Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Seventieth session

Summary record of the 1628 th meeting*

Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on Friday, 20 July 2018, at 11.45 a.m.

Chair:Ms. Leinarte

Contents

Provisional agenda for the seventy-first session of the Committee

Adoption of the report of the Committee on its seventieth session

Statement by the Chair

Closure of the Session

The meeting was called to order at 11.45 a.m.

Provisional agenda for the seventy-first session of the Committee

Ms. Manalo (Rapporteur) drew attention to the provisional agenda for the seventy-first session of the Committee.

The Chair said she took it that the Committee wished to adopt the provisional agenda for the seventy-first session.

It was so decided.

Adoption of the report of the Committee on its seventieth session ( CEDAW/C/AUS/CO/8 ; CEDAW/C/COK/CO/2-3 ; CEDAW/C/CYP/CO/8 ; CEDAW/C/LIE/CO/5 ; CEDAW/C/MEX/CO/9 ; CEDAW/C/NZL/CO/8 ; CEDAW/C/PSE/CO/1 ; CEDAW/C/TKM /CO/5 and CEDAW/C/2018/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/2018/II/CRP.1. She drew attention to chapters I to III. Chapter IV concerned the draft concluding observations on the eight State party reports that the Committee had considered during its seventieth session.

The Chair said that she took it that the Committee wished to adopt those chapters and the draft concluding observations on the reports by States parties considered at the session.

It 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.

The Chair said she took it that the Committee wished to adopt the draft report of the Working Group for inclusion in the Committee’s draft report.

It was so decided.

The Chair said she took it that the Committee wished to adopt the draft report of the Committee as a whole.

The draft report of the Committee on its seventieth 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 concluding observations on those reports, held informal meetings with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and national human rights institutions and attended several lunchtime briefings organized by NGOs. The Committee had been pleased by the high level of engagement of local NGOs, many of which had been supported by International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific, and of national human rights institutions.

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, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. A number of United Nations country teams had submitted their reports through the inter-agency group, one such team had sent a representative and two others had briefed the Committee via videoconference.

The Committee had endorsed a joint statement entitled “Guaranteeing sexual and reproductive health and rights for all women, in particular women with disabilities”, which had been prepared in partnership with the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and was currently pending the approval of the latter Committee. A framework for cooperation with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict had also been adopted.

The Committee had made good progress in implementing General Assembly resolution 68/268 on strengthening and enhancing the effective functioning of the human rights treaty body system, notably by endorsing the Guidelines against Intimidation or Reprisals, appointing a Rapporteur and an Alternate Rapporteur on intimidation or reprisals and scheduling the lists of issues prior to reporting to be prepared under the simplified reporting procedure by the next pre-sessional working group. The new working group on trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration had discussed the scope and content of the concept note relating to the draft general recommendation on that issue.

The Committee’s working group on the Sustainable Development Goals had drafted a new standard paragraph on the Goals for inclusion in the Committee’s concluding observations. The working group had also organized a briefing on the link between the Committee’s revised reporting guidelines and Goal indicator 5.1.1.

Thanks to the excellent work carried out by the Rapporteur and the Alternate Rapporteur on follow-up, eight follow-up assessments had been adopted and improvements had been made to the Committee’s working methods for follow-up.

The Committee had also made good progress in its work on individual communications submitted under the Optional Protocol. Thanks to the excellent drafts prepared by the Committee’s working group on communications, three final decisions on communications had been adopted. The proposed amendments to the standard operating procedures on inquiries had been approved, as had the guidance note on the structure of inquiry reports proposed by the working group on inquiries.

Closure of the session

Following an exchange of courtesies, the Chair declared the seventieth session closed.

The meeting rose at 1 p.m.