Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Opens Eighty Third Session in Geneva

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this morning opened its eighty-third session, hearing a statement from Andrea Ori, Director of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and adopting its agenda for the session, during which it will review the reports of Armenia, Belgium, Finland, Gambia, Honduras, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Switzerland, and Ukraine.

Mr. Ori commended the Committee on its efforts to address the situation of women and girls in armed conflict, through the State reporting procedure and two dedicated task forces. This included the task force on Ukraine, established in February 2022, which sought to monitor the situation of Ukrainian women and girls through engagement with national and international stakeholders as well as with other treaty bodies. The Committee’s concluding observations, following the dialogue with Ukraine next week, would guide Ukraine in addressing violations of women’s rights in conflict-affected areas.

The Human Rights Council, at its fifty-first session, held its annual discussion on the integration of a gender perspective throughout the work of the Council, discussing the theme “overcoming gender-based barriers to freedom of opinion and expression”. Mr. Ori said gender stereotypes and discrimination, increasingly exacerbated by populist, misogynistic and fundamentalist discourse, continued to result in the suppression, control and punishment of the voices of women and girls. The Committee had a key role in countering the backlash against women’s rights and gender equality, addressing these barriers, and ensuring women could play a transformative role in society.

Gladys Acosta Vargas, Chairperson of the Committee, said that since the last session, the number of States parties that had ratified the Convention had remained at 189. The total number of parties that had ratified the Optional Protocol remained at 115. At the last session, the Committee decided to make the simplified reporting procedure the default procedure for the submission of State party reports to the Committee. In response, 12 States parties had indicated they wished to opt out and maintain the traditional reporting procedure.

The Committee adopted the agenda and programme of work of the session.

Corinne Dettmeijer-Vermeulen, Committee Expert and Chairperson of the Pre-Sessional Working Group, and Natasha Stott Despoja, Committee Rapporteur on Follow-up, briefed the Committee on their work.

The Chair and Committee Experts then discussed their intersessional activities undertaken since the last session.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women’s eighty-third session is being held from 10 to 28 October. All the documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage. Meeting summary releases can be found here. The webcast of the Committee’s public meetings can be accessed via the UN Web TV webpage.

The Committee will next meet in public at 3.30 p.m. this afternoon for an informal meeting with non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions.

Statements

ANDREA ORI, Director of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, commended the Committee on its efforts to address the situation of women and girls in armed conflict, through the State reporting procedure and two dedicated task forces. This included the task force on Ukraine, established in February 2022, which sought to monitor the situation of Ukrainian women and girls through engagement with national and international stakeholders and other treaty bodies. The Committee’s concluding observations, following its dialogue with Ukraine next week, would guide Ukraine in addressing violations of women’s rights in conflict-affected areas. The task force on Afghanistan continued to follow up on the Committee’s request for an exceptional report on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan, which was the first interaction by a treaty body with the Afghan de facto authorities. The situation of women and girls in Afghanistan remained dire. At the fifty-first session of the Human Rights Council, Committee member Bandana Rana participated in the enhanced interactive dialogue on the situation of human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, held with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan.

Mr. Ori said as part of the session of the fifty-first Human Rights Council, the annual discussion on the integration of a gender perspective throughout the work of the Council was held, discussing the theme “overcoming gender-based barriers to freedom of opinion and expression”. Gender stereotypes and discrimination, increasingly exacerbated by misogynistic discourse, continued to result in the suppression and punishment of the voices of women and girls. Women played a crucial role in fighting systemic racial discrimination, but today there were growing threats to women and girls who spoke out in defence of rights. Around the world, there was stigmatisation, harassment and outright attacks against women who were active in the public sphere, such as women human rights defenders, women journalists and politicians. The Committee had a key role in countering the backlash against women’s rights and gender equality, addressing these barriers, and ensuring women could play a transformative role in society.

The annual half-day panel discussion on the rights of indigenous peoples focused on the “impact of social and economic recovery plans in the COVID-19 context on indigenous peoples, with a special focus on food security”. The Committee’s draft general recommendation on the rights of indigenous women and girls, which was one of the background documents for the panel, stressed that indigenous women and girls played a key role in their communities as custodians, food producers and guardians of native seeds, and as workers involved in food and water security. Mr. Ori commended the Committee on the participatory and inclusive process with multiple consultations of indigenous women, which would culminate in the adoption of the general recommendation at the session.

