Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Seventy-fourth session

Summary record of the 1723rd meeting

Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on Wednesday, 23 October 2019, at 3 p.m.

Chair:Ms. Gbedemah

Contents

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention (continued)

Fourth periodic report of Andorra(continued)

The meeting was called to order at 3 p.m.

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention (continued)

Fourth periodic report of Andorra (continued) (CEDAW/C/AND/4; CEDAW/C/AND/Q/4 and CEDAW/C/AND/Q/4/Add.1)

1.At the invitation of the Chair, the delegation of Andorra took places at the Committee table.

Articles 7 to 9 (continued)

2.Ms. Manalo asked how the equal participation of men and women in Andorran political parties was guaranteed and whether the statutes of Andorran political parties were conducive to women taking up leadership positions.

3.Ms. Narain said that while the Committee welcomed the adoption of Act No. 4/2018 on temporary and transitional protection for humanitarian reasons, it still harboured concerns about the possibility of refugees, especially female refugees, being forcibly returned once the temporary protection status accorded to them under the Act expired after two years. Moreover, the State party’s failure to adopt a national asylum law had the effect of preventing holders of temporary protection status from gaining access to an asylum procedure after the two-year period had elapsed. She understood that legal lacuna to have a disproportionate impact on female refugees granted temporary protection status under humanitarian corridor programmes, as those women could not always meet the conditions for access to the asylum options available under Act No. 4/2018. Bearing in mind the State party’s obligations under the Convention and the Committee’s general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, the delegation should indicate when a national asylum law might be adopted and how, in the meantime, it fulfilled its non-refoulement obligations in respect of female refugees whose temporary protection status had expired but who were still in need of protection. It would also be useful to know whether the State party planned to ratify the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

4.Ms. Aleix (Andorra) said that, under the newly adopted law regulating the Andorran external action and diplomatic service, it was now possible to embark upon a diplomatic career with opportunities for advancement. Since the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had only been established 25 years previously, no official had yet accumulated the 28 years necessary to become a career ambassador. However, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry’s three directors were all women. Of the five ambassadors currently in post, three were women and two were men. In Andorra, just under 70 per cent of all diplomats were women.

5.Ms. Fernández (Andorra) said that men and women enjoyed equal access to employment in the civil service, where, overall, women currently outnumbered men. While women tended to outnumber men in general services, the opposite was true in specialized services, such as the forestry, customs, prison, police and firefighting services, where gender stereotypes arguably persisted. Pursuant to Act No. 13/2019 on equal treatment and non-discrimination, efforts were being made to increase women’s representation in specialized services within the civil service and in decision-making posts. Andorra did not have any armed forces, only a police force.

6.Ms. Marticella (Andorra) said that Act No. 19/2014 on political parties and the financing of elections provided that the statutes of all political parties in Andorra should include measures to promote gender parity in electoral lists. Almost all electoral lists for the most recent parliamentary elections had included equal numbers of men and women. The newly elected Andorran parliament was gender-balanced, comprising 14 women and 14 men. The members of the Bureau of the Andorran parliament were all women and five of the parliament’s eight legislative committees had a female Chair.

7.Under the transitory provisions of Act No. 4/2018 on temporary and transitional protection for humanitarian reasons, the Government was required to draft legislation for the introduction of an asylum law or an equivalent asylum regime. An analysis of the legislation in question was currently being carried out.

8.Ms. Aleix (Andorra) said that Andorra would continue to respect the principle of non-refoulement even after the temporary protection status accorded to refugees under Act No. 4/2018 had expired. If a specific asylum law had not been adopted before the validity period of two years had elapsed, the persons affected would be issued with a residence permit under the country’s ordinary immigration regulations.

Articles 10 to 14

9.Ms. Al- Rammah said that, while the State party was to be commended on its efforts to promote co-education as a means of overcoming gender-based stereotypes and discrimination, there were still serious shortcomings in its education system that needed to be addressed. The lack of up-to-date statistical data, disaggregated by sex, on school enrolment, completion, repetition and dropout rates at all levels of education was a cause for concern, as was the dearth of information on the gender composition of higher education teaching staff and the proportion of women and men occupying leadership positions in education institutions. It would be useful to know whether the State party had considered setting up a system for collecting statistical data, disaggregated by sex and age, on women’s and girls’ access to education. She would also like to hear more about the steps taken to increase female representation in leadership positions in higher education institutions and to ensure that school curricula and academic and teacher training programmes, which currently lacked a clear gender perspective, adequately covered women’s rights and promoted gender equality.

