Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women opens fiftieth session

Committee on Elimination
of Discrimination against Women

Hears Address by High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this morning opened its fiftieth session, hearing a statement from Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and adopting its agenda and programme of work for the session.

Ms. Pillay said that looking at the current situation of human rights in the world, the international community was faced with towering human rights challenges, such as the food emergency in the Horn of Africa. As in every crisis, women were especially affected: they were the most vulnerable to malnutrition, they struggled to survive as small-scale farmers and they were forced to make difficult choices about how to best care for their families under impossible circumstances. As the debt crisis unfolded in Europe, America and elsewhere, the international community was witnessing a wave of drastic social cuts, which carried the risk of dire repercussions on economic, social and cultural rights, especially in relation to people who were already living in precarious situations, including women with disabilities, minority and indigenous women, older women and rural women.

Ms. Pillay noted that the Human Rights Council had just ended its session, during which the Council held its annual discussion on the integration of gender perspective in its work. The President of the Council, Ambassador Laura Dupuy Lassere, the first women serving in that position, highlighted the need to fight discrimination against women both in law and practice, and also noted that discrimination and violence against women did not just affect women but had repercussions on their families, communities and countries. The Council reiterated the importance it attached to the work of the Committee.

Silvia Pimentel, Chairperson of the Committee, said that at this session, in addition to considering eight periodic reports of Oman, Paraguay, Montenegro, Mauritius, Lesotho, Chad, Kuwait and Côte d’Ivoire, the Committee would also consider cases under the Optional Protocol to the Convention. The Committee would additionally discuss the draft General Comment on the economic consequences of marriage and its dissolution, with a view toward adopting it at the next session. The Committee would also discuss the progress of the draft joint Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women/Committee on the Rights of the Child General Comment on harmful practices and the status of the draft General Comment on the human rights of women in situations of armed conflict and post conflict.

Committee Experts asked questions about follow-up recommendations, budgetary constraints, strengthening the Committees ties with other international organizations, harmonizing the treaty body processes and strengthening them, and the effect of paperless meetings for experts who come from countries with slow internet access, who would not be able to download documents.

Also speaking this morning was Ibrahim Salama, Director of the Human Rights Treaty Division of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, Nicole Ameline, Chairperson of the pre-session Working Group for the fiftieth session, and Dubravka Simonovic, Rapporteur on Follow-Up, in addition to a number of Committee members.
The Committee will reconvene at 3 p.m. this afternoon to hold an informal meeting with non-governmental organizations regarding the situation in Oman, Paraguay, Montenegro, and Mauritius, whose reports will be considered this week.

Statement by High Commissioner for Human Rights

NAVI PILLAY, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that looking at the current situation of human rights in the world, the international community was faced with towering human rights challenges, such as the food emergency in the Horn of Africa. As in every crisis, women were especially affected: they were the most vulnerable to malnutrition, they struggled to survive as small-scale farmers and they were forced to make difficult choices about how to best care for their families under impossible circumstances.

As the debt crisis unfolded in Europe, America and elsewhere, the international community was witnessing a wave of drastic social cuts, which carried the risk of dire repercussions on economic, social and cultural rights, especially in relation to people who were already living in precarious situations, including women with disabilities, minority and indigenous women, older women and rural women.

Ms. Pillay said that she and her staff had devoted considerable attention to critical country situations in the Middle East, North Africa and other parts of the world. The Human Rights Council had led global calls for accountability for gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law by establishing international commissions of inquiry for Libya, Syria and Côte d’Ivoire. The increased attention that the Security Council was paying to human rights was notable. Ms. Pillay said she was increasingly called upon to brief Security Council members about critical situations, as she recently did on Libya, Syria and Sudan. Ms. Pillay and her Office had addressed the Security Council more times in the last three years than they had in the last ten years; and there were always questions about the human rights of women.

As part of their response to the ‘Arab Spring’, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights set up a country office in Tunisia and negotiations were underway to establish a regional office in Egypt. In both countries women played a pivotal role in the protests and likewise should play a prominent role in the political transition. It was clear that women’s true parity with men in any country in transition would be an important factor in the development of society. No country could become a mature democracy if half its population did not enjoy equal rights in law and practice.

The Human Rights Council just ended its session, during which the Council held its annual discussion on the integration of gender perspective in its work. The President of the Council, Ambassador Laura Dupuy Lassere, the first women serving in that position, highlighted the need to fight discrimination against women both in law and practice, and also noted that discrimination and violence against women did not just affect women but had repercussions on their families, communities and countries. The Council reiterated the importance it attached to the work of the Committee.

The Council’s working group on the elimination of discrimination against women in law and practice had taken up its work, and had already established close ties with members of the Committee. It would meet again during the current session, a close collaboration that was welcomed.

In 2009, Ms. Pillay said that she had called upon different stakeholders, including States and civil society organizations, to provide their views and suggestions on ways and means to strengthen the treaty body system. The consultation stage of the process, which started in Dublin in November 2009, continued with different stakeholders in Marrakech, Poznan, Seoul, Sion and Pretoria. The treaty body strengthening process was a priority, however the level of resources never increased to match the growing number of treaty bodies and procedures adopted by them. The capacity to service further meetings was stretched to the maximum. A more dramatic reduction than was anticipated was now foreseen in the budget of the United Nations Secretariat, which would have a further negative impact on its ability to translate documents on time. Further consultations on treaty body strengthening would take place with academics and United Nations actors and selected regional mechanisms this month.

