Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women concludes seventy-first session

Adopts Concluding Observations on the Reports of Nepal, Republic of the Congo, the Bahamas, Samoa, Mauritius, Tajikistan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic

GENEVA (9 November 2018) - The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women concluded today its seventy-first 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 Nepal, Republic of the Congo, the Bahamas, Samoa, Mauritius, Tajikistan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.

The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations on the eight reports will be available shortly on the webpage of the session.  Meetings coverage releases on the public meetings in which the reports were considered can be found here.

The Committee adopted the report of the seventy-first session.

Dalia Leinarte, Committee Chairperson, in her concluding remarks, summed up the Committee’s work during the session, including considering the reports of eight States parties and adopting concluding observations and recommendations on them, holding informal meetings with non-governmental organizations and one national human rights institution, and attending several lunchtime briefings by non-governmental organizations.  The Committee was happy with the high level engagement with Nepal’s national human rights institution and its local non-governmental organizations.  The Chair also thanked United Nations entities and intergovernmental organizations that provided it with information.  The Committee had made good progress in endorsing the concept note for the global recommendations on trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration, and in discussing its scope and content.  She commended the Committee’s working group on the sustainable development goals for presenting revised reporting guidelines, which would go a long way in tracking progress on the implementation of the goals.  The Committee had adopted eight follow-up assessments and improved its follow-up working methods.  They had also made good progress in their work under the Optional Protocol on individual communications, adopting two final decisions and a document on working methods for individual communications.  The Chair said the Committee had held interesting exchanges with the Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice, the Human Rights Committee, and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences.

The seventy-second session of the Committee will be held from 18 February to 8 March 2019 in Geneva when the Committee will consider the reports of Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Botswana, Bulgaria, Colombia, Ethiopia, Serbia and the United Kingdom.

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For use of the information media; not an official record