10.The delegation should also describe the steps taken by the State party to increase the enrolment rate of women in fields of study traditionally dominated by men, such as mathematics, natural sciences and technology, and in vocational training. She wondered whether the State party had considered introducing career counselling for girls or providing incentives to encourage girls to choose non-traditional career paths.

11.The disparity in access to education between girls and boys with disabilities and the lack of initiatives to combat stereotypes and prejudice against those children in schools were some of the major challenges associated with the State party’s integrated education system. She asked what measures the State party had taken to guarantee girls with disabilities equal access to education and to combat gender and disability-based discrimination against school girls.

12.Ms. Pagès (Andorra) said that Andorra operated a mix of three public education systems – Andorran, Spanish and French – and that each one had an almost equal number of students. Parents were free to decide in which of the three systems to place their children. Education was compulsory for children between 6 and 16 years of age. Of the approximately 11,000 students in the Andorran education system, 5,700 were boys and 5,300 were girls. In Andorra, all schools were mixed.

13.Children with the most severe disabilities attended a special school. There were currently eight children under 18 years of age with disabilities attending that institution. The remaining 217 children with disabilities were educated in mainstream schools. School admission criteria were the same for children with and without disabilities. Children with disabilities received specialized teaching and specialized learning support. Girls and boys with disabilities received equal opportunities for development and received the same treatment as children without disabilities in all three education systems. The Qualified Act on Education provided that children and young people should be taught to show respect for diversity and fundamental rights and freedoms, and to exercise tolerance and freedom, in keeping with the democratic principles of coexistence and pluralism. In accordance with Decree No. 3-12-2008, the education provided to children with disabilities must reinforce their equality of rights and duties so as to prevent discrimination and to promote their full integration into and participation in the wider education system.

14.Andorra had achieved full enrolment in compulsory education. School attendance was strictly monitored. School inspectors and civil society representatives identified children who were not enrolled in school and took the necessary remedial action. Decree No. 24-9-2008 on the prevention of absenteeism was applicable in all three education systems. In the 2018/19 school year, 37 cases of absenteeism had been detected, 15 of which concerned girls. To date, 28 of those 37 cases had been resolved. There were also protocols in place for dealing with cases where at-risk children failed to attend school because of problems at home. Four such cases had been recorded in the 2018/19 school year, two of which concerned girls. Very little information was available on students who left school at 16 years of age. Some of those students continued their studies in schools located across the border in Spain while others presumably began to work. Female teaching staff continued to outnumber their male counterparts in higher education institutions, albeit to a lesser extent than at other levels of education.

15.While there was only a slight difference between the number of girls and boys at the preschool, primary and secondary levels, girls currently outnumbered boys at the upper secondary (baccalaureate) and tertiary levels. The opposite, however, was true for vocational training, where girls continued to be underrepresented in programmes of study related to information technology and sports science.

16.Teacher training schools were open to men and women without distinction provided that they had obtained the requisite qualifications and possessed the necessary language skills for the system in which they planned to teach. Full-time and substitute teachers and teaching assistants received additional training on promoting gender equality and non-violence, combating stereotypes and on mediation and conflict resolution. There were no subject areas that were dominated by one or the other sex.

17.Mr. Bergby said that, while the State party was to be commended for having adopted a raft of new legislation in the field of employment, in some cases it appeared not to have been implemented effectively. In its previous concluding observations (CEDAW/C/AND/CO/2-3), the Committee had recommended that the State party should become a State member of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and should consider ratifying core ILO conventions, in particular the Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100), the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), and the Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156). Since, according to the State party, Andorran labour legislation was already aligned with core ILO conventions, he wished to know whether the State party had revised its position on ILO membership.

