Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Eighty-second session

Summary record of the 1879th meeting

Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on Monday, 13 June 2022, at 11 a.m.

Chair:Ms. Acosta Vargas

Contents

Opening of the session

Adoption of the agenda and organization of work

Report of the Chair on activities undertaken between the eighty-first and eighty-second sessions of the Committee

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

Follow-up to the consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention

The meeting was called to order at 11 a.m.

Opening of the session

1.The Chair declared open the eighty-second session of the Committee.

Opening statement by the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

2.Mr. Cissé-Gouro (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) said that he welcomed the committee’s resumption of its work to reduce the backlog of periodic reports for consideration, which had been exacerbated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The vision set forth in the Committee’s position paper on the treaty body strengthening process adopted in November 2021 had been incorporated into the conclusions reached at the thirty-fourth annual meeting of the Chairs of the human rights treaty bodies, at which the Chairs had agreed on the need for a predictable schedule of reviews, harmonized working methods and a digital uplift. As requested, the Office would proceed to a costing exercise and submit the proposals that had been endorsed at the meeting of the Chairs to the General Assembly. The Committee could count on his full support for efforts to ensure that it enjoyed the necessary resources to fulfil its mandate.

3.During its fiftieth session, which was running concurrently with the Committee’s eight-second session, the Human Rights Council would hold its annual full-day discussion on the human rights of women, including a panel on the nexus between climate change and violence against women and girls. Climate-related crises exacerbated such violence, as well as child and forced marriage, trafficking in women and girls and forced prostitution. Women must therefore enjoy full, equal and meaningful participation in designing and implementing the climate response. The day of discussion would also feature a panel on a human rights-based and gender-responsive care and support system. That panel would address the gaps laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the fact that women and girls, who had already been overrepresented in underpaid care work and who often had their own care and support needs, had assumed much of the additional care burden created by the pandemic. As highlighted by the Secretary-General, there was an urgent need to transform care and support systems to ensure sustainable development and gender equality in the recovery from the pandemic.

4.The Human Rights Council would also consider a number of reports of particular relevance to the Committee, such as the report on violence against indigenous women and girls of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. The Committee’s cooperation with the Special Rapporteur and other human rights mechanisms as well as its involvement in the recent regional meetings hosted by the Office on the Committee’s draft general recommendation on the rights of indigenous women and girls were welcome. The Council would also hold round tables on menstrual hygiene and women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. The Office would hold a round table on human rights violations and abuse against Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar, which would be an opportunity for States to propose measures to act on the recommendations of treaty bodies, including those contained in the Committee’s concluding observations on the report of Myanmar submitted under the exceptional reporting procedure (CEDAW/C/MMR/CO/EP/1).

5.The Committee’s work to integrate women’s rights into the women and peace and security agenda was commendable. It was particularly worth noting the Committee’s close monitoring of the impact that the conflict in Ukraine and the post-conflict situation in Afghanistan was having on the rights of women and their involvement in peace processes, reconstruction efforts and transitional justice mechanisms. In cooperation with other treaty bodies, the Committee had created a working group to monitor the situation of women and girls in Ukraine, as well as discussing with the State party’s Permanent Mission the timeline for the consideration of its ninth periodic report, which it had submitted in March 2021. The Committee’s working group on Afghanistan had invited the country’s de facto authorities to contribute to an exceptional report on the situation of women and girls there, representing the first interaction between a treaty body and those authorities. The working group had also met with national and international actors working to defend the rights of Afghan women and girls and had worked with several special procedure mandate holders, including the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, with whom the Chair, along with other mandate holders and treaty body Chairs, had issued a press release denouncing the de facto authorities’ decision to prevent girls in Afghanistan from receiving secondary education. The Special Rapporteur had also undertaken a joint technical visit with the coordinator of the working group, Ms. Rana, to Afghanistan, during which they had met with the de facto authorities and other stakeholders, including Afghan women and girls who had demonstrated a strong desire to influence their country’s future. The visit had illustrated the possible synergies between treaty bodies and special procedures.

6.Mr. Safarov said that it was important for the United Nations system, particularly the General Assembly, to address women’s very low representation in technology and innovation. A number of challenges had hindered the organization of a mission to Ukraine, and he would welcome the support of the wider United Nations system in ensuring that such a mission, which would promote women’s rights and participation in peacebuilding processes, took place.

