Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women concludes seventieth session

ROUNDUP RELEASE

Adopts Concluding Observations on the Reports of Australia, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, State of Palestine, and Turkmenistan

GENEVA (20 July 2018) - The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women concluded today its seventieth session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in Australia, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, State of Palestine, and Turkmenistan.

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.

Dalia Leinarte, Committee Chairperson, in her concluding remarks reminded that the Committee had adopted a joint statement with the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on “Guaranteeing sexual and reproductive health and rights for all women, in particular women with disabilities,” which still needed to be approved by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as a framework of cooperation with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on sexual violence in conflict.  The Chairperson also expressed satisfaction with the Committee’s progress in implementing the General Assembly resolution 68/268 on treaty body strengthening by endorsing the San José Guidelines against intimidation or reprisals, appointing a rapporteur and an alternate rapporteur on intimidation or reprisals, and scheduling the lists of issues prior to reporting to be prepared at the next pre-sessional working group sessions under the simplified reporting procedure.

The Committee had made good progress in the new Working Group on trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration in discussing the scope and content of the concept note for the draft General Recommendation on that topic.  The Chairperson commended the Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals for having introduced a new standard paragraph on the Sustainable Development Goals in the Committee’s concluding observations.  The Committee had also achieved good progress in its work under the Optional Protocol on individual communications, namely with respect to the confident inquiry procedure.  Finally, the Committee had held exchanges with the Independent Expert on violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and an informal meeting with the World Health Organization officials on substantive and policy issues in relation to women’s health.    

The Committee adopted the report of the seventieth session.

The seventy-first session of the Committee will be held from 22 October to 9 November 2018 in Geneva when the Committee will consider the reports of Bahamas, Congo, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mauritius, Nepal, Samoa, Tajikistan, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

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For use of the information media; not an official record