Seventy-Second Session Of The Committee On The Elimination Of Discrimination Against Women Opens In Geneva

Committee Elects New Bureau after New and Re-Elected Committee Experts Make the Solemn Declaration

GENEVA (18 February 2019) - The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this morning opened its seventy-second session, hearing a statement by Orest Nowosad, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.  The Committee elected its new bureau, heard the solemn declaration of new and re-elected Committee members, and adopted the agenda and programme of work for the session.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Nowosad recalled that this year marked the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and called upon the Committee Experts as its custodians to continue to work to unleash its full potential and break pernicious cycles of subjugation of women and gender inequality that transcended generations.  The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the General Assembly’s resolution on the intensification of efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls: sexual harassment, adopted in December 2018, would inform the Committee’s work elaborating its new General Recommendation on trafficking in women and girls in the context of international migration. 

Dalia Leinarte, outgoing Committee Chairperson, said that the number of States parties to the Convention and its Optional Protocol remained 189 and 109, respectively, while a total of 74 States had accepted the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention concerning the Committee’s meeting time.  The Chair thanked all for their support during her tenure, recalling that over the past two years, the Committee had adopted three General Recommendations, revised its reporting guidelines integrating the Sustainable Development Goals’ targets and indicators, and expanded and intensified its cooperation with United Nations Women and other United Nations entities.

The Committee elected its new bureau: Hilary Gbedemah of Ghana as the Committee Chairperson, and Bandana Rana of Nepal, Gladys Acosta Vargas of Peru and Nicole Ameline of France as Vice-Chairs.  The election of a Committee Rapporteur was postponed due to technical reasons. 

At the beginning of the meeting, new Committee members made their solemn declaration: Ms. Hiroko Akizuki of Japan, Ms. Tamader Alrammah of Saudi Arabia, Ms. Ana Pelaez Narvaez of Spain, Mr. Elgun Safarov of Azerbaijan, Ms. Genoveva Tisheva of Bulgaria, and Ms. Franceline Toe Bouda of Burkina Faso.

The re-elected members of the Committee also made their solemn declaration: Ms. Gladys Costa Vargas of Peru, Ms. Louiza Chalal of Algeria, Ms. Naela Gabr of Egypt, Ms. Lia Nadaraia of Georgia, and Ms. Aruna Devi Narain of Mauritius.

The Committee this morning adopted the provisional agenda and organization of work for the seventy-second session, and heard reports on the status of the follow-up reports and on the pre-session working group, as well as updates on the activities by Committee Experts in the intersessional period. 
During its seventy-second session, to be held from 18 February to 8 March, the Committee will review reports of Colombia, Antigua and Barbuda, Ethiopia, United Kingdom, Angola, Serbia and Botswana.  The Committee will also examine the exceptional report of Myanmar on the situation of Rohingya women and girls in northern Rakhine state.  All the documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage.

The webcast of the Committee’s public meetings can be accessed at http://webtv.un.org/.

The Committee will reconvene in public today at 3 p.m. to meet with representatives of non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions from Colombia, Antigua and Barbuda, and Ethiopia, whose reports it will review this week.

Opening Statement

OREST NOWOSAD, Chief, Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, recalled that this year marked the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.  With its 189 States parties, the Convention remained one of the near-universally ratified human rights treaties, but also one with the highest number of reservations.  Women continued to be under-represented in politics, access to sexual and reproductive health services and products remained restricted, sexual violence in conflict was still rife, and gender-based violence against women and girls continued unabated.  Mr. Nowosad called upon the Committee Experts, as the custodian of the Convention, to continue to work to unleash its full potential and break pernicious cycles of subjugation of women and gender inequality that transcended generations.  The Committee’s side event on the margins of the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2019 in New York would launch the fortieth anniversary celebrations and would explore the linkages between the Convention and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Mr. Nowosad recalled that the United Nations General Assembly had adopted in December 2018 the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the first-ever United Nations global agreement on a common approach to international migration.  Under its objective 10 - most relevant for the Committee’s work on the new General Recommendation on trafficking in women and girls in the context of international migration – Member States committed to take measures to prevent, combat, and eradicate trafficking in persons in this context and to enhance the identification and protection of migrants who were victims of trafficking by paying particular attention to women and children.  The General Assembly’s resolution on trafficking in women and girls invited States to intensify efforts aimed at the speedy disposition of cases of human trafficking and take measures to promote the responsible use of the media, particularly the Internet, with a view to eliminating the exploitation of women and children.  Those were some of the issues that would inform the Committee’s half-day general discussion on 22 February in the process of elaborating its new General Recommendation, Mr. Nowosad said.

One of two other resolutions by the General Assembly that were relevant to the Committee was a resolution on the intensification of efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls: sexual harassment, focused on school-related violence against girls which continued to represent an important barrier to their education.  The second resolution on women, disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control was important in light of the Committee’s General Recommendation N°30 on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations, and would be relevant to the panel that the Committee would hold on 1 March under the theme “Strengthening synergies between the Convention and the women, peace and security agenda”.  In the context of the treaty bodies strengthening process, Mr. Nowosad recognized the Committee’s work on a position paper that would highlight the progress made in the implementation of resolution 62/268 and urged it to develop pragmatic recommendations that would foster the effective protection of the rights of women and girls.

A Committee Expert agreed on the need to strengthen the universality of rights and place women at its forefront, including in the context of migration and the 2030 Agenda, whose focus should be on leadership of women.

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

New and re-elected Committee members made their solemn declaration, and the Committee adopted the agenda and programme of work for the seventy-first session. 

DALIA LEINARTE, Outgoing Committee Chairperson, said that since the last session, the number of States parties having ratified or acceded to the Convention had remained at 189, and that the number of States parties having accepted the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention concerning the Committee’s meeting time had increased from 74 to 77 after acceptance by Samoa, Montenegro and Oman.  A total of 126 States parties to the Convention were currently required to accept the amendment in order to bring it into force.  The number of States parties to the Optional Protocol had remained at 109.  Five States parties had submitted their periodic reports since the beginning of the last session, namely Afghanistan, Latvia, Kiribati, Moldova and Zimbabwe, while Spain and Qatar had indicated their preference for the simplified reporting procedure and had submitted common core documents that were less than five years old.

The Chair thanked all for their support during her tenure, recalling that over the past two years, the Committee had adopted three General Recommendations, on gender-based violence against women, on education, and on gender-related dimensions of disaster risk reduction in the context of climate change, and had initiated the drafting of a new one on trafficking of women and girls in the context of global migration.  The Committee had revised its reporting guidelines, integrating the Sustainable Development Goals’ targets and indicators, and had expanded and intensified its cooperation with United Nations Women and other United Nations entities.  The Chair also stressed the Committee’s endorsement of the San José Guidelines against intimidation or reprisals and its active role in addressing reprisals against those who cooperated with it. 

The Chair and other Committee Experts provided an update on their activities during the intersessional period.

Election of the Bureau

The Committee elected its new bureau in a closed meeting.  Hilary Gbedemah of Ghana, representing the African region, was elected as the Committee’s new Chairperson, while
Bandana Rana of Nepal, representing the Asia-Pacific region, Gladys Acosta Vargas of Peru, representing the Latin America and the Caribbean region, and Nicole Ameline of France, representing the Western European and others region, were elected as Vice-Chairs. 

The election of the Rapporteur was postponed to another time due to technical reasons.

Pre-Sessional Working Group and the Follow-Up

WENYAN SONG, Committee Expert, said that the pre-sessional working group for the seventy-second session had met from 23 to 27 July 2018 in Geneva, and that it had prepared lists of issues and questions with regard to the reports of Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Botswana, Colombia, Ethiopia, Serbia and the United Kingdom.  In preparing the lists of issues and questions, the pre-sessional working group had paid particular attention to States parties’ follow-up to the Committee’s previous concluding observations, concluded Ms. Song.

HILARY GBEDEMAH, Committee Chairperson and Rapporteur on the Follow-up Procedure, briefed the Committee about the status of the follow-up reports received in response to the Committee’s concluding observations.  At the end of the seventy-first session, follow-up letters outlining the outcome of assessments of follow-up reports had been sent to Azerbaijan, France, Gabon, Japan, Mongolia, Russia, Turkey and Vanuatu.  The first reminder regarding an overdue follow-up report had been sent to Albania, Haiti, Mali, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tanzania.  The Committee had received follow-up reports from Argentina, Estonia and the Netherlands on time, Ghana with a 24-month delay, Lebanon with an 11-month delay, Philippines with a two-month delay, and Uruguay with a four-month delay.  During the current session, first reminders regarding the submission of follow-up reports should be sent to Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burundi and Canada.

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