7.Ms. Ameline said that women must be seen as decision-makers and sources of solutions to the global crises in the areas of health, armed conflict and food insecurity, rather than simply potential victims. Changes were needed in the approach adopted to address those crises, many of which were structural and systemic.

8.Ms. Haidar said that cooperation between treaty bodies and special procedure mandate holders had so far occurred thanks to the individual efforts of those involved. She suggested that Committee members should meet with the Office to examine the possibility of formal mechanisms for that purpose.

9.Ms. Rana said that she supported the point made concerning the need for added synergy between human rights mechanisms; her joint visit to Afghanistan with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences had had a significant impact.

10.Ms. Gbedemah said that, in the light of food shortages caused by climate change and conflict, greater emphasis should be placed on women’s access to land and technology to enable them to produce food.

11.Mr. Cissé-Gouro (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) said that work was being done within the secretariat to improve synergies among all mechanisms with a view to strengthening their work. The current crises could be addressed only through joint efforts.

Adoption of the agenda and the organization of work ( CEDAW/C/82/1 )

12. The agenda was adopted.

Report of the Chair on activities undertaken between the eighty-first and eighty-second sessions of the Committee

13.The Chair said that, since the previous session, the number of States parties that had ratified or acceded to the Convention remained at 189. The number of States parties that had accepted the amendment to article 20 (1) remained at 80 and its entry into force would require its acceptance by 126. On 22 April 2022, Morocco had acceded to the Optional Protocol, taking the number of States parties to 115. Since the beginning of the previous session, Benin, Chile, Fiji, Italy, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Spain and Sri Lanka had submitted periodic reports. The Bahamas, Cyprus and Fiji had informed the Committee of their decisions to submit their next periodic reports under the simplified reporting procedure.

14.She had spoken on indigenous women and their contribution to sustainable development as part of an online panel of the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean to mark International Women’s Day. The following day, she had, at the invitation of the Supreme Court of Peru, given a presentation on gender and justice in the Committee’s work as part of a webinar entitled “International Women Judges’ Day”. She had given the Committee’s statement at the opening of the sixty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, where she had also been a panellist at a side event entitled “Contributions towards the forthcoming CEDAW general recommendation on indigenous women and girls”, hosted by the Government of Mexico, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and the Indigenous Peoples’ Fund. She had taken part in discussions on the report entitled “So it is torture!”, an analysis of the acts of violence that amounted to torture and other ill-treatment of indigenous peoples in Latin America, at an online event organized by the World Organisation Against Torture. She had been a guest of the National Institute for Women (INMUJERES) of Mexico at the national dialogue on the Committee’s draft general recommendation No. 39 on the rights of indigenous women and girls. On 19 and 20 May 2022, she had participated in a regional consultation on the draft general recommendation in Tlaxcala, Mexico, organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN-Women and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and funded by the Government of Mexico.

15.From 31 May to 4 June 2022, she had participated in the thirty-fourth annual meeting of the Chairs of the human rights treaty bodies. Lastly, like other members, she had also participated in the regional meetings on the draft general recommendation hosted by the Office covering Africa, Asia, Europe and the Pacific.

16.Ms. Haidar said that she had participated in a discussion on family laws derived from religious sources at a parallel event hosted by Musawah at the sixty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. On 7 April 2022, she had taken part in a series of informal meetings for treaty body members with experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on human rights and the Paris Agreement. She had given a talk about stereotypes as part of a webinar organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan on 29 March to raise government officials’ awareness about the Convention and Committee’s work. In her capacity as a commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists, she had participated in a dialogue on the gender perspective between judges from Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Finally, on 19 May, she had participated in an Inter-Parliamentary Union webinar on parliamentary engagement in implementation of the Convention.

17.Ms. Ameline said that she too had participated in the Inter-Parliamentary Union webinar. She had also gone on a mission to Madagascar within the framework of decentralized cooperation from France and had noted that greater focus should be given to the rights of women when it came to decentralized cooperation in States’ development policies. Lastly, she had recently become President of the Institut international des droits de l’Homme et de la paix.

18.Ms. Gbedemah said that she had given a review of the Committee’s jurisprudence as part of a webinar on intersectionality organized by the Washington and Lee University, in the United States of America. During the webinar organized by the Government of Japan mentioned by Ms. Haidar, she had talked about the significance of women’s participation in economic and political decision-making. Lastly, in May 2022, she had spoken about the Committee’s work on advancing gender equality under the Optional Protocol at an event organized by the Women’s Human Rights Training Institute of Bulgaria.