18.It was his understanding that, in Andorra, the average wage of women continued to be lower than that of their male counterparts in all sectors of activity, even though a number of measures had been taken to reduce the gender pay gap. It would be helpful to learn more about how the newly introduced principle of equal pay, under which companies were obliged to pay the same wage for work of equal value, was enforced in practice and about how the programme for real equality between women and men was expected to reduce the gender pay gap.

19.In its previous concluding observations, the Committee had also recommended that the State party should adopt measures to regulate and monitor the situation of female domestic workers and ensure that complaint mechanisms and other remedies were available to them. While he was pleased to note that those women appeared to enjoy the same employment rights as other Andorran workers, he would appreciate information on the number of female domestic workers residing in Andorra and on their countries of origin. He wished to know whether there were any entitlements that female domestic workers were unable to claim, whether they were provided with a formal employment contract as a matter of course, whether those women were generally aware of their employment rights and whether the Employment and Labour Inspection Service monitored their working conditions. If and when Andorra became a State member of ILO, it should consider ratifying the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189).

20.Noting that, under the Labour Relations Code, victims of sexual harassment could choose between terminating their employment relationship or returning to their jobs and receiving compensation for the harm suffered, he asked whether female victims of sexual harassment who chose the first option could also receive compensation. The delegation should also provide more information on the training on the prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace dispensed to the staff of the Employment and Labour Inspection Service. He would like to hear more about the working conditions of female seasonal workers in Andorran ski resorts; he understood that they were in a particularly precarious situation as their contracts were subject to renewal several times a year. He would also like to receive statistical information on the prevalence of sexual harassment in the State party, the number of cases brought before the courts and the number of cases handled by the Employment and Labour Inspection Service. It would be useful to know whether women who were sexually harassed by a colleague in the workplace were entitled to receive compensation from their employer or whether their only recourse was to sue the colleague in question. Did the Employment and Labour Inspection Service provide victims of sexual harassment with legal aid in such cases? Could victims of sexual harassment claim compensation for both pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage?

21.Ms. Fernández (Andorra) said that, although the Government had not ratified any ILO conventions, employment legislation of 2018 recognized them as sources of law and they therefore formed part of the country’s legal order.

22.Employers were now obliged to prevent discrimination, gender inequality and gender stereotypes in the workplace and were liable to legal action by any female employees receiving lower salaries than their male counterparts.

23.The nationalities of domestic workers and data on them disaggregated by sex would be provided after the constructive dialogue. A year after the entry into force of the 2018 Act on labour relations, all employment contracts – including those of domestic workers – now had to be in writing.

24.Sexual harassment was a criminal offence and victims could therefore seek reparation through the Criminal Court. Any acts involving reprisals in the workplace were considered acts of discrimination under Act No. 13/2019 on equal treatment and non-discrimination.

25.The labour inspection service investigated alleged discriminatory practices and, in collaboration with the Equality Policies Unit, informed affected persons of their employment rights and options for taking legal action using free legal aid.

26.Ms. Porras (Andorra) said that the Equality Policies Unit was working to promote gender equality measures in the workplace, by helping employers draft gender equality plans and protocols on sexual and gender-based harassment. So far, two companies had adopted such protocols.

27.Ms. Mingorance (Andorra) said that victims of sexual harassment in the workplace were entitled to compensation for both physical and moral damage as well as compensation from their employers if they decided to leave their jobs.

28.Seasonal workers mainly worked in the ski industry and usually left Andorra after the winter to work in other countries.

29.The labour inspection service informed persons of their rights and how to access legal aid and public counsel.

30.Mr. Villaverde (Andorra) said that new employment opportunities had been opened up for women through legislation that authorized telecommuting. Salaries now also had to be paid by bank transfer, allowing the Government to check the amounts received by domestic workers.

31.Mr. Bergby said that he wondered whether the responsibility to take legal action in cases of sexual harassment in the workplace or unequal pay should fall on employers and the labour inspection service, rather than on victims, for whom taking such action could be extremely traumatic. He looked forward to receiving the results of checks on domestic workers’ salaries.

32.Ms. Peláez Narváez said that she would like to know whether, in the specialized education facilities for persons with disabilities, pupils were given reproductive health and sex education and whether they received the same official qualifications as pupils without disabilities. She also wondered whether specialized employment centres existed for persons with disabilities and if so, whether those persons’ employment rights were recognized.