Many key messages were coming out of the meetings held so far. One key demand was that all treaty bodies align their engagement procedures, instead of multiplying them in different forms and formats. The key message of States was clearly one of austerity and self-discipline, particularly in respect of the so-called ‘non mandated activities’ undertaken by nearly all treaty bodies, such as follow-up procedures and the development of General Comments.

As treaty body experts were at the heart of strengthening the treaty body system, they – including this Committee - were the ones that could bring about change and would succeed if they were determined and united around a shared vision. Meanwhile resources were clearly the responsibility of States.

A number of important decisions were taken by the Treaty Bodies’ Chairpersons during their twenty-third meeting. The Chairpersons decided to engage in a drafting process of guidelines on the independence and expertise of members of treaty bodies. While noting that the autonomy and specificity of treaty bodies should be respected, the Meeting of Chairpersons recommended that the Chairpersons be empowered to adopt measures on working methods and procedural matters which were common to all treaty bodies. Chairpersons would consult with their respective committees on those matters in advance and if a treaty body was not in agreement with the measures adopted by the chairpersons, it may subsequently dissociate itself from it.

Ms. Pillay said she was also pleased to announce that the next meeting of Chairpersons (June 2012) would be held in Africa, allowing them to interact with the African regional mechanisms and other local actors.

Finally, Ms. Pillay applauded the welcome trend among the treaty bodies to implement the United Nations greening policy. She said that members could see before them the thousands of pages which had been printed for their folders, most of which would be thrown away at the end of the session. The United Nations as a whole was gradually reducing the production and distribution of hard copy documents and some committees had already conducted paperless sessions. Ms. Pillay said that she understood that the Committee had taken some measures to reduce the production of paper copies during its last two sessions and would like to wholeheartedly encourage the Committee to give serious thought to conducting ‘green sessions’ in the future.

Ms. Pillay wished the Committee a very successful and productive fiftieth session and opened the floor for any questions or comments from the members.

Questions and Comments from Committee Members

A Committee member said that support from the High Commissioner was important in raising the profile of the Committee. On treaty body reform, Ms Pillay had pointed out that States should go in the direction of self-disciplining, via her point about non-mandated activities: it was important for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) that under its convention, article 18, they did have the mandate to do follow-up recommendations.

Regarding budgetary constraints, a member said that the European Union was very involved in issues concerning the economic crisis and as one of the biggest donors in the world, could they strengthen ties between CEDAW and the European Union under Ms. Pillay’s responsibility, in order to focus on and better coordinate actions for women in that strategic part of the world? In parallel how could the Committee strengthen ties with other international organizations? If CEDAW missed this historic opportunity and the example in the Mediterranean region following the conflicts Ms Pillay referred to, they may not get the opportunity again.

Another member said that treaty bodies had huge credibility with States, and any effort to restructure or harmonize treaty body processes should be debated within the Committees, and then adopted within the Committees, before the Chairperson took a decision.

A Committee member asked how the strengthening of treaty bodies would take place, because it would mean more questions and issues would have to be harmonized. Regarding the greening of the United Nations, the member asked that the Committee consider who would be affected by the idea of paperless meetings. It would affect the experts who come from countries with slow internet access, who would not be able to download documents. Many countries in Africa did not have proper internet connections. The printed versions were important because not everyone had sophisticated computers.

A Committee member asked Ms. Pillay whether she could do something to achieve universal ratification on the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Six countries had not ratified yet, and one of those countries was the United States. The United States was a member of the Security Council and an extremely important economic State. The Committee needed to request those who were members of the Security Council to be able to assist countries in the developing world.

High Commissioner’s Response to Questions

NAVI PILLAY, High Commissioner of Human Rights, said the European Union had just passed a law on domestic violence and Ms. Pillay was urging European States to sign up to that document. Regarding the United States, again and again the representatives of the current administration had told her that they were embarrassed at the failing to ratify the Convention and that it had been Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s priority. The administration’s problem was that national legislation had to be passed first.

The other reality was that a financial crisis had hit the United Nations. Every time Ms. Pillay went to the United Nations to say that they must be properly funded those were the answers she had from States. The Committee must decide where they could make cuts. What some States were saying was that follow-up was not specifically provided for in treaties and it was not the intention of States parties to have an additional reporting procedure when CEDAW started work. Ms Pillay said that she agreed, what was the point of coming up with recommendations if there was no way to implement them? Nevertheless, they all had to tighten our belts. The Committees were the victims of their own success. There was great demand for their services and great reliance on their jurisprudence. The Committee must examine where there was a possibility to meet some of the concerns. Ms. Pillay agreed that the Chairpersons should consider obtaining an agenda beforehand, otherwise it was wasted effort.

