消除对妇女歧视委员会召开第六十届会议（部分翻译）

消除对妇女歧视委员会

2015年2月16日

消除对妇女歧视委员会今日上午召开第六十届会议，听取了人权事务高级专员办事处人权条约司焦点小组科科长詹姆斯·希南（James Heenan）的声明，并通过了本次会议的议程和工作方案。委员会选举了新的主席团，其中林阳子（Yoko Hayashi，日本）担任新一届主席。

希南先生表示，2015年对条约机构系统而言将是充满挑战的一年，大会第62/268号决议将得到落实，并特别聚焦于减少工作积压，增加各条约机构间工作方法的一致性和追踪落实方面的进展。第62/268号决议减少了委员会的工作语言，将英文、法文和西班牙文作为常设语言，并在例外情况中按需使用阿拉伯文。希南先生向委员会汇报了在2015年后议程内拟定可持续发展目标的进展，并称会员国正在开展协商，以使其在2015年9月的联合国大会国家元首峰会上获得通过。妇女地位委员会将在2015年审议落实《北京宣言》和《行动纲要》方面的进展，今年距离其在1995年第四次世界妇女大会上获得通过已有20年。

即将离职的委员会主席尼科尔·阿梅利（Nicole Ameline）对新成员表示欢迎，并表示自上次会议以来，《公约》及其任择议定书的批准状况未发生变化，仍分别为188和105个国家。12个缔约国已经提交了定期报告，其中7份将予以返还，因为它们超过了大会第62/268号决议规定的21200词长度限制。2015年1月，2015年诺贝尔和平奖委员会的候选提名活动已经在法国国民议会启动。在2015年1月于英国威尔顿公园举行的非正式会议中，各人权条约机构的主席们通过了两份联合声明，分别关于2015年后发展议程和人权打击暴力问题。

在会议开始阶段，以下委员会新成员庄重宣誓：格拉迪斯·阿科斯塔-巴尔加斯（Gladys ACOSTA VARGAS，秘鲁）、巴希达·阿尔多萨里（Bakhita Al-Dosari，卡塔尔）、马加利斯·阿罗查·多明古埃斯（Magalys Arocha Dominguez，古巴）、路易莎·查拉（Louiza Chalal，阿尔及利亚）、莉莲·霍夫迈斯特（Lilian Hofmeister，奥地利）和莉亚·纳达拉亚（Lia Nadaraia，格鲁吉亚）。连任成员也进行了宣誓：艾茨·阿卡尔（Ayse Acar，土耳其）、露特·哈尔帕林-卡达里（Ruth Halperin-Kaddari，以色列）、林阳子（日本）、伊斯马特·贾汉（Ismat Jahan，孟加拉国）、普拉米拉·帕滕（Pramila Patten，毛里求斯）和帕特里夏·舒尔茨（Patricia Schulz，瑞士）。

委员会将林阳子选为新任主席，将芭芭拉·贝利（Barbara Bailey，牙买加）、内尔拉·贾布尔（Naéla Gabr，埃及）和戴利亚·雷纳特（Dalia Leinarte，立陶宛）选为副主席。帕特里夏·舒尔茨（瑞士）被选为报告员。

委员会听取了关于后续报告状况的报告，以及关于第六十届会议会前工作组的报告，还听取了有关委员会专家在闭会期间开展活动的最新情况。

委员会将在今天下午3点继续会议，与非政府组织和国家人权机构就加蓬、阿塞拜疆、厄瓜多尔和图瓦卢的状况举行非正式公开会议，这些国家的报告将在本周接受委员会的审议。

Opening Statement

JAMES HEENAN, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in his opening remarks said that 2015 would be a challenging year for the treaty bodies system and would see the increase in meeting time from about 75 weeks to over 100 weeks, which represented a significant burden on the treaty bodies and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights working with them. General Assembly resolution 62/268 also reduced the number of working languages of the Committee, which had indicated English, French and Spanish as its standing languages and had requested on an exceptional basis the use of Arabic. In addition to reducing backlogs, the resolution also recognized the need for increased harmonization of working methods across treaty bodies and Mr. Heenan welcomed the decisions the Committee had taken in this regard, such as to offer the simplified reporting procedure to States parties with overdue reports which had submitted an updated common core document. In terms of tracking the progress in the implementation of resolution 62/268, the United Nations Secretary-General would submit a report every two years, which would be used in the review of the entire treaty bodies system, scheduled in 2020. Tracking would also include a review of the application of the Addis Ababa Guidelines on the independence and impartiality of members of human rights treaty bodies.

