Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women opens sixtieth session

Committee on Elimination of Discrimination 
against Women 

16 February 2015

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this morning opened its sixtieth session, hearing a statement from James Heenan, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and adopting its agenda and programme of work for the session.  The Committee elected a new Bureau, including Yoko Hayashi (Japan) as the new Chairperson.

Mr. Heenan said that 2015 would be a challenging year for the treaty bodies system, with the implementation of General Assembly resolution 62/268 and a particular focus on reducing backlogs, increased harmonization of working methods across treaty bodies and tracking of the progress in the implementation.  Resolution 62/268 reduced the number of working languages of the Committee, which had indicated English, French and Spanish as its standing languages and had requested on an exceptional basis the use of Arabic.  Mr. Heenan updated the Committee on the developments in the elaboration of the Sustainable Development Goals within the post-2015 agenda, and said that Member States were now embarking on negotiations towards its adoption at the United Nations General Assembly Heads of State Summit in September 2015.  The Commission on the Status of Women would review in 2015 the progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 20 years after its adoption at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.

Nicole Ameline, outgoing Chairperson of the Committee, welcomed the new Members and said that since the last session, the ratification status of the Convention and the Optional Protocol had not changed and remained at 188 and 105, respectively.  Twelve States parties had submitted their periodic reports, of which seven had been returned because they had exceeded the limit of 21,200 words established by General Assembly resolution 62/268.  In January 2015, the campaign for the candidature of the Committee for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize had been launched at the French National Assembly.  The Chairpersons of the human rights treaty bodies had adopted two joint statements, on the post-2015 development agenda and on human rights against violence, during their informal meeting held in January 2015 at Wilton Park, United Kingdom.

At the beginning of the meeting, the following new members of the Committee made their solemn oath: Gladys Acosta-Vargas (Peru), Bakhita Al-Dosari (Qatar), Magalys Arocha Dominguez (Cuba), Louiza Chalal (Algeria), Lilian Hofmeister (Austria) and Lia Nadaraia (Georgia), as did re-elected members: Ayse Acar (Turkey), Naéla Gabr (Egypt), Ruth Halperin-Kaddari (Israel), Yoko Hayashi (Japan), Ismat Jahan (Bangladesh), Pramila Patten (Mauritius) and Patricia Shulz (Switzerland).

The Committee elected Yoko Hayashi (Japan) as the new Chairperson, and as Vice-Chairpersons, it elected Barbara Bailey (Jamaica), Naéla Gabr (Egypt) and Dalia Leinarte (Lithuania).  Patricia Schulz (Switzerland) was elected as the Rapporteur.

The Committee heard reports on the status of the follow up reports and on the pre-session working group for the sixtieth session, as well as an update on the activities conducted by the Committee Experts in the intercessional period.

The Committee will reconvene at 3 p.m. this afternoon to hold an informal public meeting with non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions with respect to Gabon, Azerbaijan, Ecuador and Tuvalu, whose reports will be considered by the Committee this week.

Opening Statement

JAMES HEENAN, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in his opening remarks said that 2015 would be a challenging year for the treaty bodies system and would see the increase in meeting time from about 75 weeks to over 100 weeks, which represented a significant burden on the treaty bodies and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights working with them.  General Assembly resolution 62/268 also reduced the number of working languages of the Committee, which had indicated English, French and Spanish as its standing languages and had requested on an exceptional basis the use of Arabic.  In addition to reducing backlogs, the resolution also recognized the need for increased harmonization of working methods across treaty bodies and Mr. Heenan welcomed the decisions the Committee had taken in this regard, such as to offer the simplified reporting procedure to States parties with overdue reports which had submitted an updated common core document.  In terms of tracking the progress in the implementation of resolution 62/268, the United Nations Secretary-General would submit a report every two years, which would be used in the review of the entire treaty bodies system, scheduled in 2020.  Tracking would also include a review of the application of the Addis Ababa Guidelines on the independence and impartiality of members of human rights treaty bodies.

