Twenty-ninth session

Summary record of the 628th meeting

Held at Headquarters, New York, on Friday, 18 July 2003, at 3 p.m.

Chairperson:Ms. Açar

Contents

Adoption of the report of the Committee on its twenty-ninth session

Statement by the Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women

Provisional agenda for the thirtieth session

Closure of the session

The meeting was called to order at 5.05 p.m.

Adoption of the report of the Committee on its twenty-ninth session (CEDAW/C/2003/II/L.1; CEDAW/C/2003/CRP.3 and Add.1-7)

1.Ms. Kapalata, Rapporteur, drew attention to document CEDAW/C/2003/II/L.1, containing sections of the Committee’s draft report, and said that paragraph 16 should be deleted. She also introduced documents CEDAW/C/2003/CRP.3 and Add.1-7.

2.The Chairperson said she took it that the Committee wished to adopt the sections of the report contained in document CEDAW/C/2003/II/L.1, as amended, and documents CEDAW/C/2003/CRP.3, and Add.1-7, as amended.

3.It was so decided.

4.Ms. Kapalata, Rapporteur, introduced the draft report of the Working Group of the Whole contained in document CEDAW/C/2003/CRP.3/Add.8, as amended. It contained the Committee’s decisions addressed to States Parties, actions taken by the Committee on ways and means of expediting its work, action taken by the Committee on the implementation of article 21 of the Convention and, in addition to the report, activities carried out under the Optional Protocol to the Convention.

5.The Chairperson said she took it that the Committee wished to adopt the sections of the report contained in document CEDAW/C/2003/II/Add.8, as amended.

6. It was so decided.

7. The draft report of the Committee as a whole, as amended, was adopted.

Statement by the Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women

8.Ms. Hannan (Director, Division for the Advancement of Women) commended the Committee on the three closely linked decisions it had taken to expedite its work and enhance its effectiveness. First, it would consider, at its thirtieth session, the option of holding meetings in parallel working groups for the consideration of periodic reports. Second, it had met with States Parties whose reports were more than five years overdue and decided that the Chairperson would send reminders to those States Parties which were in that category. Third, it had considered support and assistance needed by States Parties to increase their capacity to set up national structures and processes that would lead to more consistent reporting. In particular, the Committee had decided to enlist the cooperation of the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in encouraging increased support from UNDP country offices to that end. At a future session, the Committee would also consider follow-up to its concluding comments. States Parties should view the reporting process as an opportunity to review and evaluate their legislation as expressed in their policies and practices in terms of their compliance with the Convention.

9.The Division for the Advancement of Women would do its utmost to support the Committee’s initiatives relating to the reporting process, both by continuing to implement its technical assistance programme and working to complete training materials and instruction packages to facilitate implementation of the Convention at the national level. In that connection, the Handbook for Parliamentarians prepared jointly by the Division and the Inter-Parliamentary Union should quickly become a useful tool.

10.The Chairperson noted that the Committee had reviewed the reports of eight States Parties: Brazil, Costa Rica, France, Japan, Slovenia, Ecuador, New Zealand and Morocco. While it had been concerned about the significant delay in the submission of the initial reports of Brazil and Costa Rica, those reports had been informative and a constructive dialogue had been held with the respective delegations. The Committee urged reporting States to give wide publicity to its concluding comments, not only among public officials but also in civil society, and hoped that its concluding comments would form the basis for specific follow-up action, including legislative initiatives, policy and programme development and administrative and other measures.

11.Building on both its own recent actions and recommendations and points of agreement of the meeting of chairpersons of treaty bodies, the Committee had decided on modalities for implementing its incremental approach to encouraging States Parties whose reports were more than five years overdue to comply with their reporting obligations. It had invited 54 States Parties in that category to a closed meeting, and had been pleased to learn that many of them were in the final stages of preparing their reports. She would be writing to the UNDP Administrator on behalf of the Committee to request support from UNDP country offices for the reporting efforts of States Parties. She also welcomed the technical assistance offered by the Division for the Advancement of Women.

12.In an effort to improve its working methods, the Committee, at its current session, had discussed preparation of expanded core documents and targeted reports as well as future consideration of reports in parallel working groups and follow-up to the Committee’s concluding comments. Discussion of those matters would be resumed at its thirtieth session.

13.The Committee had continued its work on the communications procedure and the inquiry procedure under article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention. It had also continued its work on a draft general recommendation relating to article 4 (1) on temporary special measures. It looked forward to the results achieved by a small working group formed for that purpose and hoped that the draft general recommendation could be adopted at its next session.

14.In conclusion, the Committee welcomed the strong participation by representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) particularly from Japan but also from other reporting countries, at the current session and hoped they would be equally active at the national level in the follow-up phase in response to the concluding comments.

Provisional agenda for the thirtieth session

15. The provisional agenda for the thirtieth session was adopted.

Closure of the session

16. The Chairperson declared the twenty-ninth session closed.

The meeting rose at 5.25 p.m.