33.Ms. Pagès (Andorra) said that the specialized education facilities, now known as foundations, only served a small number of children requiring specific medical support that could not be provided in ordinary school settings. In addition, they offered work-related training to adults and provided sex education.

34.Ms. Fernández (Andorra) said that victims of sexual harassment had the option of obtaining effective legal protection from the court and employers were obliged to adopt protocols on discrimination, which was understood to include sexual harassment. Employers that failed to adopt such protocols were subject to disciplinary procedures.

35.A strategy was in place to integrate persons with disabilities into work settings, taking account of their specific needs and training backgrounds. In addition, a number of so-called inclusive companies had committed to recruiting persons with disabilities, ensuring their equal rights to salary and leave, for example.

36.Ms. Porras (Andorra) said that the Equality Policies Unit provided social, psychological and legal support to victims of sexual and gender-based harassment.

37.Ms. Chalal said that despite significant improvements to the quality of and access to health care, women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive rights were still not sufficiently recognized. The State party had committed, under the 2015 universal periodic review, to legalize abortion in some circumstances. However, its legislation remained highly restrictive, reportedly forcing women to pay to travel to France or Spain to undergo the procedure. Those who could not afford to do so resorted to having abortions by other means and did not reportedly seek medical assistance for fear of imprisonment. She would be interested to hear the delegation’s response to reports that services set up to support women wishing to have abortions abroad constantly tried to dissuade those women from doing so and that some doctors had told women to allow their unviable fetuses to die naturally. She asked whether the State party planned to implement the Committee’s recommendation in its previous concluding observations (CEDAW/C/AND/CO/2-3) to decriminalize abortion and provide access to legal abortion in cases of threats to the life or health of the pregnant woman, rape, incest and severe fetal impairment. It would be useful to receive statistics on the number of abortions performed in Andorra and abroad. Given the lack of national consensus on that contentious issue, she wondered whether the Government could legalize abortion with the sole approval of the French Co-Prince, as it had in the matter of divorce in the 1990s, when the Bishop of Urgell had abstained.

38.Given the reported lack of available contraceptives and counselling services, she wondered whether women and girls, particularly vulnerable ones, could access affordable contraception and under what age parental consent was needed for that purpose. Did the Government provide information online about all methods of contraception and where it could be obtained? She also wondered what additional measures the Government would implement to improve migrant women’s access to health care, without discrimination and with respect for their human dignity, and in particular to family planning and sexual and reproductive health services. Would the Government introduce a mechanism to monitor women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health services? The delegation should provide information about progress made on the bill drafted by the National Bioethics Committee on patients’ rights.

39.Lastly, she would be interested to hear the delegation’s response to reports that, during divorce proceedings, the former partners of women subject to mental health assessments had pressurized the director of the psychiatric hospital to provide assessments in their favour in order to gain custody of their children.

40.Ms. Mingorance (Andorra) said that abortion had never been the subject of an investigation in Andorra, even though it was a criminal offence. The social security system defrayed the costs incurred by women wishing to travel to France or Spain for an abortion. There were no registered cases of women having undergone an abortion without receiving medical assistance; and there was no question of women’s lives being placed at risk by the issue of abortion in Andorra.

41.At the start of secondary school, pupils were provided with information on all methods of contraception. Contraceptives could be bought from pharmacies at a reasonable price, and free condoms were available at centres for young people, for instance. Adolescents did not need parental authorization to obtain contraception.

42.Persons without social security coverage did receive health care since access to health was considered a universal right. If those persons could not pay for their treatment, they had to sign an acknowledgement of debt.

43.Mental health assessments required in the context of divorce proceedings were conducted by the court’s medical service and by private psychologists. It would be futile, therefore, to try to influence the outcome of such an assessment by pressurizing the director since she was not involved. Additionally, it was always possible to request a second assessment by a private psychologist or psychiatrist, for instance.

44.Ms. Pagès (Andorra) said that sex education at secondary school level started at age 11 and covered topics such as the reproductive system, sexuality, contraception and gender-based violence. In 2018, most, if not all, pupils had attended classes on those subjects.

