Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women opens sixty-fourth session

Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women

4 July 2016

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this morning opened its sixty-fourth session, hearing a statement from Kate Gilmore, Deputy United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and adopting its agenda and programme of work for the session. 

In her opening statement, Ms. Gilmore said that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development framed the vision for the work over the next decade and a half.  It was unprecedented because of the promise not to leave anyone behind, which was also a promise to address marginalization and exclusion and ensure that no one was locked out of the freedom to exercise their rights.  The Agenda remained critical for the rights and situation of women, in particular young women, whose situation was a deal-breaker in very young countries, which were also those that were lagging behind in sustainable development, suffered adverse impacts of climate change and were more prone to conflicts.  The Deputy High Commissioner stressed the high hopes and expectations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, given its central and valuable role to play in the achievement of the goals of the 2030 Agenda and in addressing gender-based stereotypes and gender-based discrimination.

Yoko Hayashi, Chairperson of the Committee, noted with satisfaction that Monaco had acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention, bringing the total number of States parties to 107.  The number of States parties to the Convention remained at 189, and the number of States parties having accepted the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1 on the Convention concerning the meeting time of the Committee remained at 70.  Five States had submitted their periodic reports since the beginning of the last session: Kenya, Oman, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, New Zealand and Fiji, while Monaco had submitted its initial report.  Burkina Faso and Montenegro had submitted electronic versions of the reports previously submitted in hard copy, and Mauritius had submitted an updated common core document thus meeting the criteria to present its overdue eighth report under the simplified reporting procedure.

The Committee adopted the provisional agenda and organization of work for the sixty-fourth session, and heard reports on the status of the follow up reports and on the pre-session working group for the sixty-fourth session, as well as updates on the activities conducted by the Committee Experts in the intersessional 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 the Philippines, Myanmar, and France, whose reports the Committee will consider this week.

Opening Statements

KATE GILMORE, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, in her opening remarks, said that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development would provide a framing vision for work over the next decade and a half.  This Agenda was unprecedented not only because it had been unanimously accepted by States but also because its goals were universal and indivisible, and because of the promise it had made not to leave anyone behind.  Being left behind was the product of being left out, being locked out of the freedom to exercise rights, she said.  The Agenda made a universal promise to address marginalization and exclusion, and this was a fantastic opportunity for human rights.  It remained critical for the rights of women and was absolutely crucial to elevating the status of women, removing impediments to the realization of the human rights of women, and bringing women to the negotiating and decision-making table.  One crucial issue was the situation of young women: the world had never seen this many adolescents before, and the countries that were lagging behind in sustainable development, suffered adverse impacts of climate change and were more prone to conflicts were those with the youngest population.  The average age in Austria was 46, it was 44 in Germany, while it stood at 17 in Yemen and 15 in Uganda – this meant that in those countries, the situation of young women was the deal-breaker, stressed Ms. Gilmore. 

In this, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women had a central and valuable role to play and was crucial in addressing gender-based stereotypes and gender-based discrimination.  Ms. Gilmore recognized the challenges facing the Committee in this task, including the lack of resources and continuous increase in the workload.  The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was delighted by the Human Rights Council’s adoption of resolutions on violence against women, in particular indigenous women and girls, on the elimination of female genital mutilation, on the right to education, and on the establishment of the mandate on violence and discrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons.  The Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights noted the disagreements between States during the adoption of those resolutions, particularly on issues of abortion, sexuality education, and the extension of the mandate of the Working Group on the elimination of discrimination against women in law and in practice.  In closing, Ms. Gilmore said that the role of the Committee in all those issues would be crucial and thanked the Committee for their leadership.

In the ensuing discussion, Committee Experts remarked that accountability of States for the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was crucial, without which the concrete realization of the human rights of women would not be possible.  The Committee was receiving an increased number of individual complaints, with 46 cases currently pending, but the limited capacity of the Secretariat to process the petitions markedly slowed down the work of the Committee on petitions and the fact that decisions were delivered only several years after the petitions were filed seriously eroded the work of the Committee in this area.  The Committee also needed more substantive support by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and its Secretariat to make it more effective, particularly in terms of data processing and analytics. 

