SRVAW Statement to 73rd session of CEDAW Committee

Geneva, 1 July 2019 

Distinguished members of the Committee,
Friends and Colleagues, 

It is a pleasure to be with you here today, and to address the Committee in my capacity as Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences.  

Friends and Colleagues,

Today I will briefly present to you my thematic report that I recently presented to the Human Rights Council on 27 June. 

With 2019 marking the 25th anniversary of the creation of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, as well as the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), it is also a precursor to the review, in 2020, of a number of key landmark women’s rights instruments, including: 25 years since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action (1995); 20 years since the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security; and 5 years since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (2015).  

It is within this context that I decided to focus my report on the current situation facing women’s rights and the challenges this poses for the mandate. In preparation for the report I hosted an expert group meeting last January at the London School of Economics, at which two of your distinguished colleagues shared their expertise: Ms. Nahla Haidar and Ms. Genoveva Tisheva. 

The report provides an analysis of the evolution of the mandate within the context of the international women’s human rights framework, with a view to providing recommendations on how the mandate, along with other relevant independent global and regional independent monitoring mechanisms on women’s rights, can be strengthened. The report also outlines the shortcomings of the current system and considers the development of a system-wide approach to eliminating violence against women, including through the establishment of an institutional platform for cooperation between independent monitoring mechanisms aimed at accelerating implementation of the international and regional standards for the elimination of violence against women and girls. In that regard, the report addresses the current disconnect between the various United Nations entities and the mandate, including the United Nations Trust Fund on violence against women, and the work of relevant international  and regional independent mechanisms on violence against women, as well as the fragmented implementation of United Nations and regional instruments on women’s rights and violence against women, which poses a significant challenge to the establishment of a system-wide approach to address violence against women.

The report provides progressive recommendations on strengthening the mandate of the Special Rapporteur and other independent mechanisms, including the need for the establishment of a more coordinated system wide approach on violence against women. It also include some recommendations related to CEDAW for your future consideration.  As such the report aims to contribute to the forthcoming 25 year review of the Beijing Platform for Action and other relevant review processes. 

I believe that a new system-wide global approach is necessary to eliminate violence against women and girls and the establishment of a platform for cooperation between international and regional independent women’s human rights mechanisms, that  strengthens synergies between respective women’s human rights  instruments, will do much to address the mounting push back movements against women’s rights, and will demonstrate its support for popular movements, such as #MeToo and #Ni Una Menos, and their various manifestations across the world.
As you are all aware endemic, persistent and systematic violence continues to blight the lives of women and girls all over the world. A new global system-wide response would strengthen the implementation of States human rights obligations under the UN and regional women’s human rights instruments to prevent and combat violence against women and impose zero tolerance on any such violence, a scourge that has been accepted as part of daily life. 

As we approach the 25-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action in 2020, we must ensure that that the progress that has been made in placing violence against women firmly on the international agenda as a violation of women’s human rights and a form of gender-based discrimination is not lost but upgraded. Women human rights mechanisms must also be included in this process. 

I believe that there is now an urgent need to address the significant implementation gap, and to accelerate the full incorporation and implementation of international, regional and national instruments on gender equality and violence against women. 

At present, there is no such system-wide approach to the elimination of violence against women and I believe that the institutionalization of the Platform of international and regional independent women human rights mechanisms, that could speak with one voice on specific topics of joint concern, would contribute to this much-needed system-wide approach and would strengthen implementation efforts on the elimination of gender based violence against women and girls. 

The existing human rights normative framework has been strengthened by the new CEDAW general recommendation 35 on gender-based violence against women, updating general gecommendation No. 19 which should be widely promoted. In this regard, and as a follow up to the framework of cooperation agreed upon between my mandate and the Committee when we last met, in which it is envisaged to develop a joint programme of work to promote and support the implementation of general recommendation No. 35, including through the development of further guidelines for its implementation at the national level. This collaboration between the two mandates could contribute to closing gaps in combating and preventing violence against women worldwide, and could lead to the adoption of an Optional Protocol to CEDAW on violence against women in the future. 

I also wish to update you on the work of the Platform.  The Platform has provided an opportunity for joint meetings and consultations, and to date the Platform has met during the Commission on the Status of Women, within the margins of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, and most recently before the Council of Europe Conference on Women’s Rights at the Crossroads in May this year, at which all mechanisms participated, including the Chair of CEDAW, Ms. Hillary Gbedemah, and previously   former Chair, Ms. Dalia Leinarte. We are planning to hold our next meeting in Africa. 

The Platform has issued a number of joint statements:  on the International Day on the Elimination of Violence against Women in 2017 and 2018 with strong inputs from the Committee; on the current push back against women’s rights following the last session of the Committee on the Status of Women; on the draft ILO Convention on violence against women and harassment in the work place; and most recently on Intimate partner violence against women as an essential factor in the determination of child custody, in which the CEDAW decision on the case of Angela González Carreño v. Spain was highlighted  as an iconic one that serves as an example of good practice in relation to the application of the Cedaw provisions.  

Additional information on the initiative and all statements can be found on the mandates website.¹ 

I look forward to the continued cooperation and exchange with the CEDAW committee and wish you a very successful session.
Thank you