OFFICE OF HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVISION FOR ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN CONVENE CAIRO SEMINAR ON IMPLEMENTATION OF ANTI-DISCRIMINATION RECOMMENDATIONS

16 December 2005


Over 50 experts are coming together in Cairo, Egypt, from 19 to 22 December 2005 to discuss ways and means of fully implementing, in six countries of Northern Africa, the recommendations addressed to them by the UN bodies charged with monitoring respect for the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

The seminar, hosted by the Government of Egypt and organized jointly by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women/Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DAW/DESA), in cooperation with the National Council for Women in Egypt (NCW), is directed at Government officials, representatives of national human rights institutions and of civil society coming from Algeria, Egypt, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.

The seminar aims to strengthen the capacity of Governments to implement the concluding observations/comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and to build networks of partners to support them in this process. It will provide an opportunity for participants to exchange national experiences on the implementation of both Conventions and follow-up on the recommendations of both Committees. An open dialogue is encouraged among all participants with a view to gaining a better understanding of factors impeding the full implementation of treaty body recommendations at the national level. The seminar will also focus on the importance of strengthening coordination among state constituencies and civil society in the process of preparing reports for the Committees and in the follow-up of their recommendations.

Representatives of United Nations entities, Committee members and representatives of the League of Arab States will also participate in the seminar.

The seminar is part of a series of events convened to strengthen implementation of treaty body recommendations. Other workshops were held in Quito, Ecuador, in 2002; Damascus, Syria, in 2003; Bangkok, Thailand and Doha, Qatar, in 2004 and in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2005. It is the first time that a workshop is taking place on the follow-up to concluding observations/comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination

against Women.

For use of the information media; not an official record