Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women concludes sixty-sixth session

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Adopts Concluding Observations on the Reports of Ukraine, Ireland, Jordan, El Salvador, Germany, Sri Lanka, Rwanda and Micronesia
 
GENEVA (3 March 2017) - The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this afternoon concluded its sixty-sixth session after adopting concluding observations and recommendations on the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in Ukraine, Ireland, Jordan, El Salvador, Germany, Sri Lanka, Rwanda and Micronesia.
 
The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations on the eight reports will be available shortly on the webpage of the session.  Press releases on the public meetings in which the reports were considered can be found here.
 
During the session, in addition to considering the reports of the States parties, the Committee held public informal meetings with non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions to discuss the situation in the countries whose reports were considered.  It also looked at individual complaints, as well as inquiries under the Optional Protocol to the Convention, in closed meetings.
 
At the beginning of the closing meeting, Rosario Manalo, Committee Rapporteur, introduced a draft report enclosing the concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of the States parties considered.  The Committee then adopted the concluding observations.  Ms. Manalo further introduced the draft report of the Working Group of the Whole and the provisional agenda for the sixty-seventh session, which were then adopted by the Committee.  Finally, the Committee adopted the report of the sixty-sixth session.   
 
Dalia Leinarte, Committee Chairperson, in her closing remarks, recapitulated that the Committee had adopted concluding observations on eight States parties and approved the list of issues prior to reporting concerning Luxembourg under the simplified reporting procedure.  The Committee was pleased by the high level of engagement of national human rights institutions and local non-governmental organizations.  The Committee was also thankful to those United Nations entities and other inter-governmental bodies which had provided it with detailed information, including the Inter-Agency Group on CEDAW Reporting.  Ms. Leinarte expressed her satisfaction with the progress achieved in implementing General Assembly resolution 68/268 on treaty body strengthening by deciding on word limits to annexes to State party documentation and resolving to revise Committee-specific reporting guidelines in light of the Sustainable Development Goals.
 
Ms. Leinarte thanked the Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals for having prepared the Committee’s contribution to the 2017 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.  She also acknowledged the good progress made by the Working Group in charge of updating General Recommendation No. 19 on violence against women.   Progress had also been made in the Committee’s work under the Optional Protocol on individual communications, as the Committee had adopted three final decisions.  The thematic briefing organized by the Center for Reproductive Rights was appreciated. 
 
The sixty-seventh session of the Committee will take place in Geneva from 3 to 21 July 2017, when the Committee will consider the reports of Barbados, Costa Rica, Italy, Montenegro, Niger, Nigeria, Romania, and Thailand.

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