19.Ms. Rana said that she had been one of a group of 40 women who had marked International Women’s Day by trekking to Mount Everest base camp in Nepal to draw attention to climate change’s impact on women. On 8 March 2022, she had spoken at the event entitled “Beyond CEDAW’s first four decades: Harnessing progress and countering regression” at Monash University, Australia. She had been part of the delegation of Nepal at the sixty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, taking part in all the negotiations, giving the opening address at a side event to promote ratification of the Convention by the United States and participating in another side event about women leaders and activists working in humanitarian crisis contexts. She had spoken on violence against women and girls and harmful practices at the Ninth Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development. Along with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, she had conducted an unofficial technical visit to Kabul between 10 and 14 April 2022, followed by a series of debriefings to senior United Nations and government officials; they would also debrief the High Commissioner for Human Rights on 17 June. She had spoken at an event on intersectionality at the London School of Economics on 18 May. She had participated in the event entitled “Partnering for Change – Translating the Women, Peace and Security Agenda into Action”. On 26 and 27 May, she had moderated four regional meetings for Asia on draft general recommendation No. 39. Lastly, she had participated in an informal brainstorming session on the scope and focus of the forthcoming Asian and Pacific Population Conference, to be held in 2023.

20.Ms. Bethel said that she had participated in a discussion at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School on ratification of the Convention by the United States. Throughout April 2022, she had participated in a series of seminars on gender-based violence, in particular the criminalization of marital rape, in the Bahamas. In addition, she had been involved in a series of seminars to raise awareness of the Convention, in celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of its ratification by the Bahamas. Finally, she too had attended the regional consultation meeting in Tlaxcala mentioned by the Chair.

21.Ms. Bonifaz Alfonzo said that she had participated in several events in Mexico on violence against women. She had been in contact with women in Ecuador about the process they were following to uphold the decriminalization of abortion by their country’s Constitutional Court. She had been in contact with organizations in Peru and Guatemala to review the status of implementation of the Committee’s recommendations in those countries. On 23 and 24 March 2022, she had accompanied the Geneva Human Rights Platform to Grenada, which had run a pilot project on monitoring the implementation of the recommendations put forward by treaty bodies and providing guidance on the submission of periodic reports. For the consultation on general recommendation No. 39, she had visited the State of Michoacan, Mexico, taken part in a Mexican national forum on 17 and 18 May 2022 and participated in the regional consultation meeting in Tlaxcala.

22.Ms. Akizuki said that she wished to thank her colleagues who had participated in the very successful webinar on the Convention organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan on 28 and 29 March 2022. She had spoken about civil society participation in the Committee’s work as part of a seminar organized by the Permanent Missions of the United Kingdom and Japan. In addition, she had provided information about the Committee’s work on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex women at a seminar of the LGBTI Core Group.

23.Ms. Peláez Narváez said that she had represented the Committee at the Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, organized by the Economic Commission for Europe and the regional office of UN-Women. She had also moderated the European regional consultation for general recommendation No 39. In addition, she had participated in the meeting between the treaty bodies’ focal points and the Head of the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine. On 7 March 2022, she had participated in a public debate on gender equality organized by the Association of Spanish Women Diplomats. She had participated in webinar entitled “SOS for Women and Girls with Disabilities in Ukraine” on 18 March 2022. She had been involved in organizing a training session on how to involve civil society in the Committee’s work, with particular focus on the participation of organizations for women with disabilities. On 21 April 2022, she had participated in the public hearing entitled “Towards a Europe Free of Violence against Women”, organized by the European Economic and Social Committee. The following day, she had participated in the event entitled “#OurFuture Conference of and on Women and Girls with Disabilities”. Lastly, on 13 June 2022, she would be participating in a dialogue on intersectionality and on the health and sexual and reproductive rights of persons with disabilities at the fifteenth session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

24.Ms. Tisheva said that, during March and April, she had represented the Committee in meetings of the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on the Elimination of Discrimination and Violence against Women. She had also participated in a webinar organized by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, on gender-based violence, parental rights and visitation rights and in the webinar referred to earlier organized by the Government of Japan in which she had discussed gender equality in employment and new modes of work in the wake of the pandemic.

