Discrimination and violence against women remain major challenges, Chair of CEDAW tells UN General Assembly

NEW YORK (12 October 2009) -- Discrimination and violence against women based on patriarchal attitudes are the two main challenges facing national implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, according to Naéla Gabr, Chair of the committee of experts that monitors the world-wide implementation of this treaty.

This is frequently "played out in the persistence of discriminatory laws and practices in States parties all over the world", she noted as she addressed the United Nations General Assembly’s Third Committee this morning.

The Convention "has transformed the lives of many" women, she said, and "has encouraged significant changes" in many countries, including in relation to laws, policies and programmes. However, the potential of the Convention "to bring about change at the national level has not been exploited to the full, much as a result of its lack of visibility and accessibility, and resource constraints." The Convention will be 30 years old this year, she noted, which provides an opportunity for governments to commit to raising its visibility and impact. Our ultimate goal should be the increase of ratifications of both the Convention and its Optional Protocol and the withdrawal of reservations, she said.

"Violence against women in the context of armed conflicts remains widespread and largely unpunished," she stated. "In this regard, the Committee welcomes the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1888 in which the Council affirmed that it would consider the prevalence of rape and other forms of sexual violence when imposing or renewing targeted sanctions in situations of armed conflict and requested that the United Nations Secretary-General appoint a Special Representative to provide coherent and strategic leadership, to work effectively to strengthen existing United Nations coordination mechanisms, and to engage in advocacy efforts, in order to address all forms of violence against women in armed conflict including sexual violence."

Commenting on the working methods of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (known as CEDAW) which she chairs, Ms. Gabr noted that over the past three years the Committee had alleviated the backlog of States parties’ reports awaiting review. "The Committee intends to continue its efforts to ensure that incoming reports are considered in a timely manner and monitor the implementation of the Convention in States parties with long overdue reports," she said. Currently 186 countries are party to the Convention.

"The Committee has worked hard to make its concluding observations more concrete and country specific," she said, and has "introduced a follow-up procedure whereby it includes a request to individual States parties in the concluding observations to provide information on steps taken to implement a small number of specific recommendations contained in those concluding observations within one or two years."

Ms. Gabr said that the Committee had taken a consistent interest in the question of United Nations reform as it relates to gender equality and she congratulated the General Assembly on its recent decision to create a new "gender entity". At its next session, the Committee will discuss ways and means to ensure that its interaction with this new entity is effective for a better implementation of the Convention.

The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women: