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

Committee on Elimination of Discrimination
against Women

28 February 2020

ROUNDUP RELEASE

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women concluded today its seventy-fifth session, after adopting concluding observations and recommendations on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Eritrea, Kiribati, Latvia, Pakistan, Republic of Moldova and Zimbabwe.

The Committee adopted its report for the session, presented by Committee Rapporteur Lia Nadaraia, and the provisional agenda for the seventy-sixth session.

In her concluding remarks, Hilary Gbedemah, Committee Chairperson, said that, in addition to adopting the concluding observations on the eight reports, the Committee had held meetings with civil society, national human rights institutions, United Nations entities and other inter-governmental bodies. 

At the forty-third session of the Human Rights Council, the Committee had participated in a high-level panel discussion "Accelerating the commitments of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action".  It had adopted three important decisions, on its contribution to the Beijing+25 Review, on the interventions of national human rights institutions during the dialogue with States parties and on Committee's input to draft list of issues prior to reporting of other treaty bodies. 

The intervention by the Ombudsman of Bulgaria during the dialogue with the State party, the first-ever intervention by a national human rights institution, had occurred at the session.  Ms. Gbedemah also highlighted the Committee's statement on the case of the detained Saudi women rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul.

The Committee had made good progress on its working methods, on the revision of the first draft of the general recommendation on trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration and on the follow-up to concluding observations, having adopted eight follow-up assessments.  It had adopted seven final decisions under the Optional Protocol and made progress on confidential inquiries and individual communications, concluded the Chair. 

The Committee's concluding observations and recommendations on the countries reviewed will soon be available on the session's webpage, where other documents relating to the Committee's work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found. 

Summaries of the Committee's public meetings in English and French can be read at the United Nations Office at Geneva News and Media page, while the webcasts can be viewed at http://webtv.un.org/.

The Committee will hold its seventy-sixth session from 22 June to 10 July 2020 in Geneva, during which it will review the reports of Bahrain, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Gabon, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Mongolia and Panama.

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For use of the information media; not an official record

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