COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN ELECTS NEW BUREAU

Committee on Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women


20 January 2009

The Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women this morning elected its new board, electing by consensus a new Chairperson, Naela Gabr, as well as three vice-chairpersons and a Rapporteur. It then heard a presentation of the report of the pre-session Working Group for the forty-third session, and heard a presentation of two agenda items, namely implementation of article 21 of the Convention and ways and means of expediting the work of the Committee.

Addressing the Committee, Ms. Gabr said she wished to thank Ms. Simonovic for her work as Chairperson, as well as those who had supported her for election. She called for the understanding of the Committee to help her meet their expectations and fulfil the work of the Committee, to protect the rights of women throughout the world.

The Committee also elected by consensus Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, Violeta Neubauer, Silvia Pimentel and Xiaoqiao Zou as the other Members of the Bureau, with Ms. Neubauer as Rapporteur.

The Committee then considered agenda item 6, namely the Consideration of reports submitted by State Parties under article 18 of the Covenant.

Violeta Neubauer, Chairperson of the pre-session working group for the forty-third session, said the working group had met from 21-25 July 2008, with the participation of a number of Experts. It benefited from the submission of information from a wide range of sources, including United Nations bodies. The Working Group also received written information from NGOs, and heard an oral presentation from a network of NGOs. The list of issues and questions adopted by the working group were transmitted to the nine State Parties concerned.

Jane Connors, Secretary of the Committee, presenting two agenda items of the Convention, namely on the implementation of article 21 of the Convention, and on ways and means of expediting the work of the Committee, said with respect to the first item, article 21 of the Convention provided that the Committee could make suggestions and general recommendations based on the examination of reports and information received from State Parties. Work had continued on the general recommendations on article 2, and the Committee would be briefed on progress achieved. A working paper on a general recommendation on older women would also be provided to members. Article 22 of the Convention provided that specialised agencies should be entitled to be represented during the consideration of the implementation of such provisions of the Convention as fell within the scope of their activities, and that the Committee could invite the specialised agencies to submit reports on the implementation of the Convention in those areas.

In terms of item 8, the Committee had before it, as usual, a report on ways and means of enhancing the work of the Committee, containing information provided by the Secretariat, comments made by the Committee and information on developments in the human rights regime. This report discussed developments in respect of human rights treaty bodies and the Human Rights Council. The report provided information on State Parties to be considered at future sessions and approaches of other treaty bodies to comments submitted by State Parties on concluding observations.

The Committee's next public session will be at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 21 January, when it is scheduled to take up the implementation of the Covenant in Dominica, in the absence of a report.

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For use of the information media; not an official record