The Chairs of the treaty bodies had endorsed a comprehensive proposal at their thirty-fourth annual meeting in June, where the Chairs unanimously agreed to establish a predictable schedule of State reviews, with an eight-year cycle for full State reviews and follow-up reviews in between. To implement the predictable schedule, it would be necessary to increase resources for the treaty bodies and their Secretariats to ensure adequate support for all mandated activities. It was hopeful that the necessary support from Member States would be forthcoming, which required a collaborative effort between the Office of the High Commissioner and treaty body experts.

During the eighty-third session, the Committee would hold constructive dialogues with eight State party delegations and meet with numerous other stakeholders, including to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Committee. Mr. Ori said the Office looked forward to the outcomes of the deliberations of the Committee and concluded by paying tribute to Committee members participating in their last session - Gladys Acosta Vargas, Tamader Al-Rammah, Louiza Chalal, Naéla Gabr, Lia Nadaraia, Aruna Devi Narain and Franceline Toe Bouda – whose contributions to the Committee’s work had been significant.

A Committee Expert welcomed the work done by the Chair to reform the treaty bodies. The robustness of the treaty body system was a necessary requirement. Attaining the Committee’s mission required stronger mobilisation, including States. It was hoped that States would consider contributions as an important strategic action.

Another Committee Expert underlined how important treaty bodies were, saying there had been a battle to preserve their role. The Committee played an essential role in strengthening the rights of women, which should not be forgotten in the current global context.

One Committee Expert said that treaty bodies could be weakened for superficial reasons, including the lack of resources. This included difficulty for travel. It was unacceptable that the Committee continued to be faced with less and less resources and it was hoped this could be solved together.

A Committee Expert said there were many things planned for this year, adding that coordination between all treaty party bodies were vital. The Committee had good cooperation with other Committees; implementation with the entire United Nations system was important.

Another Committee Expert was gratified at the progress being made in the treaty body strengthening process. The space for women was shrinking, which was disconcerting. The Expert underlined the need to strengthen women’s economic rights and their prominence in the public sphere.

One Committee Expert welcomed Mr. Ori and acknowledged the contribution of his predecessor. The importance of communicating with stakeholders was vital, to ensure they recognised the treaty body mechanism as their allies, which was important for ensuring the future of the treaty body system.

ANDRE ORI, Director of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, said he was overwhelmed by the kind messages and said there were many challenges both within the United Nations system and multilateralism, and also with the pandemic, where women and young girls had suffered the most. Human rights were the weakest pillar of the United Nations, receiving only four per cent of the global budget. Winter was coming which brought with it many challenges. There was a need to be politically savvy, persistent, and open minded, always looking for alternative solutions, while pushing the boundaries. If the Committee did not keep pushing, change would not happen. Everyone needed to work together to improve the situation.

GLADYS ACOSTA VARGAS, Committee Chairperson, said since the last session, the number of States parties that had ratified the Convention had remained at 189. Similarly, the number of States parties that had accepted the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention concerning the Committee’s meeting time remained at 80. One hundred and twenty-six States parties to the Convention were currently required to accept the amendment to bring it into force. The total number of parties that had ratified the Optional Protocol remained at 115.

At the last session, the Committee decided to make the simplified reporting procedure the default procedure for the submission of State party reports to the Committee. In response, 12 States parties had indicated they wished to opt out and maintain the traditional reporting procedure.

CORINNE DETTMEIJER-VERMEULEN, Committee Expert and Chairperson of Pre-Sessional Working Group, said the pre-sessional Working Group for the eighty-third session met remotely from 28 February to 4 March 2022 due to the pandemic. The Working Group prepared lists of issues and questions regarding the reports of Albania, Costa Rica, France, the Gambia, Malawi, Sao Tomé and Principe and Timor Leste, in addition to a list of issues prior to reporting for Belarus. The pre-sessional Working Group benefited from written and oral information submitted by entities and specialised agencies of the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations as well as written information from national human rights institutions.

NATASHA STOTT DESPOJA, Committee Rapporteur on Follow-up, briefed the Committee on the status of the follow-up reports received in response to the Committee’s concluding observations. At the end of the eighty-second session, follow-up letters outlining the outcome of assessments of follow-up reports were sent to Bulgaria, Cambodia, Latvia and Seychelles. As the Committee could not adopt any concluding operations during its seventy-sixth session, which was held virtually in June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no follow-up reports were due for submission in June 2022. Therefore, no reminders were sent following the eighty-second session, and no follow-up reports were scheduled to be considered at this session. Ms. Stott Despoja said that on 27 June 2022, Zimbabwe sent a note verbale, informing the Committee it would submit its follow-up report, which was initially due in February 2022, in November 2022.