WOMEN’S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE BEGINS TWENTY-NINTH SESSION

Committee on Elimination of
Discrimination against Women
30 June 2003
609th Meeting (AM)



While the number of States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was steadily growing, efforts to engage those who had concerns about ratifying the treaty should not slow down, the Committee charged with monitoring the implementation of that instrument was told at the opening of its twenty-ninth session this morning.

In her opening statement to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Angela E.V. King, Assistant Secretary-General, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, said that, since its January meeting, four States had ratified or acceded to the Convention, bringing the total number of States parties to 174. The growing number of ratifications, however, highlighted the urgent need for an effective reporting system, the main tool for monitoring implementation. She encouraged the Committee to continue to enhance its working methods and to encourage States to adhere to their reporting obligations.

Both Ms. King and Committee Chairperson Ayse Feride Acar, an expert from Turkey, provided updates on activities undertaken since the Committee’s January session. Among the elements that deserved the Committee’s attention, Ms. Acar stressed, was the issue of non-reporting, a very serious matter whereby a State did not adhere to its treaty obligation and, thus, required decisive action on the part of the Committee.

Often described as an international bill of rights for women, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was adopted by the General Assembly in 1979 and entered into force on 3 September 1981. It consists of a preamble and 30 articles, which provide a definition of discrimination against women and set up an agenda for national action to end it.

The Committee also adopted its agenda and programme of work for the current session, which is scheduled to last through 18 July. It is expected to review the reports of eight States parties to the Convention: Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, France, Japan, Morocco, Slovenia and New Zealand. Two of those countries -– Brazil and Costa Rica -– will be reporting for the first time.

During the session, the Committee will also convene a meeting with States whose reports under the Convention have been due for over five years and consider a report of the Secretariat on ways and means of expediting the work of the Committee. It would also examine a number of background papers, including one that profiles non-reporting States, and the text of a draft general recommendation on special temporary measures under article 4.1 of the Convention.

Introducing the report of the pre-session working group, its Chairperson, Goran Melander, noted that lists of issues and questions related to the implementation of the Convention had been dispatched to six countries scheduled to report to the Committee. Among the problems that were still of concern were violence against women, persistence of gender-biased stereotypes and women’s under-representation in positions of power.

Also this morning, the new Chief of the Women’s Rights Section, Christina Brautigam, introduced agenda items 5 (Implementation of article 21 of the Convention) and 6 (Ways and means of expediting the work of the Committee). Three agencies –- Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Labour Organization (ILO) -- had submitted information in compliance with article 21, she stated. Also, Samoa, Gabon, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Guyana and Ireland recently submitted their reports to the Committee.

[Article 21 of the Convention provides that the Committee may make suggestions and general recommendations based on the examination of the reports and information received from States parties. Under this item, the Committee provides opportunities for specialized agencies’ representatives to present information related to the Convention.]

The Committee will continue its work at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, 1 July, when it is scheduled to take up Brazil’s combined initial, second, third, fourth and fifth periodic reports.


Statements

ANGELA E.V. KING, Assistant Secretary-General, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, said that, since the Committee’s January meeting, four States had ratified or acceded to the Convention, including Afghanistan, Syria, Timor-Leste and Sao Tome and Principe, bringing the total number of States parties to 174. Fifty-two States had ratified or acceded to the Optional Protocol, including Timor-Leste, Sweden and Albania. Thirty-nine States had acceded to the amendment to article 20.1 of the Convention on the Committee’s meeting time, the most recent being Japan.

Since the Committee’s last session, the Commission on the Status of Women had focused on women’s human rights and the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, she noted. While it had not been able to reach consensus on a set of agreed conclusions, many delegations had underlined the importance of the issue. The Commission had adopted four resolutions, including on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan, some 10 days after Afghanistan’s ratification without reservations of the Convention. It had also taken a decision regarding the confidential communications procedure on the status of women.

Highlighting some of her recent activities, she had attended the 108th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Chile; the Forum on Gender, Peace and Foreign Policy in Greece; and a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Canada on women in the military. The Division for the Advancement of Women had continued to implement its advisory services for States parties on reporting, follow-up and ratification. In recent weeks, the Division had received requests from several States parties for technical assistance in report preparation. While it did not have resources to support individual States parties in report preparation, it would, on an exceptional basis, be able to assist one or two States using its small existing resources for advisory services.

The strengthening of the reporting process and harmonization of working methods of treaty bodies, an issue high on the agenda of the human rights treaty bodies, deserved the Committee’s full attention, she said. While the Convention was the human rights treaty with the second largest number of ratifications, a number of States parties had not reported or had overdue periodic reports. She encouraged the Committee to continue its efforts to enhance its working methods, improve consideration of reports and encourage States to adhere to their reporting obligations.

Also reporting on recent activities, the Committee’s Chairperson, AYSE FERIDE ACAR, an expert from Turkey, recalled her address to the forty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women, stressing that such interface between the two bodies was a very important aspect of their work. She had also participated in other international meetings, including the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on Human Rights and a “brainstorming meeting” on strengthening the human rights system, which was organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and hosted by the Government of Liechtenstein in May.

The report of that meeting had served as a starting point for the discussions at the second Inter-Committee Meeting, held in Geneva this month, followed by the fifteenth meeting of the chairpersons of human rights treaty bodies, she continued. Those meetings had considered means of strengthening the implementation of human rights treaties; enhancing monitoring, dialogue and follow-up; and achieving better coordination and coherence of the overall treaty system. The meetings put forward a number of recommendations, which the Committee could also consider, including those related to the examination of reports by all treaty bodies, the role of national human rights institutions in reporting, capacity-building, dissemination of concluding comments and their follow-up.

Among the issues that deserved the attention of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was that of non-reporting, she said. Regarding the question of how to deal with the situations where States parties had never reported to the committees or were considerably late in submitting their periodic reports, she said that she had briefed the meetings about the Committee’s gradual approach to handling such cases and informed them about the Committee’s upcoming meeting with States whose reports were more than five years overdue.

Nonetheless, she added, there was a very strong sense in both meetings that non-reporting was a very serious matter, where a State did not adhere to its treaty obligation and, thus, required decisive action on the part of the committees. As for the need to enhance follow-up on the committees’ concluding comments, a variety of means was envisioned, including capacity-building activities by entities of the United Nations system and by non-governmental organizations and civil society.




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