Mr. Heenan then updated the members of the Committee on the developments in the elaboration of the Sustainable Development Goals within the post-2015 agenda, and said that the Secretary-General’s synthesis report “The Road to Dignity by 2030: Ending Poverty, Transforming Lives and Protecting the Planet” summarized progress to date, including the draft goals and targets elaborated by the Intergovernmental Open Working Group in 2014. Member States were now embarking on negotiations towards adopting the post-2015 development agenda at the United Nations General Assembly Heads of State Summit in September 2015. Mr. Heenan also said that this year, the Commission on the Status of Women would undertake a review of the progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 20 years after its adoption at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. The Commission would adopt a political declaration, the draft of which did not make reference to the contribution by the Committee to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action. In closing, Mr. Heenan noted that the Committee would elect a new Bureau today and thanked the outgoing Chairperson Ms. Nicole Ameline and the Bureau that had served with her.

Committee Experts raised a number of issues in their discussion with Mr. Heenan, including concerning the planned political declaration by the Commission on the Status of Women, and the implication of the reduction of extra-budgetary resources of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the ability of the treaty bodies to deal with inquiries and general recommendations. Several Committee Experts raised the issue of working languages of the Committee and stressed the importance of Arabic for the work of the Committee beyond regular sessions. An Expert asked Mr. Heenan to elaborate on the proposal to establish an internal mechanism for the implementation of the Addis Ababa Guidelines.

In response to the questions and comments raised by Committee Experts, Mr. Heenan said that the issue of the contributions by civil society to the declaration by the Commission on the Status of Women and the mention of the Committee would be raised in the meeting with UN Women. In terms of resources, the first priority was to implement General Assembly resolution 62/268 and reduce the backlog, and it remained to be seen how the resources cut would affect the work on inquiries and general recommendations. Concerning working languages of the Committee, Mr. Heenan said that treaty bodies were free to choose three, and the fourth language to be used on an exceptional basis for communication between Committee Members.

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

The Committee adopted the provisional agenda and organization of work for the sixtieth session.

NICOLE AMELINE, outgoing Chairperson of the Committee, presenting her report welcomed the new Members and said that since the last session, the ratification status of the Convention and the Optional Protocol had not changed and remained at 188 and 105, respectively. Twelve States parties had submitted their periodic reports: the Czech Republic, Haiti, Mongolia, Tanzania, the Netherlands, Albania, Turkey, Argentina, Micronesia, Myanmar, Uruguay and the Philippines; seven had been returned because they had exceeded the limit of 21,200 words established by General Assembly resolution 62/268. In January 2015, the campaign for the candidature of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize had been launched at the French National Assembly. During the informal meeting of Chairpersons of the human rights treaty bodies held in January 2015 at Wilton Park, United Kingdom, they had taken stock of progress made since the last Chairpersons’ meeting, prepared for the next one scheduled for June 2015 in Costa Rica and adopted two joint statements, on the post-2015 development agenda and on human rights against violence. Ms. Ameline also briefed the Committee about her other activities during the inter-sessional period.

After hearing Committee experts speaking about their activities during the inter-sessional period, Ms. Ameline thanked them and stressed the importance of their work in disseminating the knowledge about the Convention and raising awareness about emerging challenges affecting women such as climate change, migrants and others. She also stressed the need to do everything possible to keep Arabic as a working language of the Committee.

Pre-session Working Group Report and Follow-up to Concluding Observations

XIAOQIAO ZOU, Committee Expert, briefed the Committee on the pre-sessional working group and said that it had prepared lists of issues with regard to reports of Azerbaijan, Denmark, Ecuador, Eritrea, Gabon, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, and Tuvalu. The lists of issues and questions, which had focused on themes covered by the Convention, had been transmitted to the States parties concerned.

XIAOQIAO ZOU, Committee Expert and the Rapporteur on Follow-up, spoke about the status of follow-up reports received from States parties in reply to the Committee’s concluding observations. She said that she had met with representatives of South Africa and that follow-up letters had been sent to Brazil, Costa Rica, Kenya and Montenegro. First and second reminders had been sent to a number of countries. The Committee had received delayed follow-up reports from Bulgaria, Jordan and New Zealand, while the Bahamas and the United Kingdom had sent their reports on time.

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