CEDAW Committee and MESECVI co-Chairship 2024-2025

CEDAW Committee and MESECVI co-Chairship 2024-2025

The CEDAW Committee and the Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI) took over the co-Chairship of the EDVAW Platform in March 2024.

WGDAWG Chairship 2023-2024

The United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women and girls (WGDAWG) chaired the EDVAW Platform from 1 February 2023 to 29 February 2024.

Under WGDAWG’s leadership, the EDVAW Platform focused on the need to unite against the escalating backlash against women’s and girls’ rights through strong joint actions against rollbacks and a proactive agenda to advance and protect the human rights of all women and girls. A central component of the Platform’s work in countering these rollbacks was to mobilize increased support for girls’ and young women’s activism. The WGDAWG organized and coordinated a virtual briefing on the EDVAW Platform for CSOs in preparation for CSW67 on 28 February 2023. The WGDAWG coordinated the 2023 International Women’s Day statement on 8 March joined by six of the seven EDVAW mechanisms, as well as the EDVAW statement on the occasion of the 2023 International Day of the Girl Child on 11 October. Moreover, the WGDAWG coordinated the EDVAW Platform’s joining of the 2023 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 25 November statement led by UN Women as part of the UNITE initiative. The EDVAW Platform continued to garner public and political support for preventing and combating gender-based discrimination and one of its most brutal manifestations, violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, on the basis of existing international and regional legal instruments, notably the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, known as the Istanbul Convention, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women, known as the Belém do Pará Convention (both of these regional instruments open to universal accession), and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, known as the Maputo Protocol.

GREVIO Chairship 2022-2023

The Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) chaired the EDVAW Platform from 1 February 2022 to 31 January 2023.

Under GREVIO’s leadership, the EDVAW Platform focused on the digital dimension of violence against women and girls, which resulted in the adoption and publication of the Platform’s first thematic paper, on the digital dimension of violence against women as addressed by its seven mechanisms, but also in the organisation of a side event at the CSW meeting in March 2022, on building a common front against the digital dimension of violence against women. In addition, on the occasion of the 50th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Platform held its first in-person meeting, in Geneva, and issued a statement on further joint action to address online and technology-facilitated violence against women.

SR VAWG Chairship 2018-2022

The Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences (SR VAWG) chaired the EDVAW Platform from its formal launch on 12 March 2018 until 31 January 2022.

The four years of leadership by the SR VAW highlighted the contributions of international and regional mechanisms towards the prevention and response to violence against women, including on the occasion of the 25-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action. It underlined the linkages and synergies between the different mechanisms at key international fora, such as the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and UN leadership, kickstarting regular meetings with the UN Secretary General and also heads of the regional organizations, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Regular meetings took place over the years by the Platform in the regions themselves where thematic priorities were identified, such as engagement on violence against women in politics. Joint statements were also issued on a range of issues, such as rape, femicide, violence in the world of work, and child custody.