非政府组织向委员会作关于玻利维亚、克罗地亚、纳米比亚以及圣文森特和格林纳斯丁妇女处境的简报（部分翻译）

消除对妇女歧视委员会

2015年7月13日

消除对妇女歧视委员会今天下午与非政府组织代表会面以听取有关玻利维亚、克罗地亚、纳米比亚以及圣文森特和格林纳斯丁妇女处境的信息，其报告将于第六十一届会议剩余时间接受审议。

在玻利维亚方面，非政府组织表示，对包括杀害妇女在内的暴力侵害妇女现象的有罪不罚问题仍然泛滥，而孕产妇死亡率仍然很高，尤其是在农村地区。性暴力造成的青少年怀孕率居高不下，而不安全堕胎仍是造成孕产妇死亡率的第三大主要原因。占用土地、采掘业和采矿业造成了环境污染和恶化并增加了土著妇女遭到性剥削和贩运等伤害的脆弱性。

来自克罗地亚非政府组织的代表表示，家庭暴力的受害者正因口头侮辱施暴者或自卫而与对其施暴者一同被捕，而那些从未与肇事者生活在一起和/或与其未生育子女的妇女则不受到《家庭暴力法》的保护。医疗护理提供者基于良心拒绝提供堕胎服务的情况十分普遍，以致于导致妇女很难获得安全多台服务。虽然法律允许医生个人以良心为由拒绝提供堕胎服务，它并未为医院提供这一选项，但三十家医院中有六家都有不提供堕胎服务的机构政策。

在纳米比亚情况方面，非政府组织提请各方关注对患有艾滋病/艾滋病毒的妇女进行强制绝育的问题，并表示在家庭环境下保护妇女方面缺乏法律进展。基于性别的暴力仍然居高不下，体罚虽然被法律禁止但仍在学校实行。对妇女在自己名下土地权予以官方承认十分重要，土地权不能只被认为通过与男性的关系存在。

关于圣文森特和格林纳斯丁家庭暴力问题的2015年法律引入了对家庭暴力的全面定义并使报告家庭暴力成为一项义务，但它也为受害者带来了经济负担，未为其提供法律援助，未说明旨在庇护被殴打妇女的危机中心作用，也未能规定政府机构记录和报告关于家庭暴力数据的义务。

来自玻利维亚的非政府机构是代表100多个民间社会组织的民间社会联盟和玻利维亚土著妇女全国联盟。在讨论中发言的克罗地亚非政府组织包括克罗地挖妇女网络，萨格勒妇女自治之家以及教育、咨询和研究中心。非洲南部诉讼中心和全球经济、社会和文化权利倡议发表了关于纳米比亚妇女状况的讲话。圣文森特和格林纳斯丁人权协会也在讨论中发言。

委员会将于7月14日星期二上午10点再次召开公开会议，届时将开始审议圣文森特和格林纳斯丁的第四次至第八次合并定期报告（CEDAW/C/VCT/4-8）。

Statements by Non-Governmental Organizations

Bolivia

The Coalition of Civil Society drew the attention of the Committee to the weakening of the women’s rights protection mechanism and recommended the establishment of a Ministry of Women to ensure crosscutting gender mainstreaming. Another issue of concern was impunity for violence against women including femicide; almost 40 per cent of the reported cases were rejected by the prosecutor, including because they were withdrawn by victims who were often financially dependent on the perpetrator. The State should assign resources to implement sustainable preventive strategies and strengthen the legal protection of women. Bolivia still experienced a high maternal mortality rate, particularly in rural areas where it was four times higher, and rates of teenage pregnancy were also high due to sexual violence; unsafe abortion was the third leading cause of maternal mortality.

National Confederation of Indigenous Women of Bolivia said the appropriation of land and natural resources increased the vulnerability of indigenous women. Extractive and mining industries caused environmental pollution and degradation and reduced the surface of agricultural land, while the presence of a predominantly male workforce foreign to indigenous communities led to sexual exploitation and trafficking of indigenous women. Marginalization of indigenous women translated to their weak access to justice. Bolivia should adopt special measures to guarantee the rights of indigenous communities and fulfil its constitutional and international obligations in this regard.

