Statement by Dr. Dubravka Šimonovi? Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women to the 57th Session of the Commission on Human Rights

9 April 2001



Mr. Chairperson
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Representatives of Non-Governmental Organisations



It is with great pleasure that I address the Commission on Human Rights in my capacity as the Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women and bring to your attention the results its recent forty-fifth session, that are most pertinent to the work of the Commission on Human Rights during its fifty-seventh session.

The forty-fifth session of the Commission on the Status of Women was the first session following the special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century” where Governments confirmed and strengthened the commitments made in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women. The special session adopted the Outcome Document "Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action” and agreed on 199 actions to be taken at national and international levels by Governments, the United Nations system, international and regional organizations, including international financial institutions, the private sector and other actors of civil society. Emphasis was placed on women’s access to decision-making, gender-sensitive approaches to HIV/AIDS, violence against women, including racially motivated violence, trafficking and violence in armed conflict, as well as, the realization of women’s full enjoyment of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights.


Mr. Chairperson,

The Outcome Document of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly has been incorporated in the work of the Commission on the Status of Women through its adoption of the draft resolution on proposals for a multi-year programme of work for 2002-2006. The multi-year work programme of the Commission on the Status of Women shall be closely related to the Commission's mandate and the relevant provisions of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome document, with a view to ensuring their effective implementation through more practical and action-oriented initiatives and outcomes. For this effective implementation, the work of the Commission should take into account relevant crosscutting issues, such as, inter alia, institutional capacity building. The multi-year programme of work for 2002-2006 will also be in line with the co-ordinated follow-up to major forthcoming United Nations conferences and summits through its consideration of two thematic issues per session. For example, by this programme the topic “Women’s human rights, and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls as defined in the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome document of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly” will be under consideration at its forty-seventh session in 2003. Under this work programme the Commission on the Status of Women is also continuing its work on the integration of the human rights dimension in its agenda.

Essentially, all entities of the United Nations are, to varying degrees and in their specific areas of concern, participating in activities to implement the Beijing Platform for Action, and since June last year - the Outcome Document. Although the Commission on the Status of Women has a central role to play in formulating policies and in monitoring the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, in addition to assisting the Economic and Social Council in monitoring, promoting and policy making, on all questions relating to women. The continual contribution of all other entities of the United Nations, such as this Commission to the overall process are of utmost importance in order to achieve the specific goals and targets laid down in the Platform for Action and the Outcome Document.


Mr. Chairperson,

Five resolutions were adopted by the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-fifth session, two of which may be of particular interest to this Commission. These are the draft resolution on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan, and the draft resolution on mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system.

The latter resolution reaffirms that gender mainstreaming constitutes a critical strategy in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session, as well as for achieving the overall goal of gender equality. It recommends that the Economic and Social Council decide to establish within its general segment a regular agenda item on mainstreaming a gender perspective in the United Nations system to, inter alia, monitor and evaluate achievements and consider further measures to strengthen implementation and monitoring of gender mainstreaming in the United Nations system, including the development of guidelines and practical tools. By implementing this resolution ECOSOC should also devote by 2005 a co-ordination segment to the review and appraisal of the system-wide implementation of ECOSOC’s agreed conclusions 1997/2 on gender mainstreaming with a view to identifying further strategies to accelerate their implementation. As part of this review and appraisal, all functional commissions would be requested to report to the ECOSOC on progress made in addressing the gender aspects of issues in their work.


Mr. Chairperson,

The issue of the gender and racial discrimination was an important topic on the Commission’s agenda and resulted in the adoption of the agreed conclusions on “ Gender and all forms of discrimination, in particular, issues related to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance” that represent the thinking of the Commission on this issue and constitute its input into the World Conference against Racism which will be held later this year.

As a part of the preparation for the Commission's consideration of this issue, the Division for the Advancement of Women, the United Nations Development Fund for Women and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights collaborated in the organization of an expert group meeting on gender and racial discrimination in November 2000 in Zagreb, Croatia. This meeting, found that the consequences of the interaction of multiple forms of discrimination or intersectional discrimination, including gender and race discrimination, are often considered to be separate forms of discrimination, and that remedies seeking to address racial or gender discrimination, may not in reality effectively address the situation of those affected by multiple forms of discrimination. It also found that women affected by both gender and racial discrimination experience multiple disadvantages, thus further inhibiting their access to education, employment, decision making, and enjoyment of economic benefits and human rights. The report of the Expert Group Meeting will be submitted to the second session of the Preparatory Committee for the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.


