COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN CONCLUDES SIXTY-EIGHTH SESSION

Adopts Concluding Observations on the Reports of Burkina Faso, Singapore, Paraguay, Nauru, Israel, Kuwait, Kenya, Oman, Norway, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Monaco and Guatemala

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this afternoon concluded its sixty-eighth session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in Burkina Faso, Singapore, Paraguay, Nauru, Israel, Kuwait, Kenya, Oman, Norway, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Monaco and Guatemala. The Committee also adopted the report of the session and the provisional agenda for the next session.

The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations on the 12 reports will be available shortly on the webpage of the session. Press releases on the public meetings in which the reports were considered can be found here.

At the beginning of the closing meeting, Rosario Manalo, Committee Rapporteur, introduced the report of the sixty-eighth session, and a draft report enclosing the concluding observations on the reports of the States parties considered. The Committee then adopted the session report and concluding observations. Ms. Manalo further introduced the draft report of the Working Group of the Whole and the provisional agenda for the sixty-ninth session, which were then adopted by the Committee.

In her closing remarks, Dalia Leinarte, Committee Chairperson, said that the Committee had considered the reports of 12 States parties, had adopted concluding observations on those States, and had approved the list of issues prior to reporting concerning one State party under the simplified reporting procedure. The Committee had also held informal meetings with non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions, and had also attended several lunchtime briefings organized by civil society. The Committee was pleased by the high level of engagement of national human rights institutions and local non-governmental organizations. One highlight of the session had been the adoption of the General Recommendation No. 36 on girls’ and women’s right to education. Ms. Leinarte acknowledged the good progress made by the Working Group on gender-related dimensions of disaster risk reduction in the context of climate change, which had enabled the Committee to finalize the first reading of the draft General Recommendation. The Committee had also adopted a joint statement on the occasion of the International Day of the Elimination of Violence against Women, which further reinforced the good cooperation with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Dubravka Simonovic, as well as with the Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice.

Another highlight was the expert panel discussion to launch the new General Recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence against women, updating the General Recommendation No. 19. The large number of States parties and the United Nations, as well as of civil society representatives in attendance attested to the importance of the new General Recommendation. Ms. Leinarte expressed satisfaction with the progress achieved in implementing General Assembly resolution 68/268 on treaty body strengthening. Ms. Leinarte also thanked the Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals for having prepared the briefing by the United Nations Population Fund on Sustainable Development Goal indicators 5.6.1 and 5.6.2 relating to women’s sexual and reproductive health. The Chair of the Working Group, Nicole Ameline, had proposed the holding of a session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2018 in order to disseminate the Committee’s work in reinforcing the implementation and promotion of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its inextricable link with the Convention. Good progress had also been made in the Committee’s work under the Optional Protocol on individual communications: the Committee had adopted three final decisions.

The sixty-ninth session of the Committee will take place in Geneva from 19 February to 9 March 2018, when the Committee will consider the reports of Chile, Fiji, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia and Suriname.



For use of the information media; not an official record


CEDAW/17/45E