45.Ms. Porras (Andorra) said that centres for young persons in each parish provided sex education and provided awareness-raising courses on, inter alia, gender equality and gender-based violence and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.

46.The Chair, speaking in her capacity as an expert, said that she would like to know how many women travelled abroad for an abortion and whether women without health insurance had to pay to undergo the procedure. She also wondered how many girls dropped out of school due to pregnancy.

47.Ms. Mingorance (Andorra) said that, in 2018, 127 women had travelled to Spain to have abortions. There were no registered cases of adolescent girls dropping out of school due to pregnancy.

48.Ms. Verges said that she wished to know whether any programmes to support vulnerable women had been implemented under Act No. 6/2014 of 24 April 2014 on health and social services. The Committee would welcome information, including detailed statistics, on the situation of women on low incomes. In particular, it would be interesting to learn whether such women could lose custody of their children if the social services deemed that they could not afford to support them. She wondered whether any programmes to strengthen women’s entrepreneurial skills and facilitate their access to credit had been implemented under Act No. 13/2019 on equal treatment and non-discrimination. The Committee would be grateful for information on the number of women trained in entrepreneurial skills, the amount of credit extended to women entrepreneurs and the number of women heads of companies. The delegation might also provide detailed data on the situation of vulnerable groups of women, including asylum seekers, refugees, women with disabilities and young women. It might also state whether any steps had been taken to assess the impact on gender equality of article 35 of Act No. 13/2019 and of the social clauses incorporated in the Act on public procurement of 9 November 2000.

49.Ms. Acosta Vargas said that she wished to know whether any legislation had been adopted to guarantee access to complaint mechanisms for girls and women with disabilities. The Committee would welcome information on the number of women deprived of their liberty in the State party and the conditions in which they were detained. It would be interesting to learn, for instance, whether male prison guards ever supervised women prisoners and whether the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders were enforced in Andorra.

50.Ms. Porras (Andorra) said that, for the past four years, the Government had been implementing Act No. 1/2015 of 15 January on the eradication of gender-based violence and domestic violence. In accordance with that Act, victims of violence enjoyed the right to receive health care, counselling, legal aid, information and comprehensive social support based on an assessment of their financial situation. Victims also enjoyed the right to have their privacy protected and to decide, on the basis of a risk assessment, whether they wished to continue living in their homes. If they opted to do so, steps were taken to ensure that they and their children were adequately protected and that the aggressor did not contact them. Accommodation and support were provided to victims who decided not to remain in their homes. Pursuant to Act No. 13/2019 on equal treatment and non-discrimination, Act No. 1/2015 had been amended to bring the definition of gender-based and domestic violence into line with that contained in the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention). Campaigns to prevent gender-based violence and raise awareness of the issue had been conducted in line with Act No. 1/2015.

51.Ms. Fernández (Andorra) said that the establishment of the Equality Observatory would play a key role in generating quality data because it would facilitate coordination between the Department of Statistics, the Centre for Sociological Research and the Equality Policies Unit, which would ensure that data-gathering processes took account of the gender perspective. Child custody had never been withdrawn from any woman in Andorra because of her financial situation. The needs of mothers in financial difficulties were assessed so that the appropriate support could be provided to them. Child custody was withdrawn from women only in exceptional circumstances when it would serve the best interests of the child.

52.Steps were being taken to ensure that specifications for public tenders took account of the social clauses incorporated in the Act on public procurement of 9 November 2000. Training would be provided to all members of the administrative body to enable them to identify instances of inequality, incorporate the gender perspective in public policy and establish indicators for assessing the impact of legislation aimed at promoting gender equality.

53.Mr. Villaverde (Andorra) said that safeguards had been put in place that made it impossible for child custody to be withdrawn from a woman simply because she was experiencing economic difficulties.

54.Ms. Mingorance (Andorra) said that six women were currently in prison in Andorra. The prison in Andorra had a women’s wing where the inmates were supervised by women guards. Women inmates came into contact with male staff in workshops and training sessions but they had no contact with male prisoners. Inmates who were mothers of young children were placed in separate cells and given the appropriate support.