Mr. Heenan then updated the members of the Committee on the developments in the elaboration of the Sustainable Development Goals within the post-2015 agenda, and said that the Secretary-General’s synthesis report “The Road to Dignity by 2030: Ending Poverty, Transforming Lives and Protecting the Planet” summarized progress to date, including the draft goals and targets elaborated by the Intergovernmental Open Working Group in 2014.  Member States were now embarking on negotiations towards adopting the post-2015 development agenda at the United Nations General Assembly Heads of State Summit in September 2015.  Mr. Heenan also said that this year, the Commission on the Status of Women would undertake a review of the progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 20 years after its adoption at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.  The Commission would adopt a political declaration, the draft of which did not make reference to the contribution by the Committee to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action.  In closing, Mr. Heenan noted that the Committee would elect a new Bureau today and thanked the outgoing Chairperson Ms. Nicole Ameline and the Bureau that had served with her.

Committee Experts raised a number of issues in their discussion with Mr. Heenan, including concerning the planned political declaration by the Commission on the Status of Women, and the implication of the reduction of extra-budgetary resources of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the ability of the treaty bodies to deal with inquiries and general recommendations.  Several Committee Experts raised the issue of working languages of the Committee and stressed the importance of Arabic for the work of the Committee beyond regular sessions.  An Expert asked Mr. Heenan to elaborate on the proposal to establish an internal mechanism for the implementation of the Addis Ababa Guidelines.

In response to the questions and comments raised by Committee Experts, Mr. Heenan said that the issue of the contributions by civil society to the declaration by the Commission on the Status of Women and the mention of the Committee would be raised in the meeting with UN Women.  In terms of resources, the first priority was to implement General Assembly resolution 62/268 and reduce the backlog, and it remained to be seen how the resources cut would affect the work on inquiries and general recommendations.  Concerning working languages of the Committee, Mr. Heenan said that treaty bodies were free to choose three, and the fourth language to be used on an exceptional basis for communication between Committee Members. 

Adoption of the Agenda and Organization of Work and the Report of the Chairperson

The Committee adopted the provisional agenda and organization of work for the sixtieth session.

NICOLE AMELINE, outgoing Chairperson of the Committee, presenting her report welcomed the new Members and said that since the last session, the ratification status of the Convention and the Optional Protocol had not changed and remained at 188 and 105, respectively.  Twelve States parties had submitted their periodic reports: the Czech Republic, Haiti, Mongolia, Tanzania, the Netherlands, Albania, Turkey, Argentina, Micronesia, Myanmar, Uruguay and the Philippines; seven had been returned because they had exceeded the limit of 21,200 words established by General Assembly resolution 62/268.  In January 2015, the campaign for the candidature of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize had been launched at the French National Assembly.  During the informal meeting of Chairpersons of the human rights treaty bodies held in January 2015 at Wilton Park, United Kingdom, they had taken stock of progress made since the last Chairpersons’ meeting, prepared for the next one scheduled for June 2015 in Costa Rica and adopted two joint statements, on the post-2015 development agenda and on human rights against violence.  Ms. Ameline also briefed the Committee about her other activities during the inter-sessional period.

After hearing Committee experts speaking about their activities during the inter-sessional period, Ms. Ameline thanked them and stressed the importance of their work in disseminating the knowledge about the Convention and raising awareness about emerging challenges affecting women such as climate change, migrants and others.  She also stressed the need to do everything possible to keep Arabic as a working language of the Committee.   

Pre-session Working Group Report and Follow-up to Concluding Observations

XIAOQIAO ZOU, Committee Expert, briefed the Committee on the pre-sessional working group and said that it had prepared lists of issues with regard to reports of Azerbaijan, Denmark, Ecuador, Eritrea, Gabon, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, and Tuvalu.  The lists of issues and questions, which had focused on themes covered by the Convention, had been transmitted to the States parties concerned.

XIAOQIAO ZOU, Committee Expert and the Rapporteur on Follow-up, spoke about the status of follow-up reports received from States parties in reply to the Committee’s concluding observations.  She said that she had met with representatives of South Africa and that follow-up letters had been sent to Brazil, Costa Rica, Kenya and Montenegro.  First and second reminders had been sent to a number of countries.  The Committee had received delayed follow-up reports from Bulgaria, Jordan and New Zealand, while the Bahamas and the United Kingdom had sent their reports on time.

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