85th session of Committee for Elimination of Discrimination Against Women begins in Geneva

Inaugurating its 85th session, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women heard a statement from the Secretary-General's representative and adopted its agenda. During the session, the committee will review the reports from China, Germany, Iceland, Sao Tome, and Principe, Slovakia, Spain, Timor-Leste, and Venezuela.

Ibrahim Salama, Chief of the Human Rights Treaties Branch, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, stated that the Committee had started developing a new general recommendation following its half-day of general discussion in February. This recommendation would offer States parties important guidance for ensuring women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities.

Women's participation in decision-making will be the monthly theme focus for June as part of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights campaign to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The campaign would increase public awareness of the value of equal representation for women and girls, highlight their significant achievements, and highlight the obstacles they still had to overcome.

The number of States parties that have ratified or joined the Convention during the last session has remained at 189, according to the Committee's chair, Ana Peláez Narváez. There are still 115 States parties that have ratified the Optional Protocol. The Committee had received monthly reports from Saudi Arabia, Belarus, and the Lao People's Democratic Republic since the previous meeting. The Committee made the decision to make the streamlined reporting procedure the standard method for submitting State party reports to the Committee last year. 13 States parties have responded that they wanted to opt-out and keep the customary reporting process.

Following that, the Chair and Committee Experts outlined the actions they had done since the last session. Natasha Stott Despoja, the Committee Alternate Rapporteur on a follow-up to concluding remarks, and Nicole Ameline, Committee Expert and Chairperson of the pre-sessional working group, both provided updates to the Committee on their work.

From May 8 to 26, the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women will hold its 85th session. The website for the session contains all materials pertaining to the Committee's activity, including reports provided by States parties. You may find meeting summary releases here. 

You can watch the webcast of the Committee's open meetings by visiting the UN Web TV website.

The Committee will meet again this afternoon at 3 p.m. for an informal discussion with national human rights organizations and non-governmental organizations about the status of women in Germany, China, Sao Tome and Principe, and Timor-Leste, whose reports will be examined during the first week.

Opening Statements

It was a privilege to officially kick off the Committee's 85th session, according to IBRAHIM SALAMA, Chief of the Human Rights Treaties Branch, Human Rights Council, and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the High Commissioner. 

The Committee began developing a new general recommendation during its half-day general discussion in February. This recommendation would offer State parties important direction for ensuring women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life by 2030.

The fact that 50 State parties and several members of civil society attended the half-day debate showed how much interest the forthcoming general suggestion was already creating. An initial draught, which would be adopted by the Committee by year's end and publicized for feedback, would then be addressed during regional meetings slated for 2024.

Women's participation in decision-making will be the monthly theme focus for June as part of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' campaign to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The campaign would increase public awareness of the value of equal representation for women and girls, highlight their significant achievements, and highlight the obstacles they still had to overcome.

A roundtable debate on parliaments and women's rights will also be held by the Office and the Inter-Parliamentary Union on June 22. 

The 2023 Sustainable Development Goals Summit, which marked the halfway point of the 2023 Agenda, will bring together Member States on September 18 and 19. In order to achieve revolutionary change, ensuring gender equality and women's empowerment was essential to each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. 

Only by guaranteeing that women and girls have access to all of their human rights across all of the Sustainable Development Goals will it be feasible to end exclusion and discrimination and lessen current inequities.

The inaugural post-2030 talks and the one-year countdown to the Summit of the Future in 2024 would both begin at the Sustainable Development Goal Summit in 2023. The Committee decided that now was the right moment to add to the conversation and reiterate its commitment to the 2023 Agenda's goal of fully integrating gender equality into the accomplishment of all Sustainable Development Goals. The Committee once again officially contributed to the 2023 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, this time with the topic "Women as leading forces for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in the post-COVID-19 world," which was nice to see as in previous years.

The Office of the High Commissioner was in the process of finalising components for an implementation plan of the predictable review schedule and continued to assist the bolstering of the treaty bodies. States and various stakeholders should be able to plan and work more productively as a result of this. The ability to gather the necessary personnel and financial resources would determine if the implementation plan could be carried out. 