55.Ms. Fernández (Andorra) said that the Raonador del Ciutadà (Office of the Ombudsman) was empowered to receive complaints from women with disabilities and identify those cases in which they had been denied appropriate support. The headquarters of the Office were accessible to persons with disabilities and no payment was required in order to submit a complaint. When the Office received a complaint, it opened a case file in which it recorded the circumstances of the case and an analysis of whether the complainant had been subjected to discrimination.

56.Ms. Pagès (Andorra) said that steps had recently been taken to ensure that boys and girls had the opportunity to learn entrepreneurial skills in school.

57.Ms. Verges said that the delegation had not provided detailed, gender-disaggregated data on the situation of women in the State party. She wondered whether measures would be taken to train women in business and facilitate their access to credit in order to increase the number of women business leaders in Andorra.

58.Ms. Porras (Andorra) said that, in the process of drafting the white paper on equality, the Government had gathered data on the situation of six vulnerable groups, one of which was women. It had also consulted civil society organizations on the difficulties faced by women and had conducted a survey of the services and programmes targeting them and the laws and regulations that affected them. The findings of that study had led the Government to propose the establishment of the Equality Observatory, which would play a key role in the generation of quality data, making it possible for the authorities to undertake a cross-cutting analysis with a view to identifying instances of multiple discrimination.

Articles 15 and 16

59.Ms. Peláez Narváez, noting that Act No. 34 of 2014 provided that same-sex couples could enter into civil unions, said that she wished to know whether couples in such unions enjoyed all the same rights as married couples, including the right to family reunification. The Committee would be interested to know how many national adoptions had taken place in recent years. It also wished to know whether any steps would be taken to amend article 43 of the Qualified Act on Marriage of 30 June 1995 to ensure that couples who filed for divorce were not required to wait for any particular period of time before the divorce was granted. Lastly, she asked whether legislation governing widows’ pensions would be amended to increase the periods of entitlement to such pensions, which currently depended on the age of the recipient.

60.Ms. Toé-Bouda said that she wished to know when the Qualified Act on Marriage would be amended to increase the minimum age for marriage to 18 years for men and women. She wondered whether mothers who had separated from the fathers of their children were required to participate in family mediation if the fathers had committed acts of domestic or gender-based violence and whether the commission of such acts was taken into account in decisions concerning child custody and parental visits. Had the Government issued guidelines on family mediation and child custody that took the issue of domestic violence into account?

61.Ms. Marticella (Andorra) said that the largest parliamentary group was currently reviewing the bill on the rights of children and adolescents. That bill, which provided for an increase in the minimum age for marriage to 18 years, would shortly be presented to parliament. Steps were also being taken to make the regulations governing divorce more flexible.

62.Ms. Porras (Andorra) said that, pursuant to the Mediation Act, a protocol on family mediation would be drawn up that would prohibit the use of mediation in cases where a woman’s partner or husband had committed acts of domestic or gender-based violence. The Gender-based Violence Victims Support Service and the Family Mediation Service remained in constant contact with each other to ensure that mediation was stopped when an allegation of domestic violence had been made against a woman’s husband or partner. The professionals responsible for managing the family meeting point service always took account of accusations of domestic violence when taking decisions related to family visits.

63.Ms. Fernández (Andorra) said that Act No. 34 of 2014 provided that couples in civil unions enjoyed the same rights as married couples, including the right to family reunification.

64.Mr. Villaverde (Andorra) said that no national adoptions of children had yet taken place in 2019. There had been one such adoption in 2018, none in 2017, one in 2016 and none in 2015, 2014, 2013 or 2012. National adoption was very rare in Andorra because, where possible, the social services placed orphaned children with members of their extended family. Measures were being taken to review the regulations governing entitlement to widows’ pensions. In the meantime, Act No. 6/2014 of 24 April 2014 on health and social services provided for the payment of additional benefits to women whose income had fallen because they had ceased to receive a widows’ pension. In 2018 and 2019, the Office of the Ombudsman had received no complaints of discrimination against women.

65.The Chair said that she wished to thank the State party for participating in the constructive dialogue. The Committee looked forward to receiving the State party’s next periodic report and urged it to take all necessary follow-up action on the recommendations that would be addressed to it in the Committee’s concluding observations.

The meeting rose at 5 p.m.