Croatia

Women’s Network of Croatia noted that Croatian non-governmental organizations were completely excluded from the preparation of the report and said that Croatia was failing in the implementation of the Anti-Discrimination Act and the Equality of Sexes Act, and said that there were significant problems with the implementation of the hate crime provisions in relation to violence against lesbian women. Although abortion was legal, it was not accessible financially and spatially, while the Ministry of Health had adopted instructions for dispensation of contraceptives after tablets which were contrary to the European Union law, forcing women to answer a series of intimate questions at the pharmacy and limiting access to tablets to minors.

Autonomous Women’s House Zagreb said that women victims of domestic violence were being arrested along with their abusers for verbally insulting the aggressor or for acting in self-defence. Those who had never lived with the perpetrator and/or had no children with him were not entitled to any protection under the law. The new Family Law contained harmful provisions, such as mandatory mediation in divorce and enforced custody, where a parent seeking to limit visitations by a violent parent could face heavy fines and incarceration up to six months.

Centre for Education, Counselling and Research said that conscience based refusals of abortion services by health care providers were now so widespread that women had great difficulties to access safe abortion services, and poor, rural and socially disadvantaged women suffered an especially heavy impact. The law allowed individual doctors to refuse to provide abortion services on grounds of conscience, but six hospitals out of thirty had institutional policies against the provision of abortion services.

Namibia

Southern Africa Litigation Centre drew the attention of the Committee to forced sterilization of women living with HIV/AIDS, and said that little had been done to stop the practice and no information about investigations were publically available. The Government should put in place a clear policy on sterilization, including full and informed consent, and launch an independent investigation into all alleged cases of forced or involuntary sterilization and provide remedy for victims.

Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights said that there had been little legislative progress in protecting women in the family context and stressed the critical need for laws on marriage, recognition of customary marriage, marital property reform, intestate succession, divorce, cohabitation, and stalking. A high-level rate of gender-based violence continued unabated and corporal punishment continued to be practiced in schools despite its prohibition by law. Land remained a crucial issue for women in Namibia, and it was very important to officially recognize women’s rights to land in their own names and this should not be perceived as existing only through a relationship with a man.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Université du Québec à Montréal International Clinic for the Defence of Human Rights, read out the statement by St. Vincent and the Grenadines Human Rights Association in which it said that the 2015 Law on Domestic Violence introduced a comprehensive definition of domestic violence and made reporting of domestic violence obligatory, but it also created a financial burden for victims, as it required them to file affidavits, for which they had to retain a lawyer. The Law did not provide for legal aid, did not specify the role of the Crisis Centre which was the shelter for battered women, and did not oblige government agencies to record and report data on domestic violence.

Questions by Committee Members

In Croatia, an Expert raised the issue of the role of the Church which seemed to be at the root of some of the problems women experienced and asked what the Committee could do to remind the State party that it was a secular State. Non-governmental organizations were also asked to comment on the State party’s report which stated that prosecutions for discrimination had increased, and about their proposals for legislative amendments to address the phenomenon of dual arrest in the context of violence against women and domestic violence.

Experts took up the issues of the continued use of corporal punishment in schools in Namibia, despite its clear prohibition in the law, the training of the judiciary and the media on the Convention, the status and the role of the Law Reform Commission and the main obstacles to the legislative reforms process.

Bolivia had achieved almost gender parity in the political representation of women in Parliament and the Senate, and non-governmental organizations were asked about their role in the legislation.

Response by Non-governmental Organizations

Representatives of non-governmental organizations took the floor to respond to questions on Bolivia and said that as a result of recent elections, Bolivia now had the second highest political representation of women in the world. Now that women had been elected, it was hoped that they would deliver on the commitments they had made prior to the election, particularly in the implementation of the existing laws.

Croatian non-governmental organizations agreed that the Church exerted great influence on the passing of legislation in the country, with detrimental impact on the rights of women in areas such as sexual education in school, assisted fertilization, same-sex marriage, and others. It was important to stress the secular character of the State and there was a need to address the growing religious extremism. Croatia had good legislation in place, which was well known by judges and the police, but the political will was lacking for its implementation. The rate of dual arrest was on the increase, from 22 per cent in 2013 to 43 per cent today. It was critical to implement the right kind of training for the police and also to amend the Law on Domestic Violence to narrow down the definition of domestic violence, which now also included verbal violence.

Corporal punishment was prohibited in Namibia, but many parents complained about their children being physically punished. Non-governmental organizations had been consulted on the preparation of the report and felt that their contribution had been properly taken into account.

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