The Chairpersons of the treaty bodies would talk about this in their upcoming meeting. Mr. Salama sent the Committee his best wishes for a fruitful and successful meeting.

Discussion

The seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will occur in December, according to a committee expert. If there were to be a ceremony, how would the Committee take part?

Another Committee Expert appealed for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' assistance in assisting the working groups of the Committee both locally and in Geneva.

It is the thirty-first anniversary of the Vienna Declaration, according to a committee expert. The timing was opportune to consider how persistent double standards still are. 

Was there a specific area on which the Committee may focus for this anniversary? The issue of resources needed to be resolved since it was becoming challenging for the members to handle.

A committee expert commended Mr. Salama for taking such an important stance at a time when it was necessary to improve things. There were issues with migration and the requirement to upgrade working practises. International concerns required a response from the Committee. On this issue, it was hoped that collaboration might be improved.

It is crucial to complete the general comment on women's political involvement, according to IBRAHIM SALAMA, Chief of the Human Rights Treaties Branch, Human Rights Council, and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Representative of the Secretary-General. 

The difficult part was building the system retroactively from already-existing organisations without changing any current treaties. Giving the Chair the authority to make decisions at the meeting of Chairpersons was the finest thing the Committee could do to assist the Chair in doing.

All Committee members would get the implementation plan at the same time, allowing them to communicate their comments and suggestions to the Chair. 

Many States had stated that there should be budgetary repercussions. Harmonisation began at home, hence it was crucial that the Committee had a common strategy. Even more crucial was the field presence assistance, which would continue. The foundation of the treaty body structure was the Vienna Declaration. The Committee members must be the first to change.

Statements by the Chairperson and Other Committee Experts

The Committee then approved the session's schedule of events and agenda.

The Committee Chairperson, Ana PelezNarvez, stated that the number of States parties that have ratified or acceded to the Convention has remained at 189 since the last session. On May 2, 2023, Honduras became the 81st State party to accept the amendment to Article 20, Paragraph 1 of the Convention regarding the time the Committee meets. At that time, 126 States parties to the Convention needed to accept the amendment in order for it to become effective. There are still 115 States parties that have ratified the Optional Protocol.

Since the last session, the Committee has received monthly reports from Saudi Arabia, Belarus, and the Lao People's Democratic Republic, according to Ms. Peláez Narváez. The Committee made the decision to make the streamlined reporting procedure the standard method for submitting State party reports to the Committee last year. 13 States parties have responded that they wanted to opt out and keep the customary reporting process.

After then, Ms. Peláez Narváez and the committee experts spoke on the intersessional activities they had carried out since the last session.

According to Committee Expert and Pre-Sessional Working Group Chair NICOLE AMELINE, the pre-sessional working group for the 85th session convened in Geneva from October 31 to November 4, 2023. In addition to lists of issues and questions prior to the submission of the reports from Fiji, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, State of Palestine, and Thailand under the streamlined reporting procedure, the working group also prepared lists of issues and questions in relation to the reports from Benin, Guatemala, and Singapore. 

Written and spoken information provided by members of the United Nations system, non-governmental organisations, and national human rights agencies was helpful to the pre-sessional working group. 

The Committee's alternate rapporteur on the status of the follow-up reports received in response to its concluding observations, NATASHA STOTT DESPOJA, provided a status report to the Committee. A follow-up letter describing the findings of the evaluation of the follow-up report was submitted to Zimbabwe at the conclusion of the eighty-fourth session. The eighty-fourth session did not have any assessments of follow-up reports planned for discussion, hence no reminder letters were distributed at the conclusion of that meeting.

Ms. Stott Despoja said that during the eighty-fifth session, the Committee had received follow-up reports from Denmark, which had been filed on time, Republic of Moldova, with a one-year delay, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a seven-month delay. With a delay of more than a year, a follow-up report from Pakistan had also been received. 

This report would be scheduled for discussion at the 85th session, which would be held in October 2023, as it was received right before the session. Ms. Stott Despoja invited the country rapporteurs for Denmark, Ms. Nicole Ameline, and the Republic of Moldova, Ms. Genoveva Tisheva, to participate in the evaluation of the follow-up reports. Mr. Elgun Safarov is the country rapporteur for Bosnia and Herzegovina.