25.In May, she had taken part in an event in Uzbekistan on follow-up to the Committee’s most recent recommendations and concluding observations. She had also participated in training in Bulgaria on the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which had been attended by lawyers from across Europe. In addition, she had spoken about intersectionality at the Asia-Pacific Conference on the Promotion of Gender-Responsive Justice systems organized by the Asian Development Bank, and, at an event organized by the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies, she had given a presentation on victims of gender-based violence in criminal and civil proceedings. Lastly, in June, she had been invited to a forum of lawyers’ networks in Italy to discuss the Committee’s work on domestic violence, gender-based violence, custody and visitation rights.

26.Ms. Dettmeijer-Vermeulen said that she had stood in for the Chair as a witness before the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples of Canada, where she had been asked to explain the Views adopted by the Committee under article 7 of the Optional Protocol, concerning communication No. 68/2014. It was positive that the Standing Senate Committee had chosen to discuss the Committee’s recommendations so promptly.

27.Ms. Reddock said that she had participated in an interview, discussion and presentation on article 14 of the Convention as part of online awareness-raising efforts organized by the CEDAW Committee of Trinidad and Tobago. In April, she had delivered a lecture and taken part in a dialogue on women’s rights in her capacity as a distinguished visiting scholar at Washington University at St. Louis.

28.Mr. Safarov said that he had given a presentation to the Council of Europe on the Committee’s activities to prevent and combat violence against women and girls. He had also acted as an instructor in European Union training on gender equality and combating gender stereotypes and gender-based violence. Alongside members of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, he had attended a meeting of the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, which had highlighted the issues of sexual violence in conflict situations and the protection of the rights of women and children with disabilities. Lastly, he had participated in a project to raise awareness of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence in Azerbaijan.

29.Ms. Nadaraia said that, in April, she had participated in several meetings organized by the Eastern Partnership and the parliament of Georgia on the situation of female refugees from Ukraine. She had also attended a meeting with the Head of the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine. In May, she had been involved in a mock Committee meeting in Azerbaijan, which had been productive, and in June, she had participated in a conference organized by the Gender Equality Council of Georgia and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems on the opening of a new portal on gender equality in elections.

30.Ms. Gabr said that, in June, she had participated in the High-level Forum on Food Security of the Islamic Organization for Food Security in Kazakhstan via a recorded statement on the Committee’s general recommendation No. 34 (2016) on the rights of rural women (CEDAW/C/GC/34); that event had provided an opportunity to raise awareness about the general recommendation among the States members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. She had also delivered a number of lectures on trafficking in persons to officers of justice, such as prosecutors, police officers and judges, and to English-speaking and French-speaking African diplomats.

31.Ms. Stott Despoja said that she had been involved in a range of activities to promote the Committee’s work at the national and regional levels, such as seminars, speeches, podcasts and interviews addressing various topics, including women’s political participation, violence against women and children, and women and peace and security.

32.Ms. Toé-Bouda said that she had participated in an African regional meeting organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Committee’s draft general recommendation on indigenous women and girls, and in a workshop on security and strategies for peace organized by the Government of Burkina Faso. She had worked with a non-governmental organization (NGO) to develop a leaflet aimed at State institutions and NGOs to raise awareness of the Convention and its general recommendations.

33.Ms. Manalo said that she had represented the Chair at an event on the promotion and protection of the human rights of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific region; NGOs were carrying out commendable work to protect indigenous women and girls in the absence of government action.

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

34.The Chair said that, under decision 79/VIII, the Committee had decided to convert the pre-sessional working group for its eighty-second session, initially scheduled to take place directly after its eightieth session, into an additional week of plenary meeting time to address the backlog of State party reports. Accordingly, the report of the pre-sessional working group would be presented shortly.

35.The Committee had subsequently decided to consider at its eighty-second session the reports of Azerbaijan, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Portugal, Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates, whose consideration had been postponed from previous sessions.

Follow-up to the consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention

36.Ms. Chalal (Rapporteur on follow-up) briefing the Committee on follow-up reports received from States parties, said that, at the end of the eighty-first session, follow-up letters outlining the outcome of assessments had been sent to the Governments of Andorra, Côte d’Ivoire, Guyana, Iraq, Kazakhstan and Lithuania.

37.First reminders regarding overdue follow-up reports had been sent to the Governments of Bulgaria, Eritrea, Kiribati, Pakistan, the Republic of Moldova and Zimbabwe. The Committee had received follow-up reports from Bulgaria on time, Cambodia with a seven-month delay, Latvia on time and Seychelles with a four-month delay. The country rapporteurs for Bulgaria, Cambodia, Latvia and Seychelles were invited to assist in the assessment of the follow-up reports.

The meeting rose at 12.35 p.m.