictions on freedom of movement had exposed women and girls to an increased risk of domestic, sexual, economic, psychological and other forms of gender-based violence by abusive partners, family members, and care persons, and in rural communities. The COVID-19 crisis had adversely affected women in low-paid jobs and in informal, temporary or other precarious forms of employment, with no or limited access to social protection. School closures had negatively affected girls’ continued education and relegated many women and girls to stereotyped roles in domestic work. In addition, overburdened health systems and reallocation of resources had undermined women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health services, to name but a few examples.

At a time when the relevance of multilateral institutions was being questioned by the rise of nationalism, populism and a rapidly evolving global humanitarian and human rights crisis, it was crucial to strengthen the United Nations human rights treaty body system. The 2020 review of the treaty body system had been launched on 2 June, by the co-facilitators, who would seek written contributions from Member States and hold informal consultations in July in New York and Geneva. They would also hold dialogues with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, treaty bodies, civil society, national human rights institutions and other stakeholders to seek their contributions. This would be an opportunity for the voice of treaty bodies to be heard, including on the issue of adequate financial resources so that they would be able to carry out their mandated activities. A non-exhaustive list of issues that could be used as a guide in formulating the submissions has already been sent to stakeholders. The co-facilitators were planning to draft the report and outline recommendations to the current President of the General Assembly during the month of August.

Turning to the forty-fourth session of the Human Rights Council, Mr. Salama pointed out that two panels of the annual full-day discussion on the human rights of women, if confirmed, would be held virtually on 13 and 14 July. The first panel would focus on “Accountability for women and girls in humanitarian settings.” The second one would centre on “COVID-19 and women’s rights.” The Committee’s COVID-19 guidance note had formed part of the background documentation for the second panel.

Because of the health risks and travel restrictions related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Office, in coordination with the United Nations Office at Geneva, had announced that physical meetings requiring the travel of participants would be suspended until the end of this summer. As it could not be predicted how the situation would evolve, the treaty bodies had to be prepared for all possible scenarios, including the worst-case scenario that no more in-person meetings could be convened this year. In addition, the current liquidity crisis facing the United Nations was likely to exacerbate this situation. The persistent late and underpayment of assessed contributions had reached the stage where the continuation of activities was being disrupted by the lack of resources. In this regard, he thanked the Committee for its genuine commitment to keep the treaty body system functioning. The pandemic should not paralyze the treaty body system when it was needed most.

In the discussion that followed, an Expert noted that such remote meetings should really only be exceptional, as the Convention did not provide for them. Another Expert said remote meetings simply did not work and should not be considered as official meetings. An Expert underlined that the platform used for this meeting was not accessible and thus prevented the full participation of all Committee Experts.

Adoption of the Agenda and Organization of Work and the Report of the Chairperson

Committee Experts adopted the agenda.

HILARY GBEDEMAH, Committee Chairperson, said that the number of States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women remained at 189. The number of States which had accepted the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention concerning the Committee’s meeting time remained at 80. She noted that Chile had ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on 12 March 2020, bringing the total number of States parties to the Optional Protocol to 114. Saint Kitts and Nevis had submitted its initial report and six States parties had submitted their periodic reports to the Committee since the beginning of the last session, namely China, the Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Mongolia, Namibia and Uganda. Also since the Committee’s last session, 10 States parties had informed the Committee of their decision to submit their future periodic reports under the simplified reporting procedure: Argentina, Bhutan, Belarus, The Gambia, Honduras, Lithuania, Netherlands, Niger, the State of Palestine and Thailand.

The Chair of the Committee and Committee Experts then provided an update on their respective activities during the intersessional period.

Statement on Behalf of Non-governmental Organizations

International Women’s Right Actions Watch Asia Pacific , delivering a joint statement informed by the contributions and inputs of 28 women’s rights organizations from over 22 countries, said the COVID-19 pandemic had exposed the shortcomings and systemic failures of many governments; questioned the efficiency of national institutions, including gender machineries, and the effectiveness of their plans and programmes; uncovered enormous inequalities and decades of misplaced priorities; and exacerbated persisting gender discrimination. As with other health crises, it had disproportionately affected women who were already marginalised, criminalised and living in financially precarious situations. While the pandemic presented opportunities for fundamental change, it could also be used as a pretext to roll back on human rights and gender equality. The pandemic had significantly aggravated the risks of gender-based and sexual violence against women and girls, and disrupted their access to existing support services and justice, in some cases compounded by extreme poverty. The allocation of resources to the COVID-19 response in some countries had diverted funding and attention from other health issues, directly undermining women’s health and wellbeing. The COVID-19 crisis had exposed inequalities in the employment sector and the wage and safety divide for women-dominated occupations.

What was more, the crisis had further worsened conditions for women migrant workers in sectors such as hospitality, cleaning and domestic work. Sex workers had experienced hardship, a total loss of income and increased discrimination and harassment. Gender stereotypes in domestic roles, and multiple burdens due to additional tasks at home under quarantine conditions, had affected women’s health considerably. The crisis had highlighted the structural and institutional racism which Afro-descendant and indigenous populations, particularly women and girls, historically suffered in many countries. Most responses to the pandemic lacked adequate gender perspective and disability inclusion, creating new barriers. Requirements for legal identification documents at healthcare facilities overlooked the health needs of trans and gender-diverse people. The Committee should notably call on all States parties to apply gender-based analysis to all economic stimulus and recovery policies and packages, and prioritise the needs and rights of marginalised and vulnerable groups ; allocate adequate resources to strengthen the public health system, and shift money from military expenditure to healthcare, social protection and economic recovery ; and ensure the provision of all healthcare services related to COVID-19 without stigma or discrimination of any kind, including on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

CEDAW20.013E