United Nations

CEDAW/C/SR.1529

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

Distr.: General

27 July 2017

English only

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Six ty- seven th session

Summary record (partial)* of the 1529th meeting

Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on Friday, 21 July 2017, at 3 p.m.

Chair:Ms. Arocha Domínguez (Vice-Chair)

Contents

Adoption of the report of the Committee on its sixty-seventh session

Statement by the Chair

Closure of the session

In the absence of Ms. Leinarte, Ms. Arocha Domínguez, Vice-Chair, took the chair.

The discussion covered in the summary record began at 5.20 p.m.

Adoption of the report of the Committee on its sixty-seventh session (CEDAW/C/BRB/CO/5-8; CEDAW/C/CRI/CO/7; CEDAW/C/ITA/CO/7; CEDAW/C/MNE/CO/2; CEDAW/C/NER/CO/3-4; CEDAW/C/NGA/CO/7-8; CEDAW/C/ROU/CO/7-8; CEDAW/C/THA/CO/6-7); and CEDAW/C/2017/II/CRP.1.)

Ms. Manalo (Rapporteur) said that she had the honour of introducing the Committee’s draft report, which was contained in document CEDAW/C/2017/II/CRP.1. She drew attention to chapter IV, concerning the draft concluding observations on the eight State party reports that the Committee had considered during its sixty-seventh session, which were contained in documents CEDAW/C/BRB/CO/5-8, CEDAW/C/CRI/CO/7, CEDAW/C/ITA/CO/7, CEDAW/C/MNE/CO/2, CEDAW/C/NER/CO/3-4, CEDAW/C/NGA/CO/7-8, CEDAW/C/ROU/CO/7-8 and CEDAW/C/THA/CO/6-7.

The Chair said she took it that the Committee wished to adopt the documents containing the draft concluding observations.

I t was so decided.

Ms. Manalo (Rapporteur) said that she wished to introduce the draft report of the Working Group of the Whole, which was contained in chapters VI and VII of the draft report of the Committee. She drew attention to the provisional agenda for the sixty-eighth session.

The Chair said she took it that the Committee wished to adopt the provisional agenda for the sixty-eighth session and the draft report of the Committee as a whole.

It was so decided.

The draft report of the Committee on its sixty-seventh session as a whole was adopted.

Statement by the Chair

The Chair said that, during the session, the Committee had considered eight State party reports, adopted a list of issues prior to reporting for one State party, held an informal meeting with NGOs and national human rights institutions and attended several lunchtime briefings organized by NGOs. Thanks were due to the United Nations entities and other intergovernmental bodies that had provided the Committee with detailed information, including the inter-agency group on reporting to the Committee, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the International Organization for Migration and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. She was pleased to note that United Nations country teams had submitted their reports through the inter-agency group and that several such teams had either sent representatives or briefed the Committee via videoconference.

In the presence of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, the Committee had adopted its general recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19 (CEDAW/C/GC/35), which had been long awaited by many stakeholders and provided important guidance to States parties on their obligations to protect women from all forms of gender-based violence, including cyberviolence and violent extremism.

The Committee’s working groups on the right to education and on gender-related dimensions of disaster risk reduction in a changing climate had each made good progress in the drafting of general recommendations on those topics. The working group on the Sustainable Development Goals had prepared briefings on the refinement of the methodology and collection of data in relation to certain indicators, had proposed the establishment of a steering committee with the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) to regularly exchange information on progress in that area and had requested the World Bank and OECD to submit country-specific information for the consideration of State parties’ reports.

The Committee had endorsed the recommendations for addressing women’s human rights in the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration that had been adopted at the expert meeting hosted by OHCHR and UN-Women in November 2016.

The work of the rapporteur and alternate rapporteur on follow-up had resulted in the adoption of nine follow-up assessments during the session. Furthermore, the Committee had adopted four final decisions on individual communications submitted under the Optional Protocol and had advanced in a number of confidential inquiry proceedings.

The Committee had achieved satisfactory progress in implementing General Assembly resolution 68/268 on strengthening and enhancing the effective functioning of the human rights treaty body system, notably by extending the scope of its concluding observations to include matters raised in the list of issues in addition to those raised in the dialogue and by amending previous decisions concerning the membership of country task forces and the designation of country rapporteurs.

The Committee had attended a briefing by the United Nations Population Fund on women’s rights issues related to surrogacy, had held informal consultations with the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and had attended receptions hosted by the Permanent Representatives of France and Lithuania.

Closure of the session

Following an exchange of courtesies, the Chair declared the sixty-seventh session closed.

The meeting rose at 5.35 p.m.