Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Eighty-third session

Summary record of the 1938th meeting*

Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on Friday, 28 October 2022, at 12.30 p.m.

Chair:Ms. Acosta Vargas

Contents

Adoption of the report of the Committee on its eighty-third session

Provisional agenda for the eighty-fourth session of the Committee

Statement by the Chair

Closure of the session

The meeting was called to order at 12.30 p.m.

Adoption of the report of the Committee on its eighty-third session

Provisional agenda for the eighty-fourth session of the Committee

Ms. Narain (Rapporteur) said that she had the honour of introducing the Committee’s draft report on its eighty-third session, which was contained in document CEDAW/C/2022/III/L.1. She wished to draw attention to chapters II and III.

The Chair said she took it that the Committee wished to adopt those chapters.

It was so decided.

Ms. Narain (Rapporteur) said that she also wished to draw attention to chapters I and IV to VII of the Committee’s draft report and to chapter VIII, which contained the provisional agenda of the eighty-fourth session. Chapters VI and VII contained the draft report of the Working Group of the Whole, which described the action taken by the Committee for the implementation of article 21 of the Convention and ways and means of expediting the work of the Committee.

The Chair said she took it that the Committee wished to adopt the report of the eighty-third session in its entirety, including the provisional agenda of the eighty-fourth session.

It was so decided.

The draft report of the Committee on its eighty-third session , as a whole, was adopted.

Statement by the Chair

The Chair said that she was making her final statement as Chair because her term of membership would be ending on 31 December 2022, as would the terms of several other Committee members. During the two years in which she had served as Chair, the Committee had been able to resume in-person meetings following the gradual lifting of restrictions imposed in connection with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. However, the Committee continued to face a number of difficult working conditions, including the time limits placed on the provision of interpretation services during remote or hybrid meetings. In two of the meetings held during the current session, it had experienced technical difficulties affecting captioning services and remote interpretation services.

Since the resumption of in-person meetings with States parties in October 2021, the Committee had considered 34 State party reports, thereby reducing its backlog of reports pending consideration. It had also taken steps to make its work more accessible to persons with disabilities and further aligned its working methods with those of other treaty bodies. It had adopted a predictable schedule of reviews and the simplified reporting procedure, which was now the default procedure for the submission of State party reports. To date, only 12 States parties had opted out of the simplified procedure.

During the current session, the Committee had considered eight State party reports, adopted concluding observations on those reports, held informal meetings with NGOs and national human rights institutions (NHRIs), and attended several lunchtime briefings organized by NGOs. The Committee had been pleased by the high level of engagement of local NGOs and national human rights institutions. Country-specific briefings by NGOs had been coordinated by International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific, which had once again made a significant contribution to the Committee’s work.

Thanks were due to the International Disability Alliance, which had provided captioning and sign-language interpretation services during the Committee’s public meetings with NGOs. The Committee was also grateful to the United Nations entities and other intergovernmental bodies that had provided it with detailed information, including the inter-agency group on reporting to the Committee and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. A number of United Nations country teams had submitted their reports through the inter-agency group and five such teams had briefed the Committee via videoconference.

She welcomed the progress made in rationalizing and harmonizing the Committee’s working methods and wished to thank the Working Group on Working Methods, which was chaired by Ms. Akizuki, for developing the approach to be taken in the back-to-back reviews of the reports of Albania that would be conducted by the Committee and the Committee on the Rights of the Child in May 2023. She was also grateful to Ms. Dettmeijer-Vermeulen for developing the new method for structuring dialogues with States parties that had been piloted by the Committee in the dialogue with Switzerland the previous week.

The Committee’s Working Group on Gender-based Violence against Women, which was chaired by Ms. Tisheva, had made good progress in developing a guidance note on the implementation of the Committee’s general recommendation No. 35 (2017) on gender-based violence, updating general recommendation No. 19 (1992).

The Committee’s working group on Afghanistan, which was chaired by Ms. Rana, had made progress in connection with its request for an exceptional report on the current situation of women and girls in that country.

Gratitude was due to the Working Group on Communications, whose efforts had enabled the Committee to adopt two final decisions on individual communications, and the Working Group on Inquiries, which had assessed a new inquiry submission and made preparations for a forthcoming inquiry visit. During the current session, the Committee had held an informal meeting with States parties, an event to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the Committee, a meeting with the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls, and a meeting with the Secretary General of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). It had also attended a briefing by UN-Women on draft recommendations for the protection of women human rights defenders in the context of migration.

The Chair was particularly pleased to note that, following two years of consultations with organizations of indigenous women, the Committee had adopted its general recommendation No. 39 (2022) on the rights of indigenous women and girls. The new general recommendation was the first treaty-body document to contain guidance on the elimination of intersectional forms of discrimination directed at indigenous women and girls.

Closure of the session

Following the customary exchange of courtesies, the Chair declared the eighty-third session closed.

The meeting rose at 1 p.m.