The next meeting should be in Addis Ababa in Africa, where they could better access the regional human rights commissions. On harmonization, Ms. Pillay could not yet judge the various viewpoints, but suggested the Committee ventilated this amongst themselves and see where they could accommodate and where they could not. She agreed that where they could not compromise was on the mandate of which they had been working in order to be in-line with other treaty bodies.

Regarding the United Nations greening policy, Ms. Pillay could understand the issues raised but said they should make a start wherever they could, because that was the way the world was moving today. The Committee would be able to access millions of people through social media.

Response to Questions

IBRAHIM SALAMA, Director of the Human Rights Treaty Division of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, said the Committee needed to find the common ground between treaty bodies in order to confront Member States with their findings. If Member States saw a little of what was in it for them, then they would be convinced.

Regarding the greening policies, it was very possible that some committees had found it very helpful and were pleased with their greening policies, including committees where there were no members from first-world countries, such as the Committee on the Protection of all Migrant Workers, who had found it a workable solution. Mr. Salama stressed that the facilities – including IT and printing – of the United Nations would always be open to members. He asked that Committee members please kept open minds as there were possibilities.

Report of the Chairperson of the Committee

SILVIA PIMENTEL, Chairperson of the Committee, said that as a Brazilian woman and a women’s rights activist she was proud that President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil was the first woman to open the General Assembly’s main annual debate in its 66 year history. Ms. Pimentel also paid tribute to Nobel Laureate Wangari Muta Maathai, a champion in the global environmental and women’s rights movement who lost her battle with cancer recently. Ms. Maathai’s death had left a gaping hole among the ranks of women leaders and her passing was a loss not only for Kenya and Africa but the entire world.

In the two months since the last session ended Ms. Pimentel said she wished to update the Committee on the status of the Convention and Optional Protocol and also highlight some of the issues she had been engaged in as Chairperson of the CEDAW Committee.
Regarding the Convention, the number of States parties remained at 187. Palau recently signed the Convention on 20 September. Singapore partially withdrew its reservation with respect to articles 2 and 16 of the Convention. The amendment to the Convention currently had 64 Contracting States. There were 102 States parties to the Optional Protocol.

Following the forty-ninth session Ms. Pimentel attended a regional capacity-building training seminar organized by the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defence of Women’s Rights (CLADEM) in Quito, Ecuador, which focused on national and international strategic litigation. Committee members had also been involved in CEDAW related activities as well as other panel discussions and seminars relating to women’s issues.

In addition to considering eight periodic reports of Oman, Paraguay, Montenegro, Mauritius, Lesotho, Chad, Kuwait and Côte d’Ivoire, the Committee would also consider reports under the Optional Protocol to the Convention. The Committee would additionally discuss the draft general recommendation on the economic consequences of marriage and its dissolution, with a view toward adopting it at the next session. The Committee would also discuss the progress of the draft joint Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women/Committee on the Rights of the Child General Comment on harmful practices and the status of the draft General Comment on the human rights of women in situations of armed conflict and post conflict. The Committee would moreover consider reports and information received under its follow-up procedure to concluding observations and would discuss working methods within the context of the on-going discussions on treaty body strengthening. They would furthermore meet with many non-governmental organizations, representatives of human rights institutions and parts of the United Nations family.
The Committee would also hold meetings with the Human Rights Committee and the Working Group on Discrimination Against Women in Law and Practice.

Consideration of reports submitted by State parties under article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

NICOLE AMELINE; Chairperson of the pre-session Working Group for the fiftieth session, introduced the report of the pre-session working group which met from 7 to 11 February 2011 in Geneva, and said that they had prepared lists of issues and questions with respect to the following States parties: Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Kuwait, Lesotho, Mauritius, Montenegro, Oman and Paraguay. The pre-session working group benefitted from written and oral information submitted by United Nations entities and specialized agencies, as well as from non-governmental organizations and a national human rights institution. The lists of issues and questions adopted by the pre-session working group were transmitted to the States parties concerned.

DUBRAVKA SIMONOVIC, Rapporteur on Follow-Up, briefed the Committee on the status of the follow-up reports. In the previous sessions the Committee recommended that additional follow-up information be incorporated into the next periodic reports of the following States parties: Finland, Iceland, Lithuania, Slovakia, United Kingdom, Bahrain, Portugal and Slovenia. At this date the Committee was waiting for the follow-up reports or additional information from the following States parties: Cameroon, Mongolia, Nigeria, Rwanda, El Salvador, Tanzania, Tuvalu, Uruguay and Yemen. In addition, during the current session, a first reminder should be sent to Bhutan, Guinea-Bissau, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Liberia, Spain, Switzerland and Timor-Leste. The Committee also needed to decide on a follow-up procedure with respect to Haiti and Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

Since the last session, follow-up reports had been received in English from Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar and they would be assessed during the current session. The follow-up reports from Armenia, received in Russian on 29 September 2011, Belgium and Madagascar, received in French on 7 September 2011 and 8 August respectively, and Ecuador, received in Spanish on 25 August 2011, would be assessed during the fifty-first session. Finally, since the last session non-governmental organizations had submitted alternative follow-up reports on Japan.

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For use of information media; not an official record