Experts asked about the position of the Office on the proposed Convention on Violence against Women, whether the creation of a new Division in the Office on the Human Rights Council and treaty bodies had resulted in increased synergy between them, which measures would ensure greater visibility of the work of the Committee among other human rights mechanisms and States, and the real role that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights wanted to play in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Responding to questions and issues raised by the Committee Experts, Ms. Gilmore said that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was an operational plan and that the implementation agenda was one which States had already accepted, namely the chapeau of international norms and standards.  The 2030 Agenda was an implementing platform for international human rights treaties, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and this cascade of logic should be driving the implementation of the Agenda.  The whole United Nations family must be ready to change themselves and come together to realize that Agenda.  Expressing her personal views, the Deputy High Commissioner said that United Nations Member States had lost sight of the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter, which opened with the statement “We, the peoples”, and not “We, the nation States”; and talking about persons, meant talking about human rights.  The United Nations had lost sight that its highest duty was to people, and the Agenda introduced a possibility to re-introduce the person at the centre, and not just a bleached person, but a person who had gender, age, culture, ability, etc.  The Agenda promised to leave no one behind, which meant that it was person-centred. 

The Office had increased the capacity building activity of the United Nations system, it had trained United Nations resident coordinators in human rights and introduced human rights in the guidelines for resident coordinators.  Further, the Office had also started a series of the so-called Frontier Dialogues, through which it was bringing the United Nations family together to look at the frontier issues and try to understand what they meant for the future of human rights.  Ms. Gilmore noted the highly constrained resource environment – the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights received only three per cent of the regular budget of the United Nations Secretariat - and said that the Office must get smarter at positioning resources and using tools which would get it a disproportionate change.  Looking at the challenges that the world was facing, the Office was frustrated and wished it could give more to the Committees which were doing life-saving work, because that was what petitions, for example, were.  No one was happy by the rate of the progress in the elimination of violence against women.  Everyone was frustrated at women being exposed to violence in most intimate places, by those they were most intimate with.  The answer was not more guidelines and standards, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was enough; the answer was action, action, action, and more resources.

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 sixty-fourth session.

YOKO HAYASHI, Chairperson of the Committee, presenting her report on activities undertaken since the last session, noted that the number of States parties to the Convention remained at 189, and that the number of States parties having accepted the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1 on the Convention concerning the meeting time of the Committee remained at 70.  The Chairperson was pleased to say that Monaco had acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention, bringing the total number of States parties to 107.  Five States had submitted their periodic reports since the beginning of the last session: Kenya, Oman, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, New Zealand and Fiji, while Monaco had submitted its initial report.  Burkina Faso and Montenegro had submitted electronic versions of the reports previously submitted in hard copy, and Mauritius had submitted an updated common core document and thus had met the criteria to present its overdue eighth report under the simplified reporting procedure.

Ms. Hayashi had participated in the opening of the sixtieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women and had also met with the United Nations Secretary-General on 18 March to brief him on the work of the Committee on the Sustainable Development Goals, gender-based violence against women, disaster risk reduction, and climate change.  From 30 May to 3 June, Ms. Hayashi had attended the twenty-eighth annual meeting of Chairpersons in New York, during which the role of Chairs in relation to procedural matters had been discussed, including on formulating conclusions on issues related to working methods, follow-up to the General Assembly resolution 68/268, the implementation of the Addis Ababa guidelines on the independence and impartiality of members of treaty bodies, and the implementation of the San José guidelines against intimidation and reprisals.

Committee Experts provided an update on their activities during the intersessional period.

Pre-session Working Group Report and the Follow-up

THEODORA NWANKWO, 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 Albania, France, Mali, Myanmar, Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey and Uruguay, as well as a list of issues prior to reporting for Ireland, whose report would be considered at the Committee’s sixty-sixth session.  The list 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 Reporter on Follow-up, briefed the Committee on the status of follow-up reports received from States parties in reply to the Committee’s concluding observations, and said that during the previous session, she had met with representatives of Indonesia who had appreciated the information shared.  Follow-up letters had been sent to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cuba, Greece, Lesotho, Panama, Samoa, South Africa, and Tajikistan, and first reminders of overdue follow-up reports to Andorra and Benin.  The Committee had received delayed follow-up reports from Cambodia, Guyana, Republic of Moldova, Pakistan, Serbia, and Syria, while Finland and the United Kingdom had sent their reports on time.

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