Mr. Chairperson,

The Commission held a panel discussion on this issue and adopted agreed conclusions on gender and all forms of discrimination that call attention to the growing recognition that various types of discrimination, including racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance do not always affect women and men in the same way. Furthermore, the agreed conclusions highlight the fact that gender discrimination may be intensified and facilitated by all other forms of discrimination. There was also a call for examination of the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination including their root causes from a gender perspective with special emphasis on gender-based racial discrimination in order to develop and implement strategies, policies and programmes aimed at elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, and to increase the role women play in the design, implementation and monitoring of gender-sensitive anti-racist policies. The agreed conclusions make recommendations for action directed at Governments, the United Nations and respective civil society, with regard to developing an integrated, holistic approach to address amongst other things the following: multiple forms of discrimination against women and girls; policies, legal measures, mechanisms and machinery; change of attitudes; the elimination of stereotypes and prejudice; research and collection of data and information; the prevention of conflict; as well as, the promotion of a culture of peace, equality, non-discrimination, respect and tolerance.

In the agreed conclusions, the Commission on the Status of Women also stressed the importance of mainstreaming a gender perspective into the preparations, work and outcome of the World Conference against Racism and urged the inclusion of women in delegations to the Conference. They also underline the importance of taking into account the impact of all forms of discrimination including multiple discrimination on women’s advancement in the work of the Commission on the Status of Women.

The Commission on the Status of Women took note of the joint work plan of the Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights which outlines the work undertaken under the joint work plan for 2000 and presents its work for the year 2001. This report is before you in document E/CN.4/2001/70-E/CN.6/2001/3 and I am very pleased that the joint work plan has continued to be issued with a double symbol thus ensuring its high visibility in both Commissions. Let me assure you that, members of the Commission on the Status of Women remain committed to the ongoing co-operation between the two secretariats which service these Commissions in the spirit of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

In addition, the Commission on the Status of Women considered a report of the Secretary-General assessing the implications of reforms to mechanisms in the human rights area on communications concerning the status of women - the 1503 procedure, (E/CN.6/2001/12). The Commission also considered, in closed meetings, the revised note of the Secretariat on interaction between confidential communications procedures of the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on the Status of Women. Based on these discussions, the Commission decided to request another report on the communications procedure of the Commission on the Status of Women and ways and means to make it more effective and efficient. The Commission felt that these should be based on written opinions by Member States, taking into account discussions at the Commission’s forty-fifth session. This report will be considered at the forty-sixth session of the Commission, along with any pertinent information from this session of the Commission on Human Rights. The Commission on the Status of Women also took note of the Report of the Working Group on Communications on the Status of Woman in which the Working Group expressed its deep concern about the continuing grave violations of women's human rights.


Mr. Chairperson,

Members of this Commission will be aware that on 22 December 2000 the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women entered into force. The Optional Protocol is the concrete realization of the promise made by governments at the World Conference on Human Rights and the Fourth World Conference on Women. As of 5 April this year, a total of 18 States had ratified or acceded to the Optional Protocol, and 66 had signed it. As Ms. Abaka, the Chairperson of the Committee has indicated the Committee has adopted its rules of procedure for the Optional Protocol and will convene its first working group in July this year. The Optional Protocol provides an additional and powerful tool for advancing women’s interests, and a strong incentive for Governments to review legislation and policy with regard to women, especially remedies that are available at the domestic level for women whose rights have been violated.


Mr. Chairperson,

The Commission on Human rights now addresses women’s equal enjoyment of rights and non-discrimination as a matter of course under its agenda item on the integration of human rights of women and the gender perspective.

Moreover, situations in the human rights area that are specific to women are routinely considered particularly, violence against women in its many manifestations. The Commission has also been instrumental in increasing the understanding that gender has an impact on the enjoyment of all human rights and that it is an important dimension in the substantive definition of rights. More work is now needed to translate this understanding into reality, where women and girls can truly enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. Actions are required at the national level, through legislation, judicial and government policy measures. The work of intergovernmental bodies such as this Commission and its subsidiary machinery alongside the Commission on the Status of Women, as well as, expert bodies including the treaty bodies, such as the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, all remain critical in this endeavor.

In closing Mr. Chairperson, I would like to thank this Commission again for inviting me to address this session under this item. This is a model of good practice of co-operation between ECOSOC functional commissions that have distinctive mandates, but are nevertheless, both mandated to promote women’s rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields. Taking into account the wide recognition of women’s rights as human rights and human rights as women rights, as well as, the daily reality of denial and violations of human rights of millions of women, I should like to stress here the importance of maintaining and building upon the close and strong co-operation established between the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on the Status of Women, in order to come even closer to achieving our common goal of gender equality and realizing the enjoyment of all human rights by women worldwide.


I wish you every success in your work during the fifty-seventh